In Another Place, In a Different Time

by InfantCrippler

It was a different world, both more blessed and more damned than they one they had escaped.

4. Ch3: Serenity

Beacon

"I must say, Miss Kaslana, your choice in weaponry is unusual." Ozpin nodded towards the twin pistols that the white-haired girl carried as she bound up from the training field to the spectator's section. "With the technology and dust we have at our disposal, it isn't often you see Huntsmen using the classics."

The Headmaster and Beacon's newest ward were currently situated in one of Beacon's training rooms, having procured it for the purpose of evaluating the girl's combat proficiency, an endeavor in which Ozpin found himself pleasantly surprised.

He had imagined that extended dormancy would have made her unsuited for combat, but quickly found those doubts crushed. She was as spry and fit as a Huntress in her prime and her combat sense was top-notch, something that was usually only seen in veteran fighters.

"Old man, I'm a classic,' she reminded dismissively, expertly twirling the weapon in her right hand in a show of dexterity. "It just makes sense, right?"

If Ozpin had a single concern, it was that the girl was overconfident and prone to bouts of recklessness, especially when the safety of others was concerned, the fiasco at the dust shop several weeks prior being the prime example.

"So it would seem," the headmaster conceded dryly, "though I would have thought you might find the mechashift options far more interesting than standard issue handguns."

Her shoulders bobbed up and down in a careless shrug. "Well, the fancier weapons are definitely interesting, but something about pistols just feels right, you know? Like my body knows how to move when I've got these babies in my hands." She pointed a gun at an imaginary enemy and mimed firing, "Pow!"

Ozpin nodded approvingly at the score on the training room screen. "I suppose I can't argue with the results."

It was not an absurdly high score, but it was surely nothing to scoff at. The girl displayed expertise in marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat that could rival some of his older students. She clearly had some form of technical training that her body remembered, even if her mind did not.

"Your form is effective, if unorthodox. Reflexes and physical capabilities are also quite remarkable. It is a highly unusual, if welcome, surprise. At a base level, I would gauge your capabilities at around the level of a standard Huntress, physically speaking."

Kiana's fighting style relied on lightning fast strikes coupled with unerring marksmanship. Leveraging her speed and reflexes, she nimbly darted in to score devastating blows at close range, before retreating to a safer distance to pelt her target with a hail of bullets. It was a deadly dance between the foe and herself, where a single misstep promised grievous injury, at the least.

"I'm just built different, you know?"

"Yes, I suppose I realized that when you put your fist through a concrete wall without the aid of Aura," Ozpin deadpanned sardonically before adopting a more serious expression.

"Your words hold more merit than you may realize. Your body's baseline parameters far exceed those of an average human in nearly every way–something unheard of without the use of Aura. There is also the fact that we could not detect any aura within you, latent or otherwise. Whether or not it is unlocked, everyone has an aura, yet we were not able to detect even the faintest trace of one within yourself."

The girl shot him a dubious glance. "What, so am I just not human, then?"

"I am afraid it is not that simple," The headmaster corrected. "The Aura is the physical manifestation of the soul, the two are inexorably linked, be it human or beast, but you are an anomaly. An exception to the rule. There is quite literally no other being like you on Remnant."

Pensively, he was reminded of a discussion he had had with the good Doctor. "Bartholomew posits that you may be some form of 'precursor' to humanity, before the soul became something we could wield just as readily as our weapons. Unfortunately, we have no surviving records of any such people existing to corroborate the theory."

"So, once again, I'm something Remnant's never seen before. Surprise, surprise." She paused, her interest in the matter waning in favor of another, more immediately pressing concern, "Speaking of Oobleck…"

Her incoming complaints were stifled by a light cough. "Miss Kaslana," Ozpin chided, "Doctor Oobleck will be one of your instructors should you succeed in your initiation. I do hope you will get along well enough to not let it interfere with your schoolwork."

Kiana pursed her lips in consternation. She didn't particularly dislike the man. He wasn't unpleasant, per se, but between his jargon, excitability, and rapid speech, she found it difficult to follow any one line of conversation for too long. Quite frankly, he was exhausting, and with the brunt of his interest directed towards her rather unique circumstances, Kiana found that she was participating in more of those breakneck exchanges than she would have liked.

"I know, I know," she sighed, "but don't you hire anyone, I don't know, more normal around here? I mean, look at your staff. Oobleck talks like a runaway train…"

"You get used to it."

"I don't think I've seen anyone boast as much as Port does…"

"Peter is just very enthusiastic about recounting his experience. For the benefit of the future generation, of course."

"Peach has that really weird thing going on with her plants..."

"Well, Thumbelina is the instructor for Plant Sciences."

"You know exactly what I mean. And Glynda…"

"And Glynda, what?"

Speak of the devil and she will appear. Any criticisms for the woman died in her throat as the person in question strode to meet them.

Kiana jerked and stood frozen like a mischievous cat caught in the act. "Ah, haha…I was just talking about how effective a disciplinarian you are?"

The woman narrowed her eyes, shooting the girl a withering glare. "Clearly not effective enough. And for the last time, that's Professor Goodwitch, to you. We will be your instructors for the next four years. Some modicum of propriety is expected."

She looked as if she wanted to launch into an exhaustive tirade–certainly not the first she had had with the girl–but settled for exhaling an exasperated sigh. Turning to her colleague, she spoke professionally, "Headmaster, the bullheads are en route with the new prospective students."

"Oh my, is it that time already?" The man gave a cursory glance to his silver wristwatch. "So it is. Well, then we best go prepare. Will I be seeing you at the orientation assembly, Miss Kaslana?"

Kiana made a face, "Doubt it, not much else for me to get oriented on, is there? I've seen enough of the campus to know where everything is. I think I'll go for a walk or something, soak in the sun, you know?"

Glynda opened her mouth to argue, but Ozpin smoothly intercepted her coming protests. "Ah, such a shame, I had such a rousing speech prepared for the new Beacon hopefuls. In that case, I shall be seeing you at the Cliff tomorrow morning for initiation. Now then, shall we?"

He directed the last part to Glynda, gesturing to the waiting lift. With a clack, his deputy shut her jaw, turning stiffly on her heel and marched off with him in tow. Once the elevator had finally begun to rise and their privacy was ensured, the stern woman finally relaxed, her mouth pulling downwards into a slight, reproachful frown.

"Really, Oz, you spoil that girl far too much."

"I wouldn't quite call it 'spoiling' her," Ozpin insisted thoughtfully. "Frankly, I'm just quite glad that she has been able to find some semblance of normalcy in what is sure to be a strange, new world. Considering her circumstances, I think a bit of leniency is in order, don't you, Glynda?"

The frown lines creasing her face deepened, but she couldn't disagree. The girl she had first met in the infirmary had been meek and subdued, a far cry from her current demeanor. Treating the mind was a tricky prospect at the best of times, and she feared that rehabilitation would be a long and arduous process. The fact that the girl had bounced back in a matter of weeks was a testament to her sheer mental fortitude and adaptability.

"Yes, I suppose so," she sighed in defeat, "but she could stand to be just a touch more obedient."

Ozpin allowed himself a small, mirthful chuckle, "What is youth if not rebellious?"

---

Jaune

Something was off about this place, Jaune could tell that much.

Now, as always, the sun hung suspended, just slightly dipped beneath the horizon. His master sat, perched elegantly upon a low stone wall. Her scrutinizing gaze evaluated every minute movement as he shifted, still somewhat clumsily, through his forms.

