A/N at the bottom.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Weiss sighed for the umpteenth time that morning and pushed the bran flakes towards her partner and team leader again.

"I don't wanna!" whined Ruby, huffily folding her arms and turning her nose up at the cereal that sat on the table before her. She may have been forced to eat all manner of unpleasant and yucky things while growing up on Patch, but now she was fifteen and living on her own, gosh darnit! She should be able to eat whatever she wanted without "The Man" (in this case being Weiss) telling her what to do!

"Has she always been like this?" Blake asked as Ruby continued to act ten years younger than she actually was, taking a bite of her own bowl of serviceable but uninteresting cereal.

Yang gave an absent shrug, chewing, "Pretty much; when she younger she absolutely hated anything that wasn't sugary and sweet; sometimes we had to hold her down to her chair if we wanted her to eat carrots."

Blake regarded the petulant team leader, who was currently trying to lean away from the spoon Weiss was holding up for her.

"...somehow, I can believe it."

As half the team continued to eat their bran flakes (and the other half got into an argument about what bran even was) Crimson walked over to their table, looking more bright eyed and bushy tailed that any of the girls remembered seeing her before.

"S'up, losers!" she beamed, her right eye sparkling as she waved to the team, "Who's up for a little trip into town!"

"Maybe some other time," Weiss declined, Ruby continuing to evade the dreaded Spoon despite the heiress's best efforts, "After Ruby here finishes her healthy breakfast-"

"You'll never take me alive!" she shouted as she attempted to run away, only to have Yang snatch her by the cape before she got far. It took her about fifteen seconds of running in place to realize that she wasn't actually moving.

"-we're going to register for the tournament," Weiss continued, letting the spoon drop back into its bowl. Crimson chuckled.

"I'm sorry," she apologised, "What I meant to say was 'S'up losers, we're taking a little trip into town!'" She then grabbed Weiss by the back of her bolero jacket and dragged the girl behind her as she headed towards the door. ("Why is it always ME?!")

"Older Me is so cool…," Ruby sighed enviously.

"We'd better go after them," Yang suggested, pushing her own bowl aside, "I feel kinda bad if we just left her alone with Crimson." She paused. "Huh...that felt kinda weird to say."

"So does that mean I don't have to finish that abomination against breakfast foods?" Ruby asked eagerly, "Because seriously, I'd rather eat tree bark than that, that...or Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes! Why can't we ever have those anymore, huh?"

"Let's just go," Blake urged, "the sooner we see what Crimson wants the sooner we can register."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"Are we there yet?" Weiss demanded for the umpteenth time, still being dragged behind Crimson, "And was it really necessary to hold onto me on the airship ride over here?"

"Yep!" Crimson said, popping the P. "And no, we aren't 'there' yet. We should be 'there' soon, though."

"You never actually told us where we're going," Blake pointed out.

"Yeah!" Yang jogged to catch up with the older Ruby. "We kinda need to regis-"

"There's plenty of time for that!" Crimson said dismissively, "Ozpin said that the registration booth wouldn't close until 7:00, and we'll be back loooong before then!"

"What did you and Professor Ozpin talk about?" Ruby wondered.

"Oh, you know," she shrugged, "we just shot the shit for a while, talked about future stuff, started planning my next move to keep Time from going FUBAR, and had some coffee. ...you wanna hear about it?"

"I'd rather hear about where you're dragging us- me!!" Weiss demanded.

The rest of the girls nodded in agreement.

"Yeah...I'm not gonna get out of this one, am I?"

They shook their heads "No" in unison. (Expect for Weiss, whose asynchronous head shaking was due to her facing the opposite way as everyone else.)

"Fine," Crimson relented, "there are some people coming into town I wanna say hi to." She gestured to Yang and Ruby, "You two are probably gonna like these guys, one in particular."

