RRC: Hmm, seems a good many of you are happy to be back in RWBY… Well, let's go see what everyone has been up to. Once I reply to you all, anyway.

Selias: Hey look, we're back in RWBY. We'll see a lot more RWBY interaction next chapter as well, promise.

The Reaper of Insanity: Glad you enjoy buddy.

daniel: *gives cookie* Qrow kind of just goes with the flow in this fic… It's not a direct threat, it's someone who's possibly useful, so eh.

Lightsbane: Nah, no fun in guessing. I wonder how good my fic is when read drunk… And pish. Please. Addressing the audience. That's the easy way out. As for One Piece… Nope. Leaving it alone. Although I don't think Fiona does, as a ghost…

Raidentensho: Never played White Knight Chronicles. Won't be another job for a chapter or two, need to resettle with the main cast.

tri2: Honestly, I really wanted to. I love Blair to death. But… I couldn't think of a reason for it. And while this fic is kind of a crack fic, yeah, I need a reason for most anything I do. I don't have reason to drag Blair along, so…

Steamrick: Oh, our bad. Legend of Mana. Old Squaresoft (you're reading that right, not a typo) PS1 RPG. Massive fun and replayability, especially if you're a completionist. And to be fair? Quite a bit of One Piece is slapstick. And I think even Xomniac admits the later chapters are far better than the first few.

Drmethilon: Heh, glad you enjoyed. I doubt we'll work with any other authors though. Vixy and I have enough issues syncing up to write just between us two.

Hikari: Hey look, an update. No, there is no military based school with no homework. And I mean, the Hiraishin is a space-time jutsu. Dimensional travel is really just warping space-time.

Guest: Whoo, brownies!

Santa Socks: *gives cookie* I'm glad you enjoy.

ATTF: I will admit, the previous 3 chapters were confusing. And not my best idea. But they were necessary with what I wanted to do with Fiona.

Guest: *gives cookie* Sure.

desdelor: *gives cookie* Glad you appreciated.

Observor: Yeah, I can too. Maybe later.

Nightmaster: I'm glad you enjoy. *gives cookie*

Moon so bright: *gives cookie* I tried.

grabblers: *gives a couple of cookies* I've had PM talks with you. Moving on.

Guest quintuplet: … Not things I bothered to considered, admittedly.

Ashzaroth: You won't be seeing canon for quite some time. Like, a LONG time. We'll see plenty of people from it though. As for the romance… I know exactly what I'm doing with it now. You just have to wait.

lazymanjones: *gives cookie* Glad you enjoy.

Anerianjames: So sorry about the wait.

Keac: Glad you liked it. Have another round.

Guest: Meh. Clock can keep ticking. I'm bound by my rules only. Have a cookie though.

Guest: I'm glad. Have another chapter.

I do wish to apologize. College life got… busier than expected. As did work life. And all of life, really. Plus, Volume 4 of RWBY. Which, I love to death, it is awesome, but it be giving me issues for writing. I really have no desire to retcon the whole fic, but SO MANY THINGS are happening in it that I need to work with… The biggest issue is Qrow, as my version is a fair bit different than canon's, but I have plans around that. Everything else is WIP and not really defined, but wasn't defined in the first place so I'm not concerned. Although, Huntsmen are pulling some ridiculous feats of physical capability now…

EDIT 5/26/2017: Yeah I'm pretty sure you can guess the year when reading this. I apologize again for the incredibly late chapter. My muse kind of died. And I was just not figuring out how best to do this. I've still been active on , which is checked by seeing when I added favorites to my list if one bothers, so I'm still alive. Just been lack of muse and incredibly busy. But I have been inspired. Yesterday, at the time of this writing, Cross-Brain posted a new chapter to This Bites!. Now I know, they've posted a number of chapters between this one of mine and my previous, but this specific one is different. Chapter 57 of This Bites! Is a CROSSOVER WITH OTHER SI FICS. Not saying who. Not saying how or anything. But reading that I found my inspiration to write again. Because I will be damned if I just let my fic die after seeing one of the famed collaborators on FF come up with a crossover chapter, a crossover with another of my favorite fics at that. So… Let's see if I can't get back into this. Vixy! Back me up with the writing of the Sergeant!

Home Sweet Home

Almost immediately after I had left the Headmaster's office (of ostentatiousness, damn), Fiona had flashed away, something to do with paperwork with Sid, leaving me all on my lonesome. Fortunately, I was just taking a walk back to the airship dock after getting off the elevator (so many buttons), so it wasn't like I could get into any trouble. I didn't know any students aside from Team CFVY, and it was class anyway, so it wasn't as if anyone would accost me or I had any reason to detour on my route. Actually, a thought accorded to me as I walked…

I rapidly pulled out my scroll and dialed a number (and so much joy I have connection again!), frowning as it almost instantly went to voicemail. I then shrugged; Qrow was a teacher too, and if Beacon was in session, so was Signal. "Hey Qrow, it's Orion. I'm back from that errand Ozpin sent me on, hope the girls didn't give you too much hell when they found out you sent me to him. I'll be home at some point this evening, after I check in with Tukson and Junior. See ya later."

Okay, not exactly professional, but I'm not on the clock, so whatever. Hanging up, I advanced towards my ride back to Vale.

And of course, the day I come back is the day that my boss isn't here…

Grumbling mentally in my head at the obvious CLOSED sign on the front of Tukson's shop, I fought back a sigh of annoyance. Looks like another person I'd have to leave a note for that I was back. Strangely, I didn't have any voicemails; figured I'd get flooded with them upon my return. Actually, I don't think I get voicemails when I'm without a connection. Whoops… Eh. It'll all work out. I shrugged, pulling out my scroll and looking into the contacts list. Let's see… He should be right at the top… There we go!

