"Woa- Hey!" Ironwood grimaced as he watched Courrier get picked up by Glynda's Semblance and hung up, suspended in the sky, a small tablet dropped out of his hands which landed in Ironwood's, "What was that for?"

Glynda turned around to face Ironwood, glancing at the thing that just fell into his hands before turning back to Courrier, "What the hell did you try to give to my student?!"

Ironwood inspected the tablet; it was white, felt chalky between his fingers, "Seems to be some kind of… candy?"

"It's a drug!" Glynda, upon hearing this, flipped Courrier around rapidly in the air, "Wait, you said it was white- WOAH!"

"You tried to drug my student?! I've had it up to here with you Courrier!" Glynda waved her riding crop around, Ironwood could see her veins bulging on her forehead, "I've had enough of your- your bullshit! Day-drinking? I'm fine with that; we have an alcoholic in our group already! Being a domestic terrorist? I try not to judge people by their past! But openly trying to give hard drugs to children?! Are you fucking mad?!"

"Stop! Please! I'm sorry! Just stop fucking spinning me!" Glynda stopped using Courrier as a propeller blade but she kept her Semblance up anyways, making sure he's as far away from Nikos as possible, "Eugh, and Ironwood! You said the pills were white?"

"Yeah, I thought you'd notice the colour of these things, considering you're the one handing them out to people," he held the pill up, it contrasted with his hand, "What are these things supposed to do anyways? You said they were drugs but for what?"

"I told you! It's very smarty! It helps you make more logical decisions!" Courrier yelled, his voice echoing off the walls of the hallway, "They're very addictive though! Especially the white ones! Those were supposed to be for me and Adam!"

"Adam? Adam Taurus' hooked on these things?" Ironwood squinted at the pill.

"Argh! Yes! Those are the prototype ones made by my… uh… scientist friends? The official ones are red! And they're less addictive!" Courrier was then dangled by one foot upside down as Glynda lowered him closer to the ground, still not letting him go, "I'm being fully honest here! The official ones are like candy, though the effects are less pronounced," Ironwood watched as Courrier idly rotated around in the air, "Qrow! Remember when I tried offering you a 'Mentat' in that forest?"

"Yeah?"

"What colour were the pills?"

"I don't know, I didn't pay much attention to them, just thought they were weird." Qrow grinned as he took a swig from his flask.

"You fucker- WOAH!" Ironwood watched as Courrier quickly dropped to the ground, Glynda's Semblance was still on so he could only assume that she was trying to slam the man into the ground.

"Everyone, stop!" Courrier's descent froze before he could touch the ground, his nose barely grazing the floor as Ozpin said loudly, "If all of you can't behave yourselves then feel free to use that elevator and walk right out of here! This is an important matter and I will not have my subordinates fight and bicker amongst one another like children!"

"Ozpin, you can't possibly overlook this! Courrier just tried to offer hard drugs to Ms. Nikos for gods' sake!" Courrier was then unceremoniously dropped on the ground face first, Glynda whirled around and glared at him, "And you! We will have a discussion about this whole incident later!"

Ironwood shook his head in mirth; he was sceptical of Courrier's involvement because he thought the man was some kind of master manipulator or expert spy for Salem but apparently not! Turns out, he was just some drug-addicted fool who's really good with fighting for some reason, and blessed with a Semblance that would make even the gods jealous. Ironwood decided that, although Courrier would not be his friend any time soon, he is to be trusted simply because the man is too stupid to execute any kind of covert operations or plans in favour of Salem.

Meanwhile, Ms. Nikos just had a strange expression on her face, half amused and the other half utterly terrified, she turned back to the pod containing Amber before sighing, "If… if what you say is true… if all of this is true, the Maidens, the Magic, all of it… Even the prospect of an upcoming war then why… why don't we just tell everyone about this?"

Qrow nudged Courrier with his foot, kicking the man's side while he took a swig from his flask, Glynda turned to Ms. Nikos, "All of it used to be common knowledge."

Ms. Nikos glanced at Courrier's body, which was still prone on the ground while being kicked by Qrow, "Excuse me?"

