Time for the actual chapter 8.

I do hope you all enjoy it.

If you do, please leave a review telling me what you thought, questions about the fic, or theories about the future of the story! They are my biggest motivator for writing more of the story. And god, if you've read this author's note, I really need that right now.

Now, here's some Intergenerational Bonding!


When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.

- -Fallen Rose- -

"..."

"..."

"...so..."

"So?"

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"So, you don't want to talk about how you slaughtered a village's worthy of Fallen and then burnt them all in a massive pyre you made with that walker tank's cannon after lobotomizing it with a captain's stolen cutlasses?"

"No."

"Are you going to tell Summer?"

"No."

"Are we going to tell the readers?"

"No- wait, what are you talking about?"

"I... actually don't know."

"Well look, it happened, they're dead and there's no need to talk about it anymore," Angie stated. "End of discussion."

"Alright," Lantern agreed in a tone that made it clear she didn't fully believe her guardian, "if you say so."

"I do."

"That's good."

"Then we agree then."

"Yep."

The rest of the wait for Summer to fly back with DtK was in silence, neither discussing how Angie had just been in the coolest fight scene that would ever probably exist, and you all just missed it.

- -Fallen Rose- -

Coco let out a large breath. "Okay. Again, just to make sure I get it right. She's your mother."

"Adopted, but yes." Summer answered.

"And she's a species called an eliksni." Coco continued.

"Also yes."

"and those Fallen things are also eliksni."

"Yepparoonie."

"But your mother isn't fallen, even though they're the same species."

"Bingo."

"And the difference between the two are... morals?"

"Mhmm." Summer nodded, confirming what the leader of CFVY had been asking for the past few minutes. Coco just put her head in her hands and groaned.

"This... Is just confusing."

Summer laughed. "Well, as Mom would say; 'some of the best things always are'." She then turned away from the console to look at CFVY, half of whom were asleep, one quarter too traumatized to speak, and the last in a state of utter bewilderment. "Now look, I know you have a lot more questions about what's going on, but unfortunately I can't answer them for you. I'm already telling you too much as it is and will have to ask that you don't share much."

Coco gaped. "B-but this is so much! People need to know about all this!"

"Not right now they don't" Summer countered immediately. "You only need to be prepared to fight the Fallen, not know what they are right now." Summer looked Coco in the eyes desperately. "Please."

Coco was hesitant but agreed all the same. "...Okay. You did save us from them after all. If you say we have to trust you... then I guess, we'll have to."

Summer smiled. "Thank you. Now get ready for transmat, we're at your stop."

"Transmat?" Coco asked, shifting back into confusion. "What's transma-" Coco was then cut off as she and her team were engulfed in a bright, white light that seemed to dematerialize them.

"Heh," Summer Chuckled, turning back to the front of the ship, "never gets old."

Drei sighed. "Did you have to do that?" The ghost asked.

"Nope." Summer chirped "But you have to admit it was pretty funny."

"Hilarious." Drei droned dryly before changing the subject. "On a side note, I uploaded some data on the enemies of darkness."

"Oh, okay. Nothing too world-shattering I presume?"

"Nope. Simply troop types, general behaviour and common battle strategies." Drei confirmed.

"Neato. Now, let's go pick Mom back up."

- -Fallen Rose- -

"Well, that was emotionally exhausting." Angie stated as the two walked back into their 'Hideout', as Summer kept insisting it was one.

Summer patted her adoptive mother on the shoulder. "It'll be okay, Mom."

Angie let at a sigh before smiling at Summer. "Thank you, Summer. On a lighter note, I've got a present for Drei." Summer said as she had Lantern materialize the disembodied core of a high servitor and tossing it to Summer who caught it with a grunt.

"Is that a…" Drei asked, materializing.

"High Servitor core? Yes." Angie nodded, before flopping on the couch Summer had begged Drei to make out of glimmer. "Go nuts."

Drei Immediately began scanning.

Summer walked over to the couch and sat next to her mother, hugging her knees. "So what do we do now?" She asked.

Angie gave out a deflated sigh. "I… have no idea," Angie admitted. "Those Fallen were evidence enough that there's at least one threat from the Sol System invading Remnant, what's to say the rest won't follow? So let's just keep trying to contact home and do our jobs."

"Defend the the people?" Summer guessed; a confident smile being worn.

"Exactly." Angie agreed. "Now let's see if we can't fix any more of Cloud's systems, shall we?"

"We shall!" Summer exclaimed, Pointing a finger upwards.

- -Fallen Rose- -

ONE AND A HALF DAYS LATER...

"Blaaaake!" Ruby called as she and the remainder of her team looked for their friend.

"Blaaaake!" Yang also called.

"Blaaaaaaaake! Where aaaare yoooouuuu!?"

