I just realized this is the fiftieth chapter I've written for this story and today (October 29) marks two months since my first upload. I figure that I should do something a bit special for it, so let's commemorate this by looking back into the past.

Abel- I never really put much thought into it. I mean, considering the fact that a Rose's cloak is a physical manifestation of their soul, it's possible that if they get excited enough their tail would simply drift through it. I'll leave it up to each individual to decide how they think a Rose can wag their tail when they have their cloak. As for Yang being a faunus, I think I'm going to leave that be for now considering how much of a headache the last major change I made was.

Chapter 50: Aurelius' Lament: The Eternal Vigil

Bastion, Citadel Tower, Aurelius' Office

Aurelius let out a sigh as he sat back in his chair, watching Summer snuggle against Qrow as the pair left. "Thank the gods they're gone, I was afraid they'd just go at it on my desk or something…" he muttered, causing Winter to blink in surprise.

"I find it hard to believe they would actually engage in such an activity in a place like this," she said, causing Aurelius to hand her a folder. She looked through it quickly before turning a bright red. "I hope that lift was promptly cleaned?" she asked in concern.

"I'd hope so, it's the only one that leads up here…" Aurelius muttered quietly before glancing over at the only other occupant in the room. "Is there something you needed, Winter?"

Winter bit her lip, still trying to get used to hearing the Blue Rose call her by name. She let out a sigh before stepping in front of the desk. "I was curious about a few things…" she said quietly. "If I phrase it carefully, perhaps I could learn more about him?"

Aurelius hummed for a moment. "What did you want to know?" he asked, gesturing for her to take a seat.

Winter sat down in the chair across from him, taking a breath. "I'm curious about why the Rose family is the only one in Remnant that has capabilities such as yours and why there are no other individuals such as yourself," she said, watching as Aurelius paused.

"That's a topic that will take quite a bit of time…" Aurelius muttered before he stood up. Winter watched as he quickly made two cups of tea, setting one down in front of her before sitting back down. He took a sip before he started. "There was a time when I wasn't the only individual with capabilities such as mine, as well as a time when the silver eyes weren't unique to myself, before my family came to be, back in the almost two centuries that my cloak was white instead of blue." He gestured at a painting of a small cottage hanging on the wall. "I remember the exact moment the brother gods made me in the area that painting shows. It was fifty years before Point Refuge was founded, half a century before the existence of civilization. There were sixteen of us at the time… Sixteen men and women, beings created by the two gods to safeguard humanity and civilization on Remnant from destruction. My brothers and sisters… Each of them was given a specific threat to defend against: mindless jealously; insatiable greed; unyielding pride; unending gluttony that would render the world uninhabitable; hatred of the unfamiliar and new… The list went on, and each of us was given abilities to help us with our tasks, the only common one being our silver eyes and the powers provided, a symbol of our Eternal Vigil. Unlike my descendants, we were to maintain our Vigil indefinitely until we were no longer needed."

"Were they human?" Winter asked cautiously.

"To a certain extent. Like me, they couldn't die from old age and each had two semblances, so it might be more accurate to say we were a slightly different species or race of beings. While I preferred to call us the Stalwart, my brothers and sisters quickly took to calling themselves the "Doom-driven" for a reason I never understood," Aurelius said before Winter interrupted.

"You said that each of them was given a specific threat to safeguard against… What about you?" the white-haired woman asked, taking a sip from her tea.

"I wasn't given any specific thing to defend against. Instead, I was given the far more nebulous duty of protecting against "any threat to sapient life" that could appear. At first, I believed this to mean against the Grimm, but in the coming years I learned that there were many possible things that fit under that classification. Once we were given our purpose and our duties, the gods left, and my brothers and sisters departed to begin their Vigils. I spent the next five years wandering the plains of Draconys, learning what I could before befriending the members of a small tribe. I helped them grow and prosper for a year before a pack of Grimm attacked, killing a small boy before I could stop them. It was during that time that I created the first Dust crystal." Aurelius glanced down at the desk for a moment.

"After that, I realized that I wouldn't be able to properly protect them where they were. Unfortunately, unlike elsewhere in Remnant, the Grimm of Draconys preferred to remain hidden in the mountains and forests, making the locations that would be easiest to defend the most dangerous to settle. As time went on, I eventually led them to a small island in the Leviathan's Gulf and helped them start to establish a small village there. This was twenty years after I was created, and it was only a month after this that I learned what my brothers and sisters were up to during this time."

Winter swallowed a mouthful of tea as Aurelius' gaze turned grim. "Within only a few years of us all parting ways, each of them had turned to various acts of depravity and were slowly twisting, corrupting, and killing the people of Remnant. By the time I'd heard of this, there were only seven of us left, with the other six having established themselves as warlords, using humanity as pawns and playthings."

