Fractured:
Over the generations, the Malachite Clan had unofficially made it a family tradition to make the journey on foot to the coast of Lake Matsu every year. Not only was it a reprieve from the crowded city life of Mistral, but it was well-documented that the clan's founder, Jade Malachite, had walked on foot alone to the lake annually in order to celebrate his faith that the gods would grant his clan prosperity. Though many aspects of the journey resembling a holy pilgrimage had been phased out over the generations, the tradition of walking on foot the entire way was the clan's way of honoring their peacock-tailed founder's piety.
Though the current leaders of the clan, Beryl and Peridot Malachite, had always enjoyed the amenities of the lakeside destination their predecessors had built for their descendants and somewhat loathed the long trek itself, their daughter was something of an oddity. While she more than enjoyed their lakeside home's luxuries, Opal Malachite more found herself enjoying the sights and sounds of Anima's untamed wilds more than anything every year they made the trip. This was despite the fact that every time they made the journey, she had to leave behind her passion for the forge for what could become upwards of a month's absence. At first, leaving behind her studies in smithing for any amount of time put her in a foul mood, proclaiming that every moment she spent not preparing herself for inheriting the clan's business was a moment wasted – though that trend fell by the wayside the more she found herself in awe of the many unfamiliar things they encountered along the way.
So it was that the family of three found themselves on the path towards Lake Matsu, a number of guards accompanying them to assure their safe passage – alongside the larger-than-life member of the clan's inner council known as Sandy. Bearing the scars of dozens of battles and not losing an ounce of his love of life nor his wit, he was something of a living icon of bravery to Opal, and for good reason too. Though it was long before the young cat Faunus had ever been brought into the world by her mixed-race pair of parents, Sandy and the rest of the inner council were something of a traveling band of adventurers, and thus were no strangers to the dangers of traveling the breadth of Anima's wilds.
Adjusting his studded kanabo on his shoulder as he put away his Scroll, Sandy interrupted a conversation Opal was having with her father. "Welp, looks like we've hit the signal dead zone from here to near the next town over," he said with a click of his tongue.
"Well that's no big deal with you around! Besides, it leaves me plenty of time to convince Dad that I'm more than ready to start working with Dust" she said proudly, ignoring the annoyed look her father sent her in favor of focusing on the small smile that spread over Sandy's cheeks.
"Yeah, you've got that right," he half-bragged, ruffling Opal's hair between her ears. "Still – can't be too careful. Come on, let's form a perimeter." He commanded, the guards wordlessly giving their nods of acknowledgment before stepping into formation.
As they continued, Opal found herself making tremendous progress in convincing her father that crafting Dust-infused weapons was simply the next logical step in her training. While Beryl had been somewhat apprehensive to the idea on account of how he nearly burned off the ends of his hair in his own over-eagerness to explore the applications of Dust, he couldn't deny that Opal was making greater progress in smithing at 15 than he'd made at twice her age. With that in mind and an eagerness to put an end to what seemed to be a well-rehearsed speech of hers, he was merely waiting for a chance to get a word in edgewise to accept her request.
Unfortunately, he never got the chance.
As the snake-tongued right hand of Sandy froze at the front of the formation, so too did everyone else suddenly stop dead in their tracks. Only mildly concerned, thinking he'd detected some pack of wild animals like they had several times before, Sandy approached him. "Ka, what is it?" He whispered, the dreadful look on Ka's face tipping him off that the Faunus had detected something worse than mere animals.
Flecking his tongue out once more, Ka shook his head. "Grimm."
Suddenly going tight-lipped and lowering his voice further, Sandy began running through several of the plans he'd made for just a situation as this. "How many? What kind?"
Ka let out a barely audible sigh before readying his scimitar. "Too many. Ursai, Beowolves – maybe an Alpha – I can't tell if there's anything else. Not with how many there are."
Sandy nodded, putting on an authoritative mask that betrayed no trace of the severity of the quiet exchange he'd just had. Years of wandering Anima had taught him well that even the small amount of panic that Beryl and his family could produce would be enough to single them out as targets for the Grimm. If he wanted his young charge and her parents to emerge alive, the least he could do was maintain his cool. "Ok everyone, we need to pick up the pace – just a precaution." He calmly assured, grip on his kanabo tightening as he shot Beryl a reassuring look as he pulled his wife and daughter close. If there was anything Beryl had learned to trust, it was that when Sandy suggested something to keep his family safe, he'd be wise to listen. What's more, even though he never named the reason why they needed to move more quickly, thanks to the tension that radiated out from Ka and some of the guards closest to him, everyone quickly gathered exactly why they were moving more quickly – the Grimm were near.