"Blake!"

Ruby spun to her other teammate when she noticed she wasn't calling for their friend. "Weiiiiss, you're not helping!" Ruby complained.

"Oh! Do you know what might be able to help? The police!" Weiss huffed.

"Weisssssss..." Ruby frowned.

"It was just an idea!" Weiss defended

"Yeah, a bad one," Ruby said as she began leading the way again.

"Weiss, I think we should hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions," Yang suggested, following behind Ruby.

"I think that when we hear it, you'll all realize I was right!" Weiss disputed.

"And I think Weiss' hair looks lovely today!" Penny added.

"Agreed." Angie nodded.

"AH! Penny! Angie! Where did you two come from?!" Ruby exclaimed in surprise as the people they had met two days ago suddenly reappeared.

"Well, I met Penny here whilst out for a walk, and then we saw you girls and decided to say hello," Angie explained, slightly muffled by her scarf.

"What are you all up to?" Penny asked, not skipping a beat.

"Uhh..."

"We're looking for our friend Blake," Yang answered whilst Ruby floundered.

"Ooooh, you mean the Faunus girl!" Penny deducted.

"Penny, I believe that was a tad rude." Angie pointed out.

"Oh! My apologies! I did not mean to come off as insensitive." Penny quickly apologized to RWY.

"I-it's okay Penny, but how did you know Blake was a faunus?" Ruby asked.

"Um, her cat ears?" Penny answered, pointing to her head.

"Actually, I believe they're panther ears," Angie noted.

Yang laughed a little. "What cat ears? She wears a... booooowww..."

The group became silent as realization dawned upon RWY.

"She does like tuna a lot..." Ruby whispered.

"So, any luck finding her?" Angie asked.

"No," Ruby drooped, "And she's been missing since Friday!"

"Oh no! That's terrible!" Penny exclaimed, grabbing Ruby by the shoulders. "Well, don't you worry Ruby, my friend! I won't rest until we find your teammate!"

Ruby did her best to continue smiling. "Uh, that's really nice of you, Penny, but we're okay! Really! Right, guys?" Ruby looked over to her friends.

...only to find that they had left.

"Well, that was rude," Angie commented. She then turned back to the two girls. "Well, Ruby, shall we go look for your friend?"

- -Fallen Rose- -

"So, Blake is your friend?" Penny asked.

"Yes, Penny." Ruby, again, replied exasperatedly.

"But you're mad at her?"

"Yes. Well, I'm not. Weiss is."

"Is she friends with Blake?"

"Well, that's kind of up in the air right now..." Ruby shrugged, turning to face the ginger-haired girl as well as the cloaked huntress behind her.

"But why?" Penny asked, still trying to contemplate the whole situation.

Ruby Sighed again. "Well, you see, Blake might not be who we thought she was..."

Penny gasped. "Is she a man?"

"NO!" "GWAAAHAAAAHAAA!" Ruby quickly made clear as Angie laughed in a deep, guttural sort of way.

The huntress stopped when she noticed that the two teens were staring at her. "Ahem," cleared her throat, "continue."

"Okay... Um, no, Penny. Blake is not a man, she's..." Ruby sighed again. "I don't know what she is. She didn't exactly talk to us before she decided to run off."

Penny looked down at the sidewalk. "I don't have a lot of friends..." She then looked back up at Ruby, "But that's why I'm glad I met you! And it's why I'm happy you're talking to me about this because that's what I'd want my friends to do. Talk to me."

"If I may put my two glimmer in..." Angie began before pausing briefly to reconsider her words. "Sorry, colloquial variation. If I may put my two lien in, Penny is right in that you should talk to those you surround yourself with. I once had a... well a fan, who I was quite friendly with. He respected me and my skills in high regard. So much so he wished to model himself after me.

"What he didn't know... What I failed to warn him about, was the fine line I walk to use my special training. He... he fell too far off the wrong end."

"What happened then?" Ruby asked, enraptured by the tale.

Angie looked at Ruby in the eyes. And even with hers hidden behind goggles, they still radiated an air of sternness.

"He became too dangerous to be left alive. The council ordered his death. I was one of the two to deliver it." Angie finished simply.

Ruby and Penny gasped, both putting their hands over their mouths.

"And this is the moral of my story, girls." Angie wagged a finger at them. "Saying something that feels bad, will be better than saying nothing and feeling good. You need to talk to those who you call your friends and family."

The girls nodded solemnly.

Then an explosion sounded in the distance as a plume of smoke formed.

"Any chance that'd be your friend?" Angie asked, looking to Ruby, who was still staring at the smoke.

"Oh no..." Ruby sagged.

Angie chuckled. "Okay girls, let's go then." And with that, Angie was off.

