Velvet pulled in a deep breath as she watched Summer's eyes alight with silver flames. The faunus had absolutely no idea what to expect from the Maiden, and yet, she had expected to at least be prepared enough to dodge or deflect Summer's first move.

She very much was not.

Before anyone could react, Summer's Semblance fired off as Ghira finished his provocation. The burly faunus and the much smaller girl swapped positions immediately, leaving the leader of BASS a decent distance from his team as Summer went into a spin. She dragged her longmace behind her and whipped it straight into Velvet's back, sending the girl tumbling forward to her knees as she let out a cry of both pain and shock. While Summer completed the spinning strike and brought Pearl Phoenix up and over her head in a two-handed grip, Sage shifted to track her movements and summoned up a large ethereal clock face to float beside him. The hour hand ticked over to one and Sage's blade became wreathed in emerald fire just as Summer brought her weapon downward and pointed it at him.

Gouts of flame flew forth from both of the teens' weapons and clashed in midair, Sage's a spectral, flickering green and Summer's a more typical orange and red. The plumes collided and seemed to almost push against each other, manifesting a large impact cloud of dangerous fire at the center. Both Ghira and Velvet quickly repositioned themselves to stay well out of the way of the magical clash, with the smaller girl working her way around to try to reach Summer's other side. The Maiden saw the tactic coming and extended one hand in Velvet's direction, not entirely sure what was about to happen as she tapped into both of her apparent auras. With a brief moment of intense focus, Summer grit her teeth and pushed, only to feel raw magic fly forth.

A longer, thinner jet of fire blasted outward from Summer's palm, chasing Velvet as she began to run around the side of the room in an attempt to escape. Meanwhile, Sage's ghostly clock struck 'II' and the stream of fire from his sword fizzled out immediately. The blade was instead suddenly coated by wide, weighty rock, and he slammed it downward to create a makeshift shield against Summer's flames. As he put his forearm against the flat of the sword, Ghira moved in behind him and crouched low while his arms began to glow with a pale yellow energy.

"How strong are those flames?" Ghira asked in a low voice as he remained momentarily crouched. "Even behind that stone, they feel…"

"Strong," Sage answered through clenched teeth, a bead of sweat already rolling down from his hairline. "How she can maintain this for so long is beyond me."

"Look for an opening," Ghira suggested. "I'll break her focus."

Without so much as an explanation, Ghira gripped Sage's back and then launched himself up and over his teammate, claws out. His armored gauntlet slid down in place over his left arm, coating it in steel as he pulled the limb back and got ready to slam it down on Summer. He did indeed distract her enough to stop both streams of flame… but Summer's focus was elsewhere, and the Maiden had enough adrenaline going to adapt and catch Ghira off-guard.

Somehow, in a way that the faunus didn't immediately understand, he was already on the ground and stumbling forward, his arm weakly thudding into the tile floor and dissipating the stored energy from his Semblance. Summer was nowhere to be seen, and he realized a second too late that she had used her Semblance to switch places with him again… putting her behind and above him in mid-leap. Ghira only figured it out when he felt the head of Pearl Phoenix crash into the back of his own, causing him to flinch and shrink downward as he spun around and raised his guard.

"That is quite a Semblance…" Ghira remarked with a hiss as Summer thrusted out her mace upon landing, causing Ghira to hop backward. "But how often can you use it before your aura blows?"

"We'll find out!" Summer answered as she whirled around just in time to find Sage at stage 'III', his sword a rippling wave of dark blue liquid. "Two against one, huh?"

"Three," Velvet chimed in as she rushed in from the side.

In the faunus' hands was a replica of Sage's massive sword constructed of hard light, though without the boy's Semblance affecting it. Velvet swung wide for Summer's upper body as Sage went for a low stab. Ghira also got in on the attack as he threw a straight amplified punch for Summer's back, and the Maiden momentarily began to glow with a warm orange light. As all three attacks connected, Summer disappeared entirely in a swirl of orange wisps, and Velvet's sword collided with Ghira's fist, knocking them both backward. All three of the attackers paused to look around and try to figure out who had been teleported where, only to find that they were all exactly where they had been seconds before.

Somehow, they all found that more disorienting.

A sudden increase in the temperature of the room signaled that something was happening, and Team BASS backed off just in time to avoid a swirling spiral of fire that exploded into existence quite near to them. Summer manifested once again in the center of the whirling energies, spreading fire out from around her as she stumbled a bit on her feet… and something up in the monitoring booth sparked and then blew.

"Shit!"

"Willow!" Summer called, pulling her attention away from her opponents. "Are you alright up there!?"

"I'm fine!" came the immediate answer, followed by a few coughs while the observation window was blocked by thick smoke "You just… whatever you just did overloaded the entire computer system. Hopefully the data was backed up in real time, otherwise we just lost what little we had."

"What was all of that, just now?" Ghira asked, sounding astonished as flecks of ash and embers continued to rise toward the ceiling. The faunus kept his guard up, though the collected energy within his arms had dissipated entirely. "That seemed… somehow more intense than everything else you did."