Ring…. Ring… Ring…

"Who is this and how the hell did you get my scroll number?"

"Adam! Wassup?"

"... Orion, how do you have my scroll number?" The aforementioned Bull faunus sounded exasperated, a touch frustrated, and slightly bemused.

"Eh, you talk a lot when drunk. I do pay attention. All sorts of useful things get spilled." A useful trick I learned from books that I was now able to apply due to a healing factor: it being impossible for me to be drunk with two factors in play, I can learn quite a bit from others, though that wasn't the case in this situation. Adam did let slip his scroll number before, but it wasn't to me. Junior had gotten it from him, and then passed it along to me in case I needed it.

"Why are you calling me?" The voice of my friend/occasional meat shield drew my attention back to my phone conversation.

"Oh. That. Tukson isn't at the shop for reasons I don't know but you do, so I'm going to Junior's. Want to come?" I could just go without him, but then I wouldn't have a convenient hiding spot in case the twins get upset somehow again.

Evidently, he thought of that himself. "... Go die Orion. Blake is at the Den so have fun with that." And with that parting shot he hung up on me. How rude. Ah well…

"Good news people! Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated!" I crowed as I stepped into the Den, which was busy with the gang doing stuff and the twins and Blake sitting at the counter discussing… Something, don't know what. Junior was nowhere in sight.

At my words, most every one of Junior's boys paused in their work to give me a wave or a nod of acknowledgement. Melanie and Blake gave me a cool glance that was at least semi-friendly before going back to discussing their business. Miltia, on the other hand, gave me a warm smile and got up from the bar area, walking over to meet me and give me a quick hug. I hugged her back, a bit surprised.

"I was mainly joking, I didn't think someone had actually reported me dead." I commented, to which the red twin shrugged.

"No report. Just worried and missed." Ah, guess she still wasn't fully comfortable with Blake. Eh. I still got the gist.

"Guess I was out of contact for a while. Sorry about that Mil. It was very unplanned." I apologized quickly once recognizing what exactly she said. Miltia merely nodded before dragging me by the arm to the bar. I wasn't bothering to stop her, partially because a certain demon spoke up in my mind.

"Hmmm. You are surprisingly willing to be dragged around by her. I wonder why that is…"

"Shush you. You can read my memories if you're that curious." I rapidly shot back at the blood demon in my head, carefully tuning her out. She was mainly poking fun at me, I was aware, but I still had a few things to think about before giving her any sort of a real answer. At that point Miltia had dragged us to join her twin and the resident catgirl, ushering me to take a seat as she did the same. Melanie smirked at me once I had joined them, ceasing their discussion.

"Look at what the cat dragged in." A flash of annoyance could be seen on Blake's face if one was paying attention, but only I saw it as both twins were focused on me, the faunus in hiding being on the opposite side of the Valentine's twins. I gave Blake a small apologetic shrug as Melanie continued speaking. "A lot of people were a little annoyed that you dropped off the face of Remnant, Opal. All anyone was told was that you were doing something for Beacon at the request of that roommate and mentor of yours."

"And as far as anyone is concerned, that's all that needs to be known." I responded idly, giving a nod of thanks to the bartender who slid me a glass of water before returning to his stocking. "Mainly because I'm pretty sure what happened is classified to Beacon faculty and Ozpin's inner circle. As the grand majority of said group is perfectly capable of handing me my own ass in a short period of time, I shall refrain from speaking unless necessary. Something I can tell you is I made a few new friends." I offered as a consolation.

Melanie and surprisingly Blake pouted at me, grumbling under their breath knowing full well I could hear them. Miltia meanwhile shrugged and sipped from her drink, keeping one eye on me. "Many worried. Friends fairly upset."

Yeah. Knew that was coming. I heaved a weary sigh. "Alright, how bad is it?"

"Neo was a bit annoyed. That rapidly escalated into very annoyed and she beat the hell out of a few patrons who got too grabby to vent." Melanie started off, raising one finger. She raised a second. "Junior, on the other hand, was not overly worried, though he did take the chance to go clean up some loose ends in Vacuo since Neo has been in a pissy mood. That's where they are, should be back tomorrow."

"Along with them, there's also that friend of yours with the pink lock in his hair and his stacked girlfriend." I just barely managed to stop a spit take at her blunt assessment, giving Melanie a glare as I got my breathing under control. All she did was smirk back at me. "They popped by a time or two looking for you. We kept the girl away from the hard drinks as recommended by you and the boy; probably for the best seeing how she acts."

"That and she's strong enough to swing that sledge of hers with one hand, and it doubles as a grenade launcher?" I added in, getting the twins to shiver lightly.

"Yeah we saw. Some asshole got a bit too handsy, but before we could intervene she broke his legs. It was damn quick too, she has to be a Huntsman trainee." Melanie shook her head. "Anyway, they popped in a few times figuring we might know where you disappeared too. A fair idea, considering Junior hired the boy before and you all ran into that plant thing. And then Blake here has popped by more than once."

I directed my attention to the cat faunus, who gazed back at me neutrally. "Many of the times I've heard of you ending up in trouble, it's generally started here." Can't refute that… "After learning that it wasn't because of them, however, I've mainly just kept popping in because they're decent company when the DJ isn't practicing." Her bow twitched almost imperceptibly at that last remark, and I didn't blame her. Even I got a little overwhelmed for some of his louder tracks, and I was human. The enhanced senses faunus kind possessed would make it far worse for even the quieter tracks.

