The Resurrection Relic
Chapter 2: A Stone

Last Chapter: The box will open, one way or another.

A shattered soul lay dormant, unable to interact with anything. The container that held it was still sealed, restricting it from accessing the world. For ages it sat in a position deep below the surface of the planet, sensing the intense natural magics of the land but could not harness it for its own use. How long had he sat there in this indescribable state, between Life and Death, between his natural form and the realm he governed? The ambient magic herehwas barely enough totkeep him alive. If he could just get a bit of magic into him...

One day a patch of darkness appeared, like an ink-stain on pristine parchment. The mortals defended themselves with ancient relics, forged eons ago. Eventually though, these Relics were lost in time, the darkness spreading. He watched as an observer as the inhabitants of this world forgot about magic, no longer able to wield such a power. The creatures of Darkness grew, and his prison was still left alone.

And then it changed. A figure found him, a woman who could wield magic. He could not see like normal people could, yet he could identify her by her magic and the outline of her soul that surrounded her. His 'sight' was little more than sensing magic in his surroundings. He realized he was being moved, and reached out greedily to her magic, leeching on in hope to resurrect himself. The figure doubled over in pain and he was dropped to the ground. A sense of fear washed over him. He had been too hasty, harming a host in order to help himself, much like a Horcrux would. He backed off, not wanting to accidentally kill someone. He had sword that he would not be like Tom Riddle when he realized the position he was in. The energy he had taken was actually about a quarter of what he needed to escape the box that restrained him. If only he could get some more...

He pulsed in happiness as he saw the woman had some crystals on her that were pure magic. He siphoned the power from those shards and phials of dust, fueling himself more. He was nearly there now, just a bit more. Suddenly he was aware of the dark beings surrounding them, drawn by the woman's now weak magic and fear. The soul realized his mistake too late, and the woman was attacked. She tried to use the shards of magic in a weapon to fight, but they had been drained of magic, unable to combust and protect her. The soul still couldn't help her, as the amount he had stolen was too low to interact physically. The woman took a fatal strike to the back by a large lumbering creature, and she fell to the ground.

Then someone burst from nearby, entering the fray. The soul could only 'see' the person because they too had magic, but this was implanted, like a tattoo, into their chest. From what the soul could tell, the man was a shape-shifter of some kind? A bird? He also had an aura of Bad Luck around him, flickering intermittently like a light bulb with a bad socket. The man swept through, slaying the darkness like a beacon of light. He swiftly scooped up the woman and the box that contained the soul, and took off, outrunning the creatures with ease. The soul refrained from draining the man, holding itself back while they were still in danger. Time passed, and the woman died. The man eventually reached a building of some sort, and placed the box in a small storage space. The soul within hoped to get just a little bit more power so he could reincarnate, but no, it was not to be as the man never returned to the spot.

More years passed, multiple people passing through the building day by day, never touching the spot he was hidden, keeping him on the verge of returning for ages. Then one day, someone picked him up. It was a girl. Something about her was similar to the woman from before... was this her daughter? He slowly pulled on her soul and magic, gradually powering up as he did not want to harm her. He swore then and there he would protect this girl forever if she managed to free him. Soon, he would have enough power. Soon the Master of Death would be free.

R_R

An Hour or so Later...

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

With a loud crack the bit of the drill broke, pieces flying into the wall, narrowly missing Ruby's face. She ignored it. Her aura would protect her if it had hit her, of course. "Whyyyy?" She wailed, staring at the still pristine box. A brief flash of amusement seemed to come from the cube, and she glared at it. Nothing had worked! Her welding tools had no effect, the blade of a saw shattered, and her other tools were useless! Not to mention the icon was not recognizable and there were no results online about it. She stood up, pulling her hand from the box.

As she pulled away, the box was no longer using her aura, and she was hit by some vertigo. Stumbling to the side, she shook her head to clear the feeling. "Woah... Why am I so tired all of a sudden? Oooh, I guess I was right about it using aura..."

Aha! Now she had a basis for her experiments. If it used aura, perhaps it could be opened if it was given enough at once? Something about feeding the box her aura didn't sit right with Ruby. Perhaps it would be best to wait on that idea. Ruby picked up the box and held it under one arm. Until she came to a decision on how to open the box, she would keep an eye on it in case something happened. For science.

Maybe Dust would work on it? Didn't Yang have some?

R_R

Yang yawned tiredly as her headache finally began fading away. "Mmm... breakfast..." she muttered, smoothing her unruly hair as she stumbled out of bed. Man, what a night! The bar she went to was pretty nice, actually having decent alcohol for Patch, and the few guys there were enamored with her. They may have had one too many drinks though if her hangover was any indication. She stumbled to her feet, combing her unruly mane into what resembled her usual style.

Her headache pulsed as the bright sunlight shone through the window. "Ugh, what time is it..." she glanced at the bedside clock, squinting until the numbers stopped blurring. She noted her desk drawer was left open, and shoved it closed.

12:45 PM

"Oh... I guess I slept in too much." Yang mumbled. "Didn't Ruby try waking me up earlier?" She rubbed her chin in thought.

