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It was 5:17 am and, in the room where Ace, Lisa, Seth, and Luna slept, there was an early bird who woke up in such a bright mood.
We were talking about Ace. For the first time in years, Ace slept and woke up without putting his guard up.
Sleeping was a big problem for Ace, the blue-haired boy was able to sleep at least six hours at the night. However, after Salem's wrath, Ace was sleeping for 2 to 4 hours and sleeping with his weapons next to him all the time. Sleepless nights were something common to Ace because of trying to keep his guard and the nightmares he had. It made Ace change his style and the effort he made in the fighting because if he became unconscious or slept long enough, he wouldn't wake up and sleep for more than 18 hours, depending on how tired he was and how many hours he stayed.
Now, as he returned to the past, he slept without caring in the world. For the first time, he slept without nightmares, feeling safe, something he missed for a long time. It was a great feeling to sleep without worrying about anything at the moment.
Right now, he was stretching and doing push-ups to stay fit. What types do you ask? All of them. Yes, he was doing a 3x10 as minimum and 10x10 as maximum. It was a part of his training when he was young, it was tiring at first but it became a normal thing, later.
He went to the bathroom, took a bath, brushed his teeth, fixed his hair, and went to make breakfast. He had simple sandwiches and a cup of tea because he preferred it and started to make breakfast for the family. He made eggs, bacon, coffee, and the milk bottle for Luna, prepared the table, and finally opened the TV to watch something. It became 6:30 am and everyone woke up finding the breakfast ready.
After that, the young siblings went to the school Ace was taking care of Luna while Regina was washing the dishes and Zack went to the mayor to talk about the mission's reward. A normal day in Ace's family and he liked it. It was refreshing to have a normal day with the family and not the Tuesdays he had to handle.
Later, he was now outside and waiting for someone. He wore a standard red t-shirt and black pants. Who was he waiting for? It was Azure Storm. His big sister and the biggest sibling. Azure was older than Ace by 4 years and started training at the age of 9. Azure had a hammer that can turn into a shotgun for both short and long ranges. How you might ask? It's Remnant and the technology in weapons was just as crazy as you expect. It was a normal thing, like his old teammates' weapon.
As for Azure herself, she was working hard on becoming a huntress and when she saw Ace was doing the same process faster, she became jealous and started to work harder in the remaining time before Beacon. Both of them were doing their hardest to become the best in hunting like competing in a friendly battle. Except it wasn't that friendly. By the time Azure went to Beacon, Ace didn't have the Dust Decoded until a year later.
When she returned in the holidays, she found Ace growing more and more than she thought. In terms of power or growth, he was on fire and it kept going. She felt half proud half jealous. Proud to see her brother grow up but jealous at the same time because Ace beat her in training and can beat her in a fight even if he didn't use the Demon Sword, but Ace was very generous and taught her some tricks on how she could be fast and the aura control could be better.
Ace and Azure made friendly fights between them ever since Ace was growing stronger and better. Turns out, Ace was able to beat Azure in most of the fights they had while Azure was able to beat Ace twice. The first one was when she gave him one strong when she took the opportunity when he tripped. The second one was when he had the Demon Sword and even without it, Azure admitted that beating him was very difficult because in the second to last year before graduation she beat Ace by using small details and the tricks she learned from him that she used to her advantage in Beacon, too.
'Good times.' Ace thought happily at those memories.
It was afternoon and things were normal. Her arrival was close, the family was sitting in the house and doing their normal stuff, while Ace was waiting for Azure and listening to music in his scroll. Right now, a song called Judas was playing, and pretty much enjoyed the music until she arrives. Ace was singing it and playing an air guitar, showing how much he's into it. As it finished, he checked the clock and it was about a minute before she arrived.
Ace put his scroll away and eagerly waited for his sister to arrive, he took deep breaths and collected himself to make it like a coincidence. After the minute she spoused to arrive, he got confused. Why was she late? Did she arrive minutes after or did something happen? Ace rubbed his hair and started to think- "Gotcha!" A pair of hands suddenly warped around him from behind and fell on him, making him face-first into the ground.
The person released his grip and laughed, "Hahaha. I beat you this time, Ace." The person sounded feminine and her figure wore a green shirt, brown chest plate, black fingerless gloves, brown pants, and brown boots. She carried a large shotgun on her back. She had long dark blue hair with red eyes like the other siblings.