Their pace hastened, the lack of reception only wordlessly reminding everyone present that there was no chance to call for a Huntsmen for help if the Grimm caught up to them. As the minutes dragged on and her unease grew at the eerie silence that seemed to have filled the forest, a chill creeped up Opal spine as a single howl in the distance seemed to trigger a cacophony of guttural snarls and inhuman roars.
Sandy cursed underneath his breath. "Ka, with me," he quickly ordered, letting Opal and her family overtake him as he motioned for a portion of the guards to form a line around him, "Beryl, take Peridot and Opal and the rest of the guards to Anzensei – we'll buy you time." As the tide of crimson and pitch black made its hot pursuit of their prey known, the true number of the Grimm made itself clear. For every one well-trained guard present, there appeared to be at least four or five Grimm to match, and the number seemed only to be growing as the Grimm drew closer.
As Opal stopped suddenly in her tracks, she whirled around to face her guardian. "What? Sandy, no!" She shouted, terror filling her voice at the idea of leaving Sandy to face off against such overwhelming odds. "You could die!"
"Don't worry about me! Beryl, get her out of here!" He barked over his shoulder, the rest of his and Ka's detachment of guards readying their weapons.
The last thing Opal saw as her father managed to finally pull her into motion as the unholy horde of Grimm approached was Ka cleaving a Beowolf in two before being tackled by an Ursai, and the last thing she could distinctly hear over the din of battle behind her was the uncomfortable crunch of bone shattering and a body seeming to turn to ash in the wind.
Although she and her family tried to remain calm and take solace in the knowledge that they still possessed a sizeable portion of their guard, Opal still found herself breaking into a cold sweat as the haunting cry of the Grimm caught up with them. Though she refused to look behind her at her parents' behest, she could plainly hear the dull thud of bodies falling behind her – and not all of them seemed to finish their fall by scattering in the wind. Within only a few dozen agonizing moments of the Grimm catching up with them, Opal found herself being grabbed and encircled by a group of four guards that desperately pulled her out of the way of what appeared to be an Alpha Beowolf. As her parents' cries for their daughter were muffled by both the number of guards surrounding the pair and her shock at seeing a Grimm up close, Opal didn't notice that she was in a dead sprint alongside only two of the four guards that'd pulled her aside until she tripped over a tree root.
Forming a last line of defense between the heiress of the Malachite Clan and certain death, the remaining two guards stood their ground in a desperate attempt to protect Opal. The Alpha Beowolf seemed to consider them for a moment, its head tilting at an odd angle as it looked at them before charging. Her right guardsman raised his shield valiantly in a desperate attempt to block the Alpha's cleaving strike, but the monster reacted with lightning speed, catching him in the face with outstretched claws before he could react. Opal was paralyzed by fear as she saw a deep red mist erupt from the guard's head before he dropped lifelessly to the ground. Turning to her final remaining guard, it wasn't long before she witnessed her last defender being thrown around like a ragdoll. After the Alpha Beowolf tossed the guard's body aside, causing a sickening snap to echo around her, the Grimm paused, falling on all fours as it prepared to pounce.
Opal didn't remember how, but all she would remember after the fact was that as she stared death in the eye, a part of her just seemed to click. Feeling as though the Alpha's pounce was in slow motion, Opal whirled to her feet and broke out into a mad dash deeper into the forest, desperate to escape what would be her certain death.
Weaving in and out of the trees with speed in short bursts and a reaction time she could never have fathomed herself having, she realized that what unnatural agility she'd suddenly achieved was in fact her Semblance having sprung to life. Though she knew not how or why it decided to grace her with its presence, she decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and instead kept on dodging the Alpha whenever it had a clear line of sight towards her. Even still, for every time she avoided the Alpha's claws or wove her way in between a tight cluster of trees, she could still feel the Grimm gaining on her, and her inexperience with her Semblance draining her.
For the split second she shifted her attention away from looking where she was going to contemplate if she could keep going at the rate she was tiring out, she found herself face to face with the mouth of a collapsed cave entrance too massive to avoid.
