This is a warning for here forward, this story is rated M for a reason. The topics discussed may be offensive, the topics discussed may be inappropriate for younger individuals, and you may have problems with the topics discussed personally. If that is the case, don't leave a review or PM me about it because I have given you this warning. For those you are sticking with it, enjoy this week's chapter.

"It couldn't be…" I thought as my eyes fell upon the man going through the closet.

"Raymond?" I ask.

The man turns to me, "Angel, it's been too long!" He says walking my way.

I hold my blade up, "There's no way in hell you are Raymond! You don't look any different and it's been over nine years."

"Hold on now, you haven't given me the chance to explain…"

"Then start quickly."

"You see, I was one of alchemy's first big mistakes on Remnant… I tried to attempt what is known as a multi-matrix transmutation, your father taught you what I taught him correct?"

I nod, "Then you know that you aren't supposed to be able to use more than one matrix for each circle right? I was confident I could do it, so I attempted it, knowing failure could be costly. I opened the portal, just as you have, and I was greeted by the Truth and a second entity. The second entity was begging to become mortal, but the Truth was expressing the fact he could only exchange mortality. Then his eyes fell on me and he said, "You becoming immortal is the price you will pay for your arrogance."

My eyes widen, "You're immortal?"

"Yep, haven't aged a day in over two hundred years, and I've hated every second of it. I wanted to die with my wife by my side, instead I've been a homeless man wandering from kingdom to kingdom, hoping someone would be kind and give me a place to stay. Your father was the last person to extend that kindness, and in exchange for that, I passed down what I knew about alchemy."

"Any reason I couldn't have known this earlier?"

"Was there any good time for me to tell you?"

"Touche, what was Remnant like two hundred years ago then?"

"A lot nicer place, one where the faunus were equal to humans and discrimination was almost nonexistent."

"Then, what changed that?"

"A mistake, a faunus man killed a young human child, an accident for sure from the circumstances, but that one event caused humans to start thinking less of the fauna and over time it became the hatred that we see now."

"One child changed all of Remnant…"

"When someone says one person can't change the world, remember that."

"That doesn't explain what you're doing here after all this time."

"I needed a place to stay, and your father told me I could stay if I needed to, how's he been?"

I sigh, "He's been dead for over six years now."

"Oh, so that's what he meant."

"He meant what?"

"I told your father the last time I was here that I would be back in a couple years and he told me he wouldn't be here when I got here."

"My dad knew someone was trying to kill him? That he was going to die?"

"Apparently so kiddo, I would ask how you've been, but from your arm and your portal, I can tell you did something you shouldn't have."

"You can read my portal?" I ask, having never been able to read my own.

"Yes ma'am, yours is certainly different than mine even though they should be quite similar."

"That's a long story, but since I know it's just you now," I say, "Ruby, there's someone here I want you to meet!"

"You brought someone with you?" Ray asks

Ruby walks in, braced for a fight, "Who is this?"

"This is Raymond Lee, my father's alchemy teacher. Raymond, this is my girlfriend Ruby Rose."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Rose."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, but how can you be her father's teacher? You look younger than Ozpin."

"I'm immortal sweetie, I've been alive for more than two hundred years."

"Your immortality has something to do with alchemy doesn't it?"

"You can tell that just from looking at me?"

"No, Sierra has been trying to teach me how to read someone's portal of Truth, and I can tell yours isn't like most people's."

"Very good technique so far Miss Rose, and you're teaching others alchemy?" He asks me.

"Only her because she asked, I mostly teach advanced aura and combat classes."

"Beacon, I assume from Miss Rose's comment about Ozpin?"

"Yep, so what have you been up to for the past nine years?"

"Sightseeing, some bird watching, nothing really exciting. I was actually only stopping by to get some of the clothes I left a while back, since I never grow out of them. Only they don't seem to be around."

"Unfortunately, you won't find them, the house was burned down since the last time you were here. Ozpin is the only reason that there isn't just the tool shed and basement here."

"Well, that's unfortunate, I guess I can go buy some." He says, starting to walk out.

"Wait!" I call after him, "I have so many questions I need to..."

"I cannot answer the questions you will ask me, your father's final request for me was to let you find your own path, even if lives are in the balance."

"Raymond, you know that's insane, and I know you could help stop this."

"I made that promise to your father, and I intend to keep it, his side is the only one I'm on."

"Fine, I'll do it by myself, but is there anything you could teach me about alchemy that my father didn't know?"

"There is only one technique I didn't teach your father, and he told me not to teach it to you, knowing you would ask at some point."

I frown, "However, he said if you could figure out the message, then I could teach it to you."

"Mess…" I say before looking down at my necklace.

"Follow the mark?" I ask.

"That's the one, so I'm guessing you haven't figured it out yet?"

I shake my head no, "Well, if you need me, just perform a transmutation only you would know and I'll be on my way."

"It was nice to see you again."

