Author's Note: Well, here we go with another journey and I hope you all enjoy this one! I'll be posting three chapters at a time to speed up the process a bit with posting, so I hope that's okay with you all!

Ascension

Chapter 1

Las Vegas was the most beautiful city in the world.

There was so much to do. The strip alone could take days to see everything available. Casinos stretched as far as the eye could see, the light shows were spectacular, but Vallea's favorite part was Red Rock Canyon. The red rocks – they were known as the blood of mother earth. It was her favorite place to be, especially for a workout. Even though she was a travel agent, Vallea kept herself in shape and climbing the red rocks was so much better than being stuck in some haughty, high-class gym. The desert really pushed a person to their breaking point, the heat scorching hot, but thankfully, there was no humidity.

Just straight blistering heat.

Vallea didn't have a death wish, but she also took a lot of risks in life, especially coming out here alone to climb the red rocks. Her body was fit and toned from keeping in shape and working out whenever she had an available minute to do so. There were some days she simply couldn't fit a workout until her schedule, but she at least tried to go 5 out of 7 days a week. Today was her day off. The sun was just peeking over the horizon, lighting up the entire canyon in a warm glow and she smiled, hands taped up, ready for another climb.

Today was also one she would never forget.

Vallea had done this a million times before, so she was used to the rough terrain of the red rocks. She didn't use a harness because she liked the rough of adrenaline, the danger of it. As long as she watched her step, there was no reason for a harness, in her mind. One wrong step was all it took. Vallea missed the rock she'd been aiming for and went falling down the rocks, clutching onto anything she could get her hands on.

A scream echoed throughout Red Rock Canyon as her body dangled from a ledge, holding onto the rock for dear life. If she let go, she would surely fall to her death. This was it. She was going to die. She could see her life flashing before her eyes as sweat poured down her face, the sun unforgiving and blistering. Vallea had to find a way out of this and looked from her right to her left, tears sliding down her cheeks from both fear and pain of the rocks scraping her knees.

Jonathan Good had not been expecting anyone out here so early in the morning, which was how he generally preferred it. He had always loved rock climbing, so incorporating it into his routine during this 'time off' had been both exercise and something that occupied his mind. One couldn't slack off and not pay attention or else you were a bloody smear on the ground below. In a pair of workout shorts, climbing boots, and a sweat soaked t-shirt, he had scaled that wall of blood Red Rock. He had stood at the top, inhaling deeply as the adrenaline rush continued pushing through his veins. No harness, he liked the thrill, and maybe he had some other issues.

He had then noticed the woman.

She had come out by herself and started scaling that wall like nobody's business. What was interesting, and amusing, was the fact that she had done it without a harness herself. Ballsy. Stupid. Reminded him of him. Keeping quiet, Jon had monitored her progress and nearly snorted when she missed her mark and then her ear piercing scream, which had echoed back from the canyon. He could now hear her quiet crying, the desperate whine tinging it and rolled his eyes. After contemplating it for a few seconds, he began working his way back down, which was something he generally avoided when he wasn't in a harness. Going up was one thing, one could see what was next, going down was a pain in the ass.

"Lady," He let his feet drop down onto the very slight ledge she had managed to catch, taking note of how badly her hands were scraped. There wasn't a lot of room to work on this ledge and he wasn't exactly a small man. Carefully, Jon maneuvered himself until he was crouching, his back pressed into the rock wall behind him. "Hi." He blinked his brilliant, icy blues down at her, contemplating her precarious position. "I'm your Knight in Under Armour," A play on his clothing, he was so witty at times. "Jon." He extended a hand, both to shake and because she looked like she weighed less than what he pressed.

If she wasn't scared to death, Vallea would've laughed at his joke regarding his clothing. "V-Vallea…" Letting go of the ledge would mean death unless he caught her to pull her up. What the hell was this man doing out here? Tears streaked her cheeks as she mentally counted to three before reaching up a hand and felt him pull her up to stand on the small ledge. "T-Thanks…" She stammered shakily, wincing at her scraped hands and glad she had decided to wear kneepads or else her knees would've been cut up from the Red Rocks.