While Ruby once again had a small flock of question marks circling her head, Yang merely raised an incredulous eyebrow. Despite Crimson being a good deal older than Ruby they were technically the same person, and Yang was pretty good at reading her sister if she did say so herself! Crimson wasn't telling them the whole story, big surprise, but given her apparent history it would take more than a menacing glare to get her to cough up her secrets.

"Mind filling us in on why you want to meet them so bad?" she asked.

"They're people who Ozpin thinks might help me find out what fucks up the future." She turned back to smile at Yang, "And hopefully with their help I can wrap that up quick so I can get back to spending quality time with all of you!"

"And teaching," Blake reminded her, "You're a teacher now."

"Yeah yeah, that too," she said, waving dismissively over her shoulder. "Anyway, we're gonna say hi to them real quick, then you can run off and get registered." She looked around, "I think it's right around the next corner where I'm supposed to meet-"

She was cut off when a trio of people, two men and a woman, rounded said corner directly in front of her. The woman and one of the men were wearing light cloaks and the other man wore an ebony duster, with a massive sword strapped to his back. The woman had a feral look in her eyes, like she would rip someone's throat out at the slightest provocation. She and the man with the sword had dark hair, (with the woman having the slightly darker shade), while the cloaked man had grey hair, styled in a spiky manner.

For a moment neither group said anything.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Weiss demanded, "Or better yet, just put me down!"

Crimson let the heiress fall to the ground ("Oof!"), continuing to keep her eye on the newcomers. She knew who they were, but for some reason they set off every single danger sense she'd developed over the years.

"Qrow Branwen," she said evenly, "I gotta say, you're a lot uglier in person than I thought you'd be."

"Well, I aim to disappoint," he responded easily, shrugging. He turned a nodded in the direction of the girls, "What's up Yangmeister? Rosebud? Haven't seen you two in forever!"

"Hey Uncle Qrow," Ruby waved, peeking out from behind her older counterpart, "long time no see."

"What's up, Unc?" Yang was a bit more adventurous than her sister, standing out in full view of her uncle and the newcomers. She gestured between the two strangers, "You wanna introduce us to your friends here?"

"Oh, no problem!" He jerked his thumb behind him, "So the big guy is Cruz, and the lady's Sheena." He leaned in towards his nieces, "Don't let her near the liquor cabinet, she'll drink ya out of house and home!"

The woman slapped Qrow upside the head, "I'm right here, you asshat!"

"And your point is…?"

She hit him again.

"...morons," the large man sighed. "I'm heading up to Beacon, come find me when you're done bickering."

"These people are going to preserve the future?" Weiss wondered. She preceded to let her head fall into her hands, "We're doomed…."

"Well...maybe they're just really really casual?" Ruby suggested weakly as her uncle was put into a headlock by his lady friend. "Maybe…?"

"At least he's sober this time," Yang commented, wincing as Sheena wrestled Qrow to the ground, "I guess that's a plus."

Blake said nothing, her gaze firmly fixed on the woman holding Qrow on the ground. There was something about her that she couldn't put her finger on, something that sent her Faunus instincts going wild. Like she was suddenly five years old and living on the streets, hiding from the Human Supremacy radicals.

She could immediately tell the woman was dangerous, despite how playful she was acting at the moment.

Crimson leaned in to Blake and whispered "Don't worry, she a good person; Ozpin told me all about her."

"What'd you say?" Qrow called from the ground, "I heard you mention Ozzy-boy's name- OW! That hurt, Sheena! Let me up already!"

"Will you buy everyone the first round if I do?" she asked, pouting in a way similar to what Ruby often did.

"Grrr!" Qrow growled, "Fine, first round's on me. Now let me up!" The dark haired woman made a show of considering this, then released her grip on the poor Huntsman. "Thanks. And just for the record, I'm only buying the first round; anything else comes out of your own pockets, got it?"

"Yeah yeah," she waved dismissively.

"So…," Ruby ventured, now that the mood was lighter, "what've you been up too?"

Qrow grunted as he picked himself up. "Oh, you know," he said, "going here and there, helping make the Kingdoms a little safer." He cracked his neck, "We just got back from Vacuo after dealing with a tiny Deathstalker problem they had."