"You treat your blade and shield as separate tools, and thus cannot find harmony in their movements. Each must be wielded as a part of a greater whole. When one moves to strike, the other moves to defend." She spoke in clipped tones, betraying no emotion. "Again."

Time was at a standstill in this place. The perpetual twilight that seemed to beckon darkness never gave way to the cool hues of night. Not once had Jaune awoken to the pale light of a new morning, nor toiled beneath the hot sun of the afternoon. Whether waking or sleeping, he was always surrounded by that warm glow of a day in its final throes.

He thrust into an invisible enemy, grimacing as he felt his center of balance totter for the briefest second, his footing just a half-step too wide.

"Do not allow your stance to falter," she reprimanded. "Again."

His time at the mansion–the Taixuan Manor, his master had dubbed it after a moment of consideration–was a singular, orange blur. The warrior was brutal in her training regimen. Stances, repetitions, physical conditioning, meditation and finally, sparring until he was too exhausted to remain upright. Such was his daily life. It varied so little, that he was certain that he was simply living the same day, ad nauseum.

Jaune's arm trembled from exhaustion, but he bit back a groan, willing his weakening grasp to remain clenched upon the hilt of his sword. He finished the latest repetition, holding his posture for several seconds before allowing his limbs to finally relax and his body to adopt a looser stance. He glanced at his mentor for approval.

"Passable," she commented simply. "Your movements are unrefined, but they will serve."

She seemed to consider for a moment, then, "Let us put off the rest of your training today."

Jaune quirked a brow questioningly. His master was the embodiment of diligence. For her to suggest skimping on training was unthinkable.

"Our time has reached its end. Soon you must go," she explained. "Or have you forgotten your original goal so easily?"

Frowning, he reached through the haze that seemed to have settled heavily in his mind ever since he happened upon this place.

"Beacon," he suddenly recalled. It had felt like ages since he had first arrived. So engrossed was he in his training that he had only ever focused on the next swing of his blade, excising all extraneous thoughts in the process. "I have to go to Beacon."

"You will depart come nightfall, through the forest through which you arrived." Fu Hua explained patiently. "Walk until you reach your destination. Do not stop, and do not turn back."

Trepidation swelled in his breast as he imagined traversing that darkened wood, and all the manner of beasts that may call it home.

"Quash your fear, Jaune Arc. You have the requisite skills to find your way back to the world," she commanded, sensing his disquiet. "For now, rest. There is still time."

Jaune obeyed, clambering into a sitting position and crossing his legs. For a while, the two sat in silence, watching the flaming orange orb in its arrested descent.

"Master, can I ask you something?" From the beginning, something had bothered him, a question that he had never found the courage to ask.

"You already have. If you have a query, make it heard without preamble," came the reprimand, though it carried no true vitriol.

"I've been wondering for a while, but why me? I'm just some no one that got lost in the forest."

The question hung in the air for a while. So long, in fact, that Jaune began to believe that she had not heard him. He opened his mouth to reiterate, but stopped when he caught sight of his master's expression.

The vaguest hint of a frown touched upon her face as she seriously considered his question. "If I had to pick a reason," she began slowly, "I suppose it would have truly just been a whim."

"A whim?"

her head bobbed idly in thoughtful introspection. "I once knew a girl. Though practiced in martial combat, she never truly desired to be a warrior. She was earnest, upright, and diligent, but she was weak."

A bitter expression flashed across Fu Hua's face for the barest of moments.

"When beasts came to tear away all that she knew, she could do nothing but survive as everything she loved was reduced to ruins. Her family, her friends, her town, all were erased, and she was alone."

Jaune listened, enthralled. His teacher wasn't one for extended conversations, and this was the first he was hearing of anything concerning her past.

"Did you teach her?"

Fu hua's lips twitched slightly upward in a knowing half-smirk. "In a manner of speaking, I suppose so, yes. Though, she had others to thank for her survival back then. She met a mentor, someone who offered to pull the veil from the face of the world and teach her to fight the monsters that lurked beneath."

Her tone underwent a marked change, the hard edges and brusque manner filing away into something softer in reminiscence. "That person was brilliant, like the brightest of flames. Had that girl not found a person willing to guide her after that tragedy, she would have died a thousand times over by now."

"I suppose you reminded me of her in some ways. I wished to pay that kindness forward." She paused before lightly chiding, "Though she was certainly a much better fighter than you are now."

Jaune masked the embarrassed chuckle with a hasty cough, but immediately schooled himself when he noticed his teacher's face had returned to its usual, somber demeanor. They sat in silence once more, ruminating in the dusky light, and when she spoke again, her tone was heavy and contemplative.

"There are several who have called me 'Master'."

Her mouth ground out the word with some modicum of distaste, though Jaune could not identify why.

"I never demand it of them, but they always seem to insist. I do not purposefully seek out disciples, yet circumstance always seems to draw them to me," she reflected morosely, lost in her thoughts. "Over the years, I have watched a great number of those disciples fall. You could not match any single one of them."

Jaune winced. Her words were always so undeniably blunt, yet they cut like a finely honed razor.

"None shared such excessive ambition paired with the utter lack of ability that you exhibit. If I had simply left you to your own devices, you would have died an ignoble death. Perhaps not today nor tomorrow, but one day you would have met an obstacle you could not possibly face and still you would charge to the fore. And then, you would have met your end."

He made a slight sound of discontent in his throat, but otherwise did not refute her words.

"I do not wish to see people fall," she murmured. "Especially if it could have been prevented. Even now, I do not know if I have helped you to avoid an early demise or if I have merely delayed it."

There was another small stretch of silence before Fu Hua looked up once more. Her eyes locked with his, azure blazing fiercely. "I ask of you one final time, Jaune Arc, do you truly wish to continue along this road? The path of a protector is long and difficult."

Jaune met her glare unflinchingly, and her expression hardened, her tone growing more impassioned. "You will experience a great many tragedies and disappointments. Pain and fear will be your unwavering companions until your last breath."

In the gloaming before the night, her features were stark and pointed. The harsh contrast of vibrant orange light and deep shadow lent her expression a sharp and ruthless edge, matched only by the severity of her words.

"You may see those that you cherish perish. You may see your confidence shattered by those you trust. You will fail time and again, losing that which you hold dearest little by little until you are left a broken shell of the dream you once held. The path of a warrior leads to no happy endings. Knowing this, do you still wish to become a Huntsman?"

There was no sense of hesitation or uncertainty in his tone, just a heavy sense of finality, "I do."

It was a simple, yet definitive answer, filled with purpose. For the breadth of that final lecture, her glare had been that of a raptor–cool and severe. It was enough to send a chill racing through most, but the boy bore that gaze without backing down.

Fu Hua was the first to break their staring contest, sighing, "Truly, warriors are all fools to their core. Very well." Her arms unfurled, delving into her robes, "I have given you what tools I could in the time allotted to us. It is now your task to make use of them as best you can. Here."

Jaune spared a questioning glance as she pulled a sheaf of papers and passed them to him. They were loosely bound in crimson thread. The paper was crisp and fresh, and as he flipped through, Jaune found that the pages bore figures drawn with ink and brush. As he flipped through the pages, a golden pinion, soft as down and warmly glowing, fell from the pile. He caught it with an open palm in its gentle descent and brought it to eye-level to examine.

The plume seemed almost immaterial in its lightness. The luminous radiance it shed matched the twilight of the heavens above.