"I've noticed that myself, yes." I inclined my glass at the twins before draining about half of it in a single go, a little parched.

"I'm also the one who's been dealing the upset blonde you left." Blake's words had me stop completely motionless, glass not quite back on the bar counter. "She was angry at first, especially when she found out that you and whoever you were with lost contact with civilization. Very angry. She vented to me through the scroll. She cycled through that after a bit, though from what I've heard she had been banned from sparring until she got her emotions back under control."

That… Actually made a lot of sense, considering Yang was fueled by passion and anger is one of the more passionate emotions. Righteous anger over a missing dear person in her life? I felt a swell of pity for the opponents she had.

"She ended up dragging me to hang out more than once to vent. Met her sister Ruby too." Blake shrugged. "Ruby was concerned about you, but not overly worried. She said you're pretty stubborn." Ah, how sweet of the little sister. Glad to know I earned a fair bit of faith. "Oh, and Adam didn't really give a damn, beyond losing an apparent drinking partner and one of the few humans he can tolerate."

"Why did I see that coming?" I muttered under my breath, getting the faunus to smirk at me briefly before going back to her drink. "Well, guess I'll have to play catch-up with everyone. On my end, while I did make a few new friends, only one you're likely to meet as the others are rather... long-distance."

Blake and the twins looked curious, but I waved them off. "Not now, or for a few days. Certain forms need to be filled out for them, certain matters to discuss. I'll introduce you when I can. I kind of have to, I intend on talking to Junior to see if he has anywhere that she can hole up."

The twins looked at each other before Melanie turned to me. "I'll let him know you want to talk to him. So did you just drop in to let us know you're alive?"

"Pretty much, yeah. Tukson is out doing things that I shouldn't know about and Blake does" once again earning myself a glare from said catgirl "and Signal hasn't gotten out yet. Won't get out for another…" Glancing at the clock on the wall I blinked in surprise. "Oh. Nevermind, it's just now letting out, so I expect a call in about three… two…"

The ringing of my scroll interrupted my countdown, getting the women with me to smirk at my poor sense of judging time. Giving them a half-hearted glare, I turned away from them to answer my scroll. "Hel-"

"Orion!"

"Ow." I winced, moving my scroll away from my ear for a moment, recognizing that high pitched squeal easily enough. It was heartening to hear though; for all that Soul Eater was interesting and reminded me of Earth, Earth was no longer home for me. "Ruby? How did you know I was back?"

"Uncle Qrow forwarded us the message you sent him! Well, after converting it to text for us first so we wouldn't get in trouble for listening to your voicemail in class." The chibi-reaper chirped, calming down slightly in the latter part of her explanation. Of course, Ruby being Ruby, she immediately got hyper emotional again. "Are you okay? Did you suffer any injuries?! We missed you, why did you drop out of contact!? Yang has been all mopey and frustrated and-"

"Woah, woah, easy Ruby." I attempted to placate the scythe wielder. "I'm okay, I promise. I suffered some minor injuries" "liiiiarrr" shut it "but they were easily healed. And it wasn't just me, the entire team I was with dropped out contact, but we're all back now. Promise. Speaking of your sister though, how come she wasn't the one to immediately call me?"

"Because I move faster than her." Was Ruby's innocent reply, and I could practically hear the smirk in her voice. "Her plan B was to head home as fast as possible, but one of teachers wanted to talk to her about an assignment. So you have a little bit of time to get home before she does. I'd hurry. Sis has been really upset that you disappeared on her. Something about not getting an answer from you?"

I winced at that last statement. Yeah, that's not a good sign… Technically she never asked an actual question but I really don't think she cares right now… Ah hell, and in my current state… Fuck. "Alright, thanks for the heads up Ruby. I'll meet you guys at home. Try to make Yang leave with you and Qrow instead of heading out by herself?" Because talking with Yang alone was DEFINITELY something to put off until I explained things to Qrow. Things like my pear-shaped sanity.

"That's doable. But you had better beat us home Orion. We missed you." And wasn't that heartwarming, guilt-inducing, and a little terrifying for a few last words on a scroll call.

"Yeah. Missed you all too. See you at home." With that I hung up and turned to the others, who had been pretending to not be eavesdropping. "Guess that's me then. See ya around ladies."

The twins and Blake bade me farewell, Miltia sticking to one word and waving as I left the Den.

Of course, getting home wasn't exactly all sunshine and rainbows. I did beat the girls and Qrow home (I suspected that Qrow was taking a subtle scenic route to try and calm Yang down (good luck)), but they weren't the only residents of the house. Upon entering, I was met with a bark and a ballistic furry missile slamming into my stomach, knocking me back a bit and dropping me on my ass. Grunting in bit of pain, I looked down into my lap at my attacker, who stared up at me, the cheerful expression normally present very obviously absent as he stared back.

"Hey Zwei." I murmured, carefully lifting a hand to let him sniff it. Zwei, to reiterate, is NOT a normal dog. He's strong enough to take out lesser Grimm by himself, and is a fitting companion for an ADULT HUNTSMAN. Essentially, while I'm fairly sure that I can probably handle Zwei if he became hostile due to recent events, I'd much rather not have to. Fortunately, along with the combat capabilities came heightened intelligence, evidenced by the calm and how he was allowing me to work with him, evidenced as he sniffed my hand cautiously before allowing suspicious eyes to roam my body. "Yeah, it wasn't exactly a perfect trip buddy. I promise I'm not possessed or anything, but it's a complicated story. You okay waiting until I explain it to Qrow, when the girls have gone to bed?"

