Scar had tears in her eyes, I assumed out of happiness, but of course there was that itch one could not  scratch. Still, I pushed the feeling aside and hugged her tight.

"I can't believe you're here." her face nuzzled in my chest, wiping her tears.

"I couldn't live with myself knowing that I wasn't present at my daughter's birthday. It must be quite the surprise for you."

"You have no idea." her sad voice alone made me beyond worried. I placed my hands on her head and looked in her tear filled eyes.

"Scarlet I want you to tell dad what is wrong." Yang got worried as well and tried to get close, but she stopped when I lifted my hand. My daughter then wrapped her arms around my neck.

"Mommy's coming." she whispered in my ear and let go, faking a smile. I took her lead, smiling myself and brushed her hair.

"That's enough tears now. This is supposed to be a happy day. Hope she wasn't too much trouble." I looked over to Yang as Scar jumped up on my back and sat down on my shoulders.

"From all I can gather, she only shared an entire bag of cookies with Ruby." I looked up at Scar, who was pretending not to care.

"Well, I'll just have to come up with an improved workout plan for her." my shoulders raised up briefly.

"DAD!! Not fair. It was just a bag... half actually." she leaned forward, trying to make eye contact, so I tightened my grip on her legs as to not have her fall.

"And a Biiig  glass of milk, I presume."

"Come on! I need milk for my bones to grow strong. Isn't that what you yourself said?" at this point she leaned to much, slipping off of me without a yelp. I tried to grab her, getting my hands clasped to the sides of her waist, squeezing a bit and feeling the fat.

"But not in the belly department, and let's not forget that you are also getting a cake... along other foods." she crossed her arms and pouted, her face red, most probably from all the blood rushing to her face.

"Not fair." I placed her down.

"Don't worry. You'll have only 2 weeks with extra exercises."

"B-but, this is just a one time opportunity One turns 8 only once." I began to rub my chin as Scar got up and pulled some puppy eyes.

"You're right, 3 weeks and I'm willing to go for more." her arms dangled lifelessly and her jaw dropped.

"Yey... best dad." she was clearly not pleased with it and I can understand why, after all, all of the workout's she had were rather though and rough, but she always warmed up to them in the second or third day of the regime.

"Now, how about we stop loosing time and you present your dad to your new friends?" she got up and my attention got directed towards a red flying blob, that just came from around the corner and was heading for me and Scar. The blur turned out to be Ruby, who managed to get her hands locked around me and Scar.

"It's nice to meet you Scar's dad."

"Ruby, I assume. It's nice to meet you too. How about we leave the presentation to when all are around? It would be far more efficient then to have me repeat the same name." she let go of my mid section and took a few steps back.

"Right. This way."

She pointed towards the doors of the academy and took the lead, getting us to a house at the edge of some cliff. Once there presentations were in order and shortly after, the party itself. Seeing as it was a rather last minute news, she didn't get many gifts, but neither I or her cared as much. She was happy to have a party with family members which she always wanted to meet and with new friends. Time for the cake grew close and I took it upon myself to bring it and to light up the candles. I came out of the kitchen, placed the cake on the table and sat down across from my daughter. As she thought of a wish, she blew out the fires, the heat coming into my face.

Something felt wrong again. As Scar kept blowing wind, the fires, the heat and the light grew. Immediately my left hand got up, creating an ice wall, which destroyed Cinder's fireball. She then smashed through the wall with her grimm hand and I just raised another wall, trapping her grimm hand. Grazing the ice with my right hand just bellow her hand and a push against the frozen block, Cinder got sent a good few feet back. I got up into a fight stance, but she was having trouble with the block, or so I thought. She summed her sword and lodged it into her crude and cold shackles, melting it.

"You Branwen are such a pain in the rear!"

"Don't worry... feelings are mutual, but I didn't let that stop me from taking care of you while you were unconscious. Now, how about you simmer down ."

"I don't see why you didn't take me down there and then!" the glow of her eyes intensified.

"Because I saw the way Emerald  looks at you. She see you as a mother." her anger was replaced with mischief.

"Ohhh,yes.... that's right... you have a daughter... how's her arm doing?" I tried to keep my cool, but anger was clawing its way out from the back of my mind.

"Cut off, just like your chances to work with Salem." seeing her anger return, I felt better and a bit relieved.

"Can you do more then just bark?" Cinder asked and pointed at me with her sword.

"Speaks the one who gave up after her first attempt at killing me failed." her eyes glowed brighter.

"You better watch your tongue!"

"Before telling anyone what to look out for, how about you learn to look out for yourself?"

"Stop mocking me!" Cinder lifted her hands, summoning a spear an throwing it at me. I pulled back my right hand and threw a punch at the incoming projectile, shattering it. Immediately, I followed it with a violent left uppercut accompanied by a loud grunt of mine. I used the same trick, I did on Adam, but much stronger, encasing most of her body in a very large block of ice... again.

"Those maiden powers made you think you have a god complex. That is why you failed... among other things." I panted heavily as I approached her. Cinder was struggling and was trying to melt her prison.

"Go ahead! By the time you get out, you'll be too weak to do anything to me, so how about you just listen to me for a bit?" she stopped moving, but her eye was still glowing.

"If you go east from the school, you'll find a small town filled with a bunch of low-lifes, thugs, whatever. You want any information, search for miss Malachite, better know as the spider lady, pretty sure you meet her daughters. I don't care what you do, just stay away from me and my daughter. I got you a coat, some bandages, 2 apples and some lien to get you set. Leave us alone!"

I was trying to keep my thoughts together and to contain myself from killing her, like the savage beast inside me wanted to and even tho my sentence got jumbled a bit, I'm sure she got the message. After saying what I had to say, I left her still on ice and went on ahead wherever my instincts guided me to.

"Scar, sorry that daddy is leaving, but he is leaving you in more capable hands."