'What was it about? She was excited about something, and was shouting about-' She stood up in shock, realizing what today was. "Her birthday!" Yang exclaimed, and began pacing back and forth, her aura starting to push away the headache. "I forgot! How could I be so stupid to do that! I'm a terrible sister to have messed that up! I have to go make it up to her!" Yang made her way across the hall to Ruby's room, pushing open the door with a shove. "Hey Rubes! I'm so-" she stopped as she took in the room's state of disarray. "-sorry?" she finished, looking around. Where did she go? Her weapon and multiple boxes were thrown to the side, as if she were searching for something. A trail of dirty footprints were on the floor, so Yang followed them. They led to the Attic, where she found even more boxes in disarray.

'Why did she take Dust and her weapon? Think Yang. She was clearly upset by the fact no one remembered her birthday,' she winced at the fact that she had to use that sentence in any way. 'What would I do if I were pissed off? I'd go and fight Grimm.' Yang paled rapidly.

"Oh no." She promptly leapt for her scroll and made a call.

R_R

Ruby stepped lightly across the rocks in the river, leaping to avoid getting her boots wet. With the box under one arm, and the stolen Dust Crystals in the other, she quickly made her way to an empty clearing in the woods. The edges were hidden by dense brush, most definitely far enough out of the way so as to prevent a Grimm from having any reason to come there. Her aura was still being used by it, but not enough to harm her yet. She would ensure she could still make it back safely.

The box was placed in the middle of the clearing, that familiar feeling of loss filling her as she let go. Ruby shook off the want to hold it more, and pulled out some Dust from her secret stores. Uncle Qrow didn't want her messing with raw Dust on her own, only teaching her to use pre-made bullets. He seemed too worried that she would hurt herself in some way. He had never really gotten over Summer's death. None of them had.

She tapped out a few pinches of White Wind Dust, the least volatile of the crystals, and the cheapest to buy. If anything had happened to the Dust, they could easily replace it. She sprinkled it onto the box, watching the small gusts of air circulate the shards as they hit the surface. Suddenly the Dust stopped moving, losing its glow, and vanished into thin air. Ruby was stunned, and began scribbling onto a pad of paper rapidly. If this was a new discovery, she wanted to record it.

-Seems to absorb Dust and Aura (power source?)
-White Dust just vanished
-Makes people who give it power feel good?

Ruby shook her head and scribbled out the final note. There was no need to include her feelings into a purely scientific report on how it reacted with Dust, not how it affected her. She put some Blue Ice Dust, watching it stop again and vanish. She frowned. This entire thing seemed impossible. You can't just get rid of matter or energy. It was simply proven to not happen. Yet it was, right before her. The strange triangle on the box seemed to flicker, darkening slightly as the Dust vanished.

Her sporadic attention drifted to the Dust. This was going a bit too slow. What if she dumped a bag on it?

Yang charged through the forest, scroll in one hand, the other fumbling as she pulled on Ember Celica. "C'mon, c'mon, pickup, pickup!"

The scroll rang for a few more moments that felt like hours in her agitated state. Finally it picked up with a click. "Yello? Yang? How's it-" Taiyang began before Yang cut him off. "Dad?! Get over here now." she barked into the phone. "Ruby's missing."

The tone on the other side of the scroll changed in a split second. "What?!" Taiyang said dangerously.

Yang almost shivered at his intensity. "I went into her room and there was a mess everywhere! It looks like she ran into the forest to go after Grimm!"

Taiyang sighed heavily. "Why the hell did she do that?!" he asked incredulously. "I can see you doing that, but not Ruby. She won't be going to Beacon for two years!"

Yang slapped her forehead in frustration. "We all forgot about it. I had a hangover, Qrow's out on a mission, you're meeting with people in Vale. We all forgot."

"Forgot what?" Taiyang asked in confusion.

Yang stopped and stared at the screen in furious sisterly anger. "WE FORGOT HER FUCKING BIRTHDAY!" she shouted into the screen.

The line went silent for a moment. "Shit."

Yang nodded, still moving through the bushes while talking. "She probably went to go blow off some steam, and went alone. I'm trying to find her right now."

"Oh no you don't young lady, go wait at home until I get there. I'll get Qrow too. You can't go running off i- woo- lone." Taiyang began stuttering as the connection faded, the hills blocking connection to the CCT tower.

"Goddamn it!" Yang growled. "I guess I have to do this myself."

She hoped Ruby was still okay.

The soul sat in anticipation. The girl had given him some of the magic charged Dust. Was she experimenting? Probably. He could hardly wait to escape, but he could wait, He had already waited an indescribable amount of time, what was a few minutes more?

Ruby grabbed a large chunk of Fire Dust in her hand, and pressed the end of it to the box. The glow from the stone vanished and the flaming stone melted into the box.

Ruby reached for the bag to grab another Dust crystal and knocked it over onto the box. She eeped and dove to the side. A burst of light appeared, centered on the box. Ruby covered her eyes, and then looked down at the box. The entire box itself was dissipating, all that was left behind was a ring with a large black stone on it. Upon the stone was the curious symbol from the box, inlaid into the stone with gold.