"Yup, you heard that right, how'd you think all these legends, fairy tales, and stories get created? Even the craziest ones have some truth to them… some, but not this one, this one's all true."

"We keep the Maidens secret because of what the ones who are hungry for power can do with powers like this," Glynda looked at the unconscious Amber, still inside that pod, with a sombre look, "You saw what they did to Amber, and the thought of that power being given to someone not deserving of such thing? It's terrible."

"So we remove all traces of the Maidens' existence, soon enough, as time went by, the stories that are told as fact slowly devolved into fairy tales, and then legends, and soon myths," Ironwood crossed his arms, "We also can't exactly tell the public either, all of this goes against centuries of conflicting details, sciences, religion, beliefs. If we were to release this information then it'd be like dropping a bomb in the middle of Vale. The effects would be catastrophic."

Courrier groaned as he pushed himself up, "Yeah… the people, they fear what they don't understand. Have enough of that fear and boom," he stood up, wiping the dust off his overalls, "The Grimm comes running in, clawing at our walls."

"Besides, no one would believe us!" Qrow shrugged, placing a hand on Courrier's shoulder to stabilize the man as he wobbled around in place from being rotated in the air.

"Indeed, now you know why we can't exactly reveal this information to the public," Ozpin pushed his glasses up, "Which is why we want you to become the next Fall Maiden."

Ms. Nikos' eyes widened, her mouth agape as she tried to process what Ozpin had just said, "Wh- what?"

"You heard him!" Ironwood watched as Courrier wobbly made his way towards the walls of the hallway, supporting himself as he tried to reorient, "You are the most capable out of all of the other students, naturally, you have been chosen to become the next Fall Maiden."

Ozpin nodded, but before he could say anything, Courrier kept talking, "You're gonna have to fix that attitude of yours though, you're strong but you're too meek, not confident enough, and entirely too codependent on that boy Jaune."

Ms. Nikos flushed a bright red, Courrier cackled, "Ha! Called it!" he lurched forwards, holding himself back from vomiting, "Eugh, yeah, me personally, I would've picked someone else but Ozpin's decisions are my decisions too apparently," he shook his head, "I don't know what you see in that boy though, he's just feels too pathetic, but eh, whatever, I'm in no position to judge who gets to love who."

"We're getting side-tracked here!" Glynda reprimanded Courrier, threatening him with more in-air rotations by waving her riding crop at the man, "Ms. Nikos, Pyrrha, we know this is a difficult decision but you have to understand that-" "I'll- I'll do it."

"What, really?" Courrier slowly lumbered his way to Ironwood's side before demanding him to give the 'Mentats' back, Ironwood dropped the pill into Courrier's hand, to which he immediately threw it in his mouth and swallowed it, "And here I thought we'd have to do more convincing than that!"

"You said that this will help humanity, right?" "He definitely didn't say that." "Shut it!"

"Then I'll become your Fall Maiden, if this will… help humanity."

Ozpin smirked; he opened his mouth to say something but is once again interrupted by Courrier, Ironwood's eyes twitched at this man's constant interference, "Sweet! Now all you need to do is kill Amber while looking her dead in the eyes!"

Ironwood cut in quickly, "No! You don't have to do that!" he turned to Courrier and whispered harshly, "Be quiet! This is serious!" the man just shrugged, much to Ironwood's never ending annoyance; he turned back to Ms. Nikos, "For years now, Atlas has been studying Aura from a more scientific perspective, not just accepting the concept of the 'Soul' as enough of an answer," he turned to the empty pod, "We've made great progress in this, so much so that we believed we found a way to… capture it."

"Capture it and then shove it into another body," Qrow took a swig out of his flask, grumbling when he realized that it's empty, "You know who we're gonna shove it into, right?"

"Now that was definitely sexual. High-five." Ironwood rubbed his forehead and sighed as Qrow and Courrier high-fived one another, the sound echoing throughout the hallway.

"But that's-" "Classified." "Wrong!"

