Chapter 1: Azure
"They say you die a hero or live long enough to become the villain. But what if the inverse was also true? Either you die the villain, or live long enough to become the hero. So keep on going, press forward, and break your chains in order to claim a brighter future made by your own two hands."
His mind was racing in absolute confusion as his heavy feet dragged along the ground. The sound of scraping was present in his ears, his right hand loosely clutching to a damaged sword as his arm hung down, the blade dragging along the concrete with each step. The place that hurt the most on his bruised, cut, and bloody body though, was just at his right eye. He couldn't see out of it because the cut that hit the eyelid was causing blood to seep into it, and marring the pale skin of his face on the right side red, matting his gradated dark blue hair there onto his cheek. His open left eye, showing behind the waving strands of hair was a shining silver, darting around in tune to his jumbled and confused mind.
What had happened to the boy before now hadn't helped this confusion. If anything, it had only been worse. Names… all he could remember right now were names. Salem, Ashe, Cinder… Azure Aquarion. The last one stuck out to him the most… it felt strong to him, important. Was it his name? It had to be. Amid the mess that was all he could make sense of right now. The only thing that was solid amid the onrush of information in his mind were those names, the sounds of clashing weapons, and the panic he still held.
"You can run now, but when I find you again, I promise… you won't have a choice anymore! You'll realize who's side you should be on soon enough!"
The image he flashed to was blurry, hard for him to make sense of. He could remember the steel of the sword sparking against his own, and bright amber eyes behind black hair glaring at him from so close up they were all he could see.
It was then that his legs finally gave way. The weapon in his loose grip clattered to the ground as he finally fell. He barely managed to keep himself from faceplanting, but his tired, weak arms barely helped, instead only making sure he didn't fall so hard he broke his nose. He was at least able to turn onto his back, but not like it helped.
"Can't… move…" The words struggled their way out of his mouth, the sour taste of blood in his mouth as his lips finally parted. His open eye shifted as he angled his head, his gaze falling to the moon above. He didn't know the date, but he could easily tell it was late. But… that was the strange part.
What was the date? There was this gap in his mind… when he pulled up his arm, it was the grown, slender limb of a teenager… but his mind pulled to otherwise. He could hardly recall it but something was wrong… what was the last thing he could recall before that fight?
He'd been taken somewhere… someplace dark, and there was a woman, a terrifying one, but her voice had been warm… unsettlingly so. Something… she'd said something to him.
"Do not be afraid child… you'll see the truth soon enough. I just need to do a little… convincing to your young mind."
Then it just became pain, like something deep inside of him was being pulled away and broken… then it all just went black. It had become like a dream, one with only a few moments of lucid thought where it seemed like things had made sense… but as soon as they had, something had grabbed hold of him, a shadow that pulled him back into senseless, timeless thought.
But then… there'd been a thread of white in front of him. A thread that had grown and expanded into a flash of silver that cast away the shadow made cleared his mind.
"What… what's going on?! Where I am I?!"
It had been desperation. He didn't know how to react, and he'd had a weapon in his hands. His first impulse had been to defend himself, no, more accurately, to attack what seemed like an opponent who had been in front of him.
"Ashe you… you'd actually betray me!?"
"That's not my name! It's… it's not my name!"
"My name is… my name is…"
A pained groan left his throat as he rolled back over, forcing himself up as much as he could, his right hand grabbing at the fallen sword to his side, driving it onto the concrete as a crutch to push himself up. But, the blade's tip then only tilted forward, a screeching sound cutting the air as the blade slipped forward, the boy falling to the ground again as he lost the weight to prop himself up on.
"Dammit… not here I can't… I can't stop here… not until I…"
His arms gave way as he tried to force himself up again, sparks of pain shooting up his arms as he felt sharp, unpleasant cracks at his fingers, a warm feeling of blood welling at his fingertips. He must've cracked his fingernails doing that.
He was also exhausted though, enough he felt his open eye starting to go heavy as his vision went darker.
"What the… hey, you alright?!"
Ah, a voice… it was dull in his ears and sounded faint, but he could see the person running towards him. The voice was familiar to him, somehow, he couldn't remember why at the moment. After the person reached him, he felt hands gently grab him and roll him over, but aside from being able to tell it was a man, he couldn't make out their face that well.
"What the, are you… you're Azure! No way… crap, I'll call Cyan later. I need to get you to a hospital. Hey, kid, stay with me!"
"I'm… I'm okay… just, tired…" The boy forced the words out, though he already felt himself slipping away as he was lifted off of the ground.