Winter put her cup down, clasping her hands in her lap. "What… happened to them?" she asked, flinching at the dark look Aurelius gave her.

"They became threats to the existence of sapient life… something I'd become very skilled at eliminating," he said coldly, causing a chill to go down Winter's spine. "One of them attacked the village that would eventually become Port Refuge and I was forced to put them down after a long fight. After that, I spent a decade tracking and hunting each of them down." Aurelius let out a sigh before taking another sip of his tea. "Once that was done, I helped build up the small village to become Remnant's first true civilization. Since then, I've continued the Eternal Vigil alone, aside from the aid from my family in their own Vigils."

Winter bit her lip before she spoke up. "How could you kill them so easily? As you said, they were like your brothers and sisters," she said, flinching at the glare she received.

"If I didn't kill them, it's possible humanity would not have survived long enough for civilization to prosper. That's what you must remember, Winter," he said, leaning forward. "I must ensure that every threat to sapient life, human or faunus, is dealt with through diplomacy or force. It doesn't matter who they are, what their goals are, how close they are to me, or if I want to carry out my duty." He let out a sigh before he slumped back in his chair. "That's all that's left of my brothers and sisters. All that's left of my… kind, I suppose. One man, the illusion of choice, and a burden that was meant to be carried by sixteen people…"

Winter looked down quietly. "I apologize for bringing back such difficult memories…"

Aurelius glanced at her. "It's not your fault. You wanted to learn, but you had no way of knowing how painful the topic was."

Winter nodded subtly as she stood up. "Thank you for telling me about this… If you'd like, I'd be happy to leave you in peace for today," she said, getting a subtle nod from the Blue Rose before she turned around, her steps no longer measured as she walked out the door. She was getting ready to head to the lift when Adrienne walked up.

"Wow Winter, I've never seen you so disturbed, what happened?" the Orange Rose asked, following behind the white-haired woman.

Winter let out a sigh before tucking her hands behind her back. "I just finished having an… enlightening, if concerning, conversation with Aurelius," she said, glancing at the other woman out of the corner of her eye.

"What about?" Adrienne asked, tilting her head to the side.

Winter looked down the central pit of the tower. "I asked about his origins," she muttered, noticing the look of concern in the Orange Rose's expression.

"What exactly did he tell you?" Winter hesitated before she quickly and quietly relayed what she had learned to the other woman, frowning when she sighed. "Nox, nothing new then…"

"What do you mean nothing new? Are you saying there's more to the story?" Winter asked, glaring at the other girl.

Adrienne scratched the back of her head nervously. "Yeah… I don't think anyone's ever heard the full story. I'm pretty sure I've heard everything Auri could say about it, but there always seems like there's something missing to it. Considering what I've heard, it's possible he doesn't know the full story himself."

Winter stopped to look at the orange-cloaked fox. "And what have you heard?"

Adrienne bit her lip, looking around before she gestured to Winter, moving down a corridor away from the lift. "Have you ever stopped to notice anything strange about the members of the War Council?" she asked, causing Winter to pause.

"Not quite. I'm aware that they were each designed to combat Grimm in a different way, but-" Winter started before the normally cheerful woman spun to pin her with a gaze.

"No, stop to think about their abilities. Name each one of them off."

Winter hesitated before she started going down the list. "Janus has the ability to create rifts in space that he can use to travel or as weapons. Odin is able to throw his spear at any target and be guaranteed to hit… Athena is able to control electric currents… Vulcan create immense amounts of heat and ignite his body… Artemis' arrows are completely unaffected by wind currents… Loki has shapeshifting and can exploit the fear-" Winter paused, eyes wide. "Why would a being meant to fight Grimm need to sow terror in the hearts of man and faunus?"

Adrienne nodded. "You see now, don't you?" Winter nodded slowly before the Orange Rose continued. "It isn't until you get to Loki, the friendly, if malicious, prankster that put your father on a garbage barge to be dropped off in the ruined region of Vale, that you realize there's something dark about them. The fact is, each of the Prefects and the Templar that spend the most time around Auri were designed specifically to counter his abilities, on top of having a specific type of Animus Dust serving as their core so they can't be permanently destroyed. The first one to be created, Athena, is able to exploit the large static charge the Tempest-enhanced Rose Storm creates to fry him and has a Shock crystal at her core. The second one built, Odin, is able to predict the exact angle he needs to throw his spear at to ensure it works with the Rose Storm to impale Auri and has a Frost crystal as his core. Vulcan was meant to march into the Rose Storm and ignite himself, turning it into an inferno to cook Auri and incinerating his cloak, and obviously has a Burn core. Artemis uses her Wind core to ensure her arrows are able to pass through the Rose Storm without any serious interference. Janus' rifts, created with his Gravity core, make him thing in existence to have a projectile completely unaffected by the Rose Storm and allow him to create rifts to redirect the wind currents to fight somewhat decently in hand to hand combat within the Rose Storm."