"It was sorta fun," Sheena added, "I mean, I definitely worked up a good sweat taking four of the bastards down, but didn't last long enough…"

"You guys took down four Deathstalkers?" Ruby marveled.

Sheena shook her head, "Nope, six; Qrow and Cruz both took on one apiece, and I did the rest."

"Whoa…!"

"I'm sure that's riveting and all," Weiss interjected, snapping her leader out of her trance, "but we actually need to go so we can get registered for the Vytal Festival tournament."

"Um, yeah!" As she headed off after her assigned partner, Ruby turned back and said "It was nice meeting you, Miss Sheena! You too, Uncle Qrow! See you later!"

"You two might as well go after them," Crimson said to Blake and Yang, "I'll catch up with you guys later; Uncle Qrow and I have some catching up to do."

"Alright," Yang shrugged, "if you say so." She tapped Blake on the shoulder, "Come on, let's get this done!"

"OK," Blake nodded, she and Yang running after their friends.

With the girls off getting set for the tournament, Crimson turned her attention back to Qrow and Sheena. "So Unc, you know any good bars around here?"

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"What do you mean 'we're too late'?!" Weiss demanded as the team stood in front of the registration booth, "It's barely even noon yet!"

"I'm well aware of that," the attendant said, "but that doesn't change the fact that the four of you are too late to register for the Teams bracket; all available slots are currently filled."

"B-b-b-but how's that possible?"

The attendant sighed, "Because all the teams who registered did so long before now. In fact the last Team to register just left a few minutes before you got here, so if you have a problem you're more than welcome to take it up with them. Or, since you're already here, you can each register in the Singles bracket. Your choice."

"Team huddle!" Ruby declared, she and the others huddling up a short ways away from the booth. "So I guess we're fighting in the Singles tournament."

"This sucks! I was really looking forward kicking ass as a team with you guys!"

"Well, that's off the table now, Xiao-Long," Weiss pointed out, "unless you'd like to convince that last Team to drop out?"

"..."

"We're not convincing the last Team to drop out."

"Let me dream!"

"It's...not so bad," Blake said, trying to find the silver lining, "we're still good fighters in our own right, so we should be able to at least get pretty far."

"I kinda wanted us to win as a team too..." Ruby pouted, "we worked on our new combo attack and everything!"

"Is all our training just gonna go down the drain now?"

"Not if we win! We'll enter the the Singles bracket, we'll meet all challengers, and we'll break all their legs!"

"Going a little 'Nora' there, Ruby," Weiss intoned dryly.

"Ruby's descent into a Nora-like insanity aside-"

"Yang!"

"-who here wants to fight Singles?"

Ruby sighed, "I guess I will…"

"Weiss?"

"I fully plan on making Ruby's future self gasp in awe when I flawlessly win, so yes, I'm still going to participate."

"Good answer! Et tu, Blake?"

"If you guys are in, so am I."

"Sweet!"

"Then let's tell the offical our decision," Weiss said. determination in her voice. The girls broke their huddle and walked back to the desk, each looking confident. (Save for Ruby, who was still looking despondent at not being able to fight as a team.)

"Have to reached a decision?" the attendant asked.

"Put us down for the Singles bracket," Yang declared, slamming her hand down on the table, "We're all ready to bring the Yang!"

Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and the attendant all groaned.

"Seriously?!" Weiss shouted, "That's the worst pun yet! I'm actually disappointed that Crimson isn't here, because then she'd properly punish you for that crime against language."

Yang huffed, "You're just just jealous that I thought of it first!"

"No," Blake intoned, "we're really not."

While her teammates bickered over the art of wordplay, a question popped into Ruby's head. "I wonder who the Team before us was?"

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"*hic!* ...so den whah happin'd?" Sheena asked after she'd downed her twelfth shot of hard liquor. She and Crimson had bonded almost immediately, due to both woman having a love of alcohol, and had been regaling each other with stories of their various battles, trying to one up the other.

