The Path of Roses

Mydnight's golden eyes flew up as he shot into an upright position covered in sweat. Breathing heavily, he looked around himself, trying to take in his surroundings in the dark room. He found himself in a bed with his shirt and coat removed and could tell from the window in the room that it was late at night.

Snow was falling from the sky softly onto the already snow covered ground. As he slowed his breathing he began to smell around him and listen carefully. He became aware that his hair had grown slightly, his facial hair too was longer than he normally kept it. "How long have I been out...?" He said under his breath, pushing his hair back out of his face.

All was quiet in the house but he could smell familiar people in different rooms. He could smell Yang among the other people, and could faintly smell Ruby. He quickly rose from the bed and walked to the door pressing his ear to it softly. His legs were a little shakey all the way there but not so much that he would stumble.

He slowly opened the door, finding himself on the second floor of the building right near the staircase. As he stepped out into the hallway he began to smell another familiar person on the first floor and instinctively began to run down the stairs. He barreled into the living room and found the person asleep on the couch. She too looked different than he remembered. She wore a baggy golden sweatshirt and was in a pair of black leggings, her white hair much longer than he recalled, yet still styled to cover her right eye as it had been before. She was still built but she somehow seemed smaller to him, as if she had been scaling her training back. Still to him he couldn't imagine a more beautiful woman, and he sat down on the couch beside her, running his hand through her hair. She began to shift, her brilliant red eyes beginning to flutter open, looking up at him. She made a strange face for a moment, squinting in the darkness before realization struck her features.

Ambur jolted upright and threw her arms around him, pulling him tight to her as if she hadn't seen him in ages.

"You're awake..." She sighed in relief, "I was beginning to think you would never wake up," he heard her sob as tears began to land on his shoulder.

"Ambur...," he said softly, taking her shoulders in his hands and moving her away from him so that he could look her in the face, before placing a single kiss on her forehead. "How long was I out?"

Ambur was silent for a few moments before speaking up, "A lot longer than Ruby was...Almost a month."

"What? What do you mean? Ruby was out too?"

"Ya," she said as she sat more upright on the couch and made room for him. "She was out for a few days after what happened."

"What did happen Ambur?"

"She...what do you remember happening last?"

"I...uhm..." he said, holding his head in his hands as his ears began to ring. This time though, with Ambur's full attention on him, she moved. She pulled him back to her and cradled his head into her shoulder, stroking her fingers through his hair, trying to soothe him.

"Don't stress, deep breaths...try to fight the pain."

"I...I remember...fighting Rosa. I remember her running away when you and Olivier showed up after we found Hunter and Caroline dead in their room. I remember going outside with you two trying to chase her down but she was gone..and then...I saw her again. I saw her with someone else in the woods on the edge of campus, but you and Liv were talking about something else and looking away." As he finished talking the pain subsided and the ringing in his ears went away almost instantly, as if it had never even been there to begin with. He looked back at Ambur who seemed confused by his words.

After a while she raised her hand to her chin and looked down, clearly having a thought. She looked back up at him and took his hand. "Mydnight...something is happening to you."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean...almost none of that happened...at least not in my eyes. In the foyer of student housing you killed Rosa. That last slash with your scythe went right through her throat. We saw it from the balcony and then jumped down to you, but you ran outside. When we got outside we saw an incredible white light coming from the top of the tower and were distracted. Then you seemed to faint. At the time I thought you were overwhelmed from killing Rosa but...when you didn't wake up in the morning I began to realize something much different was the case. After that we heard that Rosa's body was never found. Someone is screwing with your brain Mydnight. I don't know how but someone is messing with your head and making you see things that aren't there. Either that or..." Ambur went quiet for a second, before her eyes widened and her jaw dropped in realization.

"Either that or I'm losing my mind..." he said glumly before Ambur put her hands on his cheeks and began to cry. Mydnight couldn't look at her at first, not wanting tosee her cry, but when he finally did look, her found she was smiling. "Ambur?"

"You're not crazy Mydnight," She exclaimed happilyas she pulled him into another tight hug. "You're not crazy at all, you're exactly what we need you to be, as usual," she laughed and released him. "It's your semblance!"

