Hi, my name is AngryFace, I may have gone off the deep end on this one and made my self a throne to declare myself a lord of angst.

Trigger warnings for torture and a few rapey vibes. If you want to avoid that, look for the {}

That is where it starts and doesn't end until the chapter is finished.

This is your warning! Reader discretion is advised!

A Once Locked Heart

Pt. I

"Her mother told her she could grow up to be anything she wanted to be, so she grew up to become the strongest of the strong, the strangest of the strange, the wildest of the wild, the wolf leading wolves."

― Nikita Gill

The plan was set. Get to Leo, get the Relic and get out. Honestly, it could not have been simpler except for the fact that there was a war raging around Raven as she flew through the air towards Haven Academy on the top of the mountain. With everyone fighting on the ground below her, no one would think to look up at a singular bird flying through the air.

Picking her landing spot, she had long since grown used to her form shifting from bird to human; she did not lose her stride when she hit the ground and took off into a sprint towards the school. Ahead of her, she saw guards with their rifles at the ready for anyone to come near them. Crouching behind some bushes, she watched them to find an opening and sneak past, but they refused to move.

The seconds ticked past, and Raven could feel something was wrong. The guards were still, unnaturally so. Something was off. Getting up from her hiding spot, she placed her hand on the hilt of her blade to get ready to strike as she approached the guards, only for them to stay entirely still, even when she was out in the open.

Reaching the guards, Raven found what was wrong.

They were dead, pinned to the wall with spikes made of Dust that kept them upright and looking like nothing was wrong. Their skin was pale from the blood loss, and their eyes were hidden under their helmets. The level of Dust manipulation was impressive, to say the least, when a terrible thought reached her mind. If Atlesian assassins were hunting down the Mistrali officers, then Leo would be in danger.

Running into the main compound, Raven took note of how eerily quiet the whole place was. While there was no shortage of explosions and bullet fires. There was nothing here, no alarms or announcements to keep everyone in the loop. She did not like it. There were no guards, no soldiers running around. Like everyone just left, but knowing what happened to the guards out front, Raven feared something worse had happened.

The halls were empty, the lights were out, and there was no one around. Looking into each room, Raven saw nothing that gave any hint of what had happened here. She rushed on through the halls until she came to the courtyard. She ran through the open area heading towards the base of the CCT where Leo's office would be. Pushing open the large double doors, Raven came face to face with a horrific scene.

Leo was dead on the ground, but something looked wrong about it. Like a deflated balloon. What was worse was there were two people crouched next to him with bones in their arms. They were busy arranging them in some sort of pattern when Raven interrupted them. They looked up at her; their eyes were hidden behind sunglasses despite being inside. The three of them stared at each other in silence before the man with slicked-back ashen hair spoke.

"Well," He started casually. "This is awkward,"

Raven could sense how dangerous these two people were, she liked to think she could read people well enough, and these two were giving off dangerous auras. She brought her hand over to her blade and gripped the handle of it. However, this action did not go unnoticed as the woman with fiery red, and yellow hair let the bones fall from her arms and grabbed her sword as she stood up. Curiously enough, she held it by the blade, just past the crossguard. "Look at that, Brother mine, someone wants to play," She said with a smile on her face.

The man released the bones from his arms and stood up as well, adjusting his long coat and eyeing up Raven. "I suppose we do have some time, Sister dear." He said Raven felt his eyes on him. "But not much; we do have lots of work before the day is done," He flicked his wrists, and two daggers appeared in his hands.

"Lots of work indeed,"

Casually, they began to walk towards Raven, who started to step back outside, drawing them closer into the door. She was no stranger to fighting when she was outnumbered, so she needed a plan. The first step was to get them into the choke point. Raven drew them back to the door, where they stood side by side, appraising her like she was prey. That would be their downfall.

With a quick slash from her weapon, Muninn's Cut, she activated the Dust in the blade and sent a streak of flames right at them. They had no choice but to block as Raven jumped in right after, using the last attack as cover. The woman caught her attack with her sword, grunting with the effort while the man dove in for a counter.

Raven quickly jumped back, feeling the sharpness just slip past her body before using her blade to block a thrown dagger from the man. Just as Raven had done, the siblings had used one attack as a cover for another. The sister came in with a heavy overhand slash that Raven blocked. She saw the cracks form in her Dust infused blade and watched a sick grin form on the other woman's face as she reached back with one hand and punched Raven's gut.

