HELLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I Am Back from a hiatus. I took a hiatus because I lost my spark of inspiration to write due to having to move house. I am now in my new home, and have been struggling creatively for about a month. But anyways, that's over now. And now hopefully I can get this story completed. Onto the chapter.

Pyrhha blinked, "What?"

Neo sighed softly and responded, "Sorry... That's the normal question for breaking all this stuff to someone new... It's because many legends and stories have a grain of truth to them, sometimes they just are truth... Pyrrha, have you ever heard the tale of the infinite man?"

Pyrrha stuttered for a moment, still slightly shaken by Neo's previous confession, "I... Believe so? It's a tale about a man charged by his god with the task of uniting humanity over the ages, reincarnating and merging with people across time until his task is complete, until the end of time."

Neo smiled slightly, "Yeah... Ozpin is the infinite man. A Long, Long time ago, the brother gods of darkness and light cursed him to reincarnate, every time he dies he shows up in another 'Oz'... Forever."

Pyrrha looked down, a confused look on her face, "So, the Headmaster is... what?"

Neo chuckled slightly, "He's often referred to by the spirits as simply 'The old man,' and he's everywhere. Every major war in history, Oz was there. Think, what was the name of the last King of Vale?"

Pyrhha blinked and answered slowly, "He was... Ozymandias... Oz. Huh..."

Neo continued, "Now who was Bluetooth named after?"

Pyrrha thought for a moment and replied, "It was... Ozcar Bluetooth... a famous explorer..."

Neo smiled, "Now you're getting it babe, he's everywhere, and so is his task."

Pyrrha's face lit up in a blush and she urged Neo to continue. Neo did so, smiling a bit wider, "Ozma, his original name, established the huntsman academies, he built each one of them on top of a vault. And contained with each vault is a relic." Pyrrha perked up when she heard the word 'Relic' listening more intently than she already was, "The four... the five, Relics, when brought together, will call the Gods back to this world, and when they return, humanity will be judged."

Pyrrha perked up as Neo finished speaking, and she asked, "There are four academies... why 5 relics? What are the relics anyways?"

Neo smiled at her girlfriend's curiosity, "Well, the Crown of Choice is beneath Beacon, the Staff of Creation is under Atlas, and the Lamp of Knowledge is below Haven. The Sword of Destruction..." Neo drew the sword, and held it up into her left hand, being extremely careful not to touch the sharp part of the blade, "Is right here, in my hands... It used to be under Shade, but my mom retrieved it when we went there. And lastly... the Relic of Hope..."

Neo grimaced heavily, "I... I need to tell you another story. This one... Doesn't have a happy ending... Once upon a time... There was a girl named Ruby Rose..."

"And, in one final cry of defiance, Ruby charged at the Grimm Queen, and sealed her fate."

Pyrrha had listened to Neo recount the events of her mother's timeline in full, but was now clearly wondering what happened next, and why Neo had told her all this in the first place, she voiced this and Neo smiled a bit, "Well, The story isn't quite over... you see, when Ruby fell in battle, she awoke not to the warm embrace of the afterlife... Instead, she was met with a sort of purgatory, a place in-between life and death. It was here that she was propositioned by the brother gods, she was given a choice, retire, and doom the world. Or... Go back, and try again.

"And so, Ruby Rose awoke on the streets of Mantle, nearly two decades before it all began. She quickly put two and two together and made a disguise, she took up a new outfit and a new name, and made her way to the kingdom where she made her stand. Vacuo."

Pyrrha's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, she gasped loudly as the realization hit her, "You don't mean?!"

"Her fake name? Aurum Lazuli."

Pyrrha froze, her whole spine went rigid, she stuttered for a moment, before clearing her throat and speaking, "W-w... I.. You... Ahem So... Your mom... time traveled... to the past to stop Salem from winning... and... that's it?"

Neo continued after a short chuckle, "Well, as you know, Salem's immortal, cant be killed... but the gods sent Mom back with something, a boon, they called it."

Pyrrha was beginning to get slightly fed up with all of Neo's dramatic pauses, "Well? What was the boon?"

"The Scythe of Hope. Crescent Rose." Neo answered calmly

Pyrrha's eyes widened once more, "So.. the fifth relic... Didn't exist in the original timeline?"

Neo nodded, "No, no it didn't, each of the relics have a spirit in them, and the spirit inside my Mom's relic is named Rose, she's been my mom's companion for basically my whole life, and she's been mine for the entirety of my first year at Shade..."

Pyrhha nodded along to Neo's words, "The Relic has the power to alter probability, and, should my mother manage to find Salem and fight her... It can make it stick."

Pyrhha's eyes widened slightly, "So your mother is the key?"

Neo grimaced slightly, leaning into Pyrrha, she spoke softly, "Yeah... and she knows it... It's... Destroying her. Has been for years... a decade and a half even, maybe two."

Pyrrha frowned, "So the gods just put a massive amount of responsibility on her and then what? Disappeared to who knows where to wait?"

Neo sighed heavily, leaning further onto Pyrrha's shoulder, "Yep. Assholes, aren't they?"

Pyrrha giggled lightly, "Yeah..."

Neo smiled at the sound of Pyrrha's laughter, and then she shivered, and grimaced, "That reminds me... of the whole reason I'm telling you all this in the first place. The Sword of Destruction is a great and terrible weapon... It grants the wielder unimaginable strength and versatility... but it toys with them, compounds their emotions... anyone, if even slightly unstable, will become unhinged after just a short while... and if they're not capable of self governing, the relic will turn them into monsters, destroying all they see, until they end their own life."