His eye snapped open in a sudden shock, and he shot upright instantly, feeling cold sweat on his brow. Despite the confusion still wracking his mind, things became clear quickly enough. From the soft feeling below him, he knew he was one a bed. A quick look around revealed he was in a hospital room. A curtain to his left obscured the opposite side of the room, and the sun was shining in through the window to his right. He had to move quite a bit to actually see to his right though, and his hand went up to the bandages wrapping around his head and covering his right eye. There was even more wrapped around his arms, and on his chest, just visible below the hospital gown covering his body.
Impulse told him he should get up to see what was going on. Reason told him not to. He picked reason.
Instead drawing back the curtain, it showed he was alone in the room, for now at least. His left arm had patches on it, hooked up to a beeping heart monitor. He grabbed the wires and pulled them off, ignoring the monitor flat-lining, yanking it over and shutting the thing off.
"Okay just… stay calm, and think." He let out a breath as he flexed his right fingers while holding that hand's wrist in his left hand. "Okay okay… so, it was like I woke up from some weird dream and… and then I got into a fight with… with some person named Cinder… wait, what's with my voice?! When did it get deep like this?!"
That feeling of panic settled in again, and he scrambled to the side, his still weak legs causing him to fall flat to the floor as he tried to get off the bed too quickly. Holding his head as he pulled on the stand near the bed to get himself standing full, that was the first thing he realized, was how much taller he was. As he looked down at his body, he realized he hadn't been seeing things. There was a glint out of the corner of his left eye, and he scrambled to the stand to see that a hand mirror was sitting on it. Odd thing to have in a hospital room but right now it was like a godsend.
There was some hesitation to it, but, he grabbed the mirror quickly. He was slow about it as he raised it up, but eventually his face came into full view, and his uncovered eye went wide in shock. For a brief moment, he saw the face he remembered, a young one, barely even eleven years old… but then it properly showed.
Looking back at him was a teenager whose expression was scared and confused. Still bearing some of the androgyny of childhood in the thin features he had, while hair that reached his shoulders shrouded other parts, the color of it a deep shade of blue that gradated to a paler shade at the tips. Skin as pale as snow, and while his right eye was covered by bandages, the other was clearly visible, bright silver and with a sharp shape, having a little beauty mark at its bottom corner.
"What?!" After it had all processed, he reeled back, the mirror flying from his hands as he jumped back, the sound of cracking glass accompanying the thud that came with the boy landing on the floor, his breathing shallow and rapid. He crept back over to the now cracked mirror as he felt his heart pounding in his chest, and the image hadn't changed even with the shattered reflection it now had. "That's… that's me?!"
When he heard the door slide open, the boy instinctively dove around to the other side of the bed, cautiously peering up to see who was there.
"Ugh, come on kid, there's no need to be that paranoid." A gravelly, tired sounding voice… the same one he had heard before passing out… but now, now he recognized it, it was actually familiar.
"… Qrow?"
"Ah, good, you do remember me. Heh, hey there kid, been a while. Looks like you're holding up okay."
"W…what's going on?"
"I could be asking you the same thing." The teenager stood up slowly as the man took a chair, the disheveled man called Qrow leaning on a hand as the bandaged-up teen stared at him. "Though I'm sure you've got as many questions to ask as me, considering it has been five years."
"Five… five years?! H-How?!"
"Okay kid, relax for a moment and don't go freaking out on me. Let's start off easy. So now, what do you remember?"
"Well… m-my name, Azure… Azure Aquarion. And…"
One year later…
It was the twilight in the city of Vale, and deep into the old district of the city, where none went at this time and abandoned buildings had long since become the dens of those keeping under the eye of the law, a sole figure was moving across the rooftops, coming to a stop across from a building with lights on, that by no means should have had lights on.
"Well well, Spanner's info is as accurate as always."
The figure chuckled and with a small press as their hand slid under the hood of his coat, goggles flickered on into a blue gleam as he went prone at the lip of the building he was on, scanning the exterior of the lit building, another press changing the mode of the goggles from low-light to thermal vision, letting him see the moving bodies within the walls.
"Hmm… pretty vague from over here but let's see… six, maybe eight guys? There might be more where I can't see them."
Another press turned the goggles off, and while pulling them up, the individual smoothly made his way down to the streets, the street light illuminating his form as he lowered his hood, revealing the face of Azure behind its shadow.