Feeling the wind get knocked from her lungs, she pulsed her Aura through the Dust in her blade again and sent a flame infused Aura slash back at them, giving Raven some space to catch her breath. Raven and the other woman stared at each other; the sister twisted her neck from side to side, cracking the joints as she took a deep breath. "Oh," She began, "She is fun, brother mine," she spun her heavy blade a bit as Raven released the latch of her used blade and pulled out an ice Dust blade next.

"And look at that Dust manipulation, I'm good at it, but that is impressive," the man said, pointing to Raven's sheath.

"Can I keep her?" the sister asked.

"We'll have to see," he said as he pulled a deck of cards from nowhere and began to shuffle them.

"I'm not a pet to anyone," Raven growled out.

"Oooh, she's feisty; I like that," the sister said before charging in again with a grin on her face. Raven was back on the defensive as she blocked and countered the woman.

Her swordsmanship was impressive, proper forms when she needed it, but able to react with something completely unorthodox to capitalize on Raven's openings. While the woman had power, Raven had speed and a more extended reach. Keeping her at bay was easier said than down; however, with her brother throwing the cards he was shuffling at Raven, whatever advantage she got did not last long.

The woman blocked one slash by gripping the blade with one hand to brace for the impact and twisted her whole body, knocking Raven's sword out of the way, only to come back with a backhand that felt much heavier than she expected. She felt her Aura struggle to react to the hit, and Raven found herself on the ground with only a moment to block her face from a trio of incoming cards from the man, one of them sticking into her gauntlet.

Looking at the card embedded in her armour, she saw an intricate card display six of swords. Before she could do anything about it, the man smiled and snapped his fingers. The next moment, the card glowed red, and Raven braced the best she could as it exploded, knocking her across the ground.

The bastard compressed Dust into the cards as she did with her swords. Raven was running out of time, and by the chuckle she heard, the siblings were just toying with her. Standing back on her feet, Raven wiped some blood from her mouth and pulled out a gravity Dust blade and extended it fully. Their teamwork was exceptional by Raven's standards; with no communication, they knew how to fight with each other. The only thing Raven could do was to divide and conquer.

They both smiled as Raven charged in, yelling as she went as their blades crossed once more. Sparks flew from the women's blades as they danced around each other; Raven was getting better at understanding how this woman fought and was able to counter some of the dirtier attacks she threw out. During the exchange, she kept the sister between her and her brother, stopping anymore of his cards from landing on her. Raven waited for her moment before striking.

With a quick overhead strike, she activated the Dust in the blade and made her sword too heavy to lift. The sister was knocked down from the sudden weight shift, and Raven detached the edge from the hilt to jumped over her. Pulling a fresh lightning blade from her sheath, she charged down the brother who produced daggers and blocked the attack, only for the electricity from the Dust to jump into him. It was not enough to kill him with his Aura, but it was enough to disable him for a moment.

With a punch to his screaming face, he reeled back and fell to the ground, and Raven turned around to the sister, still trying to pry her sword from under the weight of the gravity Dust. With a new blade in the hilt, Raven rushed forward and thrust into the woman, the shout from the man making her turn around, but it was too late. The blade slipped right into her stomach, and Raven could see the long sword on the other side of her.

Raven felt something was wrong, though. The blade went into her body with no resistance at all; not even her Aura fought it. It was then Raven saw the sunglasses slipped off her face and the clothes drop from her body and onto the ground, passing through her body. Raven stared at the woman in her fiery eyes. Her skin had taken on a translucent trait as she looked down at where the blade had impaled her.

"Rude," The woman said as she reached out quickly at Raven's chest. If blades and clothes could go through her, Raven did not want to know if she could reach into people. Jumping back, the woman clicked her tongue as her body materialized again. "I liked that top, you bitch,"

"Well, maybe if you had let me infuse your clothes with Dust, you'd get fewer holes in them," The man called out from behind Raven. "Do you mind if I interrupt? I would like a turn to dance," Raven turned to see the man walk towards her, a blade in each hand and a smile on his face.

"I suppose so," the sister said as she finally pulled her blade as the gravity Dust wore off. Quickly turning, Raven blocked quick slashes from the brother as he stepped into her guard.