Dark gray eyes bored into mine before the dog chuffed and shifted his head so it was directly under my hand, allowing me to idly scratch behind his ears. So he wasn't fully pleased by what his senses were telling him, but he could be patient and the fact I exhibited no abnormal behavior also helped. After a moment he popped up from my lap and let me get up and walk over to one of the couches, sitting down in it. I heard the door shut before Zwei padded over and hopped up, laying down in my lap, presenting a picture of normality for whenever the sisters and Qrow were home. I spent the idle time checking the news on my scroll (nothing really eventful, aside from more issues with a White Fang rally getting screwed over by bigot cops over in Mistral) and idly petting Zwei, who rested in my lap, not asleep, but certainly seeming like it. After a few minutes the door opened and I cast my eyes up to see Qrow leading the way into the house. His eyes flickered to meet mine briefly before he stepped forward and allowed the girls to come forward, who were playfully bantering with one another. The second they stepped through the portal though, their eyes immediately scanned the room before alighting on me.

"Oron!" With a dual cry the siblings rushed at me, Zwei taking the opportunity to get out dodge as Ruby collided with my torso with a tight hug. Yang flopped next to me on the couch with an even tighter hug, my only response being to wrap an arm around each of them and hug them back.

"Hey Ruby. Hey Yang. Missed ya." And I did. I truly did miss those two, Zwei and Qrow as well. Hell, I missed everyone back here on Remnant, it had become my home since I was ripped from mine. Qrow, Ruby, Yang, Zwei… These guys were my home. And I could tell I was equally attached to Neo and the twins. To a lesser degree, I was attached to my other friends like Adam, Junior, Ren, and the rest. "How touching… "I twitched a small amount at hearing Kaijin's voice in my head. Leave it be, Kai.

Yang growled before releasing me and leaning back to punch me in the shoulder, though my Aura flared up to dull the blow. "Don't you ever run off like that again! Do you know how worried we were?!"

Ruby's grip on me tightened, and I sighed, holding back an urge to chuckle. That wouldn't reassure them. "Sorry Yang, Ruby. I didn't expect to be gone for more than a day or two, and I certainly didn't expect to drop out of contact. Ozpin had a job and my previous experience was supposed to help lower the risk factor for the Beacon team sent out."

More or less true, though not the whole truth. I planned to avoid telling anyone, especially these two, the full truth of what happened, Qrow being an exception along with Ozpin and his inner circle due to a necessity in telling them. Didn't need to worry anyone else though. Yang glared at me before punching me again, nowhere near as hard. "Still. No running off without at least giving a heads up, got it mister?"

I nodded rapidly. "Yep. Always tell someone if I'm about to go run off on a job out of the city. Got it." Yeah, I have way too many people concerned about me on a regular basis to even try otherwise. The fact that only a few are blatantly attached to me now just let me get off lightly; something like this happens again and I won't be as lucky. I dragged Yang back into the hug as Qrow sat down in the other couch. "So what have you girls been up to? Keeping up on your studies? Education is important you know."

Ruby shifted to sit on the armrest of the couch, finally releasing me as Yang did the same, the two regaling me with their scholarly woes, and things felt normal again. It's good to be back home…

Of course, all good things come to an end. After some time catching up, which I spent most of carefully editing my trip elsewhere, the girls headed to bed, leaving Qrow, Zwei, and I in the living room, Qrow still sitting opposite me on the other couch. He leaned forward, steepling his fingers. "So. Ozpin sent a message, saying that things didn't go anywhere like planned. Explain."

I sighed, slumping against the couch. "Yeah, that's an understatement… Where to begin?" I wondered aloud. "Well, to start with, the anomaly was some sort of dimensional distortion. It sent us to a different realm, completely split from ours, though at least the languages were the same. A realm I knew of through fiction in my old world."

Qrow tensed up. "Another world? Again? You have the luck of the devil, Orion."

"Yeah, I noticed." I grumbled. "Came across friendly locals and coordinated with them to arrange lodgings and to figure out a way back. One of said locals is a god, so that helped."

Qrow straightened from his posture. "A god? Like an almighty omnipotent being?"

I shook my head. "Shinigami-sama isn't omnipotent, nowhere near. Incredibly powerful, and one of the top ten strongest beings in existence in that realm, but not a true god like you're picturing. Still, he was our ticket back, and he ran a local school similar to Beacon's purposes, so Oobleck and I offered to help out with the faculty while the kids attended class." Qrow smirked at my reference to the Beacon team being kids and I flipped him off. "You know how old I am, and honestly the distortions on my mind definitely make me older than my physical age."

Qrow's smirk faded at the mention of my distortions. "You're going to want to explain that last part very quickly."

"Ease off Qrow, I'm getting there." I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees, hands supporting my head. "My knowledge of the realm we were in kicked in and I found a way to neutralize most of the problems they might have in the future. And I'm not a bad person, and said problems were going to drag kids into life-or-death battles, shit I don't agree with. I barely agree with Huntsman training, and that's mainly because they only see live combat when they hit Beacon or any of the other Huntsman academies and they are outright ready for what they get tossed into." Aside from Jaune but he screwed himself over…

"Anyway, I coordinated with the locals to deal with the problem. Unfortunately it didn't go entirely as planned and I underestimated the strength of Shinigami-sama's soul. Listening to it drove me temporarily insane, though at least I was focused on murdering the bitch who planned to slaughter children. Then she infected me with this." At my words I raised my hand up and held it steady, palm up. After a moment Kaijin picked up the cue and spiked a bloody needle straight up from the palm, making me grunt quietly in pain as it remained as a spike sticking out of my hand, no other blood appearing despite the gaping hole in my palm from the technique.