"Consider that a keepsake from myself. Keep it close," she commanded softly.

"It was for but a brief time, and you may no longer consider yourself my student, but I still expect you to hone what I have taught you. Those pages contain the advanced forms and stances I was unable to impart. Learn them. Ingrain them into your mind and body and they will serve you well."

For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, the sun resumed its slow and steady descent beyond the curvature of the planet. The shadows stretched, grasping at their rapidly dimming refuge, and the purple hues of night finally appeared, forming a rich gradient of color overhead.

Fu Hua gracefully lifted herself from her seated position on the stone wall, standing directly opposite the blonde boy.

"Live well, Jaune Arc," the Master ordered simply, bending slightly at the waist.

The pupil returned the gesture, bowing deeper than she. "Thank you. Live well, Master." His words were choked with gratitude, but he managed to force them out steadily.

He straightened and without sparing any more words, turned to face the foreboding wood.

Resolutely, he strode the way he came all those weeks ago. Into the steadily deepening darkness he trod. His heart thrummed with trepidation, sending light tremors throughout his entire being, yet still he pressed on, and soon he was engulfed in the forests inky depths.

---

BANG

A jolt roused him. Darkness was dispelled as his eyelids snapped open, replaced with glaring ambient light. Eyes darting wildly, he registered teal walls and brass beams. The surface he was lying on jolted violently again, jostling free some memories in the process.

He had been dreaming. It was the same dream he had seen many times since traversing those woods steeped in night.

Dreams of those unending days of training in a twilit grove. Dreams of a master that continued to teach, though her pupil had since departed. Groggily, Jaune pulled himself to his feet, only to be wracked with a wave of intense nausea even as his mind struggled to register where exactly he was.

Distantly, he heard an announcement over a loudspeaker apologizing for the turbulence–likely the cause of his nausea–and the chatter of other young people all around him. He was on a bullhead, he remembered, heading to Beacon.

With that realization, a wave of euphoria washed over him in tandem with another wave of nausea. The rush of giddiness served to upset the delicate balance of the war Jaune was currently waging with his stomach and he groaned, stumbling off desperately seeking a trash can or other receptacle before he vomited all over the ground. He was only partially successful, if the horrified squeals of the girls behind him was any indication.

The rumbling and jostling of the bullhead as it properly landed on one of Beacon's docking pads prompted a new wave of sick to flow. How was there so much of it? He had barely had anything for breakfast!

Groaning, Jaune finally managed to pull himself upright, the acrid tang of bile lingering on his tongue. He realized that he was the last person on the bullhead and rushed to collect his personal belongings and disembark.

Misfortune tailed him, it seemed. The moment Jaune stepped off of the docking pad, a magnificent explosion captured his attention, causing him to jump violently into the air and drop his belongings. He turned his head to the source of the noise.

A rather short, black-haired girl was currently being verbally eviscerated by another, pompous-looking girl in white.

Quickly, Jaune scrambled to knees, gathered his scattered belongings once more and rushed over to the small girl, who had seemingly fallen to the ground in despair.

His arm extended, offering a hand up, which the girl took gratefully.

"Hey...I'm Jaune."

"Ruby." Patting the dust and dirt from her skirt, his new acquaintance arched an eyebrow, appraising him. "Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?"

---

Kiana

"Oh! You're the stabby girl!"

A shout roused Kiana from her idyllic thoughts. She was currently strolling through Beacons grounds, soaking in the sun and killing some time. She recognized that the carefree life she had been living for the past few weeks would soon be replaced with the drudgery of schoolwork, so she resolved to make the most of her remaining free time.

She had not expected anyone else to be out here; the orientation was set to begin soon, and this area was about as far from the auditorium as you could get while still being on the campus proper. Languidly, she turned to find a familiar face.

"Stabby girl," Kiana repeated, slightly mortified. She recognized the short girl cloaked in red as the same one she had seen that night at the dust shop.

"Stabby girl?" the scraggly blonde boy she didn't recognize questioned in confusion.

Ruby, for her part, at least held the decency to flush with embarrassment after shouting at a stranger. However, this did little to dampen her exuberance.

"Yea! That Roman guy was robbing a dust shop, you know the one that was on the news, then whoosh, she threw a spear and it went right…through...his...shoulder." Ruby's voice petered out and her enthusiasm drained away as she recalled the more gory details of that night.

Jaune's eyes bugged out, whirling to the white-haired girl. "You stabbed somebody?"

"No! I mean, yes, but..." Kiana winced, "That was an accident, please don't call me the 'Stabby Girl.'"

She floundered, gaping like a dead tuna, crucified between those two stupefied gazes and momentarily at a loss for what to say. Realizing that she had neglected to properly introduce herself, Kiana set that as her first priority.

"My name's Kiana. Kiana Kaslana." Her introduction was stiff and uneasy, anxiety plain for the world to see.

Thankfully, the pair took it in stride and returned the greeting. "I'm Ruby! And that's Jaune." Ruby pointed at the boy in question.

He struck a pose, "Short, sweet and rolls off the tongue. The ladies love it!"

"So he says," Ruby said in a stage whisper, giggling. She was soon joined by Kiana, who had opted to first stare disbelievingly at the blonde's antics.

Jaune bore the brunt of their guffaws good-naturedly. He resumed his normal posture and grinned awkwardly.

"Sooo," Jaune began when their giggling finally died down. "The stabbing thing?"

Immediately, Kiana's mood seemed to sour, her good humor evaporating faster than it had come. She visibly withdrew into herself, her expression becoming more guarded and tense. Ruby nudged Jaune in the ribs hard. 'Fix this,' the gesture seemed to demand.

An uncomfortable silence ensued, which Jaune tried valiantly to disperse.

"Well, uh, everyone makes mistakes?" The boy offered placatingly. "I mean Ruby just blew herself up like five minutes ago, that's gotta be nearly as bad, right?"

"Blew up?" The odd tidbit of information seemed to interest the girl enough to open up once more, however marginally.

"Yeah, she sneezed into some fire dust and nearly blew herself and the Schnee girl off the side of Beacon"

Schnee. That was certainly a name she had heard several times over by now.

"It's heiress, actually," Ruby jumped in, mimicking the girl's snooty tone. "I said I was sorry! She didn't have to go biting my head off. Agh!"

As if realizing some great truth, Ruby stared accusingly at Kiana.

"Come to think of it, you have white hair and blue eyes, just like hers." Her eyes widened in terror, "Oh no, you're not her sister are you? Please don't yell at me!" She thrust her hands out in front of her, as if to ward off danger.

"I've been getting a lot of that for some reason," Kiana quipped dryly. "Relax, I don't have any siblings." That I know of she mentally amended.

"And I'm not going to yell at you, though I am wondering why you guys are wandering around out here."

"Oh." Ruby dropped her arms and examined Kiana cautiously, like a mouse warily peeking at a cat from its nest.

"We're sort of, well, lost," Jaune admitted. "I was following Ruby and we ended up here."

"I was following you!"

"The auditorium is in the opposite direction," Kiana offered helpfully. "Follow that path and make a left. You'll be back at the landing docks. The auditorium is a straight shot from there on the main road. You should probably hurry, it was supposed to start around noon, wasn't it?"

She gave a cursory glance at her scroll, "It's eleven fifty-five."

"Thanks!" They rushed off in the direction she indicated, but Ruby stopped upon realizing the white-haired girl hadn't moved to follow.