"You as well, I'm sorry for not being here for you once your father died." He says, turning away from me.

"That wasn't your responsibility, so don't worry about it."

He turns back from the door to look at me, "The path you've chosen will require even more sacrifice in future, I hope you know that…"

"I've known that for a long time, but it's too late for me to turn back now, too many people are counting on me."

"As for you Miss Rose, Angel will be there for you need it, all you have to do is return the favor."

"I knew that already…"

"Not in the way I just told you, you cannot always look at face value for the meaning." He says, pulling his sleeves down, but not before I caught a glimpse of a transmutation circle tattooed just above his wrist .

"You're not going to tell me what that circle on your arm is about?"

He chuckles, "I think you'll find out soon enough." He says, walking out the front door, the wind slamming the door behind him.

"He always was very cryptic, but that's excessive even for him." I comment.

"Any idea what he meant?" Ruby asks.

"No clue about what he said to you, though I'm always going to be here for you."

"It will come to me I guess…"

I yawn, "I wasn't expecting that, but now I'm super tired. Do you want something to eat?"

"Sure, what are you going to cook?"

I walk into the kitchen, "I've got enough flour for some pancakes, and Raymond seems to have left us some eggs and milk, so pancakes?"

"That's fine by me."

I make the batter real quick, adding a bit more sugar than normal for my girlfriend's sake.

I grab one of the bigger pans, and let it heat up for a minute.

Pretty soon, the smell of pancakes was in the air, and Ruby was hovering behind me, waiting for her food.

"I should have asked Raymond if he wanted to stay for dinner."

"I would have been a nice gesture, but I would prefer it just be the two of us."

"Yeah, a nice pancake dinner with my girlfriend, I kind of like the sound of that."

I slide the pancakes out of the pan, giving us both two pancakes the size of our heads.

"I hope you're hungry."

"These smell great, when did you learn to cook?"

"I got my my dad to teach me all my mom's old recipes when she died, I wanted to be as good as she was for my younger sister."

"I never had your mom's, but these are fantastic!"

"Thank you, another thing I haven't done for someone outside our family."

"Do you cater?" She asks smiling.

"Are you interested?"

"I remember Weiss saying something about not being able to find someone to cater the dance."

"You were being serious?"

"Yeah, I know Weiss would appreciate having that covered."

"No caterer in Vale is willing to do it?"

"No, but apparently everyone and their brother is having all their events on the night of the dance."

"What kind of food are we talking and how much?"

"You know, something classy, but nothing too overboard. Amount wise, we'd be looking at enough to feed the entirety of Beacon."

"What about? Chicken parmesan as the main course and some side dishes, maybe a couple grab and go snacks?"

"Sounds great to me, you would have to clear it with Weiss, but it also seems like you would need some help."

"We can get some volunteers, there have to be at least a couple people at Beacon who are at least competent in the kitchen."

"That sounds great, and since you're going to be using Beacon's kitchen it should be cheaper for Weiss."

"I would do it for free, but I kind of want a bit of spending money to throw around…"

"You just gave Christy and Ivan ten thousand lien, and said you had plenty."

"I do, but it's in a trust fund and I only get four hundred lien a month to spend, that ten thousand was for emergencies."

Ruby goes to say something, "And yes, I qualify Ivan and Christy's money problems as an emergency."

"If you think you could handle the task, you can discuss your price with Weiss when we get back. So where are we sleeping?"

"I don't know if my old bed would fit the two of us very well, there was my parents old queen bed, which might still be in the basement. We're both going to have to go down there in order to get it up the stairs."

"Ok, lead the way."

I open the door to the basement and a gust of cold air flows past me and Ruby.

The light comes on as we walk down the stairs, and the expanse of boxes was just as big as I remembered.

"It should be right over…" I start before I freeze.

"Sierra, what's wrong?" I hear Ruby ask.

Then suddenly, I wasn't standing there with Ruby anymore, I was standing ,on my own, looking at a long since erased transmutation circle.

"How is this here?"

The corpse sat where it had all those years ago, chest rising and falling showing me that is was still alive.

"Mom?"

"Sierra…" The corpse croaked.

"Then the transmutation wasn't a complete failure…"

"Why didn't you save your mother?"

"I tried mom, but I…"

"You didn't try hard enough. I'm gone because you failed…"

"I'll find a way to…"

"You can never fix this, I'm...gone...forever." The corpse says as it falls to ashes.

I try to turn away and run, only to find myself face to face with my father, the knife that killed him still embedded in his chest.

"You weren't fast enough…" He says

"Alchemy didn't work and I didn't know what I could…"

"You should have been the one killed that night, your brother and sister need me more than they need you."

"You're...right." I tell him, realizing how badly I had failed my siblings and how much better it would have been had my father been there.

"They're dead because you weren't strong enough…"

"You're wrong! They aren't dead! I would know if they died!"

"You would? You can't even figure out who killed me."

I go to retort, but my father is instantly consumed by the shadows surrounding him.