"...My...semblance?" He said in confusion. "Look Ambur I know I lied to Ruby about my semblance but what makes you think I've finally discovered it? More importantly what are you trying to say my semblance is? Fainting at the worst possible times?" He joked.

"Semblances develop based on a need for it!" She said, standing from the couch and hopping up and down in joy before pointing back at him. "You've always been so strong that you didn't need a semblance, especially after Oz gave you the ability to change into a wolf! But now someone out there has the ability to make people see things that aren't there, and your semblance is letting you see through the illusion!" She said, tugging on his arm forcing him to his feet and into her arms. She lifted him up and twirled him around as he rolled his eyes with a smile.

"You really think that's what's happening here?"

"I know it is," she said as the lights in the room flicked on, grabbing their attention. Ambur put Mydnight down and looked to where the light switch was, Mydnight following her gaze.

"What is going on out here Ambur, people are trying to slee-'' The sleepy voice stopped before finishing. "Mydnight!"

He heard her voice before seeing her, almost before his eyes even settled on the source he could tell who it was. He finally saw the slender white haired girl in the corner of the room, in her tank top and a pair of sweatpants looking back at him. "Liv?" he asked, squinting through the now lit room, but almost before he got the words out he felt her crash into the two of them and join their embrace.

"You're both here?" Mydnight asked, surprised to see his friend.

"We were waiting for you before we left," Liv said, letting go of them and taking a step back. "We brought you to Ruby's dad's house since you were both knocked out."

"Is she here?" He asked quietly, remembering that other people were trying to sleep.

"No...she and the remaining members of Juniper set off for Haven nearly two weeks ago. They went to warn them that Haven could be next."

"Remaining members?"

"Pyrrha's gone Mydnight," Ambur said sadly, "She was killed by Cinder, Emerald and Mercury's boss, right before Ruby got to the top of the tower and froze that grim. That's what that bright white light was. Ruby awakened her silver eyes when she saw Pyrrha die."

"Wait, they went alone?"

"Ya, Ruby snuck out and left with them, but don't worry, Qrow is following them at a distance to help if he needs to."

"Great that makes me feel sooooo much better," he said rolling his eyes. "Why isn't Yang with them, I can smell her upstairs, where's the rest of Ruby's team?"

"Blake ran away, Sun is tailing her to find out where she is going. Weiss' father came and got her and brought her back home and she didn't put up much of a fight. Didn't even visit Ruby before she left," Ambur said, clearly disappointed in both of them. "Yang lost her right arm from the elbow down in the battle and she's...taking it incredibly poorly. I thought she was stronger than that but it turns out she's only strong on the outside," she grumbled now sounding more disappointed than ever. "Now that you are awake we need to get ready to go and catch up with your sister. How do you feel?"

"I feel fine honestly, a little shaky but considering I was out for so long I don't feel half bad. Maybe on the road we can try to train my semblance somehow so I don't get all fainty next time someone tries to trick us. Where's the bathroom I need to get cleaned up."

"Upstairs near the guest bedroom you're staying in. Your clothes are in the bedroom too. I'll start making you something to eat for after your shower, you must be starving," she said as she kissed his cheek. Ambur began to walk away from him toward the kitchen but he reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her back and spun her around into a long kiss, holding her up as he felt her knees begin to buckle in surprise before kissing him back.

"I am starving," he said with a smirk as he broke the kiss.

Ambur could barely form words, staring up into his eyes. "Uhm...Liv...uh.." she stuttered out as she vaguely pointed toward the kitchen, snapping her fingers and closing her eyes, clearly trying to think of the words.

Olivier shakes her head laughing and turned away from them, headed for the kitchen, "Yeah I can cook. I don't wanna hear your two so keep it down up there. Remember people are trying to sleep," as she said this she reached the door frame of the kitchen and looked back to find the two of them already running up the stairs out of sight. Liv could help but laugh as she set about getting something quick ready for them to eat.