Skidding to a halt, Opal spun around to see what distance – if any – she still had left between her and the Alpha. With the beast merely a few dozen feet away and making a beeline for her, she made the split-second decision to try and use its momentum against it by running past the Grimm. As her heart seemed to start beating out of her chest and she appeared to have made it by without the Beowolf stopping itself in time to continue its pursuit, she thanked the gods for having given her an opportunity to try and make it back to her parents unharmed.
Sadly, she never got the chance.
Due to the sheer amount of energy she'd spent using her Semblance with no idea as to her own limits, she stumbled as soon as she began her sprint – and that was the only opportunity the Alpha needed to reorient and launch itself off the collapsed cave entrance straight for Opal.
The last thing she saw was the Alpha's claws a mere hair's breadth away from her as it let out a feral snarl. The last thing she felt was the foliage cushioning her fall before the Beowolf's hot breath seemed to hover over her for few moments. The last thing she heard before succumbing to darkness was a vicious roar let out by a familiar voice and the shattering of bone, followed by someone crying her name.
The first thing Opal noticed as she woke from what she considered to be an unusually deep sleep was the feeling of something tightly wrapped around her lightly throbbing head. Blearily shaking the sleep from her eyes, the exact reason for this feeling became clear. As she turned her head to take in her surroundings, which appeared to be a hospital room of some sort, she found her father and mother at her bedside, her father holding her hand even in the midst of a restless sleep as her mother leaned up against him. Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror just behind her parents, she found a large portion of her head bandaged up to hold down one of her feline ears and cover one of her eyes – the faintest hints of blood making themselves known in spots of dark red throughout the tightly-wrapped material.
In that moment, the fog that had made its way into Opal's memory regarding recent events had lifted – her family heading to Lake Matsu, the Grimm attacking her before everything went dark, all of it. It all came rushing back to the forefront of her mind so quickly that she let out a startled gasp as she tried to sit upright, only for a sore groan to erupt from her instead as her muscles refused to comply. Almost as soon as the sound had left her lips, her father began to stir.
"Opal…?" He asked, blinking the sleep from his eyes. "Opal! Peridot, get up, she's awake!" He exclaimed, the sight of his daughter having regained consciousness was like an electric shock that brought awareness in no time at all.
As Opal attempted to sit up once again with a grunt, Beryl stopped her. "Don't move, Opal, let me help." The care he took while helping her into a sitting position made Opal think he was afraid of snapping her in half, as if his daughter was suddenly made of glass.
Waking with a start just as her husband, Peridot gasped at the sight of her daughter and immediately stood to draw her in for a concerned embrace. "Oh, my baby girl…" she choked out into the side of Opal's head that wasn't covered in bandages. "You have no idea how worried we were about you." She finished, placing a motherly kiss on top of her daughter's head before withdrawing back into her seat, sharing in her husband's hold on one of Opal's hands.
"Where… are we?" Opal asked tiredly, rubbing her unbandaged eye with her free hand to try and ward off the drowsiness that she felt. Even though she was aware and cognizant enough to recognize she was in a hospital, there was still a considerable gap in her memory that she couldn't help but feel the need to have filled.
"We're in Anzensei." Beryl answered, his thumb making soothing circles around Opal's hand. "The doctors have told us that you're going to be fine." He continued, "While your ear is going to take some time to heal and it's not going to look quite the same, it'll be as good as new – we just have to be patient." He added, swallowing a lump in his throat as an unspoken addendum fought its way from his lips. "But… they told us that they had to remove your eye. They couldn't save it." He explained remorsefully, his chest tightening as his daughter's free ear lowered like his own as the severity of her father's news sank in.
As Opal's gaze drifted downward, she lost herself in thought. While she remembered the Alpha Beowolf chasing her, how her Semblance bought her some time, and how the last thing she saw was the Grimm leaping towards her, the severity of what had transpired mere hours ago didn't sink in until the grievous nature of her injuries was revealed; however, that wasn't the cause of her silence. She and her father had found patronage in the form of dozens of Huntsmen from Atlas and Mistral alike that'd informed her that, once people moved on from the incident that put them in need of one, Atlesian cybernetics felt no different than whatever they'd be replacing. Knowing how widespread her clan's connections ran throughout the two kingdoms, she wasn't overly concerned about the loss of her eye. No, she was lost in the memory of her guards' final moments before they died to protect her.
