"And you're going to open this with, what, a secret button or something?" Robyn, right after, scowled. "Moreover, why did you even drag me up here to begin with? What am I supposed to do if something goes wrong down in Mantle?"

"I was under the impression you had more faith in your people than that," Ironwood stated, getting a minor growl out of Robyn, before nodding Raven's way and resuming to clear the air with her. "I've stated my intentions of being more open and honest with you before, and this here is a part of that. What's held within this vault has never been seen by those outside of a selected few; the fact I've invited you at all is a testament to how seriously I'm putting my trust in you."

"You should know, I still can't say the same on my end."

"That's fine," as he said so, Raven laid her hand upon the surface of the massive decorative door, "The decision is ultimately yours in the end, however you'll need all of the information available before you can accurately make that choice."

Ruby wasn't entirely certain on how Robyn would respond to the sight of a relic, or even a vault. But to be quite honest, Ruby herself wasn't exactly in a stable enough state to be making solid accusations or judgements. That emptiness inside had yet to begin breaking down, leaving her in a sort of awareness she'd never experienced before. Since she was a little girl, Ruby always emoted a little... heavier than most. Her dad called it being soft-hearted, whereas others said she had a lot of empathy.

This was not like that.

Pyrrha had been a pretty important friend to her, despite their sporadic interactions, and the woman's death should have left her sobbing - as should the deaths of all team JNPR. But, for some odd reason, her heart refused to beat, like it had run dry the well of tears. She'd experienced something similar during many bad days before, where negativity was so intense and prominent that she grew tired of it all, however even then she'd need to be pushed to that breaking point.

This apathy here came closer to acknowledgement than the usual depression, like their deaths were an inevitability.

These were weird thoughts, but not much weirder than anything else so far. Ruby found herself shimmered away from her headspace when the vault reacted, pulling the door open and conjuring an entire realm beyond the threshold. Ridiculously, it looked so peaceful ahead, with blue skies, short even grass, and a pleasant almost video-gamey pedestal holding the relic they sought just up the marble path.

"What... What the Dust?" Robyn's warranted statement was met with a quick "roll with it" from Raven, who led them ahead calmly. Ironically, Ironwood reacted with a reserved, albeit similar attitude.

"I knew the vaults were strange, but this is..."

"Peaceful." Ozpin passed beside him, keeping in almost perfect sync with Raven just behind and to the side. "What the world may be like, should its people learn to coexist and embrace harmony. A taunting display of impossibility." Somberly, his reminiscence curled inwards. "Back when I designed the vaults, I did so with the belief people were wholly capable of unity like this, but now, even though I still believe it is possible, I know total peace is not. There will forever be conflict, no matter how strong our ideals; it is simply part of our nature - half of our soul. Our mastery of freedom forsakes the unity of peace."

"Damn..." Robyn murmured, only to quickly catch on to something. "Wait. Did you just say you made these yourself?"

"I did. What, surprised?"

"Yeah, seeing as you're kind of..." Robyn rolled her wrists explicitly over his entire being, accentuating his current position as a teenage boy; Oscar probably would have felt insulted, had he not known his own limits.

"I don't always find myself within the bodies of children-"

"Wording." Yang spit half-heartedly. Make no mistake, she was at least trying to keep her spirits a little up, but JNPR's sudden... Yeah, it did a number on them all, and in various ways.

"My hosts are numerous, both in physicality and societal standing. While my powers have waned over the years, there was a time I could clear mountains should they impede my path. However I've long since lost that level of destructive output, and now I'm merely an over-experienced hunter, with a few additional quirks and advantages."

"I..." Robyn soon settled, and her mouth stretched into a thin line, biting back any rogue claims. "Alright."

"Are we ready?" Raven had been patient the entire time, but now that Robyn had her answers, she opted to get everything moving. "So are we just grabbing it, or is there anything we can gain from chatting it up? There's a spirit in this one too, right?"

"There is, but he's a touch... unusual." Stiffening his appearance, Ozpin decided for them. "We should get everyone evacuated first. Once we're all ready, we can use him to send Atlas, and anything Salem may be planning, into the surface below." Pausing after, he cast an eye to the general. "I'll apologize beforehand, James. It is too great a risk to-"

"I know," cutting him off, Ironwood appeared to accept the fact that Atlas was, in essence, lost to them. "We must all do what needs to be done."

Nodding, Ozpin motioned for Raven to take the staff, which she did with little hesitation. From their experience with Jinn alone, Ruby figured the spirit of the staff could be summoned via the same method.

"Ambrosius."

