The trek back to the camp was easy since we all rode on Ruby’s Rex, who by the way is named Rex. Ruby thought it made sense to name a T-Rex Rex. Even Rose got to ride on him instead of taking her bike. Like before we didn’t run into any trouble due to Mother and the fact that no one really wants to deal with an armored T-Rex.

Rockmond had the artifact in his back as we headed back, which brought a question to mind. “Hey, where’s the Tek armour you all have?”

“Back at Lana’s camp.” Rockmond said, adjusting the bag on his back as he spoke before adding. “The armor, while useful, kinda hot to use without much element.” He added.

“Is this Element kinda like Dust?” Ruby asked Rockmond. Rockmond gave her an odd look before looking at me.

“Think crystalised element that is used to power stuff up or use as weapons.” I explained to him. He nodded at this, accepting my explanation. “So… is this Element like that?” Rockmond thought about this.

“Element is a strange, highly advanced material that hums with energy. There’s not much else known about it.” Rockmond said, gaining a nod from Edward.

“Our tribe is practically the first to discover Element.” Edward said, adding to Rockmond’s words.

“Huh…” I said as I remembered the time me and Ruby gotten the Tek armor… and remember that we don’t have them here. “Crud… we forgot to bring our armor…”

“Does… that mean we’re going to get… new ones?” Ruby asked, kinda nervous about it.

“Lana actually keeps your armor stored away in her tent.” Navaeh said, walking up beside me before joining up with her sister. Both me and Ruby let out a breath at that.

“What’s this about armor?” Yang asked us. Mother raised a brow at her before Ruby answered.

“Oh… well the last time we were here we got some armor and it was cool and stuff.” Ruby said. Yang smile turned into a frown.

“That’s all?” Yang asked. The two of us nodded quickly.

“Yup, that’s all.” we both said at the same time.

“With side effects.” Rockmond added, gaining Yang’s full interest.

“And these side effects are~” Yang asked. Rockmond looked at her before glancing over to me and Ruby, who are shaking our heads at him.

“We have this thing called the Replicator back at the Island, one of the side effects of getting someone new fitted with armor is that they’ll suffer through either great discomfort or… well the other in short that it turns people on, like a lot.” Rockmond said, giving the both of us a little smirk as he spoke. Yang stared at him before looking at the two of us. It took her a moment before realizing what he ment.

“These two… got the other thing?” she asked. Rockmond didn’t say anything as the massive blush on both faces of Ruby and I answered her. Yang simply started to laugh at us as Mother stared at her then at us.

“Oh dear.” Mother said with a smile as she suppressed a few chuckles. “I do hope they were no trouble during that time.” She said to Rockmond.

“They weren’t trouble at all, though they were very loud.” Rockmond said, gaining the laughter of Edward and both of the twins.

“I can make all of you walk the rest of the way back!” Ruby yelled at them, making them laugh harder. Rose was the only one not laughing.

“Why aren’t you laughing?” I asked her.

“Eh, not my business to laugh at.” she said simply. As the rest of them stopped laughing and finish up the last of what they were doing I had a few moments to talk to Mother.

“Hey, you seem more happy now than before we all went down the cave.” I pointed out to her. Mother looked at me before chuckling.

“Is that a problem?” She asked jokingly. I rolled my eyes at her as I saw Yang drinking some water.

“Whatever you did to cheer Yang up thank you, I prefer not being a Viri pancake thank you.” I said with a chuckle. Mother smiled and wrapped her arms around me in a hug.

“I am truly relieved that you are alright.” She said to me just above a whisper. I smiled as I hugged her back. We were like that for a few moments before pulling away as Yang came up to us.

“Hey hey, can I get a hug?” she asked with a smirk.

“From me? I have to think about it.” I told her with a laugh. Yang simply rolled her eyes at me as she scratched her neck a bit. Mother opened her arms up for Yang, to which the blonde fell into lovingly. I smiled at this before we went back to Rex and climbed up on.

