So I heard you like big ass chapters, well uh, here ya go. Massive thanks to Crimson Mist and ToastyModeste for the inspiration and help in getting this guy going.

With everything seemingly settled, the Lazuili family, and by extension the rest of the world, went back to business as usual. With the Vytal festival in full swing, Aurum taught her classes, or spent time with her daughter, Neo enjoyed the festivities of the Vytal festival and spent time with her girlfriend and teammates, along with her Mother's former team.

All in all, they we're having a great time, Neo's team had faced off against team CFVY in the duos round, taking the victory against their elder team through sheer luck as Scarlet discovered her semblance at the last second, securing the win for the first year team.

Scarlet apparently had quite a powerful latent semblance, she possessed a type of matter manipulation, she named it State Swap, with her new found semblance she could change the state of matter of any physical object. Neo and Scarlet had been fighting a losing battle, when Neo sacrificed herself to take out Coco. With just Scarlet and Yatsuhashi left, Scarlet worked extra hard to take out her more experienced foe, only to come very very close to losing.

With 26% aura left to Yatsu's 51%, It seemed inevitable that Scarlet would lose, that was until Scarlet turned Yatsuhashi's weapon into Liquid.

In a brilliant clash, Scarlet attacked Yatsu, only to be fought off with ease as the large man effortlessly controlled the fight but, as Scarlet went in once more, a spark went off somewhere deep in her soul, and as she swung her twin blades, they simply passed straight through Yatsuhashi's giant sword, Hitting home on the large unsuspecting student. Scarlet continued without pause, entering a furious combo on Yatsu, taking his aura all the way down in one engagement.

As the buzzer rang, Scarlet helped her former foe to his feet, where she was asked, "What was that?"

The large man held up the hilt to his massive sword, where the blade was separated from the rest of the sword lying on the ground across the small field they fought in.

Scarlet came closer and inspected the cut in the blade, finding a metallic orange fluid on the cut. Running her finger down it, she was surprised to find that more of the blade turned into the fluid as her finger touched it. Scarlet met the eyes of her fellow hunter in training with a massive smile, "I think that was my semblance!" Scarlet turned to Neo, as she and Coco joined the two in the field, "Neo! I found my semblance! Look!"

Scarlet bent down and picked up some grass off of the ground, holding it out in her palm, "Look Neo!"

Neo did as asked and looked at Scarlet's hand full of grass, and then gasped as she turned it into a semi transparent green soup. The fluid fell out of Scarlet's hand and onto the ground where it seeped into the dirt.

"But what about my weapon... Fulcrum was not simple to forge." Yatsuhashi asked in a dejected tone, Scarlet looked at him with remorse in her eyes, She shared her team leader's opinion on weapons and their wielders.

"I... Lets find out." Scarlet said with determination in her voice. Walking over to the rest of the massive blade, she had Yatsuhashi place the two halves od the weapon together, However there was still a quarter inch break in the blade where it had been turned into liquid, Scarlet turned her focus inwards, and called upon her semblance, trying to will it to work in reverse. Slowly, the orange metallic fluid crawled across the ground and back to where the weapon laid. Once all the fluid had collected, Scarlet could feel a switch become available in her brain, and she flipped it. Then, like nothing happened in the first place, the fluid simply snapped back to solid, and the great-blade was whole once more.

Yatsuhashi picked up the blade and inspected it, once confirming it was just as he had forged it, he turned to Scarlet and said, "That's a powerful semblance, Use it well." Before walking off to the ready room.

Neo and Scarlet shared a look before retreating to their ready room, where they instantly experimented with Scarlet's semblance, it was here that Scarlet discovered she could turn liquids to gasses, and vice versa, she liquefied some air and drank it, and was surprised that once it entered her stomach it turned back to gas, making her burp. They experimented with using in tandem with Neo's semblance, and it was here that they made their greatest discovery. If Neo made an illusion, Scarlet could liquefy it to get a fluid that glowed a dull white; When this was done, Neo immediately lost the aura it took to make the illusion, but that was expected, what wasn't expected was that when consumed, this fluid restored the aura of whoever drank it.