The past year had left quite a bit on him when it came to his appearance. The scar over his right eye had healed well enough it was little more than a barely noticeable mark only seen by the nick in his eyebrow without close observation, running from the upper right of the forehead to the cheekbone. His previous wild and long hair was cut shorter in some places but kept long in others, particularly in a long bit that sat over his left shoulder, while some portions of his bangs hung longer near his right eye than the left, everything else in messy, finger combed layers, really only kept pressed down by the black framed goggles being on his head.
He was clothed in a half zipped-up dark blue hooded jacket, a single, small spaulder worked onto the left shoulder, and sleeves that left his forearms exposed, while his hands were covered with finger-less gloves. A dark grey half-cape the same shade as the shirt under the jacket came down from his left shoulder, connected at the spaulder. At his waist, a dark red double-bandoleer, marked in a metal, jagged symbol like an arrowhead at the skewed "buckle", that all sat over black pants with light armor on the knees, the pants tucked into black military style boots tightly laced up, but seemingly of a lighter make than the norm. And hanging from the bandoleer were two objects, one a holster containing an unseen but folded up weapon, while crossed over that was a dark-blue, metal structure of some kind barely the size of his forearm, and jutting from that, the visible hilt of another weapon that was black and marked in blue, and both the leather holster and metal device were marked by the same arrow-head symbol that was on his belt.
"Hmm… so how to make my entrance? There should be a back entrance. Is the fire escape intact?" Azure's humming was cut off by a ringing. Reaching into his pocket and pulling out his dark blue Scroll, he pulled the closed device open, sighing a bit as he saw the number on its screen, even as he answered and brought it to his ear. "Hey Qrow, what's the deal?"
"Just checking in kid. So, you at the spot Spanner said to go to?"
"Seedy building in the old town district, yeup. Lights are on, just like he said they'd be. I'm gonna sneak in, I'll call you back when I'm done."
"Just try to make it back to Signal before curfew. I don't want Tai on my ass again because you spent too long wandering around."
"Ah don't worry, I'll be quick." Azure hung up with that remark, pulling his hood back up before dashing across the street and into the alley at the building's right. As he'd hoped, when he went to the back, the fire escape was well and intact, if clearly in need of some serious maintenance that it would definitely not be receiving.
Eschewing going in through any of the lower doors, Azure took the steps up to the topmost door of the building, slowly opening it and peering in, seeing nothing but crates stacked up across the area. Creeping in and quietly closing the door, he crouched down and took cover behind the crates as he slid across them to the edge of the upper struts.
"Hm, must've been a storage building." Sliding down to a prone position again, Azure could clearly see that, below him, his initial guess was close, but not quite that close. There were a dozen men wandering around on the lower parts of the building, moving between the other walkways or milling around at the tables stacked with clearly ill-gotten gains. But what caught Azure's eyes was the map near two of the men. Placing his goggles back on, he used them to zoom in on the map. "Map of Vale. Let's see… each of those marks cover… Dust shops, the docks, scribbles over the police precincts… yeup, definitely Torchwick."
Hearing footsteps beginning to near him, Azure smirked as he swept his goggles up off of his face, quietly moving back to a more advantageous spot, waiting until he saw the thug come into view and pass him, a smirk coming to his face as his hands went to the stowed away weapons at his waist.
"Show time."
For the men below, what they heard first for the signs of trouble greeting them was the sounds of breaking wood, and the man above being slammed into the railing of the topmost level before he was sent flying off and to the bottom by a solid kick. Azure stood where the man had been kicked down from, setting his right hand weapon across his shoulder while the other was loosely held as he leaned on the bent railing. In his right hand, a single edged longsword with a blue body and black edge, bearing no guard at its hilt, while in his left, another blade of similar length, the blade silver in color while a dark blue colored mechanical frame marked the lower segment of the weapon, and at Azure's index finger on the equally mechanical hilt sat a trigger.
"Well now that leaves eleven. So, hands up! Who wants to just save the trouble and just and tell me what Torchwick is up to huh?"
His reply was to have every weapon in the building being pointed at him, Azure sighing as he stepped back from the rail and behind cover as bullets began flying, a flick of his wrist causing his left-hand sword to change. The lower frame folded out, and the blade pulled back while the grip went to an angle, converting it from a blade into a gun, Azure tucking his other sword under his arm as he reached to his bandolier and then shoved a clip into the gun's side.
"Hard way it is!"