Crimson ultimately won.

"OK," she said, preparing to tell the next part of her story. She propped her elbow onto the bar, "so, I'm thinking 'the fuck is this thing supposed to be?'; I've already been in this godforsaken building for two hours at this and I've already searched the whole damn place from top to bottom, with the help of my squad mind you. I mean, you'd think with four of us that we'd find some sign of it!"

Sheena nodded sagely, knocking back another shot. "Me," she slurred, "I woulda juz burned the plaze to the ground at dat point.

"She's not kidding about that either," Qrow added. He'd been nursing his own drink, a tall stein of bourbon, while the woman "bonded", trying to come to terms Crimson's actual identity; his little Rosebud, all grown up and fighting a losing war against legions of soulless machines bend on total annihilation of human life? And apparently sent back from the future to find what caused it in the first place and stop it all from happening?

Fuck him, no amount of booze could help him comprehend this!

That didn't mean he wasn't going to try, though…

Sighing, he took another sip from his stein, letting the dark, amber liquid roll down his throat, burning slightly. Having now met the older version of his niece in person, and hearing an abridged version of her life story, he was starting to get a clearer picture of what ozpin was planning. Granted, there were apparently some holes he couldn't fill just yet, but that should become a non-issue once he and his team sat down for Ozzy's little powwow.

Speaking of which, he should probably see what Darren was up to. He glanced over at the girls, (who were both drunkenly laughing at something one of them said, if he would hazard a guess), and pulled out his Scroll from under his cloak.

"Come on…," he groaned after about twenty seconds of ringing, "I know you always keep your Scroll on you…!"

"...at which point I just said 'fuck it' and headed outside to find some poor Grimm so I could let off steam."

"So then what'd you- *hic!* ...then what'd you do?"

"I decided to look in the adjacent building, figured there wasn't anything to lose, so I left my squad to their own devices and…"

"What is it Qrow?" Darren asked after finally answering his Scroll, "You and Sheena were supposed to be here two hours ago. ...are you drinking again?"

"Not gonna lie, I'm nursing a really tasty pint right now...but it was Sheena and Crimson's idea to come here."

"...I don't know where 'here' is, but I'm waiting with Ozpin in his office. I want to start doing whatever it is he called us here for."

"Fine, I'll see what I can do about moving things along over here." He hung up and turned to his female companions, clearing his throat. "Uh, ladies?"

"Fvuk ovff, Qrow!" the feral woman spat, spilling some of her drink as she slammed her glass on the bar. She pointed at Crimson, "She'z tellin me a good shtory!"

"She can talk and walk at the same time," he reasoned, "Darren's starting to get to a bit restless waiting for us, so we're head over to Beacon now." He tossed a Lien card to the bartender and slid off his stool.

"Wha'ver…." She tried to mimic her teammate's exit (sans tossing the Lien), only to tumble unceremoniously to the floor. "Huh," she murmured, "who pvut dis vwall 'ere?"

"Rosebud?" Qrow turned to Crimson, "Gimme a hand here?"

"Sure," she said, reaching down and tossing the alcoholic Faunus effortlessly over her shoulder, "but call me Crimson; the more I think about it, the more I realized I stopped being 'Ruby' a long time ago."

He wasn't sure if it was the booze talking or not, but he was fairly certain that he shouldn't be as shocked as he was at Ru- Crimson's strength. Granted, Cruz was the only other person Qrow knew who was normally that strong, but…

Maaaaybe he should have gotten something so strong.

It took him a moment to gather his thoughts together, but once he did he gestured for Crimson to lead the way.

"So," he asked as they made for the airship pads, "you really don't know if I live or die in the future?"

Crimson shrugged, "I never heard anything one way or the other; nothing ever came through the regular news channels, and between always scavenging for supplies and killing the robots that happened to be attacking us that hour I never had time to track you down myself."

"Yeah, I guess that's fair."

"No," she shook her head, "that was just life."