Where the sister was power, he was all technique. Quick slashes and thrusts were met with him turning her wrist wrong and a boot to the back of her knee, dropping her down where she just managed to block a sharp edge from going for her neck. Retracting the blade of her sword made it easier to block and counter his flurry of knife blows as she was back up against a lamp post.

With now where to go, Rave quickly blocked one attack and extended the blade, knocking the brother off-balance as her foot came up and kicked him in the chest. Releasing his knives, he grabbed her leg and held on, limiting how far he was kicked until Raven jumped up and spun, bringing her heel to his head and knocking him aside. Raven quickly rolled back up to her feet as she slid a new blade from her sheath.

The brother merely smiled as he got back up on his feet as he pointed down. "Love your boots," He said with a smile and a raised hand. Raven looked down and saw one of his cards attached to her leg, where it exploded with a snap of his fingers, sending Raven flying again in a smoke puff. She could feel her Aura straining to keep up. Before she could get back into it, she watched something come slicing through the smoke at her. Raven brought up her arm to block it, but it wrapped around her body over and over again until her arm was trapped against her body. Looking down at what trapped her, it was a long chain interconnected with the woman's sword on it.

As the smoke cleared, Raven saw the woman holding her sword's hilt where the chain began. Her sword changed into a whip of some sort and was holding her in place. Her brother dusted his long coat off as he stood next to his sister and admired her work. "I don't care what you say; I'm keeping her,"

Raven weighed her options as explosions echoed through the air. The war in Mistral reached its zenith, and she was running out of time to collect the Relic. Focusing on herself, Raven tapped into the magic that filled her soul. An ancient power that had forced its way into her all those years ago. When she opened her eyes, red flames came from them as she broke out of the whip-sword that bound her. Flying into the air using a gust of wind, and hovered where she transformed her blade into a massive, frozen sword three times her height.

The whip retracted into the woman's sword as they stared up at Raven using the Spring Maiden powers. She expected them to run or beg not to be struck down by someone with god-like powers. The last thing she expected was for the man to laugh.

"What fortuitous circumstance be this," he smiled as he took a step towards Raven. "I suppose I should introduce ourselves properly; My name is Ash, this is my sister Ember-," The naked woman gave a wave as she smiled up at Raven.

"-And we are members of Salem's Inquisition,"

Raven focused on the man, Ash, as he kept speaking. "See, we were originally tasked with hunting down the Maidens and delivering them to Salem, our queen. I'm sure you know who she is if you held off using the Maiden's powers until now. We were performing our noble task to hunt down the Winter Maiden before but were tasked to help, another, in their assigned task. But here we are, a maiden falling into our laps,"

"I can't wait to break a real Maiden," Ember said as she licked her teeth.

"Playtime is over-," Ash said as he pulled more cards into his hand and tossed it over to Ember. The woman took the card and crushed it in her hand. The compressed Dust from the cards and the Dust began to surround her body, forming armoured plates that protected her. "-It's time to hunt,"

Flying through the air, Raven dodged more thrown cards that exploded when Ash snapped his fingers. Ember leapt into the air with her large blade and brought it down against Raven's large ice blade. Ember had nothing to stop Raven from slamming her down with a counter, but the Dust armour did not even crack as she slammed into the ground and received an Aura slash that carved up the earth but left no marks on the armour; Ember merely stood back up and dusted herself off.

Using her Maiden powers, Raven charged down at Ember, extending her blade as the woman tried to jump out of the way of it. Another large scar was left in the ground as Raven left Ember pinned under her elemental blade, which gave Raven enough time to turn and block Ash's advance on her. Blades in both hands, he charged in with fast slashes and thrusts. Raven summoned her own blades made of ice to block and counter him.

He was fast, faster than Ember. Raven could only run on instinct as the blades were blocked, countered and countered again in a constant stream of attacks that left her no room to even think about what needed to be done. Raven summoned a wall of ice with a stomp of her foot that Ash had to jump out of the way to stop from getting caught in it. Taking advantage of the distance, Raven jumped on top of the wall and conjured icicles around her and wasted no time throwing them at Ash.

The man quickly switched his blades for decks of cards and sent them flying into the air around him. Her icicles hit the cards before reaching their target, causing them to explode and cover the area in black smoke, where Ember came charging through right at Raven. The Maiden brought her sword down to block a wild swing. Ember landed on the wall and continued her assault against the Maiden.