The incredible part of all of this? Only the conversion cost any aura; Maintaining the fluid state of the aura cost Scarlet no aura whatsoever.

Stunned by this revelation, Neo and scarlet decided not to tell anyone but their team and Neo's mother about the discovery.

In the Guest Dorm where team NSVD was staying, Neo's whole team was waiting for Aurum to arrive, the duo had yet to tell Dew or Nebula about their discovery, but they had gone and purchased 5 canteens to give to each one of them, 4 of which were already full of the liquefied aura.

As the two were avoiding questions from their teammates, they were interrupted y a knock on the door. Once opened Aurum walked into the room while asking, "Alright Neo, what was so important you had to pull me out of the teacher's meeting for?"

"Scarlet discovered her semblance, and using in conjunction with mine, we made a massive discovery."

Aurum blinked, and then crossed her arms and met her daughters eyes, "Well? Out with it Missy."

"Scarlet can change the state of matter of anything. Including Aura."

Aurum's eyes widened, "And how did she discover that it works on aura?"

Neo continued in her explanation, reaching into a bag at the foot of her bed and pulling out the empty canteen and a funnel, she summoned an opaque cube with her semblance. The cube hovered above the funnel and canteen, and Scarlet rested her hand on it.

Suddenly scarlet's hand sunk into the illusory cube and a glowing white fluid appeared around her hand as it passed through the cube, the fluid all rolling down her arm and into the funnel as she turned the rest of the cube into a liquid.

Once finished Neo offered the canteen to her mother and said, "Drink it, you'll see what we mean."

Aurum did as asked and after taking a swig and waiting for a few seconds she gasped, "Oh wow!" She looked at the canteen appraisingly, "That stuff's potent... It kinda reminds me of..." Aurum's eyes widened, and she met Neo's eyes.

Neo looked at her mother with Sympathy in her eyes as tears began to form in the corners of the golden huntresses eyes. Neo then used her semblance to turn her and her mother invisible, and then, after taking a swig of the fluid aura, she concentrated and expanded the cube where her weapon sat, letting it engulf the room, she then took her mother's hand and flipped a mental switch, allowing her to enter the space where her weapon lay.

Aurum looked around her, with wide eyes, she knew Neo had some sort of pocket dimension thing going on with her semblance, but she had never seen this.

"Neo? Where are we?"

"Inside my Hypercube, I've made small ones before, but I've never actually made one big enough to go inside of."

Aurum admired her surroundings, the world was tinted a dull pink, and every surface looked crystalline.

Neo smiled, "I've always wanted to do this... Do you know how a hypercube works?

Aurum sniffled a bit, clearing her nose, "No... I know you've told me before but it went over my head."

Neo patted her mother's back as she recomposed herself, "In our world everything is 3 dimensional, Front back, left right, up down... In a hyper cube, you add a fourth dimension, call it another axis. Right now, we literally are in the same place as before, just, at a different point along that fourth axis."

As if listening in on the conversation, one of Neo's teammates got up and walked through the space Neo was standing in, the pinked out version of Dew phasing through Neo as if she wasn't even there.

Aurum watched this with wide eyes, "How the... Kiddo, How in the world did you come up with this?"

Neo laughed brightly at her mother's dumbfounded look, "I always did love math... Geometry is so interesting when you can make any shape imaginable with your mind. So I just 'Imagined' what a hypercube would be like, and poof, here it is. Check this out."

Neo smirked as she grabbed her mother's arm. And once again the world shifted, the background becoming a faded white instead of pink. All around Aurum, several items appeared out of seemingly nowhere, Aurum spotted Neo's weapon in the mix, along with what looked like some rations, some blankets and sleeping bags, and several other survival items.

Aurum looked in confusion at her daughter, "Wait, so you just store crap in here?"

Neo laughed once again, "Only light stuff, the only reason we can stand is because the bottom of the hypercube is actually through the floor."

By this point Aurum had composed herself, so Neo grabbed her hand and said, "You good?" Aurum nodded, "Alright, make sure we're not standing in someone else and lets get back to reality."

To the rest of the observers in the room, Neo and Aurum had simply popped out of existence the vacuum of air left behind by their departure making a light pop as it collapsed to fill the space they previously occupied.

