Timeless Awakening
Time
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Ira hated Signal Academy.
The fifteen-year-old's legs carried her mindlessly down the damp, winding path she always took. It led to the school's back entrance, away from the crowds.
She wanted to get in early today, so she set out an hour before other students tended to arrive. Another assignment was due today that she needed to get in on time.
Lime green eyes stared down at the filled sheet of paper clutched lightly between her fingers, sneakers padding through a few puddles on autopilot as she read over her answers. Rain from yesterday dripped down from the leaves above her, a few droplets falling onto her school uniform, but she paid them no mind.
Her gaze scanned over the array of text she wrote out last night. They were weapon styles, the theme focused on their strengths and weaknesses.
But Ira didn't have a style. She was exempt from building a weapon her first year here at Signal because of that. So, the assignment was a bit of a slap in the face. It just reminded her of her "outcast" status here.
That, and… one other thing.
By the time she rounded the corner grove of trees to fall in sight of the school, a soft murmur of voices started filtering into her hearing as she scanned the last few lines of her page.
Her autopilot came to a crawl as her bright eyes glanced up to a small group of girls sitting around and chatting at a picnic table out back, her luminescent gaze somehow dulling at the sight.
It was just three of them. But just one was all the school needed to make Ira's life miserable since day one.
Maybe the front entrance would be better for today…
Ira's slim fingers clutched a little tighter at her assignment as she turned around, black hair fluttering for a moment before cascading against her mid-back. Her hand rose to clutch the strap of her bag as she dipped her head down, quietly backtracking where she came.
All she needed to do was get beyond the tree grove, and she'd be unseen. She didn't want to deal with her today.
Not with a high-point assignment due.
But it didn't take a sensory type to know a pair of crystal blue eyes just fell on her back.
"Oh! Ira!"
Ira's steps quickened as she made her way around a pool of shallow rainwater, fingers starting to crinkle the edge of her paper. Her shoulders were tense, held tighter together now than they were just a few moments ago.
She hated that voice. That sickeningly light, condescending voice.
A small flicker of wind in the trees forced the retreating girl to stop, coming to a sudden standstill as her hair kicked up and Sapphia stepped in front of her.
Sapphia Amatista. The platinum blonde from a humbly prestigious family. Signal was local enough to be open for people of all backgrounds, so Ira always wondered what a girl like her was doing at a school like this.
"Come on, Ira~ We've been waiting around all morning for you," Sapphia's voice cut into the air again, Ira's bag strap starting to feel rough as the cornered girl tightly squeezed it.
"Not now, Sapphia," Ira muttered quietly, letting her eyes glimpse the girl's face in front of her before casting them aside. She was wearing that sickening smile like she always did.
It pushed a toxic, fake politeness forward that didn't seem to exist inside the taller girl standing expectantly in Ira's way.
Any more late assignments, and…
"You know the deal, Ira. We figured you'd come this way this morning, so why don't we get it over with, okay?"
Ira could feel those crystal eyes turning down to the assignment clutched in her grasp, that tension in her hand starting to tighten.
Why did it have to be today?
"Sapphia, I don't-"
"I'll only be a moment."
Ira's words fell as another small burst of air fluttered her bangs, the paper in her hand already gone.
Sapphia was a speed type. Apparently, that made her the hotshot of the academy. The only one faster than her was a red-tipped brunette in another class. but Sapphia was the only one between the two of them actually interested in claiming a title.
Green eyes closed away as Ira took a small breath, trying to hold it in for as long as possible before letting it out in a small shudder.
Maybe Sapphia would actually let her turn it in today. She was using her for her own academic points, wasn't she?
She wouldn't let that lynchpin fail out of the class, would she…?
Ira took another breath as she started making her way to the picnic table the other girls lounged at. The three were studiously but quickly copying from the crumpled paper sitting between them.
Her crumpled paper.
Did she really have to scrunch it up so much?
Ira's second hand made its way to her shoulder strap now, clutching the padded material just beneath her other slender hand in hopes that it'd make this pass by a little quicker.
This was always the worst part.
The bustle of chatter and gossip fell away to the quiet ambiance of rustling trees and a coastal wind, the scribbling of pens and pencils hardly filtering into the air as Ira's heart pounded in her chest.
"Please, I need that paper back when you're done," Ira's voice came out in a quiet plea, but the girls ignored her.
After another minute crawled by, Ira stopped quietly scuffing her shoe against the ground as Sapphia stood up. Green eyes watched the girl's hand pluck up her paper from the center of the table and make her way over to her.
"You should check over some of the weaknesses you have listed under estocs. Some of them aren't very accurate," Sapphia said, holding out the paper for Ira.
The raven-haired girl stared blankly down at the offered page for a moment as her heart lurched. Of course Sapphia would complain about that. She used an estoc.