A flicker of white light appeared at Azure's left eye as he snickered. Once the rain of bullets ceased, he shot out and jumped over the railing, flipping his right-hand sword into a reversed hold as he aimed with his firearm. The weapon was swept through the air as he descended, forcing the men below to dive to cover of their own amid the hail of bullets. Azure landed heavily on one of the tables, using the momentum that leaned it upwards to jump back, a burst of white feathers following the motion as he shot towards one of the thugs, tripping the man as he skid across the floor before slashing down with his sword, a gleam of white energy pulsing across the sword as he brought it down.
Though since it was still ten on one, weapons had been reloaded and were ready to fire again. Azure knew this was coming though. A shimmer of white flickered across his form for a moment, then he took his sword and shoved it into the ground at his feet as white pulses shot across it, those pulses then turning into a dome of light that stopped every bullet that crashed into it, though cracks quickly began shooting across it, and Azure dove behind the metal crates that were nearby as it broke.
"Shit! Still not that good with that one. Well… I'm even worse with this next one, but, it'll work at the least!" Azure let out a breath, another shimmer going across him. He then changed his firearm back into it's sword mode, and pressed a switch on the hilt of his other sword, a slot opening on the spine, which he then shoved a blue colored cartridge into, slapping it shut, the edge of the sword changing to match the cartridge that had been inserted while the air around the blade began to grow cold, mist rising from the weapon, while the other sword gained flickers of blue flames across its edge when Azure grabbed it again, the flames flickering off of his hand.
Once the hail of bullets finally stopped again, Azure jumped out. He took the brief moment to count… four to the left, five to the right, and one directly in front of him. His swords followed suit on the slashes that came from them. From his right sword, a wave of ice that shot uncontrollably forward, catching three of the thugs in its path as they yelled, the ice climbing up the wall. From his left sword, following up the previous slash, a blaze was let out from the blade, dispersing the four to the right in the torrent of fire, Azure sliding under one of the tables and to some that had been overturned, that white shimmer going over his body again before he shot back up.
First, he ducked back behind the wall of ice that had been made. One of the frozen thugs was still able to draw his weapon, attempting to fire it, but Azure slammed him with his left sword, a ring sounding through the air as he pulled the trigger, knocking the thug free of the ice but leaving him on the ground in a heap. The other two trapped thugs became quick stepping stones for Azure, using kicks to knock them out as he leapt towards the other two, dodging the attempted slash from one's blade, his body flickering away for a moment before he appeared again behind the other, both going down as he slashed with his right sword, a wave of frozen air coming from the blade and sticking them to the wall. He used the sword again to create a wall of ice when the rest of the men tried firing on him, flicking his left sword back into gun form, his body shimmering again and lacing the weapon with sparks of electricity.
Each bullet that was fired as he shot back out was like small bolt of lightning. The thugs who were hit by them were quickly sent to the ground in spasms, now leaving just the one, Azure putting his firearm over his shoulder as he turned to look at the snarling man with a smirk on his face, shadows dancing across his face from the still lit flames in the room, which somehow weren't spreading.
"The hell?! You're just a kid, how the hell can you do something like this!?" The thug shouted, brandishing a large axe for a weapon, Azure waving a hand and quelling the blue flames, then turning to the man as he stepped down onto the main floor.
"To tell ya' the truth I'm not as well practiced with my Semblance as I'd like to be… but there's no time for me to explain that. So, mind telling me where your boss is?"
"Tch… fuck you!"
"Thought so."
When the man changed and swung, Azure stepped to the side with a quick move, his body shimmering again as he ejected the cartridge in his right sword, returning it to it's neutral state, while also kicking the axe-wielder away to give himself room, changing his firearm to the sword again, taking a stance with both weapons, the blades crossed over one another.
The thug snarled at Azure as he readied his weapon again, swinging it wildly in an effort to hit the nimble teenager, who ducked or dodged each slash as it came at him… until one seemed too short. The thug smirked as it looked like the axe as about to hit, but the look faltered because Azure's expression only grew to a smarmy look, as the man had finally noticed it. During all of the dodging, Azure's left arm had donned a slender shield that went up the length of his left arm, and the component that had been above his other weapon's holster was notably missing.
The axe head slammed into the shield, sparks flying through the air as the edge screamed across the metal. Azure took the opening as the axe slammed into the floor, shouldering the thug to the ground and taking a leap into the air, bringing both of his swords down on his opponent, a sound coming from the man's throat before he went lip, like the others, totally unconscious… hopefully in some cases at least.