"Aren't you coming?"

Kiana hummed before shaking her head in the negative. "The old man likes to lecture, so I'll skip the orientation. If I have to hear him go on about 'potential and 'wasted energy' again, I'm going to shoot something." Kiana spoke flippantly but she shot the two a teasing wink.

Ruby visibly deflated at this. She had met two people in her first few minutes at Beacon that hadn't yell at her or given her the cold shoulder, and one was already ditching them.

"But tell you what," Kiana hastily rectified upon seeing the girl's downtrodden expression. "I, uh, haven't really made many friends here yet. How about afterwards you guys come to my place and we can game or something? I just picked up the new Super Grimm Brothers a couple days ago."

Ruby's eyes ignited, her competitive spirit sparked. "Oooh, now you've said it! I'm the champ at that game," he crowed. "Let's go now!"

"Whoa there, calm down," Kiana said in surprise, thrown off by the abrupt change in mood. "You guys still have the orientation, remember?"

"Oh, right."

"Do you live close by?" Jaune piped up. "I didn't know there was a residential area this far from the city."

"There isn't," Kiana confirmed. She pointed towards a small, wayward building tucked away at the campus edge. "I live in that dingy little building there. Here," she recited her scroll number for Jaune and Ruby to save, "just shoot me a text when you guys are at the front and I'll come get you."

The three then parted to go along their respective ways, with Kiana deciding to cut her stroll short in favor of tidying up her humble abode in preparation for guests, humming eagerly all the while.

---

The assembly lasted about as long as Kiana expected. It was nearly an hour and a half before her scroll buzzed and she received a text–the first one she ever received that wasn't from Ozpin or Glynda. She rushed down the rickety, narrow stairs to admit her guests and was greeted by her two newest acquaintances and a buxom blonde she hadn't met before.

"This is my sister, Yang," Ruby announced proudly, "I brought her too, if that's okay?" She ended the introduction rather sheepishly, just now realizing how rude it may have been to invite guests to someone else's home.

Luckily, Kiana just shook her head and offered a wide grin, "The more the merrier! C'mon, I managed to squeeze in some practice rounds before you got here. Prepare to have your butts handed to you!"

They rushed up the stairs to the top floor of the complex where her room was situated, bantering comfortably all the way up.

"Well here we are, home sweet home." The white haired girl announced as she flung open the rickety door to her apartment with a grating squeal.

The group stepped inside and Yang let out a low whistle. "This is some place you got here, it's very, uh, comfy?"

Kiana giggled slightly, casting her shoes off at the threshold. "You don't have to be nice about it, the place was already pretty beat up when I moved in."

Indeed, while the room seemed to at least be habitable, it was a far cry from nice. The walls were reminiscent of stale pea soup, and the mismatched, worn curtains barely did their job of keeping the light out. The only demarcation between the living space and tiny kitchenette was an abrupt transition from ragged, greying carpet to stained and chipped linoleum tiles. The room was fairly spartan in its design, with the minimum of furniture–two sofas, a television and a coffee table–being the only things of note decorating the otherwise barren living room.

It wasn't dirty by any means. Not wanting to sleep in a room covered in a layer of dust and cobwebs, Kiana had given the place a thorough cleaning, but it had certainly seen much better days.

"It's not that bad, it's got, uh, character!" Ruby chirped as she ogled the decrepit little room. "Uh, our dorms aren't going to look like this, are they?"

"Doubt it," Kiana replied, tossing her scroll and keys onto the dining table, shedding the white jacket she wore and haphazardly draping it over the back of the worn sofa. "The old man said that this building is probably one of the least used and least maintained of them all. Your dorms will probably be much nicer." She threw herself onto the threadbare seat with a contented sigh and grabbed the controller that had been left on the cushion.

"Why are you living on campus?" Jaune asked as he glanced awkwardly about the room, feeling slightly out of place. "It sounds like you've been here a while."

"Some stuff happened, I didn't have anywhere else to go, and I guess I just live here now," Kiana summarized briefly. I've been here about…two months now?" She hazarded a guess, mentally counting off the weeks.

"Sounds pretty serious."

Kiana snorted, "Yea, 'pretty serious' is one way to put it. I'm not sure about the details myself, but the old man offered a place to stay, so I took it."

"And they're just letting you keep the room even though you're going to be a student?" Yang asked. "Seems like a pretty sweet deal to me. Like, yeah, it's not much to look at, but it's your own place."

"Glyn…Professor Goodwitch was pretty against it," Kiana corrected herself distractedly as she navigated through menus to set up a multiplayer match. "Said it was 'highly irregular,' but the old man okayed it, so here we are, I guess. Ah, there's drinks in the fridge, just help yourselves, but keep your hands off the pudding cup."

"Thanks," Yang called from the small kitchen, popping the refrigerator door open and scanning the shelves. They were bare, save for a row of various discount brand sodas on the top shelf and a lone vanilla pudding cup below. Heeding the warning, she plucked a can from the top shelf. "You don't do much cooking, huh?"

"Ahaha, apparently I don't have the temperament for cooking," Kiana admitted sheepishly, using the same wording Ozpin had used. She had gotten distracted mid-recipe and set off the fire alarms for the building during the first week of her stay, prompting her relocation to her current, less-than-luxurious lodgings. She had resolved to just microwave frozen dinners from that point on. "I'll definitely be glad when the cafeteria's finally open; I'm getting sick of these," she waved an empty plastic tray for emphasis before giving it an overhand lob at the trash bin and missing.

Ruby scooped up the refuse, and deposited it properly into the bin.

"Thanks," Kiana said, holding out a controller to the girl. "Match is all set up whenever everyone's ready."

Ruby eagerly grabbed the offered controller and made herself at home on the adjacent sofa, wriggling to find a comfortable position.

Once snacks had been procured and everyone was situated, the games began in earnest. Jaune sat stiffly next to Ruby, still feeling slightly self conscious in this unfamiliar environment. To Kiana's right, Yang lounged lazily, draped over the arm of the couch. Soon the sounds of friendly competition filled the room.

"Boom! Eat it, Vomit boy!" Ruby crowed as she knocked Jaune out of the match.

"C'mon, don't call me Vomit boy!"

"'Vomit boy' has a nice ring to it," Kiana teased.

"Yeah, so does 'stabby girl,'" the sole male of the group retorted sarcastically, leaning back into the worn cushions with a sigh.

"Point taken, no Vomit Boy." Kiana agreed, laying down her controller as she, too, was removed from the match.

"Guuuys, ready up! I'm gonna kick your butts again!"

"You just got lucky that last round, Rubes"

And on it went, for several hours, initial reservations discarded in the spirit of the games. The evening waxed and waned, and all too soon, it was time for her guests to depart.

As she trudged back up the stairs after seeing her new friends off, Kiana felt a peculiar warmth in her chest. Her interactions with those near her age had been sparse, to say the least. Due to Beacon's distance from the city proper, and the fact that the students and staff were away for summer break, Kiana had been left largely isolated, so actually socializing with other people proved to be a welcome experience.

She liked the group, she decided. They were amicable enough. Even if Ruby was a bit awkward at times, she seemed to be an earnest girl. Yang was easygoing and generally quite jovial, but Kiana had learned quickly that she had a competitive streak a mile wide. Jaune, while just as awkward as Ruby, if not more so, was honest and well intentioned. He didn't seem all that competent, though, if she was being honest.