Duelling the woman on top of the ice wall was terrible enough; Ember did not even bother blocking the majority of Raven's attacks. With the Dust armour interacting with her Semblance, whenever Raven swung her sword, she could just phase out and let the weapon pass through her, leaving Raven open for attacks while she came under constant pressure from Ash throwing exploding cards at her.

Raven was running out of options quickly, but she noticed that every time Ember was about to use her phasing Semblance, she jumped a little and released the grip of her weapon to let Raven's sword go through her. Timing her strikes, Raven watched as Ember activated her Semblance, and Raven acted. Raising a pillar of ice just under Ember, the woman was forced to hold her Semblance, and she fell through the wall lest she becomes a part of it, and her weapon falling to the ground with a clatter. With the sister taken care of at the moment, Raven turned to the brother.

Raven crafted a long spear from her position on the top of the wall and threw it right at the man. Acting quickly, Ash raised one hand and pointed his other hand towards the ice wall. The Maiden watched as the spear of fire hit the palm of one and enter his body, only to be shot out of his other hand. It flew through the air and hit the wall, where it exploded on contact. Raven felt the shockwave and jumped down to the ground level before her wall could collapse with her still on top of it.

Landing on the ground, Raven summoned a series of swords around her and ran straight for Ash. With every swing of her sword, three more would swing from another direction, compromising the man's impressive defence, and she saw his Aura beginning to shimmer from the strain. Raising her arms for another attack, she felt someone tackle her to the ground. Looking down, she saw the Dust armoured arms of Ember holding her tightly, and something pass through her.

Looking up, she saw the woman running past her as the empty armour held Raven tightly. Next, she saw Ash throw a card onto the ground, creating a wall of ice to separate them before a finger snap echoed through the air. Raven was enveloped by a glow for just a moment before the Dust armour exploded around her. Raven was thrown through the air by the force of the explosion.

Her whole body hurt as her Aura finally relented to the abuse. A cough ripped through her chest as she struggled to push herself to her knees. All the world spun around her; the courtyard was destroyed. Craters and cut marks covered every surface around them, the ice melt putting out the fires she had started. There was a ringing in her years as she tried to get to her feet to fight back Ash as he walked towards her, only for a sickly icy feeling course through her body.

Looking down at her chest, she saw a ghostly hand sticking out and wiggle its fingers at her before retreating back into Raven's chest and wrap around her heart. "I got you~" Ember softly sang into her ear. Raven could feel her heartbeat being restrained by the woman's hand as Ember tugged Raven to her feet. Ash smiled at them in front of them as he checked his watch and looked up at the horizon as the sun began to rise.

"Good job, sister, but we must hurry if we want to leave before the ancient one gets here," Ash said as he stuck his hands in his pockets and jerked his head back towards the CCT.

"Quite right, Brother mine," Amber said before squeezing Raven's heart gently and pushing her mouth right into her ear. "Start walking; you have a vault to open,"

Reluctantly, Raven began to walk into the main lobby, where all three of them stepped over the deboned body of Leo Lionheart and stepped in front of the statue depicting a goddess. Ash pulled out a pocket watch and placed it where it needed to go, and the whole platform began to descend into the depths of the tower.

The seconds passed, and Raven had to suppress every reaction to fight as Ember began to run her fingers through Raven's hair and tracing the curve of her neck, humming as she did so. Every few seconds, she would feel Ember's fingers tighten around her heart before re-releasing it, reminding her of her shackle. When they reached the bottom, Raven stared in awe at the vault before her.

A platform protruded from the wall where the elevator stopped. In front of Raven, the ground had a line that lit up when they took a step off the elevator. The line glowed into three orbs on the floor until they reached the door itself, embedded into a wall of stone, sitting under a tree of glowing orange petals. The three of them took in the sight until Ember guided Raven to the door, where she was forced to open it unless she wanted her heart crushed inside her own chest.

When Raven reached out to the vault door, and it reacted to her touch. They all watched as the shutters began to fold in on themselves to reveal the real vault that kept the Relic safe.