A figure emerges from their depths, "I'm sorry." The hooded figures says.

"Who are you?! Why did you kill my father!?"

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry…" The figure repeats.

I pull my blades from my back, slicing the figure in two at the waist.

I flip the hood down and it's Ruby, she grips my hand as blood pours from below her waist, "Why would you do that to me? You said you loved me." She finishes before her grip on my hand falters

"No, Ruby, I didn't know it was you, don't leave me please…"

"I can't lose you too, no, come back to me."

"You can only hurt people, you never help…" I turn my head around to see the nine kids that were held in Research Facility Four with me, my siblings included.

"We're all dead because of you...they hunted each one of us down and killed us…"

"No...all of you can't be dead…"

"Accept that we're gone...it will make you feel better…" My siblings said.

"Never! You're not gone and I will find you both!"

"Don't lie to yourself, accept it." The whole group voiced.

"I won't! I promise I will find every single one of you!" I yell, watching them vanish one by one.

I sighed, thinking it was finally over, only to be thrust into a familiar looking room.

"Why am I back in the portal?"

"I asked him to bring you by while you were in a state to enter the portal without cost to your aura…" A voice said from behind me.

I turn to look at what I thought was an older version of Ruby, until I thought about where I was.

"Summer Rose?"

"You must be Jonathan's oldest daughter, I am Summer Rose."

"How are you here?"

"I honestly don't know, but I know I owe your father more than words can express…" She says rolling up her sleeve to reveal a small transmutation circle, one that matched the circle I had seen on Raymond before he left, "This seal is what has allowed me to stay alive for this long, but I fear that the bond between this seal and the one on Remnant is becoming weaker."

"How long do you think it will last?"

"Another five years max, but then I'll die here."

"No! I'm working on a way to get you out, I just need a philosopher's stone and then I should be able to pull it off."

"You realize how hard the stones are to find correct? There isn't one known on Remnant."

"I can find a way, I have to…"

"Why do you care Miss Grey? I see no reason for you to want to risk so much to help me."

I gulp, "I'm...dating your daughter."

She laughs a bit, "Ruby was always finding ways to get herself in trouble, even when she was little, so it only makes sense she'd want to date a trouble magnet like you."

"I need to know Summer, the AHH lied about you dying in a Grimm nest, so how did you actually die?"

"I can't tell you more than you already know because, unfortunately, the Truth is listening. Though I can pass on a message, from your father when he passed through here on his way to the other side. He says he wants you to know he loves you, and that you shouldn't blame yourself for his death. He also wants you to keep following your instincts, and once you reach the end of the trail, the surface will be shallow."

I turn to my portal preparing to leave, since the two of us really couldn't talk anymore if the Truth was listening, "Before you go, make sure Ruby and Yang stay safe, because if by some miracle you get us both out of here alive in the end, I want to be able to see my family alive and well. That doesn't mean giving yourself up in exchange for me, my daughter would be devastated."

"I will do my best, but is there anything else you can tell me while I'm here?"

She gets a look of concentration on her face, "Visit Weiss' mother in person while you're in Atlas, you might find some things about her ward mate ... interesting."

"Good to know, and thank you for your help."

"It will be nothing if you can get me out of here and back to my family."

I pull open the doors, but then I hear Summer call out to me, "Don't tell Ruby we spoke, I don't want her to get her hopes up!" She yells as I'm pulled back through the portal.

"If I do tell her, I won't be getting her hopes up, I'll be telling her exactly what I plan to do."

I sit up in my old bed, my entire body felt sore and I couldn't tell you how thirsty I was.

I slide the blanket off me and try to stand, only for my legs to be asleep, causing me to fall to the floor.

I hear footsteps coming towards the room and Ruby opens the door.

"Thank Oum, you're awake." She says, coming over to crush me in a Yang style hug.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I croak out, my throat drier than a desert.

"Hold on, let me get you some water…" She says, disappearing, leaving behind her usual rose petals

She returns and hands me a cup of water, "To answer your question, you've been asleep for nearly two days now…"

"What?! It really didn't feel like that long." I say, after taking a long sip and setting the cup on the floor.

"At first, I thought it was just your body trying to recover some aura, but then you started to toss and turn, you had a fever too. I called Blake to see if she knew what was happening, she said that she thought it was a reaction to a really bad memory."

"When we went into the basement, how quickly did I black out?"

"Almost instantly."

"Sounds about right, the place I was looking at was the location where the transmutation circle was when I tried to bring my mom back."

"I want to go through this with you, because I know that couldn't have been the only thing you saw." She says, sitting behind me, motioning for me to lay back.

I lean into her shoulder, "I saw the corpse that I made that night, it told me it was my fault that my mother isn't with me right now, and that she was gone forever because of me."

"I tried to run, only my father was behind me, he said I could have saved him if I was faster that I should have died instead of him, and that my siblings would have been better off that way."