The rest of the ride was smoothed as we got closer and closer to the camp. As the sun was starting to set we came up to the camp. After climbing down we all headed to Lana’s tent to show her what we got.

“Err, is it me or is everyone staring at me?” Rose asked as she looked around. Sure enough everyone we pass was staring at us, mostly her.

“It’s your armor, dear.” Mother said as she walked besides Yang with their hands holding one another. “They are wondering what sort of armor it is.”

“Really? Huh, there’s nothing special about it…” Rose said before looking like she spaced out. “No I’m not taking it off to fit in, I believe I would fit in less if I did.”

I didn’t question why she was talking to herself as we got to Lana’s tent just as she was stepping out. Talk about good timing. “Hey Lana! We’re back!” Lana saw us and smiled.

“Your back and I see you found Rockmond and his group.” Lana said, smiling at Rockmond and the others before noticing Rose. “And who is this?” She asked with an arched brow.

“Ah, I’m Rose.” Rose introduce herself as she offered her hand to Lana. “Nice to meet you.” Lana took her hand and gave it a friendly shake before nodding and saying.

“It’s pleasure to meet new people.” Lana said before noticing Rose’s lack of a gem on her wrist. “Ah so you’re an outsider?” She asked.

“You can say that…” Rose answered.

“She may not have a gem, but she has a mini Overseer.” Ed added as he holds out some water for one of the Twins. Lana raised a questioning brow at Rose after hearing this.

“A mini Overseer?” She asked Rose. Rose shrugged a bit before raising her hand up. Sure enough Beta appeared floating in her hand. He turned towards Ed before speaking.

“I would like to point out that, maybe I look like these Overseers, I prefer Ghost since that’s what I am.” he said before looking at Lana. “Hello.”

“Well aren’t you a cute little thing.” Lana said at the sight of Beta.

“Well, that’s something that I never thought I would hear… at all.” Beta said before floating around Lana. He scanned her for a moment before Rose spoke up.

“Really Beta?” Rose asked.

“What? It’s just a harmless scan, nothing to worry about.” Beta turned to Lana. “Which I have to ask, I’m picking up some odd wavelengths coming off of you, can I ask why?”

“Oh, you must mean the connection to my obelisk.” Lana said with a chuckle before adding. “I’m the Overseer of an Ark known as the Island.” She said.

“Huh, that’s interesting.” Beta said before continuing something. “Oh! We also found something in some ruins out in the desert. I believe Rockmond called it an Artifact.” Lana turned to Rockmond as he took off the bag on his back before taking out the Artifact inside it.

“You… You managed to actually find one.” Lana said in awe at the sight of the Artifact. She then glanced at Rockmond before saying. “How?” She asked.

“We stumbled upon some buried ruins and a cave. The thing was guarded with large rock monsters.” Rockmond said, gaining an odd look from Lana before she said.

“You mean the Rock Elementals?” She asked, gaining a slow and uncertain nod from Rockmond. “You should all count yourselves lucky, those Golems are relentless and will stop at nothing to succeed in their task.” She said.

“Ahh they were nothing.” Yang said as she put her hands behind her head. “They didn’t stand up against me and a few good blows and-” Yang stopped for a moment before scratching her neck some more. “Ugh, hey Mavis mind helping me scratch my back a bit, it’s feels like a large number of ants are crawling up it.” Mother smiled a little before scratching Yang’s back as she was asked, gaining a blissful sigh from the blonde as a result. “Thanks~”

“Err, yeah with Yangs help we cleared the room and got the Artifact.” I finished what Yang has started. Lana nodded before looking back at the Artifact.

“Well now we’re one step closer to defeating this Ark’s Guardian.” Lana said, waving her hand at the Artifact. The Artifact soon began to hover over beside Lana before moving into her tent. “We just need to find the other two somehow.” She said with a slight frown.

