Blake woke up groaning, a massive headache jarring her awake. Had she come down with a cold? A more severe illness? No, this felt different - unnatural, like it was something being done to her rather than coming from within.
She stretched, rolled out of bed, and struggled into her clothes. The dull, consistent pain never left her, spiking and dipping at times, but always leveling out after each jump. She looked in the mirror, fighting through the pain. Her hair was a mess, there were indentations on her face from sleeping in an awkward position, and her skin felt dry to the touch. The effects of the psychological trauma inflicted on her by the Fall of Beacon were all too obvious. Even running home hadn't erased the lifelong scars she now bore.
The room felt unusually warm, Blake realized as she activated her aura. A welcome relief, she felt the pain fading until it had lessened enough for her to focus. Blake had no idea why her room suddenly felt like a furnace. She tamed her unruly hair with a nearby hairbrush and left quickly, heading for the balcony. Maybe some fresh air would help to clear her head.
Blake took her first step outside and froze in place, speechless.
"What in the world?!"
The entire landscape was covered in a discordant mixture of different representations of nature's wrath. Snow blanketed the landscape, scorching hot air had set some of the nearby plantlife ablaze, and the wind was blowing hard enough to sway trees. A few of the trees' leaves had begun to change colors - rapidly, right before her eyes.
Oddly enough, the ongoing spectacles of weather became more pronounced in sync with her throbbing headache's spikes. Blake's mouth went dry, and she stared in disbelief. It was crazy, but both her headache and this weather malfunction randomly happening at the same time seemed to suggest only one thing. One utterly impossible thing.
Had she somehow caused this?
A figure flipped up onto the balcony railing, prompting Blake to step back and feel for Gambol Shroud. She grunted; it wasn't there. The Faunus vowed never to separate from her weapon again after what happened at Beacon, but the headache had distracted her. Now she was vulnerable. At least, Blake reasoned, she could use her semblance in the event of a fight to retreat and grab her weapon. Speaking of which, she was still passively using aura to deal with the headache pains. If she tried to maintain it longer than for a few minutes, she would run out of aura, which didn't seem like the best position to be in during this weather crisis.
The girl crouching in front of her was familiar. Half-mask on her face aside, Blake definitely knew this person, didn't she? Suddenly, it hit her. Blake recognized her childhood friend, Ilia Amitola, and didn't know what to say. They hadn't seen one another in years! Not since their last joint mission when they were both members of the White Fang, of which Ilia was still a part. Word must have traveled fast that Blake was back in Menagerie. This was far from an ideal reunion, and both girls had trouble gathering the courage to speak.
Ilia rose to a standing position, staring at Blake head-on. She didn't have her usual fierceness, and was unarmed. She must have come to talk rather than fight. All the better for Blake, given that she forgot her weapon inside. Momentarily considering calling for her parents or Sun, she decided against it when she saw her old friend's glistening eyes.
"Ilia?"
"Blake...I-I…" Ilia looked down at her outstretched hands, letting a few tears fall freely onto the wooden deck. "I don't know what to do."
"What is it? What's wrong?" Blake asked, clutching her head in discomfort. She could not withstand the heat much longer, and it was only making her headache worse with each passing second. Still, her curiosity was piqued by Ilia's strange behavior.
Ilia grunted as her skin began to change colors. Her semblance was malfunctioning for some reason, shifting her from one color scheme to the next rapidly, and apparently at random.
"Stop! Please, stop!" Ilia cried, holding both arms close to her chest in a futile attempt to stop the changes. Due to this sudden movement, her white fang mask slipped off and clattered to the floor. Blake watched in awe as the extreme weather around them intensified. The winds picked up, and Blake had to clutch the railing to keep her footing. The wildfires in the trees continued to burn in spite of increasingly heavy snowfall. Unsure what else to do to make it better, she simply knelt down and pulled Ilia to her in a tight hug. Ilia froze, her entire body flushing pink with embarrassment. Blake knew it was awkward and unexpected, but hoped it would do some good.