Qrow stared at the spike, as did Zwei, both extremely wary. "And what in the name of God is that? I can feel that, that's in no way good or even safe."

"Black blood." I rotated my hand in a circular fashion, not a single drop of blood spilling as I did so. "A substance designed to awaken an incapacitated demon, tested on two different humans to ensure its potency. It is sentient, with its own personal demon running each incarnation of it unless injected into an actual demon that can take over its will and dominate it. In the case of the other realm, the two human bearers were unable to suffer injuries beyond scratches from slashing or piercing attacks, and one of them had it used as a weapon, able to take the form of a massive blade. In my own case, it amplifies my physical capabilities, and prevents me from ever bleeding out, along with a minute amount of control like this." After a moment the spike withdrew, leaving a hole in my hand that was rapidly knitting together, partially by natural flesh and partially by the black blood.

"And it also seems to provide you with a healing factor in addition to your Aura…" Qrow murmured, staring. "And you have it under control?"

I shook my head. "Like I said, it's sentient. The sentient part takes the form of some sort of monster that dwells within one's soul. She, as she's the incarnation from the host that infected me, is the one in control of it, and we have a tentative agreement for now that's also keeping me from going insane again. It's not under control though, more a symbiotic relationship with another being. I also have a watcher, which leads to something else."

Qrow raised an eyebrow. "Another thing?"

"In a way." I rummaged around in my pocket and pulled the sparkly rock representing the physical manifestation of Fiona's soul, sending a pulse of aura into it. "Meet someone new."

In a flash of blue-purple-red, a third person was standing in the living room idly looking around rather uncomfortably. "Did you need something, Orion?"

"I kind of expected you to slap me upside the head again when you flashed in, honestly." I admitted freely. "You've done so pretty much every other time."

Fiona reached over and slapped me upside the head. "Feel better now?"

"... Moving on. Qrow, meet Staff Sergeant Fiona Hanson of the U.S. Army. Fiona, meet Qrow Branwen, my mentor in… let's just go overall combat here on Remnant. Qrow, Fiona is… kind of from my neck of the woods. Ish." I shrugged. "She can explain better, as she lived it. Kind of."

"Died it. Wasn't until the end I knew what was going on, or had any idea I was even still there." Awkwardly explained the ghost of a soldier with a absent shrug. "I am dead, twice.. Three times? Over. Didn't stick that second, and third, time. Bit of a scuffle with two separate Gods of Death, and some major lone survivor-therapy, and I've now been 'traded' to your team."

Qrow blinked slowly, as Zwei hopped down and wandered over to sniff at Fiona. "Ok… Why exactly are you connected to a sparkly rock that feels like your soul and really shouldn't considering what I know of souls and Aura and how permanent manifestations don't tend to work very well? And all the rage?"

"Bullshit ninja magic." Deadpanned the blonde woman shortly. "They have different rules for such things. As I was… fucked-up reincarnated into one of their assassins, as half a bloodline limit-trait thing of some kind of guardian-killer spirit, once she became afraid to the point of irrationality… I came forth again. Fully as I was at the point of my death, just with her memories and the half of the Yin chakra she had 'extra'. More bullshit ninja magic with a Summoned God of Death to take half of a rage-monster-entity named Kurama into death to reduce his size for easier sealing into a baby's belly. Don't ask."

"Yeah… The world she was dropped into runs off crazy logic sometimes." I piped up cheerfully as Zwei found Fiona acceptable so plopped down in front of her to stare up at her face with big soulful eyes, silently demanding affection. "Anyway… We kind of need you to keep the rock shrouded before it attracts Grimm."

"I… probably will be bothering a zombie-man for most my time, it's just the rock if any interdimensional bullshit happens again." Fiona shrugged idly with a shoulder. "I can… use a technique called 'Flash of the Thunder God' to go from one point to another, distance and from the look of things reality is not a limit. As I do not have a body in truth to damage by pressing too far, nor do I really need to sleep or anything dead as I am, it's just an emergency thing. I think?"

"That doesn't explain why exactly I need to watch it, instead of just leaving it with the aforementioned God of Death. Or why exactly Orion referenced you as a watcher." Qrow stated calmly, obviously contemplating everything dumped on him so far.

"We need it out of the other dimension, because some nasty beasties that… Gonna be honest, are really just really damn depraved humans that can eat souls are in the other dimension and thus Fiona's would be a security risk." I explained easily. "Actually, I think anyone in that dimension can eat a soul, logic is again weird in that dimension, just in a different way…"

"...honestly, I have no issues letting something eat my soul. I wonder what it would do…?" Mused the dead soldier, raking a hand through her short hair. "But Shinigami-sama said no, so that's… not going to happen."

"Fiona, the last time something essentially ate enough souls to compare to Kurama's raw power, the apocalypse nearly happened." I deadpanned at her. "No. Bad. I don't care if you're kind of technically suicidal, I don't wanna know. That world has enough parallels to Cthulu as is."

"I don't have all of Kurama's soul. Just… bits. And pieces. And… we don't have a moon-goddess rabbit bunny wanting to pacify us all into non-existence here… right?"

"Moon-goddess rabbit bunny? What the actual fuck?" I blinked a few times. "The many fanfictions I read never mentioned that. Were you smoking something that screwed up your memories?"

"Point is no. Their is no moon-bunny goddess here Sergeant. The moon is actually broken, if you bother to stick your head out the window." Qrow stated calmly as Zwei pouted before hopping into my lap where I gave him head-scritches. "The part about you being Orion's watcher? Why does he need a watcher exactly, demonic blood aside?"