There was an awkward silence.

"...so I noticed you barely touched your drink," Crimson said, hesitantly breaching the silence.

"Yeah, you can thank the walking winesack you're carrying for that," he said, jerking his thumb at Sheena. "Since I met her she sort of completely emasculated with how much booze she could pack away."

"*hic!*," Sheena contributed.

He continued, "It got to the point that I had to chain my flask to my belt so I wouldn't have to worry about her swiping it." He reached under his cloak and pulled out a silver flask with a thin but sturdy looking chain running from it back under. "Long story short, I learned how to make the most of a little."

Crimson nodded silently. She knew exactly what her uncle was talking about, though keeping one's booze safe wasn't nearly as essential as trying to spread the meager rations amongst roughly a few hundred people, which included children.

"Yeah," she said eventually, "I know what you mean."

"Nobo'y gedz in dat way ovf my booze!"

"Um, she's gonna sober up soon, right?"

Qrow shrugged, "Maybe? It's hard to tell with her."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

In Ozpin's office Darren Cruz sat opposite the headmaster, calmly sipping from a mug of coffee. "...this is good," he said.

"I get it imported from a man in Vacuo who owns a plantation," Ozpin explained, sipping his own cup, "Nice fellow." He looked over the time on his Scroll, "I wonder what's keeping Qrow, Crimson and Sheena?"

"They're drinking," Cruz stated matter of factly, "Sheena won't leave willingly."

At that moment the doors were kicked open by Crimson, who was carrying Sheen on her shoulder, followed by Qrow, who'd ditched his desert cloak and was in his normal outfit: grey formal shirt, black dress pants, black dress shoes, and a short, tattered cloak, its red color faded.

"We're here!" Crimson announced, tossing Sheena at Cruz.

"Took you long enough," Cruz griped, effortlessly catching his thrown comrade. "How'd you get her away from her booze?"

"Pretty easily, actually," Crimson said, "especially when she challenged the floor to a fight and it kicked her ass."

"*hic!*," Sheena retorted.

Qrow noded, "Sounds about right." He walked over to Ozpin and shook his hand, "Long time, no see, you old bastard!"

"Glad to see you again," Ozpin reciprocated. "Your nieces have been doing quite well since coming here."

"Of course they are; Yang was always a great fighter like her dad, and I personally taught little Rosebud everything she knows!" He glanced over at Crimson, who was kicking back behind Ozpin's desk, her feet propped up on the wooden surface. She had her flask out, holding it above her mouth and letting its contents fall down her throat. "Apparently, I taught her a little too well."

"You give yourself too much credit, Unc." Having emptied the flask, she returned it to its spot on her belt, "I got this little habit all on my own."

"Not sure if that better or worse…"

"Miss Thorne, I'd appreciate it if you got out of my chair."

Crimson looked over at the Beacon headmaster. "Aw come on, can't you let a girl have a cheap thrill? I've always wanted to do this ever since I started here! And besides, you're not using it at the moment-"

WHACK! Ozpin slammed his cane down on his desk, missing Crimson's legs only because her long honed reflexes were still in top form.

"I won't ask again, Miss Thorne," he said, his calm tone belying the absolute dread that now seemed to radiate from him, "kindly move out of my chair."

Crimson nodded mutely, complying with the very heavy suggestion. She'd seen and stood up to some serious shit in her life, but even the vibes she got when she met Qrow's gang paled in comparison to the pure, unadulterated, primal fright she felt just now.

"Thank you," he said, sitting down. "Now, if you don't mind, let's get this meeting started. Mr. Cruz?"

"She'll be fine," Darren said, handing Sheena another cup of coffee as she finished the first he'd given her in an effort to help sober her up, "Continue."

"Very well then. Miss Throne, go ahead and explain what we're doing."

"Er...right…." Crimson cleared her throat, doing her best to bury the previous episode in a place where it would never bother her ever again. "So," she began, "as most of you know, I'm from the future."