What was worse was she was actually proficient with it.
Only more reason to see herself as queen of the second-years here.
Ira held her breath as she reached out for the paper, but her fingers grew still as the edge of it pulled away.
"But, really, what would a girl like you know about weapon styles and how to use them?"
And there was that voice again. That haughty tone and inflection she seemed to only reserve for Ira in moments like these.
"I mean, you don't even use a weapon. How would you know anything about other people's styles if you don't have one yourself?" Sapphia pulled Ira's paper further out of reach before forming that sickening smile again.
Ira's chest started to seize as she dragged her desperate gaze up to meet Sapphia's own, but it looked like that was what the girl was waiting for.
That broken moment of satisfaction.
"No Aura, no Semblance, no weapon," Sapphia listed off, Ira's eyes starting to drop again as she watched her paper slowly get torn in half.
That sound. The tearing rip of parchment. It was always so awful to hear…
"Come on, nobody would expect you to know anything about being a huntress. You don't have any aura. You can't even fight!" Ira's hair fluttered again as Sapphia stepped up to her side, flipping the clasped fold of her bag up to peer into it.
Green eyes squeezed closed again as the blonde rummaged through her folders for a few seconds before ripping something else out of its sleeve.
"And look at that, you even had a backup copy," Sapphia said, tearing the second paper in half just like the first one before balling them both up into her hands.
Ira just stayed quiet as she turned away, hearing the soft splatter of mud and water as her crushed assignments were dropped onto the ground.
She only had time to make the two copies. And there wasn't enough time before their first class started for her to make another from memory.
Sapphia burned up all the time Ira was counting on by showing up early to school.
"Seriously, go home, Ira."
That satisfied, high voice filled the stale air again as Ira took a small breath, not wanting to meet it.
"Nobody wants an auraless runt like you at an academy training us to fight the Grimm." Those footsteps started to fade away as the small group of girls walked off, heading for one of the side paths.
That was good. Ira was looking to use the back entrance to the school anyway, so it avoided them.
"You don't belong here. So stop bothering to show up."
Was this… always what happens at schools like Signal…?
Ira's green eyes finally tracked down to her feet, her grip on the strap over her shoulder finally loosening as she let out a held breath. It shook her, shoulders trembling softly as her loosened fingers quivered.
The white, crumpled paper with the penmanship she recognized as hers was already soaked through from the murky water of the puddle in the dirt.
There wasn't anything she could do about that.
She just needed to make it to class… and try to ignore the student hierarchy of who's the strongest.
Power wasn't always about raw strength. Ira knew that better than anyone.
When Ira made it to her seat and the teacher walked in, she kept her head down through the announcements and through the collection of their assignments.
This was the other part she hated most about this place.
"Ira?" A young, but aged voice of a man asked, her teacher standing by her desk. "Where's your assignment?"
Lime green eyes looked up for a moment before they glanced to the side, catching a pointed glare from Sapphia across the way. "I…"
The teacher didn't seem to notice, or care. Sapphia was his favorite anyway.
"I didn't do it." Ira's answer was quiet, her eyes looking back down as the man frowned.
"Ira, any more late assignments and you'll fail the course. You're already at the border of barely passing," he reminded her, eyes bearing a lack of concern she was used to. "Test grades alone won't get you anywhere in my class."
The girl's hands dipped further between her knees as she squeezed her legs tightly together, dipping her head in a tiny nod.
"I know…"
"I'm home." Ira closed the door behind her as she took off her shoes by the coat rack, a comforting warmth seeping into her skin from the inside air.
She took in a deep breath as she clutched her bag, letting the aroma of her mother's cooking and the warm cabin atmosphere replace the stale air of the school and the glistening forest during her walk home.
Coming home to this almost made it worth it.
"Welcome home! I'm just working on dinner while I can."
Anoel's voice came from the kitchen, drawing Ira toward it as she dropped her bag for now by the stairs and stepped into the dividing room's doorframe.
Her mother was only in her late thirties, so Ira always figured the woman must've had her at a young age. Somewhere around 20.
Looking at her, it was always assuring seeing someone so young with this kind of heavy responsibility resting on her shoulders.
Anoel wasn't in her casual attire. She wore her pale dark-gray jeans and her white tank-top, her brown half-jacket and black bullhide cowboy hat draped overtop a nearby chair. Her boots rested at the foot of it.
"Heading out?" Ira asked, letting her uniform-clad shoulder lean into the open frame at her right as she watched her mom move about the kitchen island, long black hair tied in a ponytail. She was preparing some sort of pink fish to go into the oven.
"I am. I have a few errands to run with the info network, but I'll be back tonight," Anoel replied, turning her bright gaze to her daughter as she kicked the oven shut with her heel. "How was school?"