Scarlet instantly knew where Neo had gone and had assured Dew and Nebula that they would be back shortly. After roughly a minute, the mother daughter duo reappeared, a faint whoosh of air accompanying them.

The three noticed that Aurum was much more composed than before. After reappearing, Neo walked to the bed and picked up one of the canteens. When shopping Scarlet and Neo had made sure to get canteens that matched their carrier's color scheme, so Neo passed her mother a bronze coated canteen with blue accents. One that was currently full of the liquefied aura.

Aurum took the canteen and inspected it with an introspective look on her face, with a soft voice she said, "Thanks kiddo..."

Scarlet watched the interaction with a curious look on her face, and after that comment she was extremely curious, "What the hell happened to make you of all people so upset?"

Scarlet was immediately smacked upside the head by all three of her teammates, with each one yelling at her over each other, Neo with the most anger out of all of them.

That is, they yelled until Aurum held her hand up, "No... it's okay. It's just, painful memories... I never do talk about my team... er, teams... The feeling of my aura being boosted, it reminded me of how one of their semblances felt... a lot. I... remember how he died."

The room had become somber, the atmosphere of curiosity had fallen away as Aurum had unexpectedly opened up to the first year team.

"He was on our Sister team... He died to save me... they all did in a way, but he did so in a literal sense, sacrificing the last of his aura to boost mine so that I could live..."

Aurum had tears brimming in her eyes once again, and Neo gave her mother a sympathetic look, and asked her through rose if she was okay. Only to get a somewhat alarming response from Rose, She is on the edge of a breakdown Neo, Her being back here is bringing up some awful memories for her, I'd know, I'm in her head.

Neo shot an angry glare at Scarlet and grabbed her mother's shoulder. Her mother's eyes were glazed over, focused on something in the far distance even though she was facing a wall.

"We are having a serious talk after this."

Neo then once again shifted herself and her mother into the hypercube. Guiding her mother over to one of the beds, Neo sat down alongside her mother and patted her on the back, in a calming voice Neo spoke, "Let it out mom, Its okay, I'm here."

Ruby tried to hold herself together for a few seconds more. But then the dam broke, and Ruby's tears flowed freely for the first time in her life.

Ruby cried softly at first, her mind wandering between all the deaths in her past. But once she remembered her final battle, she descended into sobs. Ruby cried heavily, her sight flashing with visions of her friends and loved ones, blood on her hands. The longer Ruby sobbed the more concerned Neo became, until eventually she decided to call for help.

Neo summoned Rose, and was quickly greeted by the sight of her mother's spirit lookalike. Rose came out of her relic with a concerned look on her face, and something sparkling in her bright silver eyes, Rose shrunk herself down to be slightly bigger than Ruby, and sat down on the bed, her body coming into contact with solid matter for the first time in her existence. Rose then embraced the sobbing woman, and together they sat on the bed for 3 full hours as Ruby cried, comforting Ruby as she let out 3 and a half decades of sorrow.

Ruby had never grieved once in her life, instead she had bottled up all her grief to deal with later, and once she began her part in the war on Salem, any and all grieving was an obstacle to the mission, and she set it aside for later. Now, all those years of stored up sorrow, grief, and raw pain was hitting her all at once, her team's deaths flashing in front of her.

Sobs shook Ruby's body, all of her worst experiences flashed through her mind as she sat in her companion's arms, her daughter attempting to soothe her the whole time. After several hours passed, Ruby crying the whole time, she finally spoke, her voice raspy and broken, "T-thank you..."

Ruby wiped her eyes with a tissue that Neo had given her, "Both of you, thank you s-so much... I..." another sob wracked Ruby's body as she thanked her daughter and best friend repeatedly, "I... I l-love you guys s-so m-much. I-I'm s-sorry I-"

"You don't have to apologize for anything Rosebud, we'd stay here for days if we had to, I can stop time remember?"

"I-i K-kno-w-w Rose... B-but I H-had hoped, t-that my little g-girl wouldn't h-have to s-see this..."

Ruby said, a sad smile on her face and a tormented look in her eyes, Neo responded before her mother could continue, "Just let it out mom, I'm here for you. We both are, you're not alone mom, me and Rose are here to help for as long as you want."