"Then the shadows engulfed my dad, and the hooded figure that killed him stood in his place."

"I pulled my swords and sliced the figure in two but…" I stop as I start to cry.

"It was you and you asked why I killed you if I said I loved you."

"Then I saw the nine kids I was held with, they said that they'd all been hunted down and killed."

"My siblings were among them, they told me to accept that they were gone and that I'd feel better once I did."

"I told them I wouldn't and they vanished."

"And that was all of it." I say, remembering Summer's order to keep quiet.

"You used to have some really horrible nightmares, didn't you?" She asks.

"I haven't had any in over a month, ever since we started dating and sharing a bed."

"What were they like before?"

"Is it okay for me to say I don't want to talk about them? They're in the past, so I don't want to get hung up on them."

She sighs, "Ok then, what's the schedule now?"

"Either we're not going to be able to do much sightseeing or we're going to be in Atlas a longer than I thought."

"I'm fine with staying a bit longer, if we only stay for two days, I'll only miss one extra day of class and then we'll get back over the weekend."

"That's fine by me, so I guess today's the day to go...see my parents."

"If you're up for it, then so am I."

"Grab your jacket, the flowers, and then I can fly the two of us over."

A puff of rose petals later and she reappears with her jacket on, flowers in hand, "Ready."

We walk into the front room where my bag was still laid on the floor, I grab my specially designed winter jacket.

"Here we go then." I say, pushing my wings out of the special holes in my jacket.

I open the front door, letting Ruby go in front of me.

I extend my wings fully, "Let me do a warm up lap or two." I say, as I do my usual running take off over the edge of the mountain.

I dive for a minute before pulling myself into a steep climb above my house.

I always loved the way our house looked, the majority of the building hanging above the side of the mountain, as if it could fall at any second.

I circled around, banking over Ruby, down towards the side of the house.

I smiled, thinking of the times after I got used to flying that my dad would tease me by throwing me over the balcony, and my love of the few second freefall before flying back up to land back in my father's arms.

I land in front of Ruby, "You look so happy when you're flying, is it really that much fun on your own?"

"I don't know, you'll have to tell me when you try it for yourself." I say as I grab her under the arms, "You're going to have to hold onto me for this take off to work."

She hooks her arms with mine, "Ok, let's go."

I walk to the edge of the cliff, we both take a deep breath, and I let myself fall forward.

A few quick strokes of my wings, and Ruby and I are off towards the other side of the mountain.

"Why are your parents' graves so far from your house?" Ruby shouts over the wind.

"We own the mountain, so I guess my father just wanted to give the dead a sacred place."

"You own the mountain?"

"Yep, we used to only own the house, but after my father's exceptional service to Atlas, they gave him the rights to nearly the entirety of the mountain as part of his retirement."

"Your dad must have been a great guy, I wish I could have met him…"

"I'm sure he would have loved to meet you too, but we're here." I say, going into a dive, "Let go and use your aura as a landing pad."

She does so, landing square in the middle of her aura pad.

I go for my usual tuck and roll landing, bringing myself into a standing position beside Ruby.

"Good to see you've been practicing." I say, brushing some snow off my jacket.

"You said you would take my cookies away if I didn't keep up with what you taught us."

I laugh a bit, "I did say that when we we're training didn't I?"

"I don't think I would have done nearly as well without that threat though."

"They're just through these trees." I say as I start walking.

The clearing wasn't very big, which I assume was my father's intention when he cleared it out after my mother's death.

There were only two gravestones, but I knew there were three bodies buried here, one of them of my own creation.

The two official graves were angled towards each other slightly, my father's will requested for him to be buried in that way to compliment my mother.

"Now that Raymond said that, it really does seem like my father put everything in place just before he died, but he couldn't have seen something like that coming, right?"

"Sierra, whatcha thinkin about?"

I sigh, "You've gotten really good at reading me, I was thinking about Raymond told me, the fact that my father might have known that someone was going to kill him."

"That's a given isn't it? He was the commander of Atlas' military, that's bound to make him some enemies right?"

"Yeah, but it seems like such a long time after he resigned to start thinking about enemies, even if he was still technically an advisor."

"Something or someone could have tipped him off before hand, but he didn't appear panicked or off to you?"

"No, he didn't say something was wrong, usually if he even thought anything was off, he'd tell me or Matt."

"Let's discuss it when we get back to your house because I'm getting cold…"

"Of course, I forget you're not as used to the cold as I am."

I walk over to the two headstones, "Hey Mom, Dad, there's someone here I want you to meet…"

"My name's Ruby, Sierra and I have been dating, so I thought it would be nice to meet you."

An eerie silence settled over the clearing, and I laid the two bouquets of flowers on the stones.

But then I noticed how reflective a piece of the front face of my father's tombstone was, I dug out the snow around my mothers in the same area to find a similar strip of material.

"Most people would think that was just decorative, but my father never was one for aesthetics, only functionality. I also don't remember that being on my mother's before my dad died."