On the other side of the door, an impossible space of endless desert existed. On the other side, the only things were three platforms that lead to the Relic itself that sat on top of a small stone pillar. The Relic of Knowlege was a glowing blue lamp with gold accents that floated above its stand. "Beautiful," Ash whispered as he walked into the impossible place and picked up the Relic and examined it. Raven wanted to follow him, to gaze into the space that was supposed to be hers to protect, but Ember kept her still, her other arm wrapping around her chest and her chin nestled into her neck, where she was peppered with small kisses, making her skin crawl.

"How fortunate we are that you came to us, My Maiden," Ash said when he returned to them. The world beyond the vault door was swallowed up by darkness and just faded out of existence behind him. "We only have a few more things to do, and we can be on our way," He said with a nod to Ember, who shifted her grip from her heart to her throat from inside her body and squeezed. Raven tried to fight the encroaching darkness as her air was suddenly cut off. The last thing Raven heard was Ember's voice in her ear before she lost her fight.

"We are going to have so much fun together…"

{}

When Raven woke up again, she struggled to move, only to find out she was pinned down by Ember sitting in her lap. "Oh good, you're awake," Ember's voice filled her ear as she giggled with affection. The woman gave Raven one last gentle caress before getting off of her while calling out for Ash. Looking around, Raven saw that she was strapped down to a chair; her arms and legs were bound with her left hand pinned down even more. Each finger was individually secured with something at tips. Before she could try and get herself free, the man walked into the room with the Relic in his hands.

"Morning," He said as he set the lap down on a chair across from Raven. She watched it float in place before Ash leaned against the chair. "I don't suppose you know how to activate it, do you? I would love the information it has to offer.

Instead of answering him, Raven spat in his face. Which earned her a hard punch across her jaw that rocked her brain inside her skull. "That was quite rude, Raven," Ember growled as she roughly took her throbbing jaw and forced her to look into her fiery eyes. "Say sorry,"

"Fuck you!" Raven braced for another hit that rocked her whole head to the side, nearly tipping the chair over wholly. She could taste her blood on her tongue and drip down her chin as she stared at Ember defiantly. Ash calmly wiped the spit off his face with a handkerchief and deposited it with a flick of his wrist.

"You might as well start," Ash said as he picked the Relic up off the chair and let it sit on the floor as he sat down in its place. A dark smile formed on Ember's lips as she turned back to Raven and mounted her lap again. Fortunately for Raven, the other woman decided to put clothes on at some point while she was knocked out. Roughing grabbing Raven's face, she angled her view up and stared deeply into Raven's eyes, her nails digging into her skin.

"This is my favourite part, the part where you scream..." She whispered to Raven. Her breath came in quickly and deeply. Her face flushed as her thumbs traced the outsides of Raven's eyes. "My name is Ember," She said as her fist was pulled back and was driven back into Raven's face, aimed right at her eye. With every punch, every slap, Ember repeated her name with an intimate gesture. Pain followed by a gentle touch and Ember's name driven into her skull. Bloody and bruised, the beatings finally stopped when Ember realized that Raven would not scream for her. But she froze when Ember gently caressed Raven's bloody face, and her tongue was dragged up the side of her face, lapping up the blood and finally assaulting her mouth.

Raven bit down on the forging origin object invading her mouth; Ember gave a hungry growl and pulled out, her mouth smeared with Raven's blood as she ground against the bound woman. "This isn't my favourite toy, but it always makes people scream, no matter how strong they are," Ember said as her fingers danced down Raven's arm to the apparatus on her hand. Her fingers gently pressed down on one of the leavers at the end of a finger, and Raven felt something sharp threaten to slide under her nail. The Maiden's eyes went wide when she realized what was about to happen.

"My name is Ember," A black grin formed on her face as she raised up her hand, and a fist came down to slam down on the lever. Raven screamed out as her fingernail was forcibly removed from her finger. Raven thrashed in her bindings as Ember let out a groan of pleasure, sucking the scream from her lips with another painful kiss while her hips bucked against Raven's thigh. Tears fell from her eyes as she cried out with the waves of pain that made her body shake. "What's my name?" Ember asked, out of breath with her lips pressed against Raven's ear, her nails digging into her shoulders.

"You're fucking crazy," Raven managed before she saw Ember's hand lift again. "No no wait wait!" Her pleas were cut off as another knife was pushed under her fingernail and was popped off by force, making her scream even more as her arm was felt like it was on fire. Ember arched her back as she moaned in chorus with Raven's screaming before the Maiden's face was painfully forced to look into Ember's eyes, equal measures of hate and arousal in them.