And then, Vallea started laughing and leaned back against the rocks, the shock of the situation finally wearing off. What happened wasn't humorous, but she laughed whenever she was nervous or scared. Finally, she turned her head to look up at the tall man in front of her and felt his icy blues penetrate through her. He was jacked, muscular in all the right places and the shirt he had on looked ready to bust at the seams. He had short buzzed auburn blonde hair and a full neatly trimmed beard.

"W-We should head back down…"

"Back down?" Jon echoed, peering over the ledge and then at her, shaking his head. "No, I'm going back up where my bag is." She was out of her mind. "And you'll follow me because I'm not coming back to save you again." His chivalry only went so far after all.

Taking a moment, Jon looked her over. She looked more scared than hurt, at least she was wearing knee pads, she had one up over him. He had only his hands, wrists, and ankles taped. The last two were for additional stability.

"Come on, Val, it's not a long climb up."

He was already pulling himself up, glancing down at her. She wasn't laughing anymore. He wondered if that was a tic or if she was just crazy. Looking up at the rocks, Vallea knew she had to conquer the fear, overcome it, or she would be stuck here. This was the first time she had slipped and nearly fallen to her death. It definitely had her adrenaline pumping.

"Okay." She murmured, slowly turning and began climbing the rocks, being very careful and watching where she was going.

He probably wouldn't believe her, but Vallea had done this for several years and nothing like this had ever happened. She actually passed by Jon and made it to the top, her own backpack still on her shoulders. Wincing at her hands, she took her bag off her shoulders and unzipped it to pull out a bottled water, gulping half the bottle down. Then she went back to surveying the damage on her legs, thankful nothing would scar.

She could pass him by and he had let her, mostly because if she fell again, he'd be able to get to her easier from beneath her. It was a lot easier catching someone than climbing down to them. And, if he were honest, it wasn't like the view from below sucked. Vallea was, from what he could tell, quite beautiful and her ass was delicious. He had been tempted to bite it.

"Why aren't you wearing a harness or with a buddy?" He dropped down onto the ground, ignoring the dust that swirled up around him and reached for his own bag and water.

"I could ask you the same thing." Vallea remarked, wiping her mouth off with the back of her hand and raised a brow. "Harnesses aren't fun. I like the thrill, the adrenaline rush. I lost my step, which is the risk you take when you're out here. Didn't think anyone else came out here to rock climb." Slowly, she rose to her feet and dusted herself off, taking several intakes of breath to slow her still pounding heart. "Thanks for helping me out. Probably would've died if it wasn't for you. You said your name is Jon, right?" At his nod, she returned it and finished her water before looking down, already knowing the way she would take to get down.

"You're going to climb down?" Jon asked curiously, wondering if that mishap had rattled her brains. If she had planned on going down, she should have never come up with him. "Why don't you wait until I walk the path down and around, and I'll catch you this time, hmmm?" He quirked his eyebrow down at her, a hint of a smirk curving the left side of his mouth.

"Well yeah, you climb up and then go back down. That's what rock climbing is about, yes?"

She tilted her head at him, wondering if he'd lost his mind since there was no other way to go except back down. His smirk was sexy, she couldn't deny that and Vallea instantly pushed that thought out of her head. He was a stranger and she didn't know him from a hole in the ground. Still, she found herself nodding since she was a little shaken up by the whole near death experience.

"All right, I'll go with you. But you won't have to catch me again because I've learned my lesson to take my time when doing this."

Jon had been here awhile and done the wall a couple of times, that was a full body workout in itself and the view was a hell of a lot better than anything at the gym. She wasn't bad herself, he mentally added, electric eyes raking over her thoughtfully. Pushing himself to his feet, he brushed the dust off his backside with one hand and crushed his now empty water bottle with the other.

"You come here often?" It was a corny pick-up line, but he came out here a fair few times a week since his hiatus and this was the first time he had seen her.

Obviously, she was familiar, mostly, with the terrain.