Something about Jaune piqued her interest, for some reason. Something felt familiar, but she couldn't tell if it was him specifically, or something else. She certainly hadn't met the boy before, that much she knew for sure. Even still, there was an aura around him that she could have sworn she recognized.

Filing the mystery away for later, Kiana shuffled to the cramped bathroom to get ready for bed. It was still early in the night, but the initiation was tomorrow. With all the bold assurances she spouted around Ozpin, it would be extremely embarrassing if she were to be disqualified because she slept through the trial. With her mind abuzz and anticipation building, Kiana shut off the flickering bulb at her bedside and snuggled into her comfortable down sheets.

---

The night passed without event, and she awoke the next morning in a rather chipper mood. Despite her early bedtime, Kiana had received woefully little rest; she had simply been too excited to sleep and had spent the better portion of the night staring at the ceiling. Even so, the slight exhaustion was not enough to dampen her spirits in the slightest, the anticipation of flexing her sorely underused combat muscles making her giddy with excitement.

Ever since the incident at the dust shop, memories of battle had inundated her dreams, though her adversaries were always portrayed by shapeless entities. Slowly, her mind began to recollect and process the various stances and techniques she must have once known, but was never able to put to practical use. Until now.

Cerulean eyes bore a hole into the stained and scratched mirror of her very humble abode, analyzing the ensemble she had donned for the upcoming trial.

Apparently it was the garb that she had been initially found in.

She no longer wore the ill-fitting civilian clothing that she had slowly grown accustomed to. Gone were the baggy denim pants and worn, white sweater, and in their place was more combat-ready attire.

Above a skintight, black bodysuit, she wore a short pair of grey, denim shorts, and a white, double-buttoned half-jacket, it's high collar reaching partway up her neck. The bandolier strung about her waist was now equipped with various types of dust rounds.

Her arms and fingers flexed and rotated, testing the pliability of the brown combat gloves that covered them. She nodded contentedly. They were durable, but not bulky or stiff enough to hamper her range of motion. The test was repeated with the brown, thigh-length combat boots and were found to be similarly suitable.

The short, black and orange cape rustled as it was adjusted, ensuring that it was securely fastened upon the outfit's shoulders.

Her mouth split into a Cheshire grin as she gave herself a final once-over. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Alright, let's go," she muttered, psyching herself up. "Look out, Beacon, here comes Kiana!"

---

"Heeeey, Kiana!"

Kiana stopped peering over the cliff edge into the impenetrable sea of trees that stretched before her and turned to greet the bubbly girl that was cheerful flagging her down. Behind her, Yang waved jovially, if a bit more restrained.

"Isn't this exciting! We're going to be Huntresses in training!"

"It really is something, isn't it?" she responded, observing the influx of students coming to take the test.

Of the people milling about, one caught her eye.

She nudged Ruby and asked in an undertone, "Hey, uh Ruby, is that her? The Schnee girl?"

Following the outstretched finger, Ruby could discern the source of her grief from the previous day, arms folded and looking askance at a certain blonde boy's pitiful attempts to woo her.

Ruby drooped slightly. "Yup. That's her."

The girl was now berating the boy quite loudly, jabbing him repeatedly in the chest with her index finger. Seemingly finishing the scathing tirade she stomped her foot harshly and stormed off.

"She seems friendly."

Ruby managed a weak chuckle before perking up once more. "Who cares about her! Let's just crush this initiation and show her who's boss!"

"I'm with Ruby on that one." Jaune didn't seem the least dejected from the obvious rejection as he made his way to the two girls.

"How'd it go, Romeo?" Kiana teased saucily.

"Uh, who, me?" Jaune pointed at himself confusedly. "I'm Jaune, who's Romeo?"

Right. Different time. Kiana mentally berated herself for the slip-up.

"Ah, never mind," she hastily amended, waving her hands in denial. "It's a character from a book back home. What was that about?"

"Oh, that?" The boy tried to play off the recent altercation with a show of bravado, "just working the good ol' Arc charm, recruiting for Team Jaune." He proudly indicated to himself, prodding his thumb lightly at his chest.

"It doesn't seem like it worked that well."

He deflated slightly, "Yea, but you never know. How bout you guys? You want in? Spots are filling up fast."

"Oh yeah? With who?"

"Well, that Pyrrha girl said she'd join…"

"Uh-huh, and who else?"

"There's Snow Angel…"

"You do know her name's Weiss, right? And you just got rejected."

"Hey, she's still a Team Arc candidate!"

"I really don't think she is." Kiana pointed behind him.

Jaune looked over his shoulder and accidentally made eye contact with the girl in question. She glared daggers at him before huffing and deliberately snapping her head in the opposite direction. Jaune winced, and then winced again when he turned back to the full brunt of Kiana's leering smirk.

"Head's up guys, the Headmaster's coming." The two's bantering was cut short when Yang warned them of Ozpin's arrival.

Defying Kiana's expectations, the man got straight to the point, keeping the preamble short in favor of explaining their objective. She tuned out the introduction, but managed to catch the important details. Partner up with whoever they first met, find artifacts, get out. Simple.

Also, they were just going to be launched off the cliff.

Crystal blue eyes traced the trajectory with mild interest as each prospective student was rocketed with enough force to propel them quite a ways over the precipice, one after another.

She couldn't say she was surprised. She had come to learn early that the old man tended to have a flair for the dramatic, and the odd metal contraptions they had been instructed to stand upon only served to reaffirm her suspicions.

Eventually, her turn came. Legs coiled like a spring to make the most of the momentary boost, her body braced for the coming impact. A brief, explosive force later and Kiana found herself sailing far above a sea of green, the wind whipping at her face and the glare of the sun stinging her eyes.

Training ingrained beyond memory demanded that she identify her objective above all else. Heedless of the verdant embrace of the trees looming ever closer, or the howling gales in her ears, she sought her target. Quite a ways in, perhaps a mile or three, she could spot the remains of ancient ruins, and most likely the location of the artifact she was tasked with retrieving. Her top priority now was to land in a way that didn't leave her as a red stain on the forest floor.

Even as gravity increasingly reclaimed it's dominion over her, and she began to plummet towards the emerald canopy that stretched as far as the eye could see, she wasn't feeling too terribly worried. She may not have an aura or a semblance, but one thing she had learned in her short time of wakefulness was that her body was very durable. She may not have been impervious to blades or bullets, but blunt force trauma? She could handle that. It wouldn't be pleasant, but she could probably survive a fall from this height, provided she didn't do something embarrassing, like impale herself on something during her descent.

Even so, avoiding a full-on collision with the ground was still the most preferable option. As the trees rushed up to meet her, Kiana protected her face with one arm while thrusting the other out blindly, trying to grasp some sort of purchase amongst the branches. Her traversal through the dense foliage served to greatly arrest her momentum, the tree limbs snapping and breaking as she barreled through them, denying her any real handhold. Instead, she opted to make her own handhold, punching savagely into the bark of a nearby tree trunk and fully stopping her fall.

She allowed herself to hang for a moment, catching her breath, before dropping onto a nearby branch. Methodically, yet swiftly, she bound from branch to branch. Finally making it to the forest floor, she crouched for a moment, senses on high alert as she scanned the foliage around for immediate threats. Pulling her handguns from their holsters, she slowly straightened into a standing position, lightly rolling her shoulder, which was slightly jarred from the initial impact.

Reaffirming her current position and the location of her target, Kiana made steady progress deeper into the woods. She traveled unaccosted, easily sprinting between trees and vaulting over low obstacles in her path until sounds in the underbrush ensnared her attention.