"It… went well," Ira replied evenly, knowing if she didn't look Anoel in the eyes as she said that, it wasn't going to be believable.
But it seemed she wasn't flawless at lying yet. Anoel's gaze shifted for a moment before the woman frowned.
"Ira, I didn't send you to Signal to get bullied every day."
The girl broke the lock she had on Anoel's gaze as she turned it to their kitchen window instead, the fading light of the evening sun filtering in through the open curtains. "It's not every day."
"It's close enough." Anoel's voice grew firmer, and Ira flinched a little in the doorframe. "I'm pulling you out of that school. You deserve-"
"N-No!" Ira's sudden voice startled both of them. The girl's breath came out in a heavy huff as she quickly shook her head and pushed away from where she leaned. "I can't leave."
"Ira, there's no point to it if that's all that's happening over there."
The young girl's hands started to ball up as she looked back to her mother's face, a tear-pricked determination taking over in her eyes. "Wasn't it you who said I needed people around me in order to build up my restraint?"
Her mom's lips pressed into a thin line as Anoel placed a hand on her hip, a small sigh leaving her lips as she met her daughter's gaze with a worried one of her own. "Yes. But that's when you use your Semblance. To avoid collateral damage. I'm not going to freely send you to a place that tries to bully you until you give up."
"I'm not giving up." Ira's voice suddenly grew quiet as her fingers fell open, the tension in her body leaving her. "I wanna get better."
"And you will. We can always move somewhere else, find you a better place to-"
"It's fine," Ira cut her mother off, dropping her gaze away to let it fall on the oven. "And turn the heat down a little. You'll burn it."
Anoel whirled around and cursed as Ira left the kitchen, grabbing her bag from the floor as she made her way up the stairs to her room.
She didn't come back out until Anoel was already gone.
Ira brought her bag with her as she sat down at the bottom of the stairs, pulling her sneakers on before standing. She'd changed out of her plaid skirt and restricting school jacket, opting for a pair of dark-gray short-shorts and a black t-shirt instead.
Something she partially copied from her mother.
She quietly threw her bag over her shoulder as she stood up, sweeping through the kitchen to grab the plate Anoel left out for her before pushing her way out the back door of the cabin.
Black sneakers padded through the damp grass as she ate a few bites of her dinner, nose scrunching up slightly from the slightly dry taste of the fish.
It was overcooked.
At least the rice was good.
Ira took another bite before making her way into a clearing through the trees, the usual forest surrounding their home opening away to a small grassy area she liked to do her homework in.
She dropped her dark bag once she reached the middle of it, the evening sun had already dried this patch of the ground. Her legs folded beneath herself as she sat down beside her bag, scooping another bite of hot salmon into her mouth before she rested the plate down too.
Her hands rummaged through her bag for a moment before pulling out the textbook she was supposed to read tonight.
The chapter was on Aura Control.
She opened the book and got a few pages in, but the writer kept making it out to be so easy to manipulate and channel your own Aura.
He kept assuring it'd eventually become natural and the body already knew how to do it. You just had to trust it.
Because everybody had it.
Her delicate brow furrowed as she set her empty plate aside, fork resting down with a small tap as she stared at the book open over her lap.
There was a whole segment on meditation. Apparently, taking time to immerse yourself in your body, and ignore all surroundings, made channeling aura become easier. Especially for first-timers.
"Okay…" Ira muttered quietly, placing the book in front of her as she analyzed the picture of the person demonstrating the position to be in.
She took a small breath as she fixed her legs and feet to replicate the way the woman sat, gently resting her hands in a mirrored fashion as well before closing her eyes.
Okay… just… clear your head. Block it all out.
Ira's furrowed brow stayed like that for a few minutes, the girl focusing first on trying to level her breathing. Her slim frame rose and fell slightly with every breath, but that eventually started to stabilize as the tension in her body started to loosen.
Her slender shoulders relaxed, face adopting the same release as she took a deep breath and started searching for the energy inside her.
She found it almost immediately. Hiding away in the place it always did, humming in that subtle, crystalline way it never failed to embody.
Ira took another deep breath and held it, the wind brushing softly through her hair dying down for a moment as she started to hear the crystallization of the air around her.
Lime green shimmers of light manifested between the trees and across the grass, glistening in the golden sun as each stray area solidified into physical energy.
A soft, gentle humming rose into the air around her with the more she crystallized, feeling the acute reach of each floating cluster and strand against the forest breeze.
The skin of her legs felt the grass beneath her harden, a solid crystalline glow starting to span out from where she sat as that energy began to spread into the roots of the ground.
She felt it start to climb into the trees, shining through the veins of every branch and leaf, before it started webbing further up into the air.