"Ruby, did you bring your scroll with you?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Shine the flashlight on the back towards that little strip of reflective material on my mom's grave."

She does, the reflected beam of light stretches off into the forest.

"Ok, hold mine in the same way, but shine it on my dad's." I say, handing her my scroll.

Again the light shines off into the depths of the forest, but the two beams look like they would hit each other at some point.

"Let's see what my dad wanted to show me." I think.

"Hold them still, I want to see where the two cross." I say, running off towards the inevitable intersection.

I weave through the trees, being ultra careful not to lose the beam as it got harder and harder to see.

"Only a faunus with exceptional sight could follow this, which means my father meant for me or Kurome to find it."

I started to get worried as the light started to get cut off by several trees, but then I saw what looked like a cliff face.

The light had barely reached its destination, only a small dot of the two crossed lights remained, but it still lead me there and my father wouldn't have put it together if there wasn't something at the end.

I pull off my glove and began to run my hand over the surface of the rock.

I felt an incision, a grove that was much too straight for a natural crack to have formed.

I use my automail to pry at the rock, pulling the separate sheet from the existing rock.

It was only a small, hollowed out little room, not even large enough for me to fit my head in.

I look inside and see a faint reflection of sunlight off of something metallic.

I put my arm in and felt around until I hit something, I got a strong grip and pulled a journal from within the small cave.

"This looks just like the one that guy had in James' memories, are they the same?"

I open the cover, thinking there would be the same message as before, only to find a different message, "I know you will be the one to the one to find this Sierra, be warned the contents of each of these journals are not pleasant, and that I did not willing take part in this research, it was simply part of my commission as a high ranking officer in Atlas' military."

"This is all my father's handwriting, but what could be in these journals?"

I flip through the pages, noting just how many alchemical notes there were and the scale of some of the transmutations.

"All of these transmutations revolve around dust, my guess is my father divided his research between several journals, since I can assume the one that researcher was using on James was based on aura."

"Dust infused heart, dust bone transfusion… All of this sounds awful, but from these notes, there's no denying the results were...successful."

"I need to get back to Ruby, I really don't want her to get frostbite."

I started to follow the light back when I realized how young some of the trees were.

"I wonder if that's what my father had intended, that the trees would eventually grow to block the beams and then no one would be able to find this if I didn't get here in time."

I got back to find Ruby shivering, "Do you want me to blink us back?"

"Yes...please." She gets out through her clattering teeth.

I grab her hand and pull us through back to my house.

"I can get a fire going in the fireplace, or do you want to just take a hot bath?"

"A bath ssounds...ggreat." She clatters out.

"Ok, take your jacket off and hang it by the door, while I run you a bath."

I go to my old bathroom, run the bath, and grab a towel from the closet.

"It's ready!" I call to her.

She walks in and I hand her the towel.

I start to walk out, "Sierra…" I hear Ruby start.

"Yes?"

"Do you want to… join me?"

My jaw drops, "I can't believe you would ask something like that after..." I practically yell.

She instantly backtracks, "No, not to do that, just so you could hold me."

"I didn't bring a swimsuit, so…"

"Here…" she says pouring some of the old bubble bath I had sitting on the edge into the water, stirring it to make the bubbles cover the surface, "I'll close my eyes when you get in and out."

I sigh, "You really want me to?"

She nods, "I don't think…" I start before Ruby gives me her puppy dog eyes. "I guess I have no choice then," I say, pulling off my jacket, "Let me go take my arm off, you get in and I'll be right back ok?"

I walk over to my old room, and I grabbed one of my countless wrenches.

"This is going to suck with how cold my automail is."

I grab a pillow from my old bed, cover my mouth, and push the wrench down.

My scream was muffled by the pillow, and I walk back in to find Ruby giving me an odd look from the bath.

"Why did you scream?"

I growl, slightly annoyed she heard me, "My automail clasp is painful to take off when it gets really cold."

"You should have soaked it for a second, it won't hurt it right?"

"It's fine if I dry it after, but I didn't want you to be uncomfortable."

"You should have just asked, but now you can get in and relax."

I strip, she closes her eyes as I get undressed and climb into the tub, just as she'd said.

I slide behind her, letting her lay back against me.

"Stretch your wings out, there's no way you're comfortable lying on them."

"At your request…"

I fold them out and Ruby begins to run her hands over them.

"It's incredible how you can't see your wings when they're folded up the way you usually have them."

"I hope you realize that I basically tie them down with bandages so people won't see them."

"Have you ever tried going without the bandages?"

"I do when I'm with someone I trust, but I don't really risk it around other people."

"I have never understood why people would hate you for something you couldn't help."

"I really can't understand it either, Raymond said it was because a faunus man killed a human child, and that just started the ball rolling."

"I think your attributes make you special, different from everybody else."

"Now I'm really different from everybody else…" I say, moving the ears on the top of my head around.