Muffled grunts and growls quietly echoed among the trees. The soft padding of footsteps on dirt and the occasional rustle of leaves alerted her to the general position of a potential threat. Kiana froze, immediately straining her ears to pinpoint the cause of the disquiet. Locating the source was easy enough.

A hunched, looming figure prowled well above the undergrowth. Matted, black fur covered its body and bony plating shielded it's limbs and head. The form was vaguely canine, but it strode on hind legs in large, loping gaits.

The creature turned its head skyward and sniffed the air, seemingly seeking something. The elongated jaw periodically parted to grunt out growls of dissatisfaction and the glowing red eyes that shone beneath the ivory skull mask darted erratically.

It was a beowolf, but more developed than usual. The bony plating common to the species sported an array of spiky protrusions, and despite it's hunched form, the beast still towered well over the average height of a beowolf. Or a person, for that matter.

An Alpha.

Kiana had made good time in her traversal of the forest, and she estimated that it would not take much longer than another quarter hour to arrive at her destination. She could afford a small detour.

Deciding to test the limits of her prowess in live combat, she boldly stepped into the beast's line of sight. Immediately, it froze, zeroing in on her form. Its jaws parted into a facsimile of a monstrous grin, drool dripping from sharpened, jagged fangs.

"Hey, big guy," she taunted, circling cautiously around the alpha grimm, guns at the ready, eyes never leaving her adversary. "Where's the rest of your pack?"

Oddly enough, this Alpha seemed to be alone, which, from what she had learned, was highly unusual for the pack hunters.

"Since you don't have any friends, I don't suppose you'd be my partner, huh?"

The beast roared in response and charged her, arms splayed wide to obstruct her evasion.

"Didn't think so." Contrary to expectation, she rushed towards the charging wolf, ducking into a slide at the last second, and narrowly avoided being trampled beneath flailing, clawed feet.

Her mind seemed to accelerate, the movement of her enemy slowing to a snail's pace and her movements, in turn, becomes sharper and faster. Situated now at the creature's flank, her fingers simultaneously pulled on their triggers, the barrels roaring with fire and metal in response. The bullets plinked off of dense armor, leaving small, inconsequential nicks in the material. The projectiles that struck flesh hungrily chewed into the body, but otherwise proved ineffective. Clearly, the beast's hide was thicker than it appeared.

Clicking her tongue in consternation, Kiana surged forward once more. If bullets weren't going to be enough, she would just do it herself. Raising her arm across her body, she delivered a devastating pistol whip, ramming the butt of the gun hard into the monster's face. She hissed as the sharp pain of impact jolted her arm, though her adversary fared much worse, the bone armor splintering and cracking from the force.

Good. This, at least, was effective.

Kiana danced with the grimm as her partner. Fluidly, she would weave between its brutal, wild strikes, delivering her own catastrophic blows when the opportunity showed itself. She intertwined rapid gunshots in between each hit, aiming for the fleshy bits and joints, slowly, but surely wearing the enemy down and making its movements sluggish and its limbs unresponsive.

Dodging the blows was child's play. The alpha was all power and no finesse, its every move heavily telegraphed. She ducked beneath a flailing arm and bound high into the air administering a brutal dropkick to it's head. Landing smoothly, she followed up by whipping the gun in a haymaker, hammering the butt of the weapon repeatedly against the ivory face plate. The creature staggering, stunned into submission.

Throughout the fight, she had been doggedly targeting the same area, and she smirked slightly as her hard work finally bore fruit. She leered at the feeling of fracturing bone beneath her first. Her face split into a wide, manic grin as the plating finally fell free, disintegrating even before it touched the forest floor. Short, barking laughter tore free from her throat as the disfigured, lupine face now became exposed to the world.

She felt wild and unrestrained, some unknown, sadistic emotion bubbling up in her breast.

"Hurt them. Harm them. Kill them."

She jolted from her frenzy. Where had that come from? Consciously, she forced her breathing to steady and her mind to focus on the task at hand.

The beast reeled back in pain, clawing at its ruined face, but Kiana gave no quarter. She tenaciously stuck to its floundering form, roughly grabbing the exposed flesh and brutally yanking the monster down momentarily with her enhanced strength.

With one hand on the grimm for stability and control, she used the other to place a gun against its now unguarded forehead. She unloaded the entirety of her clip, blowing the monster's mind, quite literally, it's limbs falling limp as life departed from its form.

In a flash, she bound backwards and had retrieved her other weapon before the grimm had even begun dissolving.

"Well that wasn't so bad." Kiana huffed, checking her belt. The fight had put a small dent into her ammunition reserves. She had avoided using any of the specialized rounds in the fight since she did not deem them necessary, and dust was expensive, but as a result, had spent a bit more of her normal bullets than she would have liked.

"Damn, I'll need to be more efficient. Don't know how long I'm going to be out here."

She glanced at her hand, still trembling from the rush of adrenaline. "What happened there, at the end?" She murmured to herself. The ugly and dark emotions had emerged for but a split second in the heat of combat, sequestering themselves almost as quickly as they came.

Her only answer was the sound of shuffling in the bushes, and she reflexively jerked to attention, immediately firing a shot upon seeing more of that matte black coat scampering between the trees. She was rewarded with a high yelp, followed by a low, keening whine.

Realizing that they had been discovered, a small pack of five beowolves emerged from a thicket, hungrily eyeing the girl.

"Heh, easy peasy." Lips curled up in a catlike grin, as guns shot up to target the interlopers. Before she could fire, she was immediately distracted by another group of low snarls to her right, and one of those guns immediately jerked to follow. And then another series of grunts sounded to her left. And behind her.

"Since when were grimm so smart?" She questioned under her breath, realizing she had been completely surrounded.

Taking stock of the situation, Kiana counted upwards of thirty individuals around her, slowly circling, confident in their superior numbers. Something didn't make sense. Beowolves had some sense of cunning, true, but they were never quite so organized to prepare this sort of ambush. This pack was far larger than the average. When had so many of them gathered?

Her reverie was cut off by the sonorous, joint baying of the pack, each member howling as one. An intimidation tactic. They were preparing to rush in for the kill.

She flinched as the wretched sound echoed between the trees. "I guess that's my cue to go!"

She bolted, vaulting over the mass of bodies with ease and sprinted through the forest, the horde of wolves snapping at her heels.

---

Kiana had been sprinting headlong through the trees for nearly ten minutes when she glimpsed bright light among the trees, unfiltered by the canopy overhead. She was approaching a clearing, and with any luck, it would be the one she had spotted in the air.

The yells of other prospective students reaching her ears signaled to Kiana that she was rapidly approaching some form of aid. As she burst from the shaded treeline into an open glade, she was treated to a bizarre sight.

A massive, chittering scorpion was bearing down upon a group of people hunkered down within the rubble of an ancient ruin. An even larger grimm raven was squawking terribly as it circled far overhead. She could make out Yang, Ruby, Jaune and Weiss, as well as several others she didn't recognize.

"Glad to see you could join us!" Yang yelled in greeting as she caught sight of Kiana. "Come join the party!"

"Glad I could make it!" Kiana shouted back sarcastically, not breaking stride. "I brought some company, I hope you don't mind!" Taking wild potshots over her shoulder, Kiana sprinted the final distance to the relative safety of her friends and turned her back to them, vigilantly scanning the direction from which she came, guns held at the ready.