Ruby just nodded and leaned into her companion's embrace. Letting the tears fall as she did so, as Ruby relaxed she let out a sigh, "Hhow long h-have we been in here an-ny ways Neo?"

Neo looked at Rose and shrugged, and Rose spoke, "You were here with Neo for roughly half an hour, we have been frozen in time for about 6 hours, though no time has passed in reality."

Ruby gave a wet chuckle, and mumbled, "6 and a half hours of me s-sobbing like a schoolgirl... some huntress I am."

Rose and Neo met eyes, both with a concerned look in their eyes. Rose spoke slowly at first, but with confidence, "Ruby... You are without a doubt the strongest individual on this planet. There is not a single person on this planet that could hope to defeat you in single combat as you are, let alone when you are well composed."

Neo added to Rose's sentiment, "Mom, Crying doesn't make you weaker... you've told me that before."

Ruby met Neo's eyes, and Neo could see the raw suffering reflected in her mother's look. Neo embraced her mother once again, and allowed the tormented woman to continue her sobbing.

The 3 embraced for roughly another hour before Ruby let out a yawn, Neo offered to take them back into the real world, but Ruby refused. Instead opting to lie down on one of the beds present in the room, Neo and Rose joined her, and together they comforted Ruby as she cried herself to an uneasy sleep.

Several hours later, the trio awoke with Rose waking first and musing to herself, "hmm, so that's what sleep is like... it's... Pleasant."

Rose's speech awoke Neo, who rose out of her spot on the bed with a massive yawn. Stretching, Neo looked down on her sleeping mother, a look of concern on her unkempt face. Looking up from her mother, and to the spirit on the other side of the bed, Neo asked, "So Rose, How long have you been corporeal for?"

Rose blinked, and looked down at herself, checking her mental clock, "I... have been in this form for exactly 17 hours 32 minutes and 15 seconds. It's strange, I am both uncomfortable and yet at the same time, the most comfortable I have ever been. I was not meant to stay summoned for anywhere near this amount of time, and my body would very much like it if I were not physical at the moment. However, I feel as though I have spent the last decade and a half restless and tired, and am rejuvenated."

Neo gave Rose a confused look, "What do you mean?"

Rose met Neo's look and explained, "I am a spirit. I was never meant to walk this realm, and thus my corporeal form rebels the longer I stay. I had noticed it before we fell asleep, this nagging feeling in my core. But now that we're awake. I can feel a yearning for my Relic, deep in my chest."

Rose gained a contemplative look on her face and continued, "But at the same time, I had never slept a minute in my life before today, and now that I have, I can say I can certainly see why you're so fond of it, I feel as though I have just popped a crick in my back that has been nagging me for a decade. It is a very very nice feeling."

Neo hummed, and looked back down to her mother, who was beginning to stir,

"Neo? Rose? What time is it?" Ruby asked sleepily

"The same time it was when you went to bed mom, Rose has been here the whole time."

Ruby leaned up and wiped her eyes with a yawn, "What? That makes no..."

Ruby's eyes widened as she remembered the... previous night? No that's not quite right, time didn't pass... either way, Ruby looked at her dull pink surroundings and furrowed her brow, Neo's teammates were still where they were when Rose first appeared, Ruby turned to the Spirit in question and asked, "Wait a sec, can you stay summoned indefinitely?"

Rose Grimaced and responded, "No, I've only been corporeal for 17 or so hours and I can already feel my body yearning to be inside my relic once more, I suspect anything past a day would become painful."

Ruby gained a dejected look, "Well there goes that Idea."

Her attention was then grabbed by Neo, who asked her, "Mom... are you okay?"

Ruby looked down at her hands, memories of the night before playing in her head, specifically the memory of Nora's death, the vision of her hands covered in a slick red fluid.

Ruby's hands had started to shake without her knowing, and the two onlookers once again shared a concerned look.

Neo grasped Ruby's hands to steady them, and Rose rested her hand on Ruby's back, "You're safe here Rosebud."

Ruby closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, "I'm... Not okay. But... I'll get there."

Rose smiled warmly, "That's all we ask Ruby."