Cruz raised his eyebrow but didn't comment.

"To make a long story short, we got royally fucked, and I got sent back to try and keep that from happening."

"Holly shit...," Sheena gasped, seeming a bit more lucid and she was before, "I just thought you were bullshitting back at the Crow Bar!"

Qrow patted the shocked Faunus on the shoulder, "No, she was completely serious about that." And she practically drank Sheena under the table, something I never thought I'd get to see…

"...huh."

"How did you travel to the Past?" Cruz asked.

"Something involving a teleporter, and this insane mad scientist, and a bunch of stuff I couldn't follow," she sighed, "But anyway, Ozpin pointed out to me that I'd have a better chance of accomplishing my mission if I had some help, hence why you three are here."

"Qrow Branwen is an old acquaintance of mine, and is currently helping me with a task that I believe intersects with Crimson's," Ozpin explained, interjecting into the conversation. He turned to the other two adults, "I trust he's explained that to you at some point?"

Qrow sighed tiredly, messaging the bridge of his nose. He remembered that day all too well, especially Sheena's reaction when he finally came clean with his two partners.

Some of those bruises still ached from time to time.

"Hmm," he hummed, "I'll take that as a yes." He turned back to Crimson, "Your uncle has been working with me for years to track down and put away criminals and persons of ill repute who pose a threat to the good people of Remnant; if anyone knows who could cause the future you've described to happen, it's him."

"Alrighty then! Lay it on me, Unc; who's suspect numero uno?"

Qrow sighed again, pulling out his Scroll. He flipped through it for a moment before opening up a file and tossing it to Crimson, who caught it easily. On the screen was a blurry photo of woman wearing a red dress, standing in the middle of a raging inferno. If one squinted it appeared as though she was holding a plume of flame in her hand, but the image quality was so bad that it was impossible to tell for sure.

"I've been tracking her for years," Qrow explained, "but unfortunately she always manages to slip away before I can accomplish anything, and I've never been able to conclusively link her to any crime she commits."

Sheena leaned over Crimson's shoulder, "That the bitch we need to find?"

"Reports say that she's intelligent, devious, charismatic, and manipulative as hell; if there's anyone I know who could plan and carry something that big, you'd do worse than betting on her."

"Does she have a name?" Cruz asked his leader.

"Yeah," he said, "but I've never been able to learn that either; if it weren't Sheena, I'd have drunk myself into an early grave out of shame."

Sheena classily flipped Qrow the bird.

Crimson continued to stare at the image, something about it nagging at the back of her mind. For some reason she felt like she recognized the woman, but couldn't place it for the life of her. It was also bringing to mind long repressed feelings that she thought she'd locked away for good.

She didn't like that.

"Well," she said, "priority one is finding out where this woman is now. Priority two is beating her to a pulp once we take care of priority one." She turned to address the small gathering, "Any objections?"

"Fine by me," Sheena purred, "I just hope she puts up a fight when we find her."

"Same," Cruz nodded.

"Sounds fine to me," Qrow shrugged, "The sooner this is wrapped up, the sooner I can watch my nieces win the tournament."

"They'd better," Crimson added, "after all the hard work I put into training them I'm gonna be really disappointed if they don't at least make it to the semi-finals."

"It seems you're all in agreement," Ozpin noted. "In that case, I'll leave this matter in all of your capable hands." His piece said, he got out of his chair and headed for the elevator, nodding as he passed the group.

"So what's our first move, oh fearless leader?" Qrow asked once they were alone.

Crimson smirked evilly, "I was actually thinking about going clubbing."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

So, to borrow a line from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", I'm not dead yet! Seriously, I'm so sorry for taking so long put the next chapter out! Needless to say, that bad habit of mine where I get easily sidetracked reared its ugly head again, and it won't be the last time it will happen either! (More on that in a minute.)