The winds died down as she held Ilia close, whispering to her that it would be okay. She felt Ilia's chest heave, and their breathing fell into sync with one another. Finally, the bad weather conditions stopped altogether. The wildfires miraculously went out as if they were never there. Blake was relieved to be free of her pounding headache, too.
"What...was all that?" Blake let go and stood up, helping Ilia to get to her feet.
"I don't know. I woke up this morning and, and…'this' was happening." Ilia held out her hands, tentatively, as if worried she might hurt Blake. Blake nodded to reassure her. A small flame appeared in one of Ilia's palms, beside a floating ball of water in the other. Seconds later, they destabilized and disappeared.
"W-what?" was all Blake could manage to say.
"I know," Ilia said. Hanging her head, she backed away from Blake toward the edge of the deck. "I don't understand what's happening to me, or why I suddenly have these abilities. I'm making the weather conditions all across Menagerie severe, my semblance is on constantly...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come here. I just, I didn't know who else to-"
"It's okay." Blake smiled, extending a hand. Her heart went out to her former comrade in distress. Ilia focusing on making it here to see her must have caused the crazy weather to localize around her house, and intensify her headaches. Still, Ilia hadn't meant any harm. Maybe there was a way to help. "Come into the house with me. I'll talk to my mom and dad, and we'll try to figure all of this out."
"No! No...I shouldn't be around other people right now. Not while I'm like this." Blake took a few steps closer, but Ilia matched her steps and retreated further. "Please. I don't want to hurt you."
"You won't. I know you won't." Blake sighed, watching Ilia stand by the edge of the deck, likely weighing her options. The girl's long hair hung limply down her back as she stood with a closed off and uncharacteristically docile posture. She was confident in her abilities, and this usually showed in how she carried herself. Even though Ilia was a victim of discrimination, even though she lost her parents in a freak accident, and even though she followed an organization with motives that were under constant slander and suspicion from humans and Faunus alike, Ilia always walked with a sense of purpose and passion. Blake respected that about her. Seeing her this broken was painful, to say the least.
"Ilia," she pressed, "I trust you! Just come with me."
Eventually, Ilia squared her shoulders and followed Blake, taking her hand. She let her friend lead her into the house, and waited while the Belladonna parents and another person she didn't know walked in from another room. In the middle of an introduction and an explanation of her current problem, she felt an energy in the air. Her chest tightened in response.
Before Ilia could even think, her newfound power exploded out of her. The Belladonna estate imploded on itself, crashing down around them in a hail of wood and rubble. Its support beams obliterated, the house's foundation was forced to take the full brunt of the impact and fell to pieces. Smoke filled the area. Buried deep beneath smoldering boards that were once part of the massive structure, Ilia struggled until she broke free, feeling the wind against her outstretched arm. When she finally unearthed herself from the mound of wreckage, she looked around, horrified.
Nothing remained of what used to be the Belladonna establishment. Chunks of wood, rock, glass, ceramics, and all manner of other materials were strewn about. Sirens blared in the distance. Surely, someone had seen the explosion and was on their way now. Ilia's eyes scanned the area slowly, gasping in shock when she spotted Ghira and Kali Belladonna, bleeding and motionless while half-buried under broken support beams. Then she saw Sun, Blake's friend whom she just met minutes ago. She could not tell whether he had survived, but he did not look to be in good shape, and was pinned by a large overturned table. Ilia finally stopped, fixating on the worst sight she had ever laid her eyes on, save for the aftermath of the mining accident that took her parents' lives.
Blake Belladonna lay flat, impaled head to toe by wooden spikes. Most of her body was covered in soot. The black smudges across her body mixed with the deep red of her blood, and before long, her bright white coat was bathed in crimson. Ilia felt her heart sink. Her legs weakened as she dropped to her knees, put both hands to her mouth, and wept.
It was in the wake of this tragic incident that Menagerie, and perhaps the rest of the world, endured the longest and most violent storm it would likely ever see. Ilia, the unwitting Fall Maiden, triggered the disaster, and would go down in history as the origin of the beast that was The Endless Storm. Menagerie, and Remnant as a whole, might never recover.