"Looks like the training I gave you finally started to show its results, Azure." Ace said as he stood.
"What do I say? I finally beat you in something." Azure said as she put her hands on her hips.
Ace chuckled and hugged Azure without a warning and Azure hugged back. "I have missed you, sis."
"Me too. Now, let's check them out." Azure responded as both siblings went inside.
…
As the day was moving on, Ace had more fun than the day before. He was having a great time together when Azure was into the mix and it was great having her and talking about the missions with her team, the Grimm they encountered, the moments they had, etc. Lisa was happy and excited to see her sister while Seth simply smiled. A precious and rare smile came out which by the way, made him unintentionally adorable.
This family reunion was one of the things he needed and it was completed with Azure's return. He felt like he didn't want to do anything other than spend time with his family like when the elder wanted to have time with his/her grandchildren, but he had a task to complete and should finish it so he could finally live in peace.
Right now, it's their usual annual fight between them, and the tension was high. Azure, who developed herself from the lessons she learned from her brother, was ready to make what felt like the biggest battle in her life and Ace knew that very well as he was pretty much ready for that.
Inside the depths of Patchwork forest, Ace and Azure were ready to battle, and the atmosphere felt like fire. Outside of their range were the family who was waiting with Regina to record everything.
Stepping in, Azure pulled her weapon that called Deoxy. A giant shotgun that needed to reload once and pretty much worked for both short and long-range. On the other side, Ace carried his weapons except for the Demon Sword because it would be a huge stomp and unfair, which didn't mean that it would make it any easier for Azure. Both of them were ready and the smile they had on their faces pretty much showed it.
"Something will happen in this fight, wouldn't it?" Seth asked.
"I grantee these two might go wild and there's a chance we might see a lot of damage. So, I had backup if the forest went on fire." Regina answered and start to record.
Azure checked the ammo and Ace pulled the Dust Decoded. This fight was going to be nuts or at least somewhat good.
(Insert song: His World by Crush 40)
Ace made his first move and approached Azure quickly. He swung his sword but Azure blocked it with the shotgun and as a result, it made a small crater in the ground. Azure pushed Ace and shot at him but he dodged so quickly and became behind her. Azure reacted fast enough and turned quickly to shoot again but he dodged again.
Ace stood back and put the Dust Decoded on his back and chose to use Hand-To-Hand. Azure started to shoot Ace but he was dodging them, he came and punched Azure but she blocked the attack with her weapon which resulted in her to pushed back a bit. Ace wouldn't leave her for a second and attacked immediately with his fists and kicks but Azure had no problem with parrying them until she dodged a punch and smacked Ace with the shotgun.
Ace was stunned which opened a chance for Azure to shoot but he blocked it with the Sabrewulf Gauntlets. "Well, that attack was good. I guess the party is getting started. Let's dance!" Ace said as he attacked Azure.
Azure didn't shoot this time but waited for her chance but suddenly, a pair of hands caught her and carried her towards Ace. The one who caught her off guard was a clone by Ace which she wasn't able to sense it coming. The clone was getting closer to the real Ace before he jumped, gave her a dropkick in her face, and used the momentum to make a German Suplex on Azure. The blue-haired girl tried to get up but she met a kick towards her face making her standing on her feet stunned. She tried to progress what was happening and saw that the clone and Ace were approaching her but she dodged the clone kicked his back towards Ace and rolled to Deoxy. Azure shot an explosive shot towards the clone and Ace which both took the hit. Ace was pushed into the tree and the clone disappeared, he saw a coming shot from Azure and dodged it like a blur.
Azure looked around and scanned the area carefully before she got any sudden hits until she heard the sound of the Dust Decoded transform but it was low to recognize which one he used. She used the aura method to scan the area and, thanks to Ace's training, she dodged the stream of water behind her and shot another one at Ace, but he shielded himself with his sword.
Ace was using the water dust and Azure knew that because of the red crustacean-like armor that had blue circles and 2 openings for the water to come out.
Azure asked herself multiple times what they were thinking when they designed the sword but it didn't matter because Ace shot another stream of water at Azure but she dodged it. She had to admit despite looking small, it actually can break the tree quite easily which she wouldn't like to know how it felt. After more shots, Ace changed the sword back to normal and tried to attack Azure with the Dust Decoded.