"Because he went and did something stupidly moronic. Listening to an Old One's Madness. Drove him insane for a bit, sometimes has flashes of that." Fiona gave a rather bland shrug for spilling that so bluntly. "I, in the process of flicking around the known or otherwise universe, can knock him out of that. Also, dead. I can't be killed off. So if anything does happen to him, and he goes bat-shit insane, I will be one of nearly no one else you can send in without risking yourself or simply pedestrians in the crossfire."

Qrow blinked. "He mentioned the insanity, but didn't say it wasn't fully handled." He gave me a mild glare, which had me raising my hands up.

"Didn't entirely think it mattered, because everyone I associate with can hand me my ass." I explained quickly. "I… think. Nah, they probably still can unless I do something really drastic."

"Don't go underestimating yourself…"

"It's not you we need to be afraid of. It's the people caught in the crossfire." Fiona interjected shortly, folding her arms across her chest and glaring. "And if the dead-demonic-lady of ghost-ness says it's stupid, perhaps listen to her?"

"The fact that you're dead really doesn't lend credence to the whole "wisdom" thing…" I grumbled. "Also, again. I'm either around multiple people who can subdue me, or around people who utterly outclass me and can subdue me, thus crossfire isn't much of an issue. I know my threat analysis even when insane is going to target whoever is most likely to be a problem before doing anything else."

"Orion. Listen to me closely. Your. Blood. Is. Infectious. Again, fuck the people that can fight you. Anything you leave behind, anything you destroy, anything you do, might spread it. And if you're insane, are you going to remember that?"

"Oh right, the whole "black plague" with my blood thing… Actually, that makes me wonder why exactly I got infected, I distinctly remember…" I trailed off, pondering. "Hey Fiona? We didn't get rid of the Black Blood research did we?"

"Stein has it?" The dead woman frowned thoughtfully. "...I think I'll make some use of my more shinobi skills and go ensure it's lit on fire in a few."

"Please don't. Because I remember that Medusa had to cultivate the Black Blood with certain drugs to bring it up to the level she or Crona had it. It's why it took so long for it to actually do anything besides pester Soul." I attempted to halt that plan of action. "So, that said, how exactly did I get infected immediately to the point of it taking over the entirety of my blood within moments? That's out of normal behavior for the substance."

"That is a fair question… Even I don't know, and I'm the one who's living in your blood." Of course you don't… " Kaijin doesn't actually know either. Which means that research…"

"Why shouldn't I destroy it? And also, why are you listening to something that came out of Medusa?" Fiona rubbed her temple, dropping her other arm only to place it on a hip. "Furthermore, Orion, please recall that 'canon' is entirely fucked when things like us happen. We weren't suppose to show up, things just… derail, when we're added in. Of course the Black Blood took a level in badass, consider what it was up against."

"To answer your second question? I can't tune out her and my Apathy at the same time." I noted calmly. "As to the first? I'd like to know what exactly entails being a carrier of this damn thing, and if we can cure it if I DO accidentally spread it to others. Curing it in my case would render me psychotic, so I don't want a cure for me, but if I'm pushed into fight-or-flight and really tap into it to live?"

"So… I steal it? Fair enough, ANBU skills to the rescue, yay." Sarcastically, and with a bit of bitterness, the dead woman looked back at me. "So for the last point?"

"Took a level in badass or not, Medusa didn't have it in canon. And I highly doubt she infected herself with it within the short amount of time we were there, which means that isn't something we changed. Which, again, means I need that damn research to figure out if I can infect others and if so, how to cure them or render them safe. Or, if necessary, if I can use the Blood as a kill-switch if they go insane. Who knows what it's capable of and what it can or can't do, directly or indirectly?" I thought aloud. "Honestly, I know I'll be spending a fair amount of time… Yeah, actually, I'm just going to leave that thought there because I'm not 100% on that idea."

"The 'first' change in Soul Eater canon was me, Orion. I should not have been brought there in the usual manner of things." Fiona reminded me pointedly. "Medusa might have thought a lot of things upon hearing that news, and I didn't know enough of their world to know to be wary of her."

"How long, again, were you there?" I asked idly, mind still somewhat elsewhere considering something, Qrow just bemusedly staring at our argument/conversation.

"...I don't really know. Days just sort of slur together when you don't sleep. It's all just one really long ass day for me. I didn't start paying attention to the calendar until after I got shanghaied as a temporary teacher substitute."

"Hmmm, then maybe she had enough time if she did cultivate… See, this is why I need her damn research." I grumbled. Also to see if you're capable of Resonating or not..."My my, I thought you were told not to listen to me, let alone work with me?" Notice how much I'm not paying much attention to Fiona when she brings that up? You're concerned about your survival, which also means mine, and in a drastic situation… "Mmm. Well, that is an interesting thought." Kaijin's dark giggling resounded in my mind at the thought.

"Regardless, if you think you're safe or not, do you really have someone more than powerful enough to keep you from escaping or fighting every hour of everyday?" Fiona inquired mildly, sounding rather annoyed by this point. "Or if so, are these people fully aware of what kind of risk you might present if anything gets ahold of you? On the hypothetical side of things, as it seems you fail to recall the mundane press of 'busywork' taking them from your side."

"If Orion actually did become a threat to the people of Remnant, rest assured Sergeant that there are people who would subdue him. Permanently, if necessary." Qrow spoke up calmly. "However, you have made your point on why you are a watcher for him."

"Yeah yeah, threats to society bad…" I grumbled. "I'm not planning on experimenting with my blood. At all. I just want the research so I can figure out if it might shorten my lifespan or infect others. And why exactly it infected me so easily. I have my weapons, and a few more I need to build, that I will most certainly rely on before using it. I'm not likely to actually let my blood be spilled unless I'm in extremely dire straits."