Ruby didn't have time to catch herself before unconsciously commanding the presence to appear. Why and how she knew the name went both unsaid and unknown, because before anyone could so much as look her way, a grand masculine laughter filled the air, along with a similar puff of blue smoke which previously heralded Jinn's arrival.

This, unbelievably, stirred some emotion back into Ruby's control, who only now noticed the slight tingle in her hand. Once again the purple shone softly, and she was finding it harder and harder not to hate the little itch every now and then, because as the form of the guardian burst to life from the dissipating smog, Ruby didn't find herself the least bit surprised.

Her mind had shown her the image of Ambrosius the second she said his name.

"And so the time has come! A new beginning in both beauty and design!" Almost flirtatious in his exclamation, The sculpted body of the manly genie twisted and stretched, almost looking to pose in an attempt to show off his physique. Much like Jinn, he lacked the anatomical marker which aided in the more erotic elements, but nevertheless his style retained a certain beauty to it... even if it made him look - again, like Jinn - akin to a toy more than any living creature.

Having finally finished with his playful little spout, he spun around, leaning forward and kicking up his legs like a child reading on their bed, before addressing them directly.

"So, you're the newbies who wanna make art the godly way, huh?" His grin took on a sneaky edge. "Well then, you've come to the right place. Nobody, and I mean nobody can show you wonders quite as grand as I. Give me a task, and you can bet I'll leave you breathless with its quality alone."

Following that spiel, Ambrosius soon settled down.

"So, what is your wish?" Continuing the habit of not giving anyone a chance, he quickly snapped his fingers. "Wait, hold on, there's something I forgot to mention. There are a few rules I need to list; kind of important so you don't get upset when I tell you we can't do something. Number one: it has to be possible to make." Seemingly to accentuate his point, he made a few wavy hand gestures. "You can't just ask for a box or battery that gives you infinite energy; try to keep it real here."

"Wait, there are rules?" Robyn questioned, earning a half-hearted shrug from the lord of the staff.

"Yep. Sorry to say, but even we have stipulations on what we can do." Brushing that aside, he went on with his next point. "Secondly: I need some decent instructions. You can't just tell me to make a bridge, and leave it at that. If you want something done right, you need to give me a solid breakdown of what you want; or better yet, hand me some blueprints if we're working in exacts."

Something about that... Ruby didn't believe him, and her hand burned. Nevertheless, Ambrosius went on.

"And finally: no resurrecting the dead, and no asking me to destroy anything. You can request for a weapon for chaos if you so choose, that's fine, but I can't just have me "poof!" break things. As for the 'resurrecting' bit: that's a rule given by my creators themselves - even if I wanted to, I am forbidden from raising the dead."

"Uh... Hold up one second." Yang, genuinely bewildered, stepped forth to speak with the self-proclaimed artist. "You mean to tell us that we need to explain, to you, how to make stuff before you actually do it?"

He nodded, and something in Ruby's gut stirred.

"As in: we have to tell you how to do your job?" Yang added, and Ambrosius gave her a charming carefree smile.

"Yep."

Inexplicable fury welled up within her chest, and Ruby was really starting to hate it now.

"And... What if we get some parts wrong?" They probably could have guessed the result, but Yang's question at least got them a direct answer.

"Then the faults carry over." Following an exaggerated sigh, Ambrosius reiterated on the point, finally snapping Ruby's restraints, and forcing her to act. "Sorry, but those instructions are a requirement. Them 's the rules, you feel me?"

"You're lying." Not overly loud or damning, Ruby's words looked to shut everyone up, even the big man himself. For a moment her head ached, and her hand burned. How was she so sure he was lying? What reason did he have to lie to them in the first place? Both of these questions were answered by an echo in the back of her skull.

"Do you know just how infuriating it is to have someone insulting you for giving them exactly what they asked for?"

"Excuse me?" The real Ambrosius exclaimed, far quieter than his previous antics, but Ruby was lost in the open complaints momentarily littering her mind.

"I give them a feast, and they complain it's too much. I build them a castle, but they only want a home. I forge them the perfect, sharpest sword, but then they whine about how boring and plain it looks." Casting his arms aloof, he shouted into the vast silence surrounding them. "Every single time, they badmouth my art, all because it wasn't 'exactly' what they wanted!

In an instant, Ambrosius was sending Ruby a questionable eye, mere inches from her face.

"And just who are you to say?"

"This way, I know exactly what we're building, and if anything goes wrong, then they have no one to blame but themselves!" Heaving and hoeing, Ambrosius spat out a long and tired sigh. "I just... I'm tired of being criticized for my work because they can't be bothered to explain themselves."