“Now I know it might not be much but…” Beta started to say as he got Lana’s attention. “I did do a scan on the artifact and when I did I picked up two more sources of the same kind. Sadly I couldn’t pinpoint where they are but, if we get a certain distance away of one of them I could find them.”

“That would be helpful, thank you.” Lana said, thanking Beta for this information. I glanced back at Mother and Yang, seeing Mother still scratching her back with Yang having the look of absolute bliss.

“I would also like to point out.” Rose said as she stepped into the conversation. “That Beta could do this I would have to come with, but just to make things easier for resources and manpower, that only we go out to find these artifacts location.” Lana looked at Rose oddly. Rockmond stepped up and said.

“I don’t think so, missy. If you’re going Artifact hunting, I’m going with.” Rockmond said with a smirk as he crossed his arms.

“Count me in.” Edward said, raising a hand. Navaeh looked at her sister before saying.

“And us.” Navaeh said. Heaven then frowned before saying.

“We didn’t get to come with last time.” She said while crossing her arms with a pout. Rose looked at all of them for a few moments before shrugging.

“What can I say to stop you all?” she asked with a chuckle. “It’s a bit bigger but we have here a good fireteam.”

“Miss the other two yet?” Beta asked Rose, seemingly to know something that we all don’t. Rose didn’t answer as she turned to Lana.

“Well you got an Artifact finder team ready to go.” Rose said with a happy tone. This made Lana smile once again before saying.

“Fantastic, you can start your expedition tomorrow. For now though, take some time to relax.” She said to all of us.

“Question; do we all get our own tents?” Yang asked, glancing at Mavis. “Say, two per tent?” Lana raised a questioning brow at this. Mother spoke up before Lana could.

“I will make our tent, love, though a little farther away from the rest.” Mother said to Yang somewhat answering her question. She turned to Lana. “You also don’t have to spare any resource for us, I can handle tha-eep!”

We all watched Yang grab Mother and put her over her shoulder with a smile. “Well, see you all tomorrow!” With that she turned and headed off with Mother over her shoulder.

“You couldn’t have waited until I finished speaking?” I heard Mother ask as she was carried away.

“Nope! You’re mine!” Yang answered, making Mother blush hard. We snickered as the two headed off.

“You know, I haven’t heard her Eeep like that.” I said before looking at Lana. “I believe this is going to take a long time Lana. This search for the artifacts and getting geared up to fight the Manticore. It might be even longer since the last time we were here.” Lana turned to look at me before saying.

“I’m sure we won’t take that long.” Lana said with an amused chuckle. “And I highly doubt we’d take a longer time than before.” She said encouragingly. I smiled at her as I looked at Ruby, who was also smiling.

“Well, we’re going to be here for a while, at least we’re going to get a nice tan.” Ruby said.

“And a lot of sunburns.” I added, making Ruby nod sheepishly.

“A lot of sunburns…”

Two weeks have passed since we all came to Lana’s camp and found the first artifact. Rose and her team, which she calls a larger Fireteam, were off looking for the other artifacts. Rose told me if it was her going out she would’ve simply found the place and record it before coming back but with the rest of the group they may come back with both Artifacts in tow.

During the two weeks Mother and Yang had been spending a lot of the time in each other’s company. Yang hasn’t a nightmare since that time in the ruins, whatever Mother had said must’ve really brought out of her depressive state.

What really was different was Yangs strength and speed. More than she’s more stronger and faster than before. I asked her about it and she simply said Mother’s training is making her like this. I could understand that but the one thing that was bothering me was that it was working fast. Like, I went through Mother’s training as well since my childhood, I still am now she’s been at my school, but it wasn’t this fast with me.

Me and Ruby made ourselves busy by helping out with Lana and the Camp; getting food and water as well as other materials for supplies. It was just like back on the island but in the harsh heat and sun.

When we had nothing to do Ruby and I, sometimes with Mother and Yang, hung out with each other and some of the others in the camp. I sometimes had to drag Lana out of her tent to come hang with us from time to time. Like right now!