"They are really cute, I hope you know that."

"Yeah, but sometimes I wonder if I'm more animal than human with more than one trait."

"You want me to show you you're not?" She says, turning to look me in the eyes.

"Ruby...I know what you're thinking from that look in your eyes, and you said we wouldn't be doing that."

"What? Other than dolphins, humans and fauna are the only species that do "that" for pleasure."

"And where did that fact come from?"

"Some research I did on dolphins, they're one of my favorite animals."

"What if I told you my beach house in Mistral has quite a few dolphins hanging around in the summertime?"

"Really? Can we go?" She says, eyes sparkling with excitement.

"We'll have to see," Then I start thinking, "Actually, what if it would be a reward when you do well in the tournament?"

"Then I'll have to win that tournament, for both of us, if you decide not to participate. Have you finally made up your mind?"

"I think I will enter, but only because you asked me to slow down a little."

After a couple minutes of us just lying together in the water, I get an idea.

I scoop up a load of the foam from the bubble bath, and while Ruby had her eyes closed, smothered her face in it.

"Hey!" She says, picking up some of her own and getting it all over my wings.

I start splashing suds at her and she fires back, the two of us playing like little kids in the tub.

"Stop, ok, ok you win." I say, suds coating my wings, face, and back, "Since you won that little battle, I'll let you finish cleaning up, while I go make the two of us some hot chocolate."

"I want marshmallows in mine if it isn't too much trouble."

I turn on the shower head and Ruby closes her eyes as I stand up to rinse off.

She leaves her eyes closed as I get out, and I wrap myself in a towel before going to get some new clothes.

I hear her start the showerhead after I start to pull my clothes on, and I go to the kitchen to get the hot chocolate ready.

I start mixing up the warm milk and the chocolate, then I feel arms wrap around my waist.

"You are too good at cooking…"

"Is that a bad thing?

"No, it's just that I've never really been good at it…"

"I would gladly teach you how to cook, but you have to promise not to give out my mom's recipes."

"You would get mad at me if I did, so I won't."

"That's the only reason?"

"Yep," She says, popping the p, "I don't like seeing you mad."

"You've never seen me really angry Ruby, and I hope you never have to."

"I'll do what I can to make sure I never have to."

I pour the warm mixture into two mugs, put marshmallows into Ruby's, and

hand the mug over to her.

"I wish Vale was colder so I could have this more."

"Just ask and I'll make it for you, it doesn't have to be cold."

"I want a cup of this on my birthday."

"No problem…" As I start thinking, I realize what I promised I'd do while I was here.

"Shit…" I mumble under my breath.

"What?"

"I told you about James right?" She nods, "Well, there are more like him and I promised one of them, Shade, that I would help him in the same way I helped James on our second day here, but…"

"You were passed out for it and didn't do it, right?"

I nod, "It is really advantageous for me to help him though. From my understanding, each Lost One I help gains me another boost to ascension if I do it properly."

"That sounds insane, so if you help Shade, you'll have ten times your previous amount?"

"That's right."

"So you'd have one hundred times your normal levels?"

"I'd assume so, but it's not like I could ask someone whether we're right or not."

"So if Lost Ones keep coming to you, you could just keep going?"

"In theory, yes."

"So I'm basically dating a goddess?"

I blush, "I guess if you want to think about it that way…"

"Then let me kiss my all powerful Angel…" She says, taking my hot chocolate from my hand and kissing me.

I take a play from Yang's book and sweep her off her feet. Which, I might add, is also harder with one hand.

I walk the two of us over to the loveseat, and start to lay down, before Ruby uses our momentum to flip herself on top.

"You seem to think you can do that all the time and get away with it."

"It's not like you try to stop me…"

"You've got a point I guess."

"Shut up…" She says, silencing me with another kiss.

I feel her about to try with her tongue again, "I want to try something different with that." I say, pulling away.

"What?"

"Stick your tongue out."

She does, "Now close your eyes."

I start licking her tongue, going over every inch without the restraint of her mouth.

"Let me do you." She says, stopping me after a minute or two.

I do it, unsure of whether it was the right call or not, but when her tongue glosses over mine, it felt like I was in heaven.

She pulls me into a kiss after she's done, her hands running along my sides and down towards my…

I pull away, "Ruby, what are you…"

"I was going to do what we've both wanted to do."

"Why is this such a constant thing with you?"

"We're in a relationship, is that not what you do in a relationship?"

"Not this soon, we've only been…"

"So what? It's our relationship so the two of us should decide when we're ready…"

"But I know we're not!" I say, standing from the loveseat, "At least, I'm not." I say, shying away from her.

"I don't feel comfortable having sex ok? I've been putting up a cover because I'm afraid."

"Why?"

"I was an experiment Ruby, you really think they didn't try anything like that?"

"They…"

"One researcher tried, I could feel him about to…" I start before my breathing picks up and my heart starts pounding.