A spark sprang to life in his eyes, and behind them, cogs looked to turn in Ambrosius's mind.

"Hold on..." And thus the lights flickered to life, and his eyes stretched open as the soft shout whispered into the air. "It's you!"

Reeling back slowly, his face went through a series of emotions, before he ultimately stretched out his arm.

"Take my hand."

Ruby, understandably, had no idea what to do. Her loss and lack of action had the tenant of the staff goading her on a little more. When she didn't answer or react, he tried again with a more mellowed voice.

"It won't hurt; promise."

"Why?" Ruby mumbled, and seeing himself making progress, Ambrosius treated that as a minor victory and explained.

"Your soul feels familiar, but I want to be sure. If I can just glimpse into its memory for a moment, even if it's impossible for you to recall past lives, I can still see what your soul has been through - just like my creators."

"Hold on a moment, please." Ozpin joined the fray, stepping out before both her and the ghost, and asking bluntly, "Disregarding Miss Rose's apparent knowledge of you, are you saying you can see into her past lives… through her soul?"

"Sure am." Ambrosius spit with a playful flare. "All of us can - same as our pops'. Souls mostly recycle themselves anyways, and your auras are essentially pathways stretching out from 'em. We sort of just walk along them, seeing the sights and sometimes enjoying the ride... or so it's supposed to go." With his free hand, Ambrosius twirled his wrist. "I've never done it myself, but I know we can; it's just one of those things we were born knowing of. It's like our other quirks: rules and such built inside."

"Quirks?" They were getting off topic a little, but Ambrosius didn't look all that bothered. In fact, he seemed almost excited to talk.

"Yeah: they're little elements of us we can't really change. For example: Jinn is totally incapable of lying, and I can never make the same thing twice." Rolling his eyes after, Ambrosius went on to edit that second one. "Correction: I can't make the exact same thing twice. I can forge you an endless number of swords, but they'll all be a little different each time; always one of a kind and never quite like the last. You feel me?"

Seeing as this had somehow become a discussion of sorts, Yang spoke up.

"That's good to know and all, but why do you want to peep into my sister's soul?" A little harshness laced her words. "You're not trying to perve on her, are you?"

"Considering I can't get down and dirty like you mortals do, I'd appreciate it if you'd give me a little more credit than that." While the statement implied irritation, his expression was anything but; heck, he looked to be having fun. "And relax: I won't look at everything, just the stuff relating to me. If we've met in one of her past lives, I'll be able to see it, as well as what we may, or may not, have said or did." Slowly extending his hand closer, his grin turned playful. "Come on; I promise it won't hurt~"

Ruby, against her better judgment, extended her hand - the normal one.

In an instant, her mind was falling, bouncing off jagged cliffs that sprung like rubber and melted into goo, threatening to drown her in a smooth slop and swallow her whole. Just as fast as she was gone, Ruby found herself staring up at Ambrosius, her hand now free of his touch, while the glow on her other seeming to finally have faded away.

All notions of joy discarded themselves upon him, and from behind his own palm which shielded his eyes, he let out a low, droning sigh.

"And now, I really wish I hadn't done that." Grumbling didn't fit him, not after the theatrical show he'd performed up until now. Letting the appendage fall away, his iris slid harshly towards her, masking disappointment and other dark expressions of which she couldn't quite describe. His brow furrowed, accusingly, but soon relaxed. Ambrosius looked tired, perhaps as much as Ruby herself felt, but even though it showed, he still spoke in an - at least somewhat - reserved manner. "Are you happy now? Even after all this time, you still lost. How many times have I told you it was a terrible idea; that you didn't know what you were doing?" Spreading his arms out, the phantom exclaimed the rest of his confusing outburst. "And here we are: barely anything has changed, and all we have to look forward to is another bland encore."

"What?" was all Ruby could say, and Ambrosius seemed to catch himself. Sighing again, his arms dropped, and he put on an apologetic look.

"Right... Sorry. It's not fair of me to blame you when you can't possibly remember."

"Remember what?" Ruby's voice tip-toed out, but Ambrosius was apparently done.

"Nothing that'll help anyone by explaining it. All you need to know right now is that a past incarnation of your soul asked for something; that's all." Cutting out all nonsense, Ambrosius crossed his arms. "Now, are we going to build, or are we done here?"

Ruby still had so many questions to ask, but it didn't look like Ambrosius was in a talkative mood anymore. At best, they'd get one last request before he left in a huff, because he seriously looked pissed; not directly, but he was simmering under the lid. Whatever this "past incarnation" of her soul had done, it clearly tipped him off, and so she opted for a little piece of info; something small that he'd already mentioned, just to stay on whatever good side she could still grasp.