Summer cast an uncertain glance up to Willow's booth as the door on the side of the small room opened and the girl emerged onto the attached staircase.

"…it's… we should talk about this later."

Velvet raised a brow at Ghira as they watched Summer quite literally run away from them and over to Willow to meet her at the bottom of the staircase.

"I'm fine," Willow insisted with a wave of her hand as Summer offered one of her own. The heiress accepted the gesture and the following hug with another little cough. "I doubt Professor Gumo will be happy, but…"

"I just did what he asked me to," Summer pointed out before lowering her voice. "And I don't want to answer that question."

"What question?" Willow returned in a low voice as Team BASS approached. With a worried look from Summer, Willow at least understood the request and made a show of clutching her side. After letting out a hiss as she began to speak loudly enough for the others to hear. "Ow! Summer, I think… I might have a few gashes or a burn after all. I caught a bit of flying metal or plastic or something from the exploding console…"

"Shit," Summer cursed as Ghira made it up to her. "Guys, we need to stop for now. Let me go look her over in the staging room, and… I-I don't know. Interrupting Professor Gumo right now probably isn't a good move. Is there anyone else you could call about the monitoring booth?"

Sage furrowed his brows as his teammates came up with no answer.

"…Fox? Have him alert that Calavera woman and meet us here. She's our best option for taking care of whatever just happened until the headmasters are free."

"Fox," Ghira agreed. "We really should get him back to the academy anyway, and it's high time that Adam meets Professor Gumo. I'll make the call."

"We'll be right back," Summer insisted as she made a show of throwing Willow's arm over her shoulder and helping her friend limp out of the room. Once they were clear of the door, Summer dropped the act and allowed Willow to walk on her own. "Thanks, Wil. You're not actually hurt, are you?"

"No, not at all," Willow admitted as she took her hand off her side. "Just an excuse. What did they ask you?"

"They asked me about that flaming solo teleport trick," Summer explained, leading Willow back to the staging room and holding the door for her. "Which… I don't like the answer."

"Thank you. What is the answer?" Willow asked, looking back over her shoulder. "I've never seen you do something like that before. All of your teleportation… magic? Semblance? I don't even know anymore. It's all been swapping your position with someone else's up to this point."

"…Semblance," Summer confirmed. "I… think. I'm fairly certain that was always my Semblance, and I'm just a late bloomer. The future sight, the flames… all of that is Fall Maiden stuff. Unfortunately, I have done it before… kinda?"

"For the sake of my burgeoning headache, speak plainly, please," Willow requested while rubbing her temples. The door closed and Summer began to disrobe almost immediately while Willow simply watched. "You're done already…?"

"Yeah, I'm not fighting them again," Summer replied as she shuffled out of her clothing. "I… saw myself do that teleport trick in a vision, recently, and I just went for it today. Focusing on that second aura that Professor Gumo found, it was… easy. Too easy. Everything that's straight-up magical is just coming like it's second nature. That sounds cool and convenient and all, but… I don't know, Wil. I don't like it."

"Is that not a good thing?" Willow asked as she approached and reached for an electrode near Summer's collarbone. "You wanted to begin training with your magic, and Professor Ozpin is even here for however long to help you do so. Mastering your powers is the goal."

"Mastering my powers is my goal," Summer corrected as she winced at the pain of the little sticky pad being ripped away. "Mastering my powers is a step toward something else for Professor Ozpin. I do want to learn more about myself, get stronger, and become our squad's secret weapon… but I'm getting worried, Wil. What happens when I get there? What happens when the training is over? I don't think this stops at 'okay, you're fully the Fall Maiden now, congratulations.' I'm being trained for something. Something…"

"Something you saw," Willow finished as she went for the next pad. "Something that's filling you with dread. Summer… don't keep things from me. I promised to be your secret-keeper."

"I'm not," Summer insisted. "I promise you, I'm not. I just… I've been doing some thinking. When Professor Ozpin made us- Team STRQ- his personal… whatever we are, he summoned a spirit out of the lamp that Raven and Qrow brought back from the mountaintop. Her name was Jinn, and she seemed… really interested in me. She also seemed surprised to see me, like we were meeting sooner than she expected. She also asked if I'd… met someone. I think that someone is the snake. The snake at the tree in my dreams."

"Have you seen the snake again?" Willow asked. "I mean, since the last time we talked about it, when you showed me your dream journal."

"…I've been seeing it every night," Summer admitted. "And it gets clearer and clearer, and there are more and more branches on that tree. Branches where we're doing something inside of them. Branches of the future, or… or something. I have to update my journal sometime today, before I forget. Some stuff changed from the last time I walked the tree."

"Like what?" Willow asked, not sure she was ready for the answer.

"Your daughter. Winter," Summer reminded as another electrode was pulled. "I saw her at Beacon again, doing exactly what she was doing the first time I saw her… but she no longer had the scar…"

Author's Note:

Someone's starting to lose it. But is it Summer, or someone else?

-RD