Azure was jumping from one tree to another and saw Ace running after her and he jumped to attack. Azure shot at Ace and used the momentum to reach into another tree which was a good strategy but Ace was able to close the gap and he cornered her before he charged like a blur.
'Okay, let's raise things.' Azure said in her thoughts and pressed a button to change the shotgun into a hammer and quickly stopped Ace's attack.
The collision was strong enough to make a shockwave in the area. Ace continued to attack her but she blocked all of his attacks and dodged a one that cut a border into half easily. She took the chance and swung her hammer at Ace's chest which made Ace fly towards a couple of trees with one that was flying next to him. He stood on his feet and carried the tree and threw it at Azure who took the hit.
She pushed the tree away and quickly dodged a coming karate kick from Ace and swung Deoxy at Ace's back and realized it was a clone when it disappeared from how strong the hit was. She looked behind and saw Ace who changed the Dust Decoded to lightning form where the sword's blade was covered with purple lightning and shot at Azure, sending her flying. As Azure was flying, she threw her hammer behind her and landed on it. She returned to her feet and blocked a strong attack, the shockwave cut the tree behind her in half.
She took the chance as she kicked Ace's knees and channeled aura in her hammer to she swung her hammer at Ace's face and chest, making him fly a few feet in the air before he landed on the ground, making a small crater.
"Ouch." That was his reaction. It wasn't like this hit was something new to him because he took worse.
WAY WORSE!
He quickly returned to his feet and stretched his body, "Gotta say, you have learned so much since last time. I'm impressed that you can react to my speed even though I didn't go all out." Ace complimented his sister before he began to channel aura towards the sword and made aura slashes towards Azure who barely dodged them and used earth dust in her hammer to make a small earthquake.
Ace stood on his feet despite the earthquake that came and saw Azure attacking him so he avoided but Azure didn't stop attacking, and after a few swings, she disarmed Ace and took the chance to attack. She kicked the side of Ace's face, took his face and slammed it on her knees, made a backward kick that hit Ace's jaw, sending him flying, and finally, she used lightning dust and slammed her hammer in Ace's back, making him flying towards multiple trees and finally landing on a tree so hard it broke in half.
"Damn...that hit was good." Ace said as he stood back. He went to his dual pistols, Ivy and Orchid, and start moving.
Azure followed the trace of the broken trees and saw that it ended near a tree or rather half of it. She put her guard up and scanned the area because Ace can use range attacks or surprise elements or both, so, she changed Deoxy to the shotgun mode.
A minute passed and the place was quiet so she had to focus on finding her brother until she heard a shot coming and dodged it, but to her surprise, it was an explosive shot that made her fly. She landed on her foot and started her counterattack. She found him and started to shoot at him but he appeared to be a clone. Without thinking, she dodged a coming shot from behind her and shot at Ace who dodged it as well. Both started to run and shoot at each other their shots either met the trees or missed because of their speed.
They continued running until Ace changed plans and created 2 clones behind him. While he put his guns away and changed them to the Dust Decoded, Azure approached Ace from above and used her hammer to hit Ace but Ace blocked it fast enough which created a huge shockwave that made the birds fly.
Away from that scene, the family was watching the fight and looked invested in it. "Looks like Azure learned a lot since the last time she fought him. I guess Ace has the potential to be a great combat mentor when he teaches his kids or whoever asks him for training. The time he spends with Fujin must pay off with bonus features." Zack said while ducking from half a tree that came from above him and Regina nodded in agreement.
Zack and Regina knew that Ace, with the amount of ambition and hard work, will pay off his work to not just become a great huntsman but become more than that and the fight is showing that. Despite the amount of training Azure had, she wasn't able to reach Ace's level of combat before even the Demon Sword, and beating him felt like an achievement. As he got his Demon Sword she got ragdolled without so much effort.
"Yeah, I bet you're feeling jealous that he can beat you, isn't it?" Regina teased her husband and also tilted her head from coming rocks.
Zack sighed and lowered his head, "Yeah, I'm proud and jealous of that kid." An explosion happened in the background and looked like both are going crazy.
"Don't say that, dad. You will be always a great teacher." Lisa said as she hugged her father's arm. Zack smiled and patted her head before both got their attention back on the burning tree that landed next to them.