"W-w-what?! Aren't you meant to be the responsible adult here?" Ruby asked, chasing after Angie, Penny behind her.

"Adult? Yes. Responsible? Not a chance!" Angie laughed, before surprising Ruby thoroughly, by phasing through a building.

- -Fallen Rose- -

Roman Torchwick had had enough of these kids.

What was meant to be an easy grab of some Schnee Dust Company freight containers, with some animal labour to boot, and then these two peppy faunus kids show up and probably start rambling about 'good' and 'justice' and all that, Roman didn't really care.

What he did care about, was that they were interrupting his crime, something he wasn't standing for. So after another exchange with the black-themed cat-eared girl, the blonde monkey started whipping around his gun-chucks, which, Roman must say, he was doing quite a fine job at parrying, until the cat girl rudely interrupted and smacked him right in the stomach, sending him tumbling across the asphalt.

Getting more and more fed up with these meddling kids, Roman spied a cargo container hanging above the two. Acting quickly he raised his cane and fired off a blast that easily snapped the wire used to connect it, and allowing gravity to take hold and crush the kids.

That was until a giant flaming sword split it in half and revealed a devil.

- -Fallen Rose- -

Angie Quickly tucked into a roll to soften her landing after leaping through the freight container. Brandishing her juggernaut blade at whom she assumed was Roman Torchwick according to Lantern, making sure to position herself directly between him, and Blake and her blonde friend.

When none of them moved from their shocked positions, Angie only then realized she had surprised them.

"Perhaps something a little less intimidating?" Lantern suggested, also noticing.

'Perhaps so.' Angie agreed, releasing the super and shrinking back into her regular form. This only seemed to surprise Blake even more.

"M-Miss Angela?!" Blake exclaimed.

"That's Angie, remember darling?" Angie reminded the faunus girl. Turning back to Roman, her normal combat armour once again adorning her body. "Now, Mr Torchwick, I do not believe it is in good taste to attack children. I, however, are no child." She flourished her Royal Straight before aiming all four barrels at the Valian crime lord.

Roman, shaking off his surprise and recollecting himself with a clear of his throat, put both hands on top of his cane and leant forward.

"Well, well, well, well, well, well, well! What do we have here?" Roman tutted. "A huntress come to clean up the kids' mess. Now, this certainly gives me a sense of déjà vu. All that's missing is…"

"Hey!" Ruby shouted from a rooftop, drawing everyone's attention to where she was standing with Crescent Rose extended and ready.

"…Her." Roman smiled devilishly before turning to Ruby with an exaggerated step. "Well, hello, Red! Isn't it past your-"

Roman wasn't able to get any more words in before a shot hammered against his aura, sending him tumbling across the ground once more.

"May I suggest keeping your eyes on your opponent?" Angie said, the hand cannon she had fired smoking void residue. Roman quickly got up and made an angered grunt before raising his cane to send another firework blast out of it. This only resulted in Angie pulling the trigger of the solar imbued hand cannon to detonate the dust that was stored in Roman's cane, blasting him away again.

Pushing his body off the ground for what felt like the tenth time that night, he slammed a fist on the ground in frustration.

"I really like that cane…" He grumbled, loud enough for Angie to hear him. But the Templar Guardian was already too busy to hear him. That, and the music that had started coming from somewhere.

-(Play Psychedelic Porn Crumpets' cover of 'I wanna be like you')-

Rotating slowly as to engage each of the white fang grunts, she fired shot after shot at them. Having been alerted to their lack of aura by Lantern, she only aimed for parts that she knew would heal.

Eventually, heal, that was, but heal all the same.

Once an annoying *chhkk!* came from all four of her guns, Angie tossed her bottom hand cannons to her upper set of hands. Flicking them all forward, allowing their barrels to disconnect from the handles and swing down, the spent cartridges popping out and being replaced by ones provided by Angie's lower hands.

Giving the two guns back to her now free hands, Angie kicked at the shins of a White Fang that had gotten a little too close. Using his reaction of clutching the leg in pain, she rolled off of his back, grabbed him by the collar, and tossed him at another group of grunts, with a low-power arc flashbang grenade to boot.

The grenade went off, and much to Angie's suspect, the resulting flash blinded them far more than it would normally due to their enhanced night vision. Spinning into a crouch, Angie aimed and fired off four more shots, disabling the blinded grunts.

"Bullheads incoming." Lantern alerted. True enough, the roaring of VTOL engines began drowning out the music as three bullhead airships pulled into sight, unleashing a barrage of dust rounds. Angie backflipped and then landed on all sixes, scuttling out of the ships' cones of fire. Straightening up, she pulled a very special weapon out of her storage.