When Mydnight and Ambur came back downstairs, more than an hour had passed. His hair had been cut back to how he preferred it. Ambur had helped him with the hasty grooming after he'd done his best to clean up. Once back in his clothes, Ambur had put on a clean pair of black leggings with a gold stripe down the sides with a pair of black and gold snow boots to match, and a tighter white zip-up jacket with a fur lined hood over her a black crop top with golden specks all over it. They foud Olivier sitting at the dining room table waiting for them with the last bowl of homemade ramen sitting in front of her. "Pots on the stove you freaks," she snickered out and continued to eat while looking at her scroll. Mydnight was about to set his weapon against the wall when Ambur took it from him.

She pressed a button on both her broadsword and her boyfriend's scythe and both begin to morph down into a much smaller size, Ambur's into an extremely high caliber sniper rifle which she set on the table, held up by what Mydnight could tell wasthe cross guard on her hilt which had become the sniper's bi-pod. Bloody Rose transformed into a pair of White, red and black pistols with incredible amounts of detail in each, each half of the wolf's head appearing on the end of each gun's barrel. "What the hell," he said with a smile as she handed them back to him and pulled two pistol holsters on a belt out of her backpack. "How did you manage that?"

"I've had a lot of time on my hands," she said with a smile and headed to the stove with a bowl and spoon. "After seeing how small Ruby's scythe could get I was inspired to rework our weapons." The couple grabbed their food and sat across from Olivier at the table.

"So I must assume you two have some kind of plan if you've just been waiting here for two months?" He said between bites.

Olivier spoke up, "Well like we said we are going to try and catch up to your sister. Qrow took Ozpin's cane with him to try and locate him in his new form-" Liv paused as Mydnight nearly spat his food back into his bowl and looked up at her in shock.

"New form? How did you forget to mention that Oz died in the battle!?" The two girls shooshed him though and pointed toward the ceiling.

"Look, a lot is happening at once okay? We just forgot to tell you, it's a lot to go over in an hour," Ambur says softly. "Cinder killed him and became the new Fall Maiden."

"No wonder she seemed so jealous..."

The girls seemed confused before Ambur took the accidental bait. "Who?"

"Rosa. When I was fighting her I asked her if Salem promised that she would be a new Maiden and she got really mad."

"Ohhh.." they both sighed before going back to eating. Mydnight noticed that Liv's hands seemed to be shaking slightly as she looked down into her bowl at her reflection.

"...Liv I know I'm a little late but...are you alright?" Mydnight asked as she looked up at him and tried to fake a smile.

"I'll be okay Mydnight...thanks," she answered shakily. "Besides, we need to focus right now. Far more is at stake here than my feelings. Once we are done eating we will set off down the road toward Haven. By now they are probably on Anima." Olivier pulled a note out of her pocket, having changed into her White jeans and a new pair of knee high heeled combat boots, also completely white, with a slim white hoodie over her tank top. She set the note down on the table and Mydnight saw that it was addressed to Tai-Yang.

"So that's it? We aren't even going to tell them we are leaving? Just a note?" Mydnight asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No need to wake them up. We need to go as soon as possible so come on, eat up wolf boy." Ambur said, elbowing him in the arm gently. He sighed in response and began to shovel the food into his mouth. As they finished they cleaned their bowls and the pot and began shutting all the lights off in the room. Once they were done they slipped silently out the front door of the house and headed off down the dirt path. Before long Mydnight stopped in his tracks and the girls turned back to look at him.

"What is it?" Ambur asked as she turned back to him. After only a moment Ambur began to see his form shift, fur growing out of his face and his hair changing into a more shadowy and long form. Before long he'd changed completely into his massive wolf form. He lay down on the path and lowered his head to the ground to show that he had no intention of hurting the two of them. "You're going to carry us?" Ambur asked, surprise in her voice. Mydnight nodded his head and the girls smiled at him.

"You really are too nice for your own good," Olivier chuckled as they walked to him and sat down on his back, both patting his head softly. Mydnight stood up from the ground and began to walk them down the path, slowly at first, but quickly increasing his pace to a run, and then a full on sprint as they leaned forward into each other to keep from falling off as Mydnight tore down the path..

"You really are something else babe," Ambur whispered into his ear as he ran through the snow.