The tiniest smile formed on Ira's lips as she was tempted to laugh softly in relief, feeling the wind above the trees flutter through her reaching energy-
Something rustled the leaves nearby to her right.
Her eyes immediately snapped open and glanced to the side, her body flinching as that tree she peered at suddenly erupted in splintering wood as the energy inside it shattered.
"N-No…" Ira quickly scrambled to her feet, running through her field of energy to fall to her knees next to the tree's destroyed roots.
A small white rabbit with antlers lay on its side, curled up with the first signs of blood starting to seep through the fur of its limp leg. Fragments of wood lay embedded in its skin, and its already dulling eyes stared in a petrified fear when it saw Ira kneel next to it.
"I-I'm sorry… I didn't mean to… to-" Something hard struck Ira in the stomach and she fell back. Three smaller rabbits with newly grown antlers barred their teeth at her, the girl's wide eyes starting to water over. "I-I didn't mean t-to…"
The three young creatures continued to protect their wounded mother, and Ira's hands quickly pushed into the grass to start crawling away.
Her breathing was starting to quicken, the fingers clutching the crystallized ground beneath her starting to tremble again as her acute senses started to go haywire.
Every little vibration in the ground suddenly became deafening, little ripples of wind brushing against bark searing into her skin as her body seized up and she clutched her head.
Another tree burst as another rustle of leaves shook her mind from the other side of the clearing.
The scattering of fragments echoed louder than anything else, and a scream locked in her throat as another tree burst.
Her body curled up as those fragments fell in thundering crashes, eyes squeezing closed as the air around her grew unbearably hot.
The wind picked up a little and her entire body locked up, hand jamming into the grass as her legs tightened and her piercing scream ripped through the tree canopy above her.
A flock of birds scattered into the air as all the trees around her shattered... breaking apart in a silently rupturing ground.
"Ira?"
Anoel cautiously stepped through the ruined forest, boots trekking softly over the overturned ground as she waded through a sea of floating splinters.
Her shimmering eyes glowed softly in the night air, the fragments of the moon bearing down on the open ground as she made her way toward the curled up heat signature of her daughter.
"Ira… just stay put, alright? I'm coming over to you," Anoel spoke out, stepping around a crumbling hole in the ground.
"S-Stay away…"
Anoel grimaced at the brokenness in Ira's voice, a hoarseness prominent over the usual light flutter of the girl's tone. "You can't hurt me, Ira."
"Y-You're wrong!" Ira's body curled up more in the empty clearing she secluded herself in, ragged breath racking her lungs as Anoel saw the signs of tears gleaming over the young girl's face. "I-I don't w-want to hurt you! Just stay back!"
Anoel's steps grew closer anyway, the woman coming to a soft stop beside her as Ira tightened her grip around her legs and pulled herself in even more.
Shutting herself away like she always did.
"There's nothing you can do to hurt me, Ira…" Anoel slowly lowered to her knees beside her trembling daughter, resting her hand on the ground to support herself as she lowered herself further to lie next to Ira. "You'll get the hang of it eventually. Don't worry about that. All it takes is time."
The woman brought her arms around the curled up girl in front of her and pulled her in, resting her chin on the cold head of hair of her daughter before kissing it softly.
Ira's arms finally pulled away from her legs, letting them straighten out before sliding her hands around Anoel.
She let herself get buried in that warmth again, breathing still raspy and shaky, but she was trying. She was always trying.
"Just give it time. It'll come to you."
Co-Author: A New Username
Co-Author: HydraFlow
Character Ownerships (as they appear):
Xera: Ira, Anoel, Sapphira
Meet Ira! You'll be seeing her often here, considering she's one of two main characters for this story.
The next chapter will introduce the other main character.
oOo Collab Rules:
Chapters that include both main characters interacting with one another will be set in the perspective of our individual story's main character.
So, in here, scenes like that will be from Ira's perspective. Whereas in Username's story, it'll be in their character's perspective.
That's a unique case, though. Specifically when our two MC's interact. The rest will be posted as normal in both stories.
oOo Story Premise:
The whole premise of the story is centered on a tragic romance, so it'll be mostly character interaction and some plot. Canon characters will be prominent, as well, once they get to Beacon.
These first several chapters take place before the arcs at Beacon actually start.
oOo Yuri Warning:
If you haven't figured it out by now, this story has yuri (female x female). This is your first, and only, warning. Basically every relationship this story has/will have will very likely be yuri.
Hope I drove that warning in far enough.
If you like that though, you'll probably like the pairings here.
oOo One Final Note:
This story is a collab between myself, A New Username, and HydraFlow. Hydra's mainly only here to have input for his specific characters, though. Whom you'll meet later on.
I still listed him as a co-author anyway.
Bite me.