Disclaimer: RWBY and all religions not owned by me. Sorry for the late update; long story short, IT'S BEEN A DAY. Now, let's have some "fun" in Heaven.

The light only lasted a second, but it felt like the second drug on for a small eternity. It was the difference between being among mortals and being in the blessed land above, where time marched on mercilessly and where time was merely a concept. After spending so long among the mortals, the once familiar sensations now felt almost alien, entirely strange- the weightlessness, the muffled sounds, the lack of wind, air, pressure… it was almost unwelcomed.

"You always have to do things your way, don't you?"

Blake opened her eyes, reacting to the bright light out of habit rather than because it was painful. Like stepping out to greet the morning after a long night tracking her quarry, she squinted against the harshness for a moment before everything came into focus, and only then did she realize that she felt no pain, no stinging from the sudden exposure. Of course she didn't- there was no pain here, in the land of the Angels. She thought she'd be brought to the pearly gates, but no; apparently, the Highest had something else in mind. She stood now well within Heaven's bounds, among the white expanse that shifted to suit the whims of the Angels who dwell there, the place she might once have called home. Marshaling her thoughts, Blake did her best to recover from the moment of disoriented surprise, ignoring the way her broken wings refused to be hidden away. "I suppose you expected me to learn a lesson."

"Come now; I'm not quite that foolish." Ozpin stood at the top of a white hill, great grey wings flapping as he turned around. The Highest looked the same as always, silvery hair framing his face, brown eyes peeking over the top of his shades. He used the cane in one hand to point at her, a small smile on his lips. It was all for show- no Angel needed glasses or walking assistance- but one he'd maintained for countless centuries for some unknown reason. One of his quirks that she'd thought, once, might be the sign of weakness, or the loss of his sense, but she'd learned much since then. "Your fault, your great sin, was being led astray, not for wanting. I think you see that now." He chuckled. "We all yearn for more, for higher or lower, for greater things- this is not a mortal complication, but one even our creator shares. Otherwise… why create anything at all?" He started walking towards her, descending along a little path that seemed to materialize out of nowhere. "Walk with me."

Although the motions felt much different than in the mortal's world far below, Blake turned and walked beside the Highest, her shoulders feeling far too light, absent the burden laid upon them when last they spoke. She also had her full wings the last time she walked through Heaven, not the broken shells currently framing her shoulders, but that was a fleeting thought among it all. "Is there a reason you're dragging this out?"

"Suddenly impatient, are we? But I suppose I can't feign surprise." He gave her a sidelong look, those eyes searching her expression and deeper still. "What are you expecting to happen?"

"You'll banish me to Hell, the lowest circle, where all those who have Fallen eventually land." She tilted her chin down, lips pulling into a tight line. "I didn't accomplish the mission you gave me."

"Didn't you, though? Let me think." He tapped his cane thoughtfully. "I said to you, 'Blake, you have one year in the mortal world to stop fifty Demons from plaguing mankind, and only then may you return to grace', did I not?" Ozpin looked at her, that perpetual half smile on his lips. "Isn't that what you did?"

"Forty-nine," she replied, wishing he wouldn't string her along like this. The Highest favored his games, true, but she never had. "I had one stake left."

"Stakes are not how I intended to count the ones you stopped." He brought them to a halt, parting the white expanse before them to allow a glimpse into the mortal world below. She shouldn't be surprised that they were looking over the city Blake and Weiss had spent the past few months in, hovering just above the neighborhood where the apartment was. "They were helpful, yes, and you did use almost all of them, which makes the task of counting even easier, but you're forgetting one." His eyes flashed to her, a secretive smile on his lips even as their view of the world below centered on a familiar apartment building. "One Demon you never staked, no matter how close to you she got."

Her shoulders tensed, panic lancing through her. "Leave Weiss out of this."

"And who are you to make demands of me?" Ozpin chuckled, shaking his head and clearly anticipating her reaction, his attempt to provoke her showing fruit. Mentally, she kicked herself for always walking into his traps even when fully aware of them.