From the treeline in hot pursuit, several pack's worth of Beowulves erupted, snarling and growling. Almost as one, they seemed to look around, seeking something, before zeroing on their quarry once more.

The white-haired girl under their scrutiny just groaned in exasperation, "Just give me a break already!"

"Is it just me, or do those grimm just really not like Kiana?"

"You're telling me," the girl in question groused, her eyes flitting from target to target, continually adjusting her aim and occasionally firing when one of the creatures broke the wary encirclement. "The stupid things have been following me since I killed their leader."

"Guys?" Jaune broke in, "That thing's circling back! What are we gonna do?"

Weiss assessed the situation, claiming with finality, "Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us." She glanced pointedly at the golden chess pieces sitting on their pedestals.

Nodding to her partner, Ruby agreed, "She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things."

"Run and live, now that's an idea I can get behind!" Jaune yelled as he ran forward to grab a golden rook from its pedestal. Ruby mimicked him, but instead snagged a golden knight piece.

Kiana didn't really bother paying attention to which piece she grabbed, roughly yanking it from the plinth and stowing it into a pocket. She was far more preoccupied with the massive scorpion, a Deathstalker, she recalled, struggling against the icy bonds that ensnared its stinger and hampered its movements, the glacial plating fracturing by the moment.

"Time we left!" A lean, black haired boy seemed to notice this too, warning the group as he moved to depart. Despite the dire circumstances, his voice was even and calm, his face betraying no sign of distress.

They made their way along the ruin path, dashing madly in search of some semblance of safety and dispatching any errant grimm that strayed too close. The oversized raven still circled above them, screeching horribly, but they had at least managed to put a sizable distance between themselves and the landbound grimm.

Unfortunately, the large, avian grimm seemed to sense their intentions and moved to foil them, shooting forward and cutting off their path. It perched at the other end of a precarious chasm through which a lone bridge was their sole egress. From behind a great crashing was heard as the Deathstalker burst from the copse behind, having relentlessly tracked them in their escape.

The slight wisps of anxiety were beginning to tug at Kiana's psyche as she observed the conundrum they now found themselves in. The massive scorpion chittering madly as it rushed them. Above, the raven hounded their movements, like some persistent specter of death, periodically flinging more of those razor sharp pinions to churn the earth and hinder their withdrawal.

The inside of her brain itched, as if something was wriggling around, seeking emancipation from the confines of her flesh. A sharp, stabbing pain behind her right eye was beginning to migrate, radiating in spidery tendrils of pain across her skull.

"Why do you deny me?"

The faint vestiges of a whisper skimmed the surface of her mind. It was undeniably her voice, but it was wrong. The cadence, the inflection, all of it was just wrong.

"Ruby, Weiss with me," She barked as she shut out the errant thought. "We're taking out big ugly. Everyone else, cook that bird. Watch for the beowolves." The wolven grimm were nowhere to be seen, perhaps having lost their way in the thicket.

"Why should I... MMPH" Weiss began, but was cut off as Ruby clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Roger that, Kiana. Let's move, guys!" She then abruptly yanked her hand away, squealing and rubbing it frantically on the hem of her dress. "Ew, ew, ew, ew, you licked me!"

"Don't do that again," Weiss petulantly warned her partner, but moved to comply with her fellow white-haired peer's instructions regardless. She drew a modified rapier, slender and elegant. The basket of the weapon had been integrated with a revolver chamber filled with dust that rotated at the ready. To her right, she saw Ruby's Crescent Rose unfurling into it's full magnificent glory, all traces of levity replaced with utter seriousness.

As one, the group split, with three dashing madly towards the insectoid grimm. Ruby intercepted it first, bobbing and weaving between its eight spindly legs in the hopes of tripping it up.

The monster screeched, dancing ferociously in an attempt to crush the nuisance underfoot, but was unable to match her speed.

The revolver in Weiss's weapon clicked onto a red vial of dust, sending a wave of scorching fire to buffet the Deathstalker in its confusion. The lurid tongues of flame licked at the shell, scorching and blackening it, but otherwise did not cause major harm. It did succeed in drawing the beast's ire, and it rapidly advanced on the heiress, it's earlier preoccupation forgotten

Kiana shot forward with a valorous cry, levying a thunderous axel kick on one of the chitinous legs, only to bounce backwards with a bruised heel. This grimm's carapace was significantly sturdier than the beowolves, she realized, and not even her enhanced strength could penetrate it. Her guns were likely to be equally useless. Livid with frustration and desperation, gloved fists rained a flurry of blows upon the unyielding shell, each strike containing enough force to shatter concrete. She succeeded only in leaving her knuckles raw and bloody, the barest of cracks her prize for the rush of attacks.

This wasn't going to work, she realized. She felt like a bystander, watching from afar, as she dazedly glanced at her allies in their similarly fruitless efforts. None of this was going to work. Weiss could only slow it down for mere moments, and Ruby's scythe wasn't able to significantly lacerate the sturdy grimm flesh.

They needed something else.

Once more, the tendrils of dread wrapped around her heart, constricting like some pernicious snake, slowly but methodically wrapping tighter and tighter, intent on choking out her lifeforce. The itching in her head grew to a throbbing, beating with a cadence that she recognized all too well.

"Ugh, not again," she groaned, clutching her head. Hastily, she beat a retreat, leaping and flipping well out of the range of their foe.

Seeing her distress, the other two girls ceased their pointless assault and the three of them retreated further back to safety, leaving the Deathstalker to fling wildly about in its confusion. It had abandoned targeted attacks and had defaulted to large, sweeping blows, seemingly hoping that they would get caught up in the collateral damage.

"Ruby, Weiss," Kiana panted as they neared within earshot. "Give me a clear shot, I don't think I can hold on much longer."

"Hold on? What? Are you okay? Whoa! Your eye is glowing!"

"Focus, Ruby," She ground through gritted teeth. "I need an opening. I need it to stop moving, just for a little bit. Can you do that?"

"We can," Weiss supplied, "but what are you going to do?"

"I'm..not sure, but whatever it is better work." The sharp staccato striking at her senses was reaching its zenith, culminating in a crescendo of agony and fury. "Hurry!"

With a resolute nod, the small reaper rushed out in a flurry of petals, followed shortly by the Schnee skating atop her glyphs.

Ruby landed the first blow, her blade skittering harmlessly across the shell before finally finding purchase in the joint connecting one of the front legs to the abdomen. She tugged at the trigger of Crescent Rose and was answered with the sharp retort of gunfire, though the force of the recoil proved inadequate. Her scythe bucked and slipped, carving a deep gouge into the blackened flesh, but failed to separate leg from body.

Ruby leapt back, twirling as she landed. The Deathstalker furiously pursued her, retaliating with a heavy claw, only to be halted as a wave of ice, jagged and cold, rose to meet the blow, firmly encasing the appendage within its frigid confines.

Weiss pulled her rapier from the ground as soon as she finished conjuring and seamlessly flowed into another stance, back ramrod straight, rapier held before her, blade aimed heavenward. The revolver portion whirred quietly as her newly selected dust was chambered and prepped.

Touching her index and middle finger to the side of the blade briefly, Weiss's arm made a sharp, swiping motion outwards, as if drawing an invisible line into the empty air. Glyphs flared to life in response tracing a trail along the smooth inner-wall of the impromptu barrier.

"Go, Ruby!"