Ruby pulls me back onto the couch and starts running her hands through my hair, "You're okay, it's just a memory…"

I just sit there, shivering in her arms for a while, "You want to keep going?" She asks.

"After the one researcher tried with me, I made all the researchers the promise I would kill every single one of them if any of them even went near any of the other kids in that way, and after what I did to Greer, they weren't going to take any chances. It's the actual reason I didn't want to get in the bath with you, I was worried about what would happen if you tried to start something."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because… I was afraid you wouldn't want to be in a relationship with someone who wasn't going to do that."

"What about when you told me you wanted to?"

"I still want to, but I'm scared I'll have some sort of panic attack, especially after what happened when I just thought about… him. I don't want to lose control and hurt you, especially when we're doing something that… intimate."

"You know, if you had said something, I never would have even suggested it. It honestly makes me mad you didn't stop me before now. You let me feel you up to make me feel better, were you comfortable with that?"

"It was to make you happy, which made up for any discomfort I had…"

"Ok, can we work from there then? I think we just need to figure out exactly what you're comfortable with, so I know when I need to stop."

"Yang would not believe that you're the one pushing this…"

"She wants to think I'm still a naive little girl, and I thought me getting accepted to Beacon would change that."

"Then what was that with you seeing Weiss the other day?"

"Just because I get embarrassed at seeing my partner naked doesn't mean it would be the same with you."

"I'm pretty sure you said the exact same thing when we talked, and I convinced you otherwise…"

"Yeah, because I was totally going to say I wanted to tear your clothes off in front of my very overprotective older sister."

"You lied to Yang, wow, now that I think about it, I don't think I've heard you tell a lie."

"I have to keep up appearances don't I?"

"So which is the real Ruby? The devious, scheming one I just met or the soft, sweet girl I fell in love with?"

"I'm about 97 percent soft and sweet with some deviousness thrown in that last three percent."

"I think I can live with that…"

"Considering I live with you having multiple people in your head at any given point, you can deal with me not telling my sister everything about my love life."

"Now that I think about it, you're not really devious for avoiding telling your sister that. You're actually quite nice because she would have blamed me for corrupting you."

"So do you want to pick up where we left off or do you want to drink some reheated hot chocolate?"

"Is both an option?"

"Well, it is if you can kiss me with hot chocolate in your mouth."

"Is that a challenge?"

"If you want it to be…"

I run over, heat up my hot chocolate, and run back to kiss Ruby, letting it pass between the two of us.

"I win."

"I honestly prefer the normal taste of your mouth…" She says, grabbing the back of my head to force me into another kiss.

"Trying the dominate side of things this time around?"

"I'm pushing my boundaries to see how far they can go before you shut me out."

I frown, "I don't mean to shut you out…"

"I never said you meant to, but I have to know where I have to stop, so I don't hurt you."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, and if you still want to try something on your birthday, I'm willing to try and get through it with you."

"I would like to try, but I want you to tell me the second you feel uncomfortable and we'll stop. Though, I think that's enough boundary pushing for one day, so do you think you can handle helping me with that mattress?"

"I should be able to, but I want to know if you would help me tomorrow with Shade's aura problem."

"I'm more than willing to help you, but you're going to have to show me how."

"It isn't as difficult as you might think, but we'll handle that after a good night sleep. Ruby…"

She turns back to me, "Can you hold my hand when we go down? I don't want to zone out again."

"Sure."

I walk down the basement stairs, and I stop at the bottom once more.

My breathing speeds up and my heart starts racing again, but then Ruby starts talking to me, "You're okay, you're not there anymore, you can feel my hand right?"

"Yeah, that's in the past, it's just a memory, I have you now."

She squeezes my hand, and we keep walking past several rows of boxes.

After that, it was smooth sailing getting the mattress up the stairs, and with only one hand too!

We lay it out in the floor of the living room, and I grab some sheets from my parent's old linen closet.

I lay them out over the mattress, and fall face first into the cold sheets.

I feel a pillow hit me in the back of the head, "Thank you." I tell her into the mattress.

"You better not hog the blanket; otherwise, you can sleep on the couch."

"It's my house!"

"So? I want a blanket so I don't freeze to death."

"It's not that cold, and I can use your sister's semblance if you want."

She pulls the covers up to her neck, "Do it."

I flip on Yang's semblance, and instantly I understand why Blake uses Yang as her own personal heater whenever she can.

"See, you warm up to people eventually."

"You and your sister with the puns…"

After a minute of the two of us lying together she frowns, "I'm sorry I was pushing us in that direction so much…"

"You have nothing to be sorry for, I should have told you much sooner if I wanted you to stop."

"I should've known something was up, but I was too busy worrying about what I wanted…"

I put my hand on her face and looked her in the eyes, "Stop trying to make this your fault, you couldn't have known not to because I didn't tell you, even told you the opposite. It's okay for no one to take the blame here."

"You always know what to say, and I love you for that." She says, pressing herself up against me.