"Not one of your Angels," she said, the furrow to her brow detracting from the sharpness of her words. "Not for much longer, anyway."

"You're so sure of that. How amusing." The Highest laughed, using his cane to point down upon the world below, the city they gazed upon still dark with night and awash in the street lamps' glow. "You see, when you first met this Weiss, this Demon of Hell, did you stop to consider the sort of creature you'd allied yourself with? Some part of you did- yes, of course you did- but you saw an opportunity and took it, shunting that little voice away until it died out completely." He nodded to himself, a small frown on his lips. "I can't say I would've done differently in your position. But here, bereft of a need for an alliance, we could see what you did not. We were tracking her movements for a while before the two of you crossed paths, and while she never caused too much of a ruckus before your little run-in… she was still a Demon, through and through." His expression twitched, as if he wanted to grimace but put conscious effort into keeping his thoughts in line. "She used her powers when it suited her, and dispatched whoever crossed her path in much more… violent means. Other demons and humans, too, though very few of the latter. She didn't care for the collateral damage or drawing attention or anything of the like, and while Angels may not be able to kill Demons outright, dispatching their own kind is much easier. Personally, I think some part of her relished it." His gaze slid towards her. "But then you two began traveling together, and she made the conscious choice to bend to your manner of thinking just as much as you bent to hers. I think she did even more. It limited both of you… but her most of all, being a full fledged Demon. How easy would it have been, do you think, for her to amass a small army? Where she could not tread, her minions could, and they would wield weapons just as powerful as your stakes to protect her." Ozpin turned towards her fully, seriousness in his expression. "She never needed you."

"I'm well aware." Their 'arrangement', as they'd come to call it, quickly became a lopsided affair- or, rather, she noticed such shortly after they started traveling together. Blake had never mentioned it and the Demon seemed intent on pretending they'd made an even trade, so she let it go. But even now, she wondered why herself. "Personally, I think she enjoyed my company."

"I can't fault her tastes in that department," the Highest replied with a smirk, though he tilted his head after the words left his mouth. "I still find it odd, though. For all her talk of leaving behind chains, she never seemed to see your presence as being just a different sort, holding her back from unleashing her full strength." His brows rose as he tapped his cane at the space between his feet. "Or perhaps she did, yet she stayed with you anyway. This Demon who broke the chains of Hell. She would take neither collar nor halo, but you?" Lips pressed into a thin line, he shrugged. "She chose you."

Blake remained silent, trying to beat down the hope rising in her chest. Would that she could take joy in such thoughts, that her companion had seen something in her that existed in neither Heaven nor Hell, something that held her interest longer than anything in the mortals' world. She'd considered, perhaps a time or two, that the Demon could've left at any moment and been no worse for wear, yet she'd stayed for some reason, even offered herself up to save Blake from a terrible fate, effectively sacrificing all she'd done to just get to that point. Tears stung at her eyes as she remembered the look Weiss gave her when she refused to turn the stake on her companion, that helpless expression that should never belong to one so powerful. It shouldn't be possible to feel this sort of heartache in Heaven, yet it hurt all the same.

She hoped the Demon wouldn't lose her love for the mortals' world any time soon. Above all other things, more than gaining her wings back, she wanted Weiss to be happy. Perhaps, in time, she'd find another soul to keep her company until they could be reunited… if they could be reunited at all. In the back of her mind, she kept that thought on a constant loop, that no matter what horrors she experienced once the Highest cast her down, it would all be worth it, so long as Weiss was happy.

"I'll admit, towards the end, she might've needed assistance. Nearly every Demon in Hell was riled up, searching for her, trying to hunt her down, but the thing about Demons is that even the 'loyal' ones are more inclined to save their skins than carry out orders." Ozpin shrugged, intentionally ignoring the melancholy that descended upon the Fallen Angel beside him. "Alone, she might've triumphed. Your presence perhaps made it easier, but it wasn't necessary, and the prospect of bringing down a shamed Angel brought more exuberance from her kind than her own escape did." He leaned towards her, lowering his voice. "Demons are a strange bunch."