The reaper dashed, completing a full circuit around the trapped creature before returning and hitting the edge of the wall and the first glyph. Reversing her grip on her weapon, she fired backwards repeatedly, the recoil of each shot further boosting her momentum even as the glyphs thrust her forward. Shooting across the surface of the ice faster than anyone could blink, she vaulted from the imprisoned claw, using it as a springboard to direct her flight.

In a single smooth motion, all of the legs on the right side of the Deathstalker were shorn off, the grimm flesh unable to contend with the accelerated, crimson bullet. With a keening wail, the scorpion toppled, unable to maintain stability with half of its support suddenly gone.

"Kiana!" Ruby shouted, thoroughly winded from the heart-racing maneuver. "It's down! If you're gonna do something, now's the time!"

As the battle raged, Kiana had shut her eyes, face marred with the deep creases of a frown. Her mind was in disarray. Between the knife jabbing insistently into her temples, the heated sounds of combat and the bestial chittering, focusing on finding that golden light within herself was proving to be quite an ordeal. On top of it all, the whisper she had heard earlier tugged more adamantly at the fabric of her consciousness.

It demanded. It seduced. It tempted. It cajoled and it raged. It was herself, but not a "herself" that she recognized.

At long last, Kiana miraculously managed to identify it: a miniscule ember of the power that coursed through her that night in Dust til Dawn. An ember that roared to magnanimous life upon receiving her attention.

It was an untapped wellspring of energy flowing throughout her body, pulsing in time with the beating in her brain. It was lethal, yet empty. It hollowed her out, but at the same time, filled her with an overwhelming sense of vitality. This was what she was. This was the essence of her being. A great, yawning chasm had opened up within her soul, an interminable Void that threatened to consume everything, and from that void, the font of her power stemmed.

The whispers stopped, silenced as soon as she was finally able to draw upon that terrible source of energy, but the drumming intensified further, as if in anticipation of what was to come. With all her might, Kiana reached through the pain; she could feel that nameless force gathering in the palms of her hands, thrumming at the ready. Like a deity scorned, she poised to deliver righteous judgement upon the blasphemer that dared bare its fangs against her.

Her word was law, every action a divine edict.

Gone was her trepidation, her doubt, and her dread. There was no longer any question. She could do this.

"Of course. To believe otherwise would be a sin of the highest order."

The myriad whispers that had been snuffed out were replaced by a singular voice, clear and defined. Haughty and regal, and with no small sense of disdain. It was her own voice once again, but altogether alien. It belonged to a being much colder, much less compassionate than she.

"We are God's chosen. We are capable of anything. We will not be bested by a mere insect."

Perhaps they were her own repressed thoughts. Perhaps her mind had broken and she really was starting to hear things. In her current state of oscillating between fevered concentration and splitting pain, Kiana couldn't tell which option she preferred.

Reach unto the depths of Imaginary Space. Here lies the locus of your strength.

The heavens moved and the earth trembled. As if mandated by a decree from on high, reality itself bent and warped. Space contorted to Her whims, and from the fabric of nonexistence, Her will was forged into reality. From nothingness, immaterial ribbons coalesced, flowing protectively around Her hunched form in endless, intricate patterns. These ivory strands writhed as snakes, coiling and twining, a mass of white bodies, each moving independently, but of one mind.

Gaze upon the tree of all creation. You alone hold the key to this sacred place.

Where the individual strands met formed the tip of an alabaster spire. From that center, the ribbons twirled in on themselves, condensing together until they were a single, sleek mass. In their place shone a lance, simple and plain in design, little more than a spike, and tapered on both ends to a fine point. For the briefest moment, that deadly needle hung in space, suspended in front of an outstretched, gloved palm.

"Show them the might of the Void."

Kiana let her hand fall.

---

Ruby yelped at the ivory blur that rocketed past her like a ravenous, feral dog, the air howling as it rushed to fill the void left by the missile

She wasn't sure what exactly she expected when Kiana had taken her shot. Maybe it would bounce. Maybe it would actually break the shell and embed itself in grimm flesh. Maybe the Deathstalker would notice and somehow dodge the spear entirely, trapped as it was. What she certainly wasn't expecting was such a perfect hole through the massive arachnid. It looked as if some expert craftsman had taken the time to carefully and painstakingly bore through the grimm with an exceedingly sharp drill. The carapace and flesh surrounding the wound were unnaturally clean. There were no cracks in the surrounding shell, nor signs of torn flesh, just smooth edges.

Deathstalkers were known for their notoriously tough carapace, to the point that even a shot from a high caliber rifle was unlikely to phase all but the most juvenile of the species. Bullets and blades were ineffective, and blunt trauma demanded a ludicrous amount of force to inflict the smallest of cracks. For such a creature, the best strategy was to aim for the chinks in its armor: the joints and the eyes. Anything else would be fruitless, and even then, its flesh was significantly sturdier than most other species of grimm.

Despite this, the projectile had passed through that impossibly thick shell with all the difficulty of a bullet through a single leaf of paper.

"Passed" was an appropriate term, Ruby decided in the far reaches of her mind, even as she darted out of the way of the collapsing beast. The spike had not "punched" or "pierced" through that chitinous armor. There was no 'CRUNCH' of impact or shattering of shell. Rather, it had simply moved through, silent and unimpeded. Anything it touched had been removed, as if it had never existed. The lance hadn't even lost any velocity. Had it not returned to the nothingness from whence it came, Ruby doubted it would have ever stopped.

The result was a perfectly perforated Deathstalker, a tunnel excavated directly through the length of the beast. If grimm had internal structure of any kind, the gaping wound surely destroyed every single vital organ in the course of its passage.

As the Deathstalker toppled in its death throes, appendages curling close to the body, and tarry black smoke began wafting from the corpse, Ruby swung her head in time to catch a glimpse of Kiana dropping to her knees. Her body shuddered as she pressed both hands hard against her eye. Malevolent golden light bled through the cracks between her fingers, and a pained grimace adorned her face.

In a rosy red flash, Ruby was at her side. "Come on," she said, gently dragging the stricken girl to her feet and supporting her as they made their way to the rest of the group, "we've got to get to the others."

"I don't think I'll be much help," Kiana huffed between heavy breaths. "I don't have another one of those in me, and my head feels like I just went twelve rounds with a gorilla." She could barely still her limbs from their violent tremors, and there was little chance that she would be able to aid in removing the grimm raven from their path. Even if she could miraculously muster another one of those lances, her aim was surely shot.

"Still better than staying here," Weiss retorted, having caught up to the two.

"Can you walk?"

"Yea," she fibbed, "Just a bit dizzy, that's all. It'll pass. Let's go help the others."

They hobbled partway across the ruin grounds before Kiana was able to stand on her own two legs unaided once more.

"Go on ahead, you two. Help the others, I can catch up."

She was putting on a brave face, that much was painfully obvious, but it couldn't be helped. Her allies needed assistance with the Nevermore, and she'd be damned if she was going to be the one to slow them down. Ruby and Weiss were more useful over there than here fretting over her. She was dead weight. The very thought left a bitter layer upon her tongue.

"Just go, I'll be fine." She winked and flashed a wide grin to assuage their clearly unconvinced expressions. "I'm a Kaslana, after all. It's gonna take more than this to take me down."

Torn in between her duty and her friend, Ruby whipped her head to and fro before coming to a decision. "We'll take that big bird out and we'll come back for you, I promise!"

A dry chuckle forced its way from parched lips, "I'll be counting on