Returning to the fighters, Ace and Azure stepped up their game and the damage shows how much they did.
The siblings clashed their weapons and the metal clashing sounds make it clear how much they put into it. Azure tried to make anything because she knew that Ace started to get serious and whenever he get serious, he showed his power. So, using anything to beat him quickly would be for the better. Unfortunately, she got kneed in the guts and Ace used the opportunity to end the fight. He disarmed Azure, and punched her in the face, throwing her in the air while activating lightning dust in the sword. Ace jumped and was ready to give Azure a hell of a kick
"Death Stalker's butt-kicking!" Ace shouted as he delivered a powerful kick on her back so hard, that the gauntlets made a blue glow like scratch.
Azure was sent to the tree face-first and fell to the ground. Ace took the Dust Decoded and unleashed a powerful lightning attack at his sister which granted she would get knocked out. After she went through several trees, she stopped at a giant boulder and fell to the ground and after seconds of waiting, it was confirmed that Azure lost.
(End Song)
The family cheered and clapped because they watched one heck of a fight.
"You were great. You used different moves and she was fighting back. It was awesome. I'm excited to grow up and become better like you." Lisa exclaimed enthusiastically.
"The fight was good. I guessed that Azure might do something but it wouldn't be much to beat you." Seth commented.
Zack and Regina, on the other hand, went to help Azure. "Yeah, I…tried...but I need more than that to beat you," Azure said between coughs.
"Oh, come on. You were great! It showed how much you grew from the last time and I'm proud that you can find a way to impress me, kids." Zack said while patting his daughter's shoulder.
…
The family returned to the house and the day went normally. Ace continued to spend some time with his siblings like playing games, talking about weapons, etc. The days moved on and Azure went back to take missions. Ace felt a bit sad but wouldn't deny how much fun spending time with his big sister again.
At the moment, it's night time and Ace sat in the backyard, watching the stars while having the Demon Sword next to him to communicate.
'I'm really happy to see you this happy, boy. Spending some time with your family was able to put the smile despite the huge stresses on your back.'
'Yep. Hey, I didn't ask you before, but…how about your family?'
'Oh! I don't know to be honest. Ever since I left, I didn't hear anything about them. I guess by the time I became crazy, they may or may not be killed in the middle of the horizon.'
'I'm…sorry if I touched something.'
'It's okay. Living in this prison helped me realize a lot of things and I had learned the lesson.'
Ace closed his eyes and sighed as he stayed like this and continued to watch the stars.
"Having fun?" A voice came from behind soon to be Regina who sat next to her son.
"Kinda."
"It felt refreshing to not do so much training and spent time with your siblings, isn't it?" Regina said as she sat next to him.
"Yep, I needed that. Besides, Beacon is coming, I wanted to spend the remaining with you."
Regina giggled, "Well, I had a question…why did you cry when I came back that day." She asked remembering the day she saw Ace crying for the first time in years.
Ace's eyes widen a bit. He knew this question might come one way or another, so, he had to make a half-truth even if his mother might figure out that he was hiding something, "Well, I…It's just…I had a lot of nightmares and this stuff about losing all of you and it felt real to the point I wasn't able to focus on training or sleeping well...So, I tried to use the time remaining before I go to Beacon with you and I don't regret that. I slept peacefully and might be a bit emotional, but I will miss you." Ace lied but it was true that at the time where he had different and horrific nightmares about his family being killed or tortured.
Regina frowned, she had a bit of doubt but decided to believe him. She understood the situation Ace going through even if it sounded a bit suspicious. She hugged him and kissed his forehead. "Don't worry, my baby. We won't go anywhere. I promised you before to help you if you needed me in something or if you went crazy without control." She hugged him for a bit longer before she stood up and headed back to the house. "Come on, Ace. There's a big day tomorrow and you have to sleep early." She reminded him before she entered the house.
Ace stood up and cleaned himself before he entered. He went to the bathroom, washed his teeth, and headed to his room before he heard the news.
When he looked at the news, he saw that it happened.
"Breaking news, ladies and gentlemen. As we talk at the moment, a robbery by the biggest crime man in Vale, Roman Torchwick, had tried to rob another dust shop but it seems that two huntresses tried to stop him but he ran away again. The police caught his men who got knocked out and checked out the nearby civilians to see if there was any information about what happened." The newswoman, Lisa Lavender, who was very famous for a couple of years, talked about the first major event where Ruby encountered Roman and Cinder and had help from Glynda to stop them before she took Ruby to talk to Ozpin.