"You're telling me." She'd thought as much several times during the past year- especially when Weiss became briefly enamored with putting strange things on the human concoction known as 'pizza'- but that didn't change the exhaustively long turn the conversation had taken. "What's your point?"

"My, my, you are in a hurry, aren't you?" Ozpin chuckled.

"Eternity seems like a long time… but the last year passed too quickly." She allowed her gaze to drift towards the world below, a frown tugging at the corner of her lips. "I'm just… tired."

"Tired? Even here?" He waved a hand. "Even restored?"

For one second, she felt a sharp sensation, like a needle separating skin from muscle but without pain. In the next, the nearly forgotten sensation of her wings in their full glory returned, flapping gently.

"My wings…" she smiled, feeling whole again for the first time in so long… and just as soon as she felt that sense of completion, it vanished. She reached out and touched the lower feathers, the ones that had been ripped away, but it didn't bring the feeling back.

She knew why. Her first impulse after the realization hit was to turn and find Weiss, show her what those broken images couldn't measure up to, but that… well, that wasn't possible, of course. She'd felt this before, the compulsion to share a discovery or development with her companion so they could react together- there was a period of time when they'd both become disturbingly addicted to a few 'television shows' the mortals created- but being denied that actually hurt.

They'd hardly been parted and already it felt too long. How did mortals stand this sort of separation?

"The way I see it, you met the quota." Ozpin spoke, keeping his gaze focused on the world below. He must've sensed her disappointment and decided to stop playing his game, for the moment anyway. "You've earned your way back into Heaven… but you know I can't possibly let you return to the mortal world as a member of one of the orders." Her shoulders sagged. "It's a privilege, one you may never have again." He tapped his cane. "There's… other options, though."

Blake perked up. "And what are they?"

"Well, you know that, strictly by the rules, I should banish you to the bowels of Hell for failing to meet the exact specifications, so that's one option, but I find it distasteful." He turned one hand over, conjuring a blessed stake from thin air and holding it up between them. "We banish Demons from the mortals' world when they become too powerful, when they sow too much discourse, when they step over the line, because balance is as much our responsibility as protecting the mortals' at large. I find it difficult to believe the Pride Demon will revert to her old ways, despite your absence, so in that sense, she's as good as banished anyway." He tossed the stake up, allowing her to catch it herself. "The second, of course, is you staying here in Heaven, where you belong… but I suspect you care as much for that as I do the former, especially considering the constraints that come with it. I can't very well have you rebel against the higher orders, fail to meet the requirements to their fullest extent, and then let everything go back to normal." He looked at her, something twinkling in his eyes. "Unless, of course, you go back and-"

She could see exactly what he was going to propose. "Not happening." Blake threw the stake down, allowing it to stab into the white space beside her boot. "Weiss is not a threat. Just leave her in peace."

Ozpin sighed. "Yes, I did say you would find it distasteful, did I not? On the one hand, Heaven becomes your prison, and on the other, you betray the very creature who helped you return in the first place." The corner of his mouth pulled up. "Truthfully, had you attempted to stake the Pride Demon, I'd have banished you to Hell anyway."

"Your games never end, do they?" The Fallen Angel rolled her eyes.

"That was my last test, actually," he said, his expression turning serious. "I wanted to be sure you would take the third option seriously."

Blake tried to hold in her frustration. That's all Heaven seemed to be, when it wasn't idle nothingness: tests, trials, and lectures. "And what's the third option?"

"That you remain Fallen, bound to the mortals' world for all eternity." He held her gaze steadily. "You'll keep your wings but you'll remain unable to reach Heaven's gates no matter how hard you try. You'll never regain your Halo or your Heavenly light. You can only exist among the mortals- you can fly their skies and swim their seas, but you'll never be one of them… or one of us. You'll be neither mortal nor Angel nor Demon- for all eternity, you'll be this… anomaly, walking alone through existence."

"No." Her wings fluttered, a hope she'd thought had died flaring to life once more. "I won't walk alone."

Author's Note: One chapter left.