Courrier scoffed, "You thought you were doing something with that whole 'Classified' shit weren't you?" he cackled, doing an impression of Ironwood when he said the word 'Classified.' Qrow laughed too.

Ironwood just sighed as they high-fived again.

"I'd rather you not try to sound cool from now on, Ironwood," Glynda glared at him, he deflated, "But unfortunately, desperate times like these calls for more desperate measures."

"While we can't directly transfer Amber's power to you… we can give you what those powers are attached to."

"You mean her… Aura?"

"Her life," Ozpin said, finally getting to say something without Courrier butting in at random moments, "Will become entwined with yours, but the question is…"

"Will you get double Aura?" "That was not the question, Qrow, silence him."

Ironwood watched as Courrier was dragged away by Qrow, "What will the process do to you? That's the question, before I was so rudely interrupted by Mr. Courrier," Courrier then elbowed Qrow in the stomach before making his way back to join the group, with Qrow slowly following close behind while clutching his stomach, "We know that this is an important decision, take your time in coming up with an answer, but we will need it before the Tournament's over."

Ms. Nikos didn't answer, rather just putting her hand on the glass separating her and Amber. Ozpin looked sombrely at the sight, "The one that attacked the Fall Maiden, Cinder Fall, has made their first move. It's only a matter of time before she makes her next."

"This is why I advocate for just outright killing her!" Courrier raised a hand up, exclaiming his idea to the group, "Think about it! We kill her now and see what happens to the Maiden power! Will it get transferred to a random person or will it revive Amber? Who knows! We'll do once we kill the bitch!"

"We're not murderers, Courrier, we know you are but don't drag us into your schemes," Glynda sneered, "Besides, what will the media think?"

"Media, schmedia! If you guys are really the cool and awesome secret society that you guys claimed you are then manipulating the media should be easy!" Courrier pointed at himself, "Look! I'm a complete non-entity in the eyes of the media, basically an unknown! You guys can just pin all the blame on me while I murder her ass!"

"But what'll happen to you?" Ozpin raised an eyebrow, meanwhile all of this is happening, Ironwood noticed that Ms. Nikos was still deep in thought, hand still on the glass.

"You people care about me?" Courrier scoffed, "Let them hate me! I'll just escape the country with Adam and the White Fang!"

"Oh yeah, you said that the Vale's sect of the White Fang is pulling out of Vale right?" Qrow scratched his head, "Okay, maybe this idea has some actual credence to it. Ozpin, should we just let Courrier kill Cinder and get it over with?"

"No, we will not let you needlessly endanger yourself Courrier, you are important to us," Ozpin tapped his cane, "Besides, your plan could bring more unwanted attention, and we can't let her get her hands on you and your 'Semblance'."

"Oh I forgot about that," he chuckled, "So no killing?"

"No," he sighed, looking crestfallen as Ozpin delivered the final decision, "Not even when she enacts her plan, we need her alive for questioning, Courrier, don't kill her."

"Lame," he then snapped his fingers, "Ah! But what if she's like attacking Nikos 'cause she knows about the whole Maiden thing or some shit! Can I kill her then?"

"Yes."

"Awesome! High-five!" Courrier high-fived Qrow again.

Reviews!

Deus Xenonis caseum: I can see where you're getting at, with the whole writing myself into a corner part. True, pacing is my worst fucking enemy at this point. I've actually written myself into a corner in most of my previous creative writing projects before, fortunately, RWBY has a canon timeline that I can follow which really helps with writing. It also helps that I'm really passionate about Fallout! The Fallout TV show was top tier! Love that shit to death! Also fun fact, I've made a lot of retcons in this story so far, try to find some of them! Here's a hint, the retcon happens at the start of the next chapter, which retconned the inconsistency/plot hole at the end of the previous chapter. There's actually even a retcon here with the Mentats, too!

I'll try to plan out my story a bit more since writing stuff using only the rule of cool derails the story a lot. Thanks for the feedback by the way!

I want to characterize the Courier as this chaotic force unbound by any forms of... logic. So sometimes his actions are irrational, other times he acts compassionate, most of the time he's completely insane.

Thanks for reading!