"Look at me!" She growled. "Look at my eyes, remember my hair. I will haunt your nightmares, you fucking bitch!" Ember tore Raven's top off and bit into her bare shoulder, her hips never stopping their movements as her teeth found her neck, "What's. My. Name?"

Raven knew the game they were playing, and there was only one defence to it. The Maiden held her eyes shut and shouted out. "Yang Xiao Long! Ruby Rose! Weiss Schnee! Ivory Hale!" Raven shouted out every name that came to her mind while blocking any image of Ember from her mind.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!" The woman shouted as she began to use her fists on her face and held her head in her hands. Forcibly opening her eye to stare into them. "OPEN YOUR FUCKING EYES OR I'LL TEAR THEM OUT!" Raven only shouted out more names, earning a slash across her face, marking her skin with Ember's nails. Raven could faintly hear Ash's voice in the middle of Ember's screaming when the woman was removed from Raven, and she could finally catch a breath.

"Take a walk," His voice was commanding, and he pointed to the door of the room. Raven could see Ember's whole body shake like she was about to combust in fury and arousal. Eventually, the woman stormed out of the room with one last dirty glare and slammed the door on her way out. Ash just took a deep breath and sat back down in his seat. "Forgive my sister; she is incredibly impulsive and rather cranky when she doesn't get to finish," how casually he waved his sister's actions made Raven worry even more as he moved his seat closer to hers.

"You are incredibly clever; I'll give you that much. Shouting out other's names so we can't take the Maiden powers is such a smart move. We have no way of knowing who these women are, or even if they exist! That is brilliant," Ash spoke with a genuine smile on his face as he shook his finger at her. "I knew I would like you,"

"Go to hell!" Raven growled out through the pain raking through her body. Her arm shaking as the air was attacking the bleeding wounds at the end of her fingers. "You can't kill me without losing the Maiden powers."

"This is true, but we already have the Relic; delivering the Maiden with it is just icing on the cake," Ash said as he got out of his seat and leaned over Raven; she could see the open gashes on her face in the reflection of his sunglasses. "But where dear Ember is impulsive, I am patient," He spoke as he pulled a card out from thin air and began to balance it on top of the next lever that would remove her fingernail.

"The ocean cannot move mountains, but it can carve through them, given enough time. Creeks become streams, streams become rivers. Water will carve stone through the eons until there is nothing but a cavernous valley. No hint of the mountain that was there before. Everyone is a slave to time, even us." Raven watched him balance the edge of the card, standing on its own on top of the lever, and Ash returned to his seat.

"You are strong, Raven, one of the strongest I have ever met. But at the end of everything, the strong will be made weak, and the weak will die off. All you need…" He lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. The card Ash painfully balanced began to glow purple, and the gravity Dust the card was made out of began to push the lever down.

"...Is patience,"

Raven watched in horror as the blade was slowly pushed into her flesh, and it was agony as her next nail was removed over the next several minutes. Raven tried her best to keep her screams suppressed, but the pain was too much, and she lost the fight. No matter how much she struggled against her bonds, how much she thrashed in her chair, nothing could stop the knife from digging into her finger. She just wanted it all to end. When the nail was finally separated, Ash stood from his seat and plucked it off her finger and examined it before letting it fall to the floor. Sweat plastered Raven's hair to her face as she willed her body to stop shaking, to stop looking so weak. Her vision was filled with Ash's face as he placed the next card in its spot and held his fingers up, ready to continue the torture.

"Her name is Ember." He spoke softly. Raven could not find her voice; only a low sob escaped her lips as tears fell from her eyes. He waited a moment before he snapped his fingers, and Raven was lost to the pain.

A/N: Woo boy...

I don't know what came over me for this chapter, but congratulations to those who managed through it. For those who didn't want anything to do with that, hopefully, the rest of the chapter was fun too.

If you enjoyed it, leave a Favourite! If you already have, leave a comment! I love reading them and I love replying to them. This story is also posted on AO3 under the same name. So if you read there as well, come show your support! I'm also on Tumblr at AngryFaceWritings come say hi!

And as always, thank you for taking time out of your busy days to read my slice of madness!