'Well, Ruby joining Beacon is almost done and everything is going smoothly. I should start planning on what's next.' Ace said in his thought before heading back to the room.
…
The sun started to rise.
5:00 AM.
Ace started his daily stretching and went to the bathroom to have a shower, made breakfast for himself and his family, prepared his bag, equipped his outfit which consists of a black t-shirt, black leather pants, brown leather boots, Black fingerless gloves, a long red trench coat with a symbol representing a skull that releases small fire from the jaw and twisted horns at the sides, a black hat that releases a red scarf due to a small collar of dust, going to the garage to and preparing the Demon Rider before going, and finally, saying goodbye to his family before he goes to Beacon.
"Please, Ace, I don't want you to go. Who will help me when I like to talk about other stuff you can handle." Lisa begged as she hugged Ace's arm so much that it was hard to remove.
"Please, Lisa, I will come back after the first half of the semester. It's not like I will spend the rest of my life at Beacon." Ace said as he was trying to remove Lisa.
"Ace's right, sis. You're overreacting. You should know that you're going to Signal academy, too." Seth agreeing.
As Lisa finally left Ace's arm, she pouted. "Make sure you doing great. Now, hug me before going." Ace said as he hugged his sibling and they hugged back.
Then, he went to his father and hugged him. "Listen, kid. You're going to Beacon and if you were lucky, you might become the team leader and I want to see you doing the role you should do." Ace chuckled because he already knows that he will become the leader. "I will try."
Finally, he went to his mother and baby sister. He carried his baby sister and kissed her cheeks. "I will miss you, Luna. Don't forget to tell me what you did once you grow up." Ace said playfully which responded with cute coos from his sister.
Regina took her and turned at Ace. "You still have a long way to become a huntsman but I wanna see you proving yourself and show them who are you." She then became closer to his ears and whispered. "And if you ever find a girl you love, five, take it or leave it." After whispering about finding romance and having children, she got back up. "You can go."
The thought of what she said embarrassed and frightened Ace. He remembered the same thing said to him, and yet, it was still scary but she was having five children and ran a house as normal. Ace removed the thought and headed to the Demon Rider.
He packed his stuff and looked at his family one last time. He waved at them and started moving.
A while later, he finally arrived and put his stuff in the storage room before he rode the bullhead, and seeing all of the people brought some memories. He was hiding his tears but failed. Some noticed and shrugged it off or thought that he will miss his family which was true too.
'It's Beacon academy time, bitches.' Ace said in his thought before he smiled and removed the tears.
…
In a dark base, a woman was standing up, wearing a red dress alongside a boy with a silver outfit and a black girl with green hair.
"All the plans are going smoothly, nearly got lost because of Ozpin's right hand but it ended without so many problems." The woman said.
"Good job, Cinder." The mysterious woman is identified as Cinder. "Keep things going normal and check our White Fang tool to make sure he provides us with more help. After all, we need to make our covers led to them, even though dear Ozpin will try to find a way through it." A voice came out from a jellyfish-like Grimm.
"Don't worry. Once I got Fall's power, I will finish Ozpin before he tries, my lady." Cinder said.
"Good, now, inform me with any updates about your stats and keep check of Torchwick's moves." The weird Grimm turned into a small cloud before it vanished.
The boy shrugged and put his hands on his hips. "It turned out to be not bad after all."
"Okay, we should continue as normal. The new year is coming and we have Lionheart and Watts already making our forged files to make sure we go to Beacon safely and without any suspicions. Still, be careful both of you and be ready for any changes and moves." Cinder explained before she start walking away.
"You think we can make it through all of that, Mercury?" The girl asked.
"Relax, as long as the plan goes without any hiccups, we should be okay, Emerald." The boy who was known as Mercury said to the girl next to him who was known as Emerald.
Little did they know, one person knew their coming plans.
AN: Hello there. Sorry If I didn't update but I will try to stay on a schedule and finish some chapters earlier so I can rest now and then. Hopefully, I don't over rest to make this story.
I don't have anything to say because of the long hiatus but I'm sure I can find anything interesting in it.
Sincerely, Eslam.