Adrienne took a deep breath. "Loki, the last one designed, has a Water core that allows him to shapeshift, but also means he can partially transform into a liquid and maintain cohesion enough to not be scattered by the wind, allowing him to fight Auri while the petals and debris simply go right through him, the way a very small number of Roses are able to fight in his Storm. Not only that, but his ability to sow fear is meant to directly counter one use of Auri's secondary that allows him to partially manipulate the minds of others. He doesn't use it, but if he did, Loki's ability to look into a person's mind and project their darkest fears would disable them long enough for him to fight Auri… Each and every one of them is designed to incapacitate or kill him."

Winter paled. "Why would anyone do that exactly? What reason is there?"

Adrienne sighed. "Auri left out a few major parts from the story. The first, and most important, is that he was the first one the gods made and he was meant to be the only one they created… but they found him… lacking," Adrienne said, spitting out the last word as if it was poison.

"Lacking how?" Winter asked nervously before Adrienne clenched her fists.

"He's not sure why himself, but shortly after they created him, the brother gods declared him defective, imperfect, and decided to create a number of other beings. None of them were as strong as Auri was or is, so the brother gods, Thanatos and Helios, decided to keep him around. Beyond this, they rarely interacted with him between his creation and when he was finally told his purpose, last of all sixteen. By then, I think he'd started to struggle with the concept that his very existence displeased the brothers and decided to throw himself completely into his task, the thought of being without a purpose terrifying him, possibly even today." Adrienne took a breath as Winter looked at her in shock. After a pause, the Orange Rose continued.

"When the other fifteen went mad and started going against their purpose of protecting life and civilization, I think the fact that the more perfect creations of the brothers so quickly went mad with power and corruption made him wonder if the same thing would happen to him one day, so he started teaching humanity and the faunus how to do what he could do with Dust in hopes that they might one day be able to destroy him if need be… which is even more important considering what the brothers told him." A haunted look passed over Adrienne. "Before they departed, Thanatos and Helios told Auri that he alone out of all sixteen was truly immortal and that, so long as any sapient beings continued to exist on Remnant and his task was incomplete, he could never be permanently killed." Winter paled as the wolf continued. "As the centuries wore on, he came to realize that his task could never be truly complete since, even if he killed every Grimm, he would still have to put an end to human conflicts, starvation, disease, and old age before he could say he did what was required…"

"I remember talking with him during that time, about twenty years before the War of Roses… Some days he'd visit my grave and we'd talk normally, but then the next day he'd show up and spend an hour ranting about how every death and every cut was a reminder of his constant failures, of the frailty of the human body, and how guilty he was that he couldn't stop any of it, that people were still dying even after all his efforts… Then, during the War of Roses, the Sundering happened," Adrienne said, causing Winter to shiver. She remembered Aurelius mentioning the shattering of the moon, but didn't think about it very much. "When he heard about this, it terrified him that two shards of his power were able to do so much damage when he himself couldn't do even a fraction of that with all his strength. He started to question why the gods would create a being to defend humanity and give it the power to potentially destroy all of Remnant. The last time I saw him, his cloak was in tatters and he had a completely nihilistic outlook on everything… He actually said he was going to destroy himself to end Salem's rampage…" Adrienne looked at the white-haired woman nervously. "His Eternal Vigil was never meant to be maintained by a single person, and now that he's learned he can't simply destroy himself to end it so long as anyone's still alive… What happens if he decides he can't live with it anymore?"

Winter shuddered, looking down. "Perhaps it would be best if he found another purpose for living…"

Adrienne let out a sigh. "If only it was that easy… It'd take a lot to convince him to do that and whatever became his new purpose would be the center of his attention at all times when he wasn't working on keeping everyone safe… It'd make things easier on us though, I think…"

Winter nodded quietly, trying to process what she'd learned.

And this chapter's done. I hope everyone enjoyed it.

So yeah, Aurelius' existence has some very dark secrets and dangerous implications wrapped up in it. This is more or less what the summary of the story's talking about: Aurelius' return will help Remnant in the short term, but the more damage that's done the better off everyone would be if his legacy was forgotten.

Also, on a lighter side, since people seem to like the idea of Aurelius and Winter having a ship name, I think I might go with "Arctic Wind" or something similar.

Feel free to leave a review.