"We... We don't have anything we want to build yet, but just a second ago you said something about 'quirks' you and the other spirits have."

"Yeah, what about it? Forget it already?"

"N-no..." Great; the moment her feelings started up again was the time she could really use the apathy. "It's just that you only told us about Jinn and you. What about the other relics?"

"The crown and sword?" From that alone, Ruby deduced that neither of the two had names. Ambrosius's expression tilted a little, smearing back into something a dash more palpable. "The crown doesn't have a physical spirit like Jinn and I; she's more like... a lone consciousness. She won't really speak to you, so much as implant ideas and information into your head. If I recall correctly, her only real limit is that her powers follow the same rules as our creators; she can do what they can do, and she's limited in the same ways they are."

"And... What about the sword?"

"You're asking a lot of questions here."

"And you keep giving us answers." Yang shot flatly, which restored some cheekiness back to his expression.

"Fair enough." His eyes cast downwards, and his shoulders hunched. "I've been cooped up for so long… I guess I just got a little giddy when someone finally called for me. Fine, I'll spill, but this is the last time I answer you. Next time you call me, it's for my purpose, got it? We can chat while doing it, but I'm not my sister, and I certainly don't have all the info on every little thing." Ruby nodded, and Ambrosius cleared his voice before continuing. "Right, the sword. It's best not to think of it as anything like the rest of us, but more so a time capsule of pure destruction. Long, long ago, at the same time our core creator dubbed the remnants of Old Humanity a failure, he'd already been planning to make us. He knew you Humans would restore yourselves from the ashes of their departure."

"Then why kill them at all?" Blake propositioned, only to stop herself. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Accepted, because I'm still feeling nice. But to make it short: Humanity's total destruction wasn't the intention. When the Dark Lord let out his rage, the blast encompassed the whole of this world... But it didn't kill everyone. Those hit at the tail end just had their capability towards wielding magic destroyed; these were the survivors, albeit severely weakened ones. Anyway, as his brother let out that blast, the Light Lord essentially caught and bottled up some of it, molding it into what you Humans know as the relic of destruction."

"He... bottled up a blast... what?" Robyn's statement echoed throughout everyone, But Ambrosius kept it simple.

"Probably a bad way to put it. What he did was capture a bit of that destructive power, and force it into a physical shape. Unlike the Dark Lord, the Light Lord is severely limited when extending into the sphere of destruction, and he knew he'd never be capable of what his little bro could do at the snap of his fingers. And so, he… I guess you can say "borrowed" some of that power, knowing the Dark Lord wouldn't care enough to notice. When using the sword, you're basically just letting that energy out for a time, before pulling it right back in, sort of like the weapons you use; extending and retracting as needed."

"So what you're saying is: the sword of destruction, unlike you and the other two, is at its core a weapon, and nothing more?"

"Bingo." Nodding and winking, Ambrosius relaxed himself. "Now can I go? I'm tired of this little chat." His face retracted back into its more dreary state. "I need to contemplate some things... and at some point ask Jinn how she handles knowing the truth of everything."

Ruby managed to give him a single nod, and like that he vanished, leaving the staff alone in Raven's grip.

"Well..." Yang began anew. "That was a thing."

"Let's go." Raven commanded. "We've wasted enough time already."

Nobody argued against her, and probably for the best too as they left the vault significantly more worried than before; none more so than Ruby, who had to deal not only with the stinging pain of JNPR which now rained freely from the storm clouds surrounding her heart, but also the unnerving idea that a past version of herself had done something to disturb a relic itself.

And worst of all, the relic got this information from within her very soul, solidifying that the visions she saw from time to time were, beyond a shadow of a doubt, memories from another life. That older woman, who'd raised V when he was just a little boy… That really was her. But she hadn't gone back in time…

She'd been reborn into a new life.


Author's note

Oooohhh (hiss) So close, and yet so far. Ruby's at least got the right idea - so she's at least half correct.

We're back again, and with a bit of a doozie too. Considering his personality in the show, I always figured Ambrosius the more outgoing type; kind of tragic, considering what he is. Robyn's along for the ride as well, and while she's been taking it all in stride, I'm sure she'll have things to say soon. On the other hand, we get a bit more clarification on the rules our dear relic follows.

With relic in hand, and a city to evacuate, we're dastardly close to the end of the Atlas arch - literally on the doorstep. Next time, we'll be getting a peak back into another side of the story, and get to witness just how mellow things have become.

Until next time.