"Hooray for you. And you can certainly say this for everyone ever in the entire universe too, right?" Drawled the dead woman sarcastically. "You may not be the instigator, you might just be the victim. Who will make more victims."

I shrugged. "Hence the whole 'keeping a shard of your soul on me at all times' thing. Beyond the people in this room and Ozpin, and Oobleck because he was there, no one in this world should ever learn of the Black Blood. I'm not planning on ditching the shard you gave me anyway. For one thing, I might not be so lucky to find a way back home when transplanted across dimensions, again."

Fiona planted her face into her hands. "Oh yes. Because my ability to transport things is so much more important than guarding for the plot device known as 'should'."

"But of course! I mean, I'm relatively unimportant. But I tend to get transplanted with kiddos a lot it seems, because child-soldiers is a thing here, except they're more child hunters. And abandoning a child in a different dimension far from home would be bad!" I chirped cheerfully, scratching Zwei's belly as he rolled over.

"...yay." Deadpanned Fiona flatly. "Now you've begged the universe to make you 'important'."

"That pretty much happened the second I ran into you." I pointed out. "I mean, I'm a random human. You're a human fused with a rage demon thing that's actually pretty vital to the plot. Uh, actually, a question. You mentioned rabbit goddess thing. Was there any point in Naruto where they needed both halves of Kurama?"

The soldier frowned thoughtfully. "Erm… I never got that far? They lost me at 'rabbit goddess whose corpse was in the moon'. They… might have? I mean, it was Naruto's dad that did it originally…"

I smiled up at her, purposely putting false cheer into my expression. "Knowing Kishimoto and his fondness for messing with necromancy, you're probably going to be needed back there eventually. Cause you have half of a giant world-changing demon in you. Which means eventually…"

"Nope. I'm banned. By the Death God." Fiona frowned heavily. "Well… fuck. If I can't go there, narrative causality would mean they're coming… oh."

"Welcome to the world of Naruto Fiona!" I chirped. "Where it is impossible to ever let someone stay dead and buried, especially when it involves a biju!"

"I'm ALREADY DEAD." Protested the dead woman shortly. "How the fuck would anyone 'resurrect' me?"

"Well, I mean, on the one hand, to resurrect you? Hashirama was rezzed wasn't he? He and his brother by snake-face in canon." I reminded. "On the other hand, the whole getting to you here? I mean, YOU'RE using a seal to travel between dimensions, and if they actually need that chakra that isn't in their dimension…"

"First of all, I meant I was dead before I got into anything about the Naruto world. Dead, gone, nothing but a spirit. There is no body for me." Fiona waved that off, then cradled her forehead. "Oh hell… I'm actually going to have to deal with Natsumi."

"... You can kick her ass because she can't actually hurt you and lord over the fact that you're taller? And actually U.S. military again?" I pointed out to try and ease that pain.

Fiona's response was a one-fingered salute.

"Look at the bright side. You really expect them to let Natsumi go anywhere considering how much damage she took? It's more likely you'll deal with Minato." I pointed out. "I mean, isn't Natsumi pretty much banned from high level shit?"

"How the fuck would I know? I saw them in a few moments in between saving her ass, protecting Naruto, saving Kushina-hime, and then helping them seal off Kurama's fuzzy ass in baby Naruto since his mom couldn't take back the fox without it killing them both."

"Oh yeah. So, actually, because of that shit? Tsunade slapped Natsumi with a ban from doing anything involving S-ranks. I think dimensional travel and anything involving the Biju is S-rank soooo…." I still tried. I didn't want Fiona to be that badly off whenever the law of "the universe will always fuck with you because Murphy" kicked in.

"...okay, Natsumi's various shit-level injuries were mostly her fault. Still… that's a tall order. Hopefully, instead, we'll get either Kashi-chan or Jiraiya-sensei." Mused Fiona slowly, considering things. "Or some of the ANBU. I know them mostly by sight, given what little 'neko-chan' was up to in the end."

"Not Kakashi. He apparently sucked with seals, beyond the "standard format" ones. So most likely either Jiraiya, or the ANBU. Though… Actually, they did get temporarily tossed into one of the canon Naruto universes because of Minato…" I mused. "Bored sealmasters are apparently not a good thing."

"No, they never are. The number of times those two twits put burning holes through wooden furniture or just the floor, or the door, or just the windows." The dead woman huffed sourly, giving a listless shrug. "Whatever. Fuck. I really didn't want to deal with that 'embedded dislike for my originator/successor' thing the Kurama kekkei genkai gave just about everyone like me."

"Eh. I don't think you're likely to actually try and kill her." I pointed out, thinking. "I mean, I highly doubt that EVERY Kurama… inner demon you said was the genkai? Or the demon was a byproduct of it right?"

"A Kurama, if they feared for their life deeply enough, raised either their strongest fear or desire for a guardian up in their utterly mad ninja-magic bullshit bloodline. Mostly, as we're talking about little children of a ninja clan, they feared. So the great majority of Kurama kekkei genkai alter-egos are monsters. Natsumi feared me and losing her little family unit. So I came forth."

"Right, so I highly doubt that every Kurama had someone reincarnated in them." I thought out loud. "You are actually sentient, possess a soul even, and attachments. Also, the fear of her losing her family unit summoned you. I don't think you're likely to try and kill her, mainly because of your own attachment to everyone she is attached to and the fact that half of why you popped up was to make sure she didn't lose her family unit. She dies, she loses it, which means killing her would contradict that part of your purpose. You won't like her, but I don't think you'll hate her."