"And that's that." Azure let out a sigh as he spun his left sword, the weapon folding up into it's firearm form and then that closing into a more compact, rectangular shape he slid into its holster, while the shield on his arm closed back into the blocky component from before, a slot opening on it that, as his right sword folded inward into it's own compact form, was quickly filled by the other weapon and attached back to his belt. "Now, as for that map."
Taking out his Scroll, Azure approached the map and took a picture of it, immediately sending the image out with a message attached to it, and like that, he was called, again by Qrow.
"So, whaddya think? Torchwick's marked every Dust shop across Vale, and from the looks of it…" Azure stepped over a few of the thugs as he approached a crate, opening it to reveal dozens of Dust crystals of every color there was. "… they've already gotten started. Question is though…"
"Why the hell would some thug like Torchwick need that much Dust? Sure, his outfit is kinda notorious, but this is just weird. Whatever… Spanner wanted this checked out, so hey. Maybe the tricky bastard will finally say what's going on."
"Yeah hopefully. He wanted a cut of the Dust if I remember the memo. So, I should hold off on calling the cops for a bit, right?"
"Spanner has the cops in his pocket like he does the crime groups. He'll get his cut even if the cops all get it. So don't worry about it… now I think you've got a curfew to keep kid. Teacher to student on this one."
"Ugh, yeah yeah. I'll meet ya' in the classroom when I get back." Azure sighed as he hung up, though before he could pocket the device, it began ringing again, and he raised a brow when he checked. "Ruby? Why the heck is she calling me?" and that was when he remembered something, his face going straight to shocked. "SHIT! I totally forgot because this job came in!"
Hastily answering as he shot out into the streets, Azure was immediately met with a girl's irritated whining.
"Azure where the heck are you?! Did you forget about the Havens and Huntsmen session?!"
"Uh… well honestly speaking yes." Azure said, the girl on the end of the line giving an unamused sound. "Look I just got caught up with something alright? Argent was able to hold off yeah?"
"Of course he was, but Cin is about ready to walk out because we've had to wait… no wait, Cin no don't go I have him on the phone now!... yes I know we had to wait an hour but c'mon, a little longer, please! Ah… Argent don't grab my Scroll!"
"HEYYYYY!" Azure had to pull the Scroll away from his ear as a loud boy's voice came across next. "The heck ya' doing Azure?! Don't make the GM wait any longer dude! I don't wanna come up with some stupid reason to hold off your character while we're starting the final chapter of the campaign!"
"Give me that!" Ruby's voice again, and Azure just gave a chuckle as he sighed, a hand on the back of his head.
"Yeah, sorry guys. Don't worry, I'm not that far away from Signal, I'll be back pretty quick if I hustle. Just uh… need to stop by the classroom once I'm back since Qrow needs me for something."
"He's not asking you to drag his ass out of there is he?" A mellow sounding voice was what he heard next. "Cause sometimes he gets sloshed after classes. I'd know."
"Cin don't hijack my Scroll too!"
"Ahaha, no Cin he's not. Just uh… those private lessons again. We're doing a recap." Azure answered, snickering as he heard the background chatter. Ruby's hand must have gone over the microphone. "So hey, is Yang gonna be in the session again, or is she flaking to make sure her other friends don't find out?"
"The latter." Ruby said, giving a sigh. "She gets so into it too… but then again she's friends with those people. Ugh. She's good otherwise!"
"Ahehahaha… yeah I guess your sister isn't the best at picking friends at times." Azure chuckled, Ruby just muttering. "Alright, just hang tight. I'm about to start hoofing it."
"Get here quick!" Argent shouted over things, Azure chuckling as he hung up, then ascending to the roof tops.
"Oh don't worry, I will." Azure's body shimmered again, and when he stepped off the roof, it came with a flash of white, the teen then reappearing two rooftops over, repeating the process as he went from rooftop to rooftop, and totally ignoring the sounds of the police sirens now rushing towards the place he'd just been at. Though along the way, Azure came to a stop along the rooftops, looking up to the now visible, broken moon of Remnant, a hand coming up to cover his scar. "A year… I've been searching for a year now, and nothing. But, I can feel it, I'm close… I have to be. Finding out what I can't remember anymore… I have to be close to finding those answers."
A/N
Happy 2019 boys! And with it... comes yet another redo of ARCA. I did not make a document of over 10k words of pure notes for no damn reason and here comes the product of it. I honestly feel like a part of me has gone verifiably insane by this point but HEY. New year, new things to do... and boy did I overhaul ARCA big time for this one.