Should she touch it? Was the stone some kind of rare Dust? It could probably still be used for money, plus it looked nice, if a bit oversized 'C'mon Ruby, what do you do with a ring? Put it on, duh.' She picked it up, the stone gleaming strangely. "Here goes nothing..."

She placed it onto her finger, and watched as it shrunk down, the protruding stone adjusting to be a bit more discreet, not as flashy, just like Ruby liked. She waited a few moments more with baited breath. She sighed as nothing else happened. Then something barreled into her from behind.

R_R

The soul watched as the large dust shard was absorbed, relief flooding through it as it finally reached the apex point of its required power. With a burst of magic it shattered the enchantments on the box, releasing itself to the world.

The girl was now clearer in its vision, her silver eyes staring at it in confusion. Put it on! Just put me on! The soul cried out.

The girl picked him up and put him on, and he let out a mental gasp, as he realized he could see through her in some way. Now that was a peculiar thought. He was still an object. He was no longer limited mentally or magically, yes, but an object nonetheless. Why hadn't he been restored to his body?

Before he could think about that, a figure leapt from the woods at the girl. He tried to save her, but could not make a physical form or cast magic, his magical core having atrophied from the time imprisoned. It would take weeks to return to even an eighth of his full power.

The man was conflicted. He felt the burning need to help this girl, but using her to make a body would harm her. The requisite power would have to be taken from her body and soul, possibly killing her like that woman so many years ago. Possession was out of the question, he would never put someone through that. She lay still on the ground as the beast reared back for a second attack. He made a decision.

R_R

Ruby screamed out in pain as a force shattered her aura from behind, cutting deep wounds into her back. A red eyed Grimm snarled over her prone body, rearing back to bite her. Her back burned. She tried moving her arms. No response. Tried calling out. She couldn't breathe under the weight of the Grimm. She reached out for something, anything, to help her.

Something answered. A voice, soft but determined. A pact is proposed. I shall protect you in every way, and you shall give me life. All you have to do is agree.

The condition was given, and she accepted it. Her aura appeared, but began flowing off of her like a river. She watched as it left her, now unprotected, like she had never had it unlocked. Her aura sank into the ring on her finger, and the world seemed to go still.

Her ring burst into silvery light, filling her with warmth as a... deer appeared? The Beowulf whined in surprise as it backed off, now forgotten as the stag and girl stared at each other. Was that a man next to it? Her eyes met his.

R_R

The contract was complete. He gathered his power, and focused. In a strange twisting feeling almost like apparition, he found himself in a temporary body. It appeared to be physical but was made of only determination, magic, and Dust. Thankfully a misty Patronus was enough to hold the creature at bay. He caught the dark being's claws with a silent Petrificus Totalus spell, already struggling to keep a physical form and two spells going simultaneously. Emerald eyes glared furiously into the blood red ones. He struggled to remember his spells, the wording and movements, reaching deep into his restrained mind.

Then he could remember. As he lashed forward with his other hand his memories returned, the final chains restraining him shattering- He saw a castle in flames, men running, lights flashing. A man with a snake face cackling, a redheaded girl laughing. Two figures fighting him, forcing him to the ground. A mob shouting in anger. A man apologizing as he was killed and locked within the ring, never to escape.

He remembered it all. He was Harry Potter. The Master of Death. The Chosen One.

A sickly yellow light burst forward, impacting the dark beast in the sternum. The wolf creature was blown to smithereens, gore spraying across the ground and swiftly dissipating into nothingness. He turned to the girl, and stilled himself at the sight of her shining silver eyes. "Are you all right?" he asked the girl, smiling slightly. She nodded, trying hard to rise from the ground. "Hush, rest now. I will protect you." He turned away to face the shadowed woods, seeing red eyes in the darkness, a veritable wall of beasts watching them.

"Finally..." he said quietly, voice wavering from lack of use. "I was so tired of being stuck in there. Let's have some fun, shall we?" The darkness moved forward as one, and he raised his arms in defiance, white light shining from them. He had made an oath to this girl, and he would uphold it.

END CHAPTER

Next Chapter: "Ah, it appears someone has finally come for you, Miss Rose. Until next time..."

So to clarify, because I felt the ending wasn't too good, (I did the best I could, this is what came out) Harry has a bit of a servant thing going on with Ruby, similar to Fate/Stay Night where he requires some of her magic constantly to exist. When low on energy he will stay in the stone.

He will not be interfering often, merely appearing only to her to train her or comfort her every now and then, maybe giving her ideas that would change things in canon due to butterfly effect. No one else can quite see him, although they may notice Ruby talking to 'herself'. This is going to be a really interesting story once Beacon starts. I hope this goes well! :D If anyone wants to beta/give ideas I'm happy to hear it. Point out any errors you notice please! A few edits may be made after this was posted, but nothing plot changing.

Anyway, give a review and follow if you liked it!