"I love you just for being you." I say, putting my head next to hers and falling asleep.

I woke up in the middle of the night to find Ruby tossing and turning, "No, don't go Mom, you won't come back."

She latches onto my torso, "I'm not going to let you go."

"Ruby…" I say quietly, rubbing her back to soothe her.

She gasps as she wakes up, tears start pouring down her face, "Come here." I say, letting her press her face into my neck, "A nightmare?"

She nods into my neck, "Why do I have these nightmares? Why do they taunt me?"

"I don't know, but if you ever have one, wake me up and I'll stay up with you."

"I couldn't do that to you…"

"If you can help me deal with my scars, I can stay up with you for a couple nights when you have nightmares."

"Are you any closer to getting her back?"

"I reached a conclusion… The only way to get her back would be with a philosopher's stone."

"What's the chance we find one?"

"Insanely low, but I'm not going to stop looking until she's back with you." I lie to her, knowing that I was on a five year clock, and that it was counting down.

"What happens if we can't find one? Will my mom eventually die there?"

"I can tell you there is no way she should be able to get food and water, so as long as whatever method is providing them to her doesn't give out, then she'll be fine."

"What could she be using?"

"There is an advanced transmutation that binds organisms together, each would have a blood seal that binds an organism to the host with the same seal. So if your mom had one, as long as the seal wasn't broken when she crossed over, she would still be able to receive water and nourishment from the host. Though depending on the strength of the transmutation, the seal has to be refreshed with the host's blood after a certain amount of time."

"If that's true, then every seal would give out at some point, but more importantly, who's the host?"

"I think that was the circle Raymond was hiding on his arm when I caught a glimpse the other day, and it would make a lot of sense that you put the host circle on someone who couldn't die. And if we're correct, either Raymond did it himself or my father did it."

"Your dad knew my mom?"

"They would have met at Beacon at some point and this would prove they kept up for some time after."

"I wonder if your dad could have told us what happened to her."

"Ruby, the only way she could have ended up in the portal is if a transmutation was performed, which means Raymond or my father was involved in some way or another. From the journals I've seen, I can only assume my father divided his research between several more journals, some of which have been found and used in ways my father could never have intended, finding one may have been what your mother's mission actually was."

"Then we need to track the journals down before more people get hurt…"

"With the amount of alchemy going on with the journals, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume we'd have a better chance of finding a philosopher's stone if we went after the journals. Going after them will be dangerous, we know the people using the journals are willing to go to any lengths to get what they want, so if you want to stay out, I would understand."

"This could get my mom back, like hell I'm sitting this out."

"We start after the tournament unless I get a lead before then, but I want you to promise to tell no one outside of the team about this, we're going into this basically blind and I have no idea what to expect."

"I wouldn't tell anyone that could endanger the mission, and I've been waiting to avenge my mom since she died, this is basically the same thing."

"It's also painfully clear that the AHH is up to something, given they cleared Yang's mom's record and lied about how your mom died. You were always told it was a Grimm nest right?"

"That's what they told my dad… I don't even know what to believe in anymore."

"In my experience, there's only one thing good to believe in… yourself, everything else is variables that can change so fast you could never see it coming."

"You're getting way too philosophical for one o'clock in the morning."

"Then let's get some sleep, we've got a lot to do tomorrow."

"Mind filling me in on what the plan is exactly?" She says, sitting up her side to look at me.

"We're helping Shade then we're heading to see Weiss' mom in the hospital."

"Since when was that on the schedule?"

"Since I would like to assess her condition in person, which can give me some valuable data that could finally let me crack the counter dust formula."

"What makes you think the people at the hospital are just going to let us in?"

"Who said I was going to ask? I can blink short distances without knowing the exact location, so that should be a piece of cake."

"You really shouldn't do that, it's bad." She says in a high pitched, sarcastic voice.

"Well so is Weiss' father cheating on his wife while she's in a coma that he isn't even attempting to fix."

She sighs, "How could someone be that...evil?"

"He's not evil, he's human. A very selfish, greedy human being. Regardless, we both need some peaceful sleep to be ready for tomorrow."

"I can agree with you there, good night."

I rub her back until I feel her breathing slow and then I kiss her forehead, "Sweet dreams little rose."

A/N: Sorry for the rant there at the beginning, I have gotten several PM's about the story's content before now, and this is the only way I see to prevent future messages as the story progresses. It's a real discouragement to me when I see messages about how the story is "inappropriate" when the description clearly expresses what this story's content would entail. Thank all of you who send encouraging messages and reviews my way, it means more to me than I ever thought possible. Even so, I would like to see more critiques on my work. The purpose of Ascension was to get me back into creative writing, and I want to keep getting better, which means some feedback from you guys. Tell me what you guys think, follow, favorite, and review(They are to me, like cookies are to Ruby, the more you let me have the happier I am.) The Marksman, taking a couple steps back before my leap, Out.