Anyway, VOLUME THREE IS OUT NOW! WOOOOOOO! It had a solid beginning, even if it wasn't nearly as memorable as the beginning of Volume 2. (And let's be honest, there was NO WAY Rooster Teeth was ever going to top the Food Fight to end all Food Fights, as well as the best RvB reference in the series so far!) Episode 2 was a good follow up, and we actually got to see the rest of Team SSSN in action! Plus Vic Mignona sounding like he's trying to do a Steve Blum impression, which I can't remember him doing in any other anime I've seen that he's voiced. It's kind of refreshing, actually.

And now for some notes I've taken on points of interest in the first two episodes:

Firstly, Nora's Semblance is officially revealed (It's lighting based.) and I should have seen it coming it was so blindingly obvious! Granted, no one else's Semblances have been direct references to the historical and fictional characters they were inspired by, so I think you can cut me a little slack for not immediately guessing it. Speaking of Team JNPR, "Arkos" is officially part of the show's cannon as a name for Jaune and Pyrrha's combo attack (which they never actually did). Incidentally, "Flower Power" is Nora and Ren's (again, yet to be performed). Also, I fully approve of Neath Oum taking over the voice of Lie Ren in lieu of Monty.

Also, Nora is pretty much all Team JNPR needs to win the anything.

Anywho, who out there enjoyed Team SSSN's fight? It wasn't as action packed as RWBY's from Episode 1, or JNPR's directly previous, but there were still some good moments in it, such as Neptune ironically being afraid of water. I think my personal favorite moment was when Scarlet (voiced by Gavin Free) got hit in the groin with flaming coconuts. (Go check out Achievement HUNT #35 Michael vs. Gavin to see why, it's not that hard to deduce.)

And finally, the biggest thing from the first two episode that has been confirmed beyond the shadow of a doubt is!...Blake really likes tuna. Really likes tuna. A LOT. It is balls hilarious.

Some things that weren't touched on were Yang's connection to Raven, Velvet's weapon and Semblance, Cinder's master plan, the fate of Team CRDL (haven't been seen since Volume 1), the name of Cinder's Team (and by extension Neo's alias), and many other questions left hanging from the end of Volume 2.

And with that out of the way, let's talk about the actual chapter I just wrote, huh?

I guess the first thing to talk about would Qrow's partners, Sheena and Darren Cruz. Like I mentioned a few chapters ago, they're very loosely based off of OCs of mine from other stories. The only major changes made to Darren are the fact that he's not as talkative as other versions are and (obviously) his weapon. Sheena on the other hand is radically different from my "Yoshi Takimora" character; she's an alcoholic, hot tempered Faunus who doesn't afraid of anything. Her Lightning power are the result of the conversation Ozpin, Glynda and Ironwood has in Volume 2, Episode 7, where it was mentioned that Dust could be infused inti clothes or even people's bodies. Hence, someone wields Lightning instead of a traditional transforming, multi-functional weapon. It's been fun to play with her character, especially after she's imbibed. And I don't know what it is about writing "drunk speak" that's just so satisfying to do, though maybe the fact that I haven't really had a chance to do so since "Cold Fuzz" and "Black Lagoon: Off Its Nuts" might have something to do with it...

Regarding the tournament, it's pretty obvious that I wrote all this before Volume 3 came out; the having two separate brackets thing was more of a plot device than anything else. And yes, I will be showing some of the fights, especially on the RWBY side of things. (There might be character development there...) After all, Crimson didn't train them for nothing, right?

And just to reassure everyone, more of Crimson's issues will be rearing themselves in the near future. In fact, some might have even begun to show themselves now even...

As I've mentioned before, updates for this story won't be that frequent, due to most chapters averaging 5000 words each, and the fact that I've started writing another story that I'm having a surprising amount of fun with. That one will probably get the majority of my attention, so Sins is going on the back burner for now. Plus I have a oneshot that I need to finish, and another story I want to get to that's sort of based on my completed story "Dif'rent Faces", so yeah. Probably won't see another installment for Sins until next year.

In the mean time, I'm off to get the first chapter of that new story done, and then watch the newest episode of RWBY...