While she more than knew that it was her clan's guards' duty to protect her and her parents, she had never expected to be subjected to witnessing their deaths firsthand. The fact she was unable to do anything but watch and run helplessly as so many of the familiar faces she'd come to associate with safety and protection fell only left a pit in her stomach. She didn't need someone to tell her specifics to figure that no small number of their guards had perished trying to save her and her parents, and the fact she couldn't do anything to protect any of them, or her parents, like they protected her haunted the young Faunus – causing the hollow feeling in her stomach to grow ever more disconcerting.
"But, don't worry!" Peridot was quick to add, misinterpreting her daughter's crestfallen expression, "We have enough friends in Atlas to find and deliver a replacement in no time. Your father and I won't rest until you can see out of both eyes again – I promise you that." she assured, giving Opal's hand a reassuring squeeze.
Opal's gaze suddenly shot upwards towards her parents, a panicked expression on her face. "Where's Sandy!?" she nearly shouted, realizing the absence of one of the clan's most integral members, "Is he okay!?"
Opal's heart rate escalated, which was matched beat for beat by the machine monitoring her vitals. Beryl managed to keep Opal from attempting to move by placing his hands firmly on her shoulders before she could hurt herself in her struggles. Looking into his daughter's eyes, he began to speak in a calm, reassuring tone. "Opal, he's fine. Don't worry, it'll-"
"Take a lot more than a few dozen Beowolves and Ursai to take me down." A familiar deep voice finished as Sandy's broad frame stepped into the room. Despite the greater part of his chest and his arms being bandaged up, the prestigious guardian's spirits were only slightly dampened in the wake of recent events.
Peering around her parents, Opal breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of Sandy. Despite the bandages covering what would assuredly be no small number of new scars and the way his normally proudly-maintained graying Ronin hairstyle was in disarray, seeing that he'd even survived the attack was something she was already thanking the gods for. "Sandy, I…" She trailed off as Sandy came around to sit on the bed next to her, tears welling up behind her remaining eye.
"You don't have to say anything kid," he said simply, laying a hand gently on her shoulder before she responded anyway.
"Thank you." Opal breathed out, removing herself from her father's grip to pull Sandy in for a crushing hug. Despite the flare of pain and soreness that her vice-like grip caused all over his chest, Sandy merely grunted and returned the gesture just as he had when Beryl and Peridot profusely thanked him for saving their daughter's life. "I- I was so scared, I thought you were going to die when you told us to run, and then I thought I was going to die, and then…" She stopped, shaking her head and letting a few quiet tears begin to roll down her cheeks, her parents watching on as Sandy comforted his young charge, rubbing her back as she wept.
"It's over, Opal. You're safe now." He said softly. He might've been familiar with the rigors of battle after so many years fighting, but that didn't mean he didn't still feel the same fear and sorrow Opal was experiencing now, even after the battle's end. He simply coped in his own way, either quietly or by laughing in the face of death, while for others that needed consoling, he was more than willing to be the sympathetic rock for them to lean on.
"But what about everyone else?" Opal tearfully questioned as she pulled away, holding herself as she remembered all those that she'd seen or heard fall in the carnage. "What about everyone that died to protect us?"
Sandy hesitated to answer, not wanting to discuss with Opal how half of the clan's guards, some being people he'd known since before Opal was even born, died in the battle, not when things were still so fresh in everyone's minds. Beryl and Peridot exchanged a concerned look before her father answered. "Opal… you don't need to worry about that. Things will be back to normal before you know it, I promise you." He comforted, gently gripping her shoulder to draw her attention.
Just as soon as he finished speaking, the younger Faunus looked away from her father, her gaze drifting off into some unknown place. She shook her head. In her mind, going back to normal was tantamount to having let all the guards' lives that were lost to protect her be for nothing. She wasn't about to let so many people's sacrifice be wasted on her simply returning to a life of smithing and crafting in the clan that she was born to inherit – not if she wanted to honor their memory.
"No, it won't." She said, mournfully looking back up at him – and she was right. No matter how hard any of them tried, the souls that were snuffed out that day would leave a hole in their hearts that could never be filled. While some guards came and went over the years, many were members of the clan from birth that simply didn't have what it took to become Huntsmen but wanted to protect their clan anyway. With them gone, the atmosphere and day-to-day affairs back home would be forever changed, and nothing would be quite the same in their absence.
