Chapter One: Midnight Masquerade Yang was walking through the courtyard of Beacon. It was strange because she had no idea how she ended up there, but here she was dressed for combat and her feet hitting the cobbeled stone with barley a sound. She stopped in front of the statue of a huntsman and huntress standing triumphantly and ready for battle on a cliff just above an Ursa.
Slower than usual she became aware of a woman standing in front of the statue. She felt a tug of recognition, but she couldn't place where or how they may have met. The woman had on a black dress with elbow length red sleves and a thick red sash tied around her waist. Red beads hung on several necklaces on her neck and black boots that reached to her mid thigh. Hanging from a thin silver belt was two plates of red armor reaching slightly below her skirt and a thick rectangular chamber with the hilt of a sword reaching out of it. There were three color lights near the top and it was nearly three feet long. That weapon would've been the most eye catching part of the ensemble if it were not for the ancient nevermore mask that was fitted to her face, the two of the four slits shining as red eyes glowed underneath. Yang squinted at her trying to focus. Everything seemed so hazy as if everything had a soft glow emiting from it. She felt her memory straining to remember who this woman was. "
"Who...Who are you!" She softly exclaimed to the woman, but no sooner had she asked the answer came to her. She was the woman who saved her on the train! She'd stopped the preppy victorian girl from killing her!
The woman reached up and pulled the Nevermore mask from her face, revealing features Yang saw, with a shock, that looked quite like hers. She stared in awe at the wamans slightly hazy features. "We have alot to talk about." She said simply and deep red eyes of an expressionless face met lavender.
Lavender blinked and went red. "Why?" She asked blinking again, crimson turning back to light purple. She hadn't seen the womans face on the train, but it made something inside her flare into existance. She had seen this woman before, without her mask.
"You don't know me, yet you saved me on the train. Why?" The woman looked at her and something flashed across her face. Yang barley glimpsed it but it looked like raw pain. It was gone in an instant.
"You...you don't recognize me?" She asked in a small voice. "
"I...I do..." Yang said further squinting at her as though looking at her through narrow slit may help. "I just don't know where from." The woman looked at her, red eyes going soft then turning back hard and expressionless.
"I see. We must talk Yang Xaio Long."
"What? How do you know my name!" Yang exclaimed and looked away from her.
"That is of no importance. Now come with me." She said in a voice as hard and blank as stone. She turned and began to walk around the back of the statue. Yang stayed where she was for a second, then the woman stopped and looked at her. Red eyes bore into purple.
"Well, are you coming?" "Where are we going?" Yang responded evenly trying to ignore the gnawing feeling of dread in her stomach. For once Yang felt wary. True, she may throw herself at danger every day, but something about this familier enigma of a woman told her if she followed she would be in more danger than ever before.
The woman smiled tightly at her, and raised her Nevermore mask to her face. "Yang Xaio Long, we are simply following the music. don't you hear it?" Yang cocked her head. Yes, she could hear music! A soft slow waltz, sort of the thing Weiss or Blake would listen to. Slowly she took a step toward the Woman. The another, and another until she had fallen behind the Masked Woman. The sounds of violins and cellos was drawn out to her as the waltx took on a erie quality.
Suddenly as Yang looked around, she became very aware, very quickly that they were no longer in the courtyard of Beacon Academy. "Where are we!" Yang asked, but the woman was silent. Her left eye twitched with frustration at the fact she had only gotten no answers sience this woman had met her, and Yang was getting very pissed off. "Where are we!" She asked louder this time and purple became red.
The woman just stopped and Yang heard an annoyed sigh. "I thought, for someone as preceptive as yourself could have figured it out by now." The woman spoke tightly beneath her mask. The red eyes of the Nevermore mask looked toward Yang who started back without answering. "We are in the dreamworld. My associate has helped me get here, so I could show you something."
Yang gaped at her. "Why should I believe that?" She challenged.
"Because there is no other explanation. Think about it. Do you remember how you got here? How about to the courtyard? How are you dressed for combat when you last remembered going to bed in your pajamas? Yang Xaio Long, if you do not believe me then you are a fool." Yang stopped and thought for a moment. "So none of this is real?" "This is happening in our minds, but that does not mean it is not real. Yang how did you feel after your fight? It was only several hours ago, I should wonder how your muscles are holding up." The woman said. No sooner had she said it, Yangs back began to ache and her shouldiers felt tense.
"How...what did you do!" She exclaimed, the aftermath of her fight with the preppy victorian girl suddenly catching up to her. She felt sore all over.
"We are in the dream world. As soon as a thought comes into your head it is best to guard it and make sure it does not escape your thoughts unless it is what you want. In the dreamworld you can have whatever you wish or you could put yourself in great pain or danger. Im sorry you did not figure this out on your own, but my time here is limited. Im nearing the end of my sleep cycle, and I see you are too. Now I am about to show you a memory of mine that is of the upmost importance. I need you to keep still and quiet and only concentrate on what I am showing you. Nothing else. Do you understand?"
Yang shuffeled uncomfortably on her feet, her boots scraping what was now polished wood floor. "I understand." She mumbeled and looked up as the music suddenly changed to a slightly more upbeat tempo.
Yang gasped and her eyes faded back to their usual heliotrope purple as she took in the scene before her. All around her were people dress in suits, expensive robes and long flowing dresses. The room was large with dark almond colored wood flooring and red walls. Along these walls and hanging from the ceiling were hundreds of paper lanterns strung up giving the room a soft glow. Along the wall to her left were several tall arched windows that seemed to stretch from floor to ceiling, leaving only samll columns of wall in between huge spances of a dark star filled sky. The sigh was breathtaking, but Yang felt a growing unease as she looked at the people around the room closer. Every person in the room had a weapon and every person in this room had on a mask. Some were just simple white misshapen ovals fitting whoevers face who wore it. Others could tell were tha start of a face of a Grimm, and yet others were filled with so much detail that if having met them in a dark alley at nigh or in the Forever Fall Forest, Yang would have drawn Ember Cecilica on them and have had rammed them through before realizing they were people. They looked detailed enough to be high members of the White Fang, but Yang hadn't ever seen them withs masks this intricate. Yang forgot the woman had told her not to talk. "Is this the White Fang?" She blurted. The woman stared straight ahead.
"No." She answered cooly. "The white fang may have Grimm masks, but compared to us they are no more than cheap meaningless party favors. This is a group much more dangerous. Take this scene in Yang. One day it may be the only thing to save you and your team."
"What? What do you mean?"
"Yang Xaio Long, this is the most dangerous memory I have. I am showing you the most dangerous group of people in the whole of Remnant. Remember the masks, because behind each one lies a killer. Remember how they all look, and if you ever meet one of them, run away because it is a fight you cannot win." Suddenly the room and the woman began to fade from view. "I must go now. My sleep cycle has ended, and so has yours."
"B-But...who are they? Who are you!" Yang shouted as her surrounding began to go quiet and fade into a bright noisless white. The last thing Yang heard was a voice. "They are the worst kind of people. The people who really control this world. You will meet one soon, my associates have confirmed it, and when you do Yang Xaio Long you must run. Take your team and run. Run far and wide, and then after you see what has become of the world you will understand, and then when you are finally safe I can forgive myself." Yang heard the last part as barley a whisper, then the emptyness swallowed her up.