"As often as I can, yeah. I travel a lot for my job, so I'm only in Vegas a couple times a month." Being a traveling agent, Vallea went to a lot of places for various clients and a lot of them were exotic, so she couldn't complain too much. There were no sexual favors or anything of the sort since she did NOT sleep with people she worked for or with. "It's so beautiful out here. I really didn't think anyone else would want to come to the Red Rocks and rock climb. We must be outta our minds." She laughed, feeling a little better and her body was no longer trembling from the near death aftermath.

"And here I thought crazy was an exclusive club," Jon chuckled, a hint of darkness edging his tone. She traveled extensively, wasn't here much -he was assuming Vegas was her home-, and she sounded like a perfect candidate for an affair. Something he hadn't bothered with in months. "You hungry?"

He was famished; he never ate before any type of workout or activity since it tended to make the workout sluggish and he hated that feeling. Jon shifted, tilting his head as he looked past her and at the view. The sun was fully up, he had gotten here quite early, sleep had been alluding him lately and he knew why.

His little vacation, if it could be called that, was almost up.

Despite nearly falling to her death, Vallea could definitely eat and smiled at him, her deep hazel eyes illuminated by the sun. Her long chestnut tresses that went to the middle of her back was currently pulled back in a tight bun to keep all hair out of her face and eyes. "I DO owe you something for saving my life. Sure, I can eat…as long as you let me pay for the meal." She grinned at his eye roll and shrugged the backpack on her shoulders, making sure it was secure.

A few minutes later, they were making their way back down.

"Hope your traveling gig gets you a lot of money, doll." Jon cautioned her as they walked down the hiking trail.

The direction they were going led to the open area off the dirt road people took to get here. The other direction was a trail that led through the canyons and was not for everyone. It was a 'wear boots, not flats' kind of path. He had walked it twice and each time felt like he might die on the return back, the terrain was beautiful, awe-inspiring, and likely to kill a person. At her look, he flashed a wicked grin.

"I have…an appetite."

"I'm sure I can handle whatever you want to order." Vallea assured him, noticing the area to the left, which was the rough terrain. It was for both hiking and biking, if the person was that nuts to drag their bicycle out here. Why did she get the feeling Jon was one of those type of guys? "And my job pays me more than enough, don't you worry about that. Leave the bill to me."

Their cars were parked next to each other. How had she missed another person being out here? It was morning, still somewhat dark when she arrived, so that meant Jon had come even sooner than that since he'd been at the top when she slipped. How they'd missed each other completely coming here was beyond her.

Jon was taking that as a challenge and he was sorely tempted to take her up on it. He was starving, he had worked damn hard to get into his current shape, but he also wasn't above the occasional splurge and breakfast was definitely the meal for splurging. What really had done it for him was cutting out things like pop, and vending machine snacks, all those empty calories. Life on the road was not necessarily conducive to having the perfect body, unless one was a freak like Levesque or Cena.

"I'll follow you." He took in her car and figured this way, she couldn't lose him.

"Wait, you don't want to go home and shower first and then meet up somewhere?"

They were sweaty from the climb, the sun baking them from the inside out, or so that's what it felt like. Even with sunscreen, it did not stop the sun from doing damage. Luckily, her burns tanned almost instantly, she rarely peeled, thankfully. Genes were a beautiful thing sometimes.

"I won't stand you up, but I refuse to go out to eat all sweaty and stinky. Here." She took his hand that had his phone and programmed her number into it, handing it back to him. "Call me in an hour and we'll meet up somewhere to eat."

Considering he spent the majority of his waking time sweaty and stinky as she put it, the smell did not really put him off. He had gotten used to certain odors a long time ago, that was kind of a requirement in his line of work because men as a whole were disgusting creatures. So were women, if he were honest, he had seen what some of those broads had done to their group dressing rooms and it was nasty.

"Fine…" He mockingly rolled his eyes, wondering how she looked gussied up.

She was damn fine this way and he smirked, reaching out to brush red dust from the walls off the tip of her nose.