"I hate what she is." Fiona refuted pointedly. "Not her, because yeah she's kind of the closest thing I have to a daughter. But… do you know how many people she's killed? For money? I was a soldier, she's an assassin. She knew that with what I was, what we were, that wasn't acceptable. Then she let her little friends cut that part out of herself."

"Still. You won't try to kill her. Partially the daughter thing, but also because of the whole you don't want to kill Shikaku's wife and Shikamaru's mom thing." I shrugged. "So yeah, we'll have to have someone play mediator for you two, but it's still possible to deal with her and her friends somewhat civilly. Besides, isn't closure important?"

"...this is assuming it's not a facet of a Kurama alter-ego to utterly and mindlessly hate the other on sight rather than just generally overall." Pointed out the dead soldier. "Now, as I have yet more things to discuss with Shinigami-sama… are you done with me yet?"

"Eh, pretty much. I'm just going to give Qrow your soul-rock thing for safekeeping, and then have you meet some friends tomorrow. Maybe. Or my boss. Who we're going to avoid mentioning the grand majority of this too because he's civilian and I'm a bookstore clerk here." I shrugged. "I mean yeah, at this point I'm probably one of the most badass bookstore clerks ever, but still a bookstore clerk. Mainly just want the people I associate with to get used to you. And… also we need to give Ozpin a piece of your soul so you can possibly do teaching at Beacon. Can you do that yourself to break it off or do you have to go take it back to Shinigami-sama?"

"I have a pocket full of shards, myself." Fiona offered, digging one out of a shoulder pocket of her uniform and tossing it over. "So… yeah. Hi and all. I've got a report to write and someone to basically freak out upon. See you later?"

Qrow nodded affably. "It was a pleasure to meet you Sergeant. I will protect your soul as best as I can and look forward to discuss teaching methods with you."

"Yeah, I can at least vouch it's safe with him." I piped up, shoving the shard Fiona tossed at me into my pocket and throwing the rock at Qrow, who calmly caught it. "Qrow is legitimately the only person in this dimension I fear."

"...well, you could also throw it into the nearest maw. I really wouldn't care much." Deadpanned the ghost of a dead woman flatly, disappearing into nothingness with a half-assed salute.

"... Let's really not, because I think that would spawn a Grimm nest?"

"Agreed. I'll keep it shrouded."

"Cool. Night Qrow."

AN: Yeah… Nothing more I really want to do in this chapter. Again, really sorry this took so long. My muse hated me for the past YEAR as much as Vixy's has hated her for the past month or two.

I got around it… with a whole new fic and about 150,000 words in a month and a half.

I… Had less success. Blatantly. But yeah, finally got this chapter out. I'm not dead or taking a hiatus, I do hope to update more often than ONCE A DAMN YEAR, but that's on me. I make no promises beyond that this fic isn't actually dead unless I post a chapter up that blatantly says it is. So yeah. The return home.

We'll be seeing more character interaction next chapter with the RWBY cast, promise. Kaijin will be tossing in a fair few comments as well, but that's not going away anytime soon. Or ever. But if you're wondering why Orion is being so thick-headed? He isn't perfect at suppressing the Madness, which means he's not entirely SANE. Just enough to deal with civilized society. And give Fiona migraines trying to deal with him.

I have… a lot of reading to do now. I have to go back and pick up my RR thread… and finish 108ET's last three chapters… and… erg. But, we're not dead. Yay?

Which, we can assure you, is actually something to be proud of. Our lives are odd… Though not quite as bad as Orion and Fiona. Yet. But for those who want to see Natsumi… Sorry to disappoint, but it will be quite some time. Not until Orion has the other two weapons built up, his Semblance fully unlocked, and a couple more adventures. And a few other things that will change over time. And as for Fiona…

...I have no idea what you want to put here. It's late-night early-morning for me right now.

Essentially, we're going to avoid dragging Fiona to meet Natsumi until we've guaranteed she won't attempt to kill or maim her. Dislike and taking constant snipes at her is fine though. And something I really want to see…

Oh, right. That. Yes. ...more something along those lines… Well, the snark will be had, and it will be snarky. And probably cat-fight-ish. In spades.

For those of you who want to see Natsumi and Fiona in a kenjutsu fight… It will more than likely happen.

...was that to be posted here or in Pawprints?

More likely Pawprints, with Orion giving commentary because I don't see Fiona AND Natsumi wandering anywhere in Remnant without him. And probably Minato as well to make sure his senpai doesn't get too in over his head. And possibly Jiraiya? *shrugs*

And one last few plot-points from Deja vu, right. I remember now.

Side note yes. We do not agree with Kishimoto's bullshit with the rabbit goddess and the world tree. Actually, if any of you keep up on Third Fang's Naruto stuff, he has a rant about world trees in one of his most recent chapters that I agree with fully. Vixy probably does too, but I don't think she has read it.

Wait, what? One second… well, with the way he used it to mean, pretty much. I rather like a different variant of the usage, but frankly with how it's used and an 'escape' from 'written-in-a-corner-syndrom' so often... yeah.

Yeah. That whole bullshit. Anywho… Pretty much done here for today/tonight. Which means Vixy gets to sleep! Probably. Maybe. Depends on how loudly Hashirama fights with Sonya. And she's off. So yeah. Chapter for you people. Now to go actually fill out the damn RR… My RR, not Vixy's.

Oh yeah. There won't be any other updates for the next two days. Why?

Kuronekocon.

That's why. I'll be busy there. So if you want another chapter… It won't be within the next week or so. Sorry.