- -Fallen Rose- -

Even from her position from the roof, Ruby's weapon sense immediately went into overload as she spotted the rocket launched that Miss Angela (Ruby couldn't bring herself to refer to somebody so casually) had pulled out, seemingly, from nowhere.

An onyx-black main barrel, a white main body with a flip-down grip, and covered in silver engravings, a wolf head on the top.

The whole thing just screamed 'master craftmenship' at the red-themed girl.

Angela took aim at one of the Bullheads that was pulling around for another flyby. The echoing sound of the rocket-propelled ordinance reached her ears as a round exited the gun... no, masterpiece, and began heading towards the Bullhead.

The bullhead's pilot, noticing the oncoming rocket, pulled the airship away from it. Unluckily for them, the rocket seemed to have some sort of tracking on it which steered the explosive towards its target.

The explosion was magnificent. Like it was made from highly refined fire dust. Something Ruby knew was incredibly hard to do for ordnances, even her friend Nora needed to use a very low quality in her grenades to avoid them detonating in the chamber.

But this wasn't the end of the beautiful gun's surprises, however.

Because blossoming from the initial explosion, smaller rockets began swarming around, striking the other ships and causing even more explosions. Successfully taking out all the ships in only one pull of the trigger.

Welp, Ruby knew what was infesting her dreams for the next week.

- -Fallen Rose- -

Stowing Feizel Crux's personal gift to her, Angie nodded in satisfaction at the results.

The Gjallarhorn was certainly never disappointing.

Without looking, Angie tossed a stasis grenade behind her, the clattering of the metal ringing out before the crunching sounds of the stasis ice blossoming out. Turning around, top arms folded and bottom on hips, she looked at Roman who was now trapped, only his head sticking out.

"Going somewhere Mr Torchwick?" Angie asked as a cross mother would to their child.

"Yes, actually." Roman smiled devilishly, putting Angie immediately on edge for a trick. "And here, is my ride."

Landing on top of the stasis ice that surrounded Roman, was a small, pink brown and white coloured girl with an umbrella. Folding said umbrella down, she gave an exaggerated bow before both she and roman seemed to shatter?

'Shite, Lantern, did I accidentally kill them?'

"Ummm... I don't think so?" Lantern offered unhelpfully.

Luckily, or rather unluckily, a peal of cackling laughter came from the sky. Looking around, a distance away over the water was a bullhead. The door was open and was displaying Roman and the girl.

"Maybe next time my dear!" Roman taunted. "I'd say 'See you around', but I'd rather never see you again! Ta-ta!"

The Bullhead pulled away and began flying along the coastline and out of sight. Angie gave a resigned sigh, marginally frustrated for allowing the man to getaway.

"eeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" a gradually louder excited scream approached at high speed towards Angie. Quickly turning, anticipating an attack, she was surprised when it was ruby who was making a beeline towards her. Coming to a comically fast standstill, the short teen took in a long breath and...

"OHMYGODWHATWASTHATGUNITWASAMAZINGHOWDIDIITDOTHATDIDYOUMAKEITWHATSITMADEOFCANIPLEASESEEITOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODCANITOUCHIT?!" Ruby ranted at mach speed. Angie giggled, having spent enough time with Summer to be able to decipher the nicknamed 'gun talk'. Traveller, Ruby really was her daughter.

"Sorry, Ruby, but that beauty you saw is a pretty special gun," Angie explained. "It was forged from the armour of fallen comrades, to let any old person do what they want with it would be to desecrate the memory of where it came from."

Ruby shrunk back, looking awfully ashamed of herself. "S-sorry... It's just... I'm sorry."

Angie giggled again. "It's alright, you didn't know." Angie ruffled Ruby's hair. "Now I've got to go, take care, Little Rosebud." And with those final words, Angie disappeared back into the night.

- -Fallen Rose- -

"Cayde!" the room chorused as he entered. Cayde held up his hands to subside the cheers before walking over to a table as the rest of the room went back to their activities.

"Hey, Cayde," One of the card players spoke to him, "Want me to deal you in, we got a good pot going here."

"Sorry you lot, here on business." Cayde apologized waving the prospect of playing cards off.

A round of chortles came from the players.

"Really now? Our great Cayde six choosing work over play? What's happened this time?" another asked.

"Angie. She's in trouble. Probably." Cayde replied simply. The table's jolly atmosphere fell away as the players put their cards down.

"What do you need, Cayde?"

"Right now, I need to know where Merax and Vrathriks are," Cayde answered.

"Well, Vrathriks should be in his lab, but the Baron said he was meditating."

Cayde groaned. "And that means he could be anywhere."

"Yep. Sorry, Cayde." They chuckled.

"Uh-huh. Enjoy your game, you four-armed swindlers." Cayde quipped as he left.

"Adraksis still wants her glimmer, Cayde!" another of the eliksni called after him as the others laughed.