"And what if… what if I don't want things to go back to normal?"
"Opal… what do you mean?" Peridot asked, unable to imagine a reason her daughter wouldn't want things to go back to the way things were.
"I mean… after seeing everyone that died trying to protect us? I… I can't let their lives have been lost for nothing." She said, something akin to survivor's guilt mixed with newfound resolve settling in her chest. "I think that I might want to try and become a Huntress," she nervously proposed, all too prepared for her parents to refuse outright considering what had just happened to her. Though she wasn't one hundred percent certain that she'd even be able to become one if she tried, she had her newly-discovered Semblance, talents in creating weapons, and an unshakable will to at least try to honor the fallen going for her – and maybe that would be enough.
Her parents shared another brief look before responding, an unspoken agreement to support and protect their daughter no matter what on the day she was born coming to mind, but both realizing that they couldn't in good conscious discourage their daughter from pursuing a more noble calling. "Are you sure you would want that Opal? After what you've gone through…" He trailed off, looking at his daughter with no small amount of awe in response to the resolute look on her face.
"I think so," Opal admitted with a small, almost apologetic nod at how she knew her parents would react, "It's the least I can do for them, after what they did for us. For me." She finished, softly touching the bandage where her eye used to be and letting out a deep breath.
Sandy let out a short chuckle before giving Opal a squeeze on the shoulder. "I can't believe I hadn't seen it before Opal, but you've got the heart of a lion in ya – don't let anything ever convince you otherwise." He encouraged, "And if you need someone to throw you some tips, I'd be more than happy to train you." He offered, sparing a glance towards her parents that assured them that if she chose such a path, Opal would be receiving training from only the best.
Before anyone could respond, the sound of hasty and angry footfalls began to sound from the halls outside, followed by the muffled sound of yelling through the door. "Just think about it," he said, rising to his feet and sauntering towards the door. "That's the doctors about to give me an earful. They told me I'm supposed to be on bedrest until further notice," he informed with a dismissive shrug before sneaking out the door. It couldn't have been five seconds before the faint yelling from down the hall grew ever closer to where Sandy had begun walking off to, though no one could discern what was being said.
Sighing and anticipating that he would be needed to wrangle in the doctors' rage at Sandy's refusal to listen, Beryl turned towards Peridot. "Watch her. I'm going to make sure they don't tear him apart," he said tiredly before looking at Opal. "And you get some rest – we'll talk more when you wake up." He half-ordered before giving his daughter a kiss on the forehead.
As he left, and Peridot moved to replace her husband in the seat he once occupied, Opal said nothing as her mother took a hold of her hand in the same way her father had already held it when she woke up. "We'll be right here when you wake up Opal, don't you worry." Her mother promised, convincing Opal enough to finally sink back down into the hospital's bed sheets.
However much energy she had when she woke up seemed all but depleted as she did so, the painkillers being fed to her via IV causing her exposed eyelid to grow heavier by the second. As she drifted back into a comfortable state of unconsciousness, surrounded by the supportive and nurturing presence of her mother, Opal's final thought was that, perhaps she truly could become a Huntress if she tried. Not simply to honor those that had fallen to protect her and her family, but so that she could be the guardian her loved ones would need if they were to ever find themselves in such grave danger again. So long as she still drew breath, she promised herself that much.
Author's Note: So, um… yeah. I may or may not have premeditated Opal's origin for how she lost her eye repeatedly even weeks before Iridescence or the ToTI rewrite was a thing, so… if I kinda got carried away in some places with some descriptions, you'll have to understand that I spent a while thinking about this chapter even before it existed. Anyway! I hope you enjoyed this little oneshot peering into the past of Opal, because I sure as hell enjoyed writing it – for all the pain and heartache Opal had to (and would continue to) go through to become the Huntress she is today.
Oh, and here's a fun note for ya! Jade Malachite? A carry-over from the original Tale of Team Iridescence, albeit modified to have been a peacock Faunus – ergo the symbol on Opal's chest in her commissioned art on my twitter (SpaceCocaine, with a pfp to match if ya didn't know). Not only that, but I just couldn't leave him out of my fanon after everything I went through writing him, so I figured retconning him and elevating him to the position of founder of the Malachite Clan was the least I could do for the guy.