“Really Lana, you’ve been working this entire time, you need to take a moment to have a break!” I said, sorta dragging Lana away from her tent.

“But… there’s still a lot of stuff to do!” she said as she tried to pull away. “There’s some maps that need to be updated, stock to do, Dinos to feed, some clothes to repair and-”

“And you have others to do that for you! Literally stop being a mom for everyone and take. A. Break!” I said as I pulled her forward towards a large rideable dino. “There’s a small oasis nearby that we are all going to go rest for a bit, you need this Lana.”

“But what about-” I groaned as Lana starting to say more things as I stopped her, turned her around to face me and said.

“Look, here’s what we’re going to do. We can either get on this dino, ride it to the oasis to relax and what not, then come back and go on with our day. Or I’m going to tie you up like a pig, sling you over and take you over there to force you to relax. Which is it going to be?” I asked her forcefully. Lana stared at me for a few moments before sighing.

“Fine… you win.” she said with a frown. I smiled at her.

“Good, now get on.” I told her as we finally got to the Rex, who was busy eating some food from the large feeding trough me and Ruby made. Lana got on the Rex with a pout and crossing her arms as she sat down. I rolled my eyes as I got on and motion Rex to head on out towards the oasis. It was a short ride over there but once we got there and got off of Rex, who went over to lay down by the pool, we went over to where everyone is at. Ruby smiled up at me and waved.

“Took you two long enough.” Yang said as she looked at us with her sunglasses.

“Well it took some time.” I told Yang as I looked over at Lana, who still had her arms crossed.

“Lana come, you deserve some rest from your work.” Mother called out for the raven haired woman. With a sigh of defeat, she made her way towards the water. We all sat around the water talking and relaxing for the first time since we got here. With Mother’s help she got each of us a swimsuit which Ruby was happy about as she got hers on and went into the water. I got mine on and simply sat at the edge of the water and watched. Mother sat with Yang as she too watched Ruby swim around.

“Hey~ why won’t you guys come in?” Ruby asked as she swam over to us. “Water is fine. Come on!” Mother glanced at Yang before dropping herself into the water holding Yang’s hand, bringer the blonde down with her. Mother laughed at this as Yang surfaced, surprisingly with her sunglasses on.

“Oh is that how you like to play huh?” Yang asked. Mother smiles before the two of them started to play in the water. I laughed as I looked over at Lana.

“You want to come in? We got a swimsuit for you.” I told her as I looked at Mother and Yang. “Yang has one to but it seems she decide to forget it.” Lana though deeply on this before nodding and saying.

“Alright.” Lana said with a little smile. I handed her the swimsuit before she went off to get some privacy to change. After a few minutes Lana came back with her two-piece black swimsuit. I gave her a whistle.

“Well look at you! Don’t you look good.” I said with a smile, earning a slap on my knee from Ruby.

“Hey! I’m right here!” Ruby said with a frown.

“I know, just giving Lana a compliment.” I told her Ruby stared at me before I looked back at the Overseer.

“Thank you, I can’t remember that last I ever did something like this.” She said with a little blush and a smile.

“Well, come on.” I said as I pushed myself into the water. “Waters great!”

With that being said Lana got into the water and the five of us had fun. We did some races in the water as well as some other games.

At one point Lana seemed to get too excited and pushed Yang underwater. After a few minutes her sunglasses came up which Lana grabbed, just in time as Yang came back up.

“Sorry sorry, got too excited there…” Lana said with a laugh as Yang turned to her. “Here’s you Sun...glasses… uhhh.”

“What’s up Lana?” I asked as I saw Lana drop the glasses and stared wide-eyed at Yang. Mother looked over at them.

“Oh dear.” Was alk Mother said as she noticed what Lana was looking at. Yang sighed a bit before scratching the back of her head.

“Not… really how I wanted to tell you all this but…” she turned around and we all saw her eyes, which weren’t her normal purple eyes, they look more like Draconic like, or more specifically Dovah like. “There’s something I was meaning to tell you all.”