Pyrrha stayed silent for a moment, seemingly deep in thought, after a minute passed she spoke, "And... you... are currently the wielder of the relic?"

Neo once again looked to her lap where the sword lay, she took in a deep breath, and then let it out, "Yes. I'm told by the spirit in it that my will is stronger than my Mom's, it messed with her really easily. She had it for only 6 hours and already she was having mood swings and angry outbursts. I've had it for just about 3 weeks now, and I'm still fine... I think."

Neo's thoughts drifted, her mind eventually falling to the girl next to her, her emotions swelled slightly and the relic did the rest, her whole body shivered as she leaned against Pyrrha, with the tall girl starting to notice the blush that was forming on Neo's face. Neo leaned further into Pyrrha's side and spoke again, "I... these last few months have been great Pyrrha... I'm really glad I asked you out to the dance back at the start of this fall."

Pyrrha blinked and a light blush formed on her face, she struggled to find a response for a moment before responding, "oh uh... thanks Neo... I've really enjoyed having someone too... it's a nice change of pace."

Neo sat up and turned to look at Pyrrha, with the redhead noticing that her blush increased in intensity upon looking at Pyrrha, Neo looked down one last time to the relic in her lap, and, while her blush didn't go away, her smile did.

Neo took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them, she looked up and made eye contact with Pyrrha. Looking directly into her girlfriend's eyes Neo spoke, "I love you Pyrrha Nikos, that's not the relic talking, those are my genuine feelings for you."

Pyrrha's eyes widened dramatically as she found herself kissing her girlfriend, though she soon sunk into it and wrapped her arms around the petite girl. The two fell deeper into the kiss, until eventually Neo had to come up for air. Upon separating, Pyrrha giggled lightly, "Wow, what a confession."

Neo blushed radiantly, anxiety settling in, "Does... that mean you don't feel the same way... Notthatthatwouldbebad!" She quickly added as the embarrassment compounded.

Pyrrha once again giggled lightly and ruffled Neo's hair, she leaned down and placed a light peck on Neo's lips, making the smaller girl blush even heavier, "I love you too, Dum-dum."

Neo ignited to a brilliant red, as she stuttered slightly, "H-hey! That's my pet name!"

Pyrrha smiled cheekily, "Oh? Well okay then, that's your pet name. Who am I to argue with you so passionately declaring it. Now you just need to come up with one for me, and no, 'Pyr' doesn't count."

Neo stammered for a second and then poutily said, "That's not fair! You stole mine! Also! When did you get so smug?!"

Pyrrha drew Neo into a hug, completely smothering Neo in her chest as she grinned and said, "I learned it from my girlfriend, she's just the best, you two have to meet some time, you'd love each-other."

When she pulled back, Neo was red from head to toe, her own feelings for Pyrrha, and the relic working against her, had made the poor girl completely reboot after getting smothered by her girlfriend.

After a few seconds Neo's brain caught up to her, and she dumbly looked at Pyrrha, "uh... I... You... I love you so much."

"Snrk" Pyrrha let out a light snort at the actions of her girlfriend, who then looked at her indignantly, "Hey! Don't laugh at that!"

Pyrrha smiled brightly and responded, "I'm not laughing at you loving me, Dum-dum, I'm laughing at how you said it, you're usually so put together."

Neo stuttered once more, "u-uh, y-yeah uh...well, you're usually not this confident."

Pyrrha laughed brightly, "It's because you're rubbing off on me! I just feel more confident when talking to you, that's why I said I love you back! Because I can talk to you without worrying about 'Image' or worrying about what you might think of me, or what you might say... I can simply speak my mind. And my mind says... I love you, Dum-dum."

Pyrrha leaned over and smooched Neo on the forehead, "Now, how long have we been here?"

Neo started and then pulled out her scroll, it was reading that it was 6 PM, nearly 7 hours after they had left the lunch room, "Six in the afternoon... Huh... Guess time flies when you're learning world-shattering secrets."

Neo was once again startled by a kiss, after which Pyrrha smiled and said, "And confessing to your girlfriend that you're head over heels for her."

Neo smiled back, "Yeah yeah, Miss Unbeatable, I'm hopeless I know."

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow, "Miss Unbeatable huh?"

Neo shrugged, "You know, It's not easy to come up with these, and you stole mine, so that's what you get, that or Pyr. It's not even true, I know for a fact I can beat you now."

Pyrrha sighed, "Probably, though it's quite sad that we were never able to properly give it a go in a one on one, the tournament was nice, but it would have been grand to face each other in the arena without the rest of our teams, and the terrain in the way."

Neo's smile fell, "Yeah... I bet it would have been awesome... By the way, how are you doing so far in your attempts to fly?"

Pyrrha's smile returned once more as she excitedly began to explain to Neo her progress in recreating her feat from the tournament, "Oh! It's going Wonderfully! I've been able to make myself nearly weightless, but I've yet to get myself off the ground I still need so much work on my-"

Pyrrha and Neo continued talking for some time that night, eventually falling asleep much like they did their first night together. Neo, in her time talking with Pyrrha, forgot all about the Hypercube room they were in, and so left it up all night, unaware as to what was occurring in the outside world.