We all got out of the water and were drying ourselves off. Yang changed to her swimsuit and had a towel wrapped around her upper half of the body.

“So… mind explaining what’s going on?” I asked Yang, who looked over at Mother.

“Mind helping me hun?” Yang asked. Mother nodded before looking at the rest of us.

“It was back at the ruins when this began, Yang was still in her depressed state and I sat there helplessly watching her. Seeing her like that broke my heart.” Mother said, tearing up as she spoke. She grasped Yang’s hand before adding. “I spoke to her, wanting to know what was truly wrong and…” Mother stopped, closing her eyes before saying. “I love her, truly I do and hearing the things she said reminded me of her mortality. At any moment I could lose her.”

Mother choked back a sob as she tried to continue. Yang squeezed her hand and spoke. “Mavis offered me a way to be with her, make it harder for me to fall.”

“And… what’s that?” Ruby asked them. Yang looked over at Mother before turning around as Mavis answered Ruby.

“I offered her the chance in becoming a half Dovah.” Mother said, tears streaming down her cheeks. Yang remove the towel which showed us the scales around her neck and shoulder blades. They were a golden orange colour as Yang rolled her shoulders a bit. She slowly turned around and pulled Mother in for a hug.

“Hey hey, don’t cry.” Yang whispered to Mother as she sobbed a bit. “I’m not going anywhere.” Mother slowly calmed down, leaning into Yang’s embrace.

“So...you’re now half -Dovah.” I asked Yang. “Does it...feel different?”

“Hmm… not really. Other then feeling stronger and faster than before and now-” she stopped as she looked at me.

“W-What?” I asked her.

“I can… literally count each hair on your head, from where I’m sitting.” Yang explained as she stared. I blinked at her answer and thought about it.

“That explains so many questions I had when I was little.” I said in a surprised tone.

“Hey Lana, you don’t look as shocked or surprised that I thought you would be.” Ruby pointed out to her.

“To be quite honest, I’ve seen a lot in my time this doesn’t top being forced into an Overseer’s Obelisk.” She said in a nonchalant tone. Yang sighed a bit.

“I’m happy that this and one other thing is now behind me.” she said as she gave Mother a kiss on the forehead.

“And what’s the other thing?” Ruby asked.

“I can finally stop wearing shirts or long sleeve shirts!” Yang said loudly. “Like Oum it feels awful when I wear them while my scales are coming in! Like ugh!” This cause all of us to start laughing. When we calmed down enough I spoke.

“So this started two weeks ago, the changes I mean.” I asked Yang.

“Yeah, at first it was the scales, and this morning it was my eyes.” Yang explained.

“Is there any more going to happen?” Ruby asked. Mother, now calmed down enough to talk, explained.

“She will soon grow a pair of horns, a tail and a pair of wings.” Mother said, wiping her eyes as she spoke.

“Wait… I get Wings!?!” Yang asked Mother excitedly.

“Plus horns, and Tail.” I pointed out.

“Still, wings…” Yang said, already fantasizing what will it be like with her own pair of wings.

“I have to say that you look cool sis!” Ruby said with a smile.

“Yeah, I do look cool…” Yang looked at Mother with a loving smile. “What do you think hun?” Yang asked in a soft tone, making Mother blush a bit.

“Beautiful. Half-Dovah or not.” Mother said, smiling a little as she said this. Yang smiled at this before pulling Mother in for a loving kiss.

“Love you Mavis.” Yang whisper to Mother.

“I love you too, dii yolus Dovah.” Mother said to her so lovingly. [My fiery Dovah.] The two of them stared at each other as the rest of us smiled.

“So… can we continue with swimming?” Ruby asked all of us. For the rest of the time we had fun at the oasis, now knowing what Yang is she could have fun without hiding what she is.

Note to self; never challenge Yang to a swimming contest. She will win. Every time.

Author's Notes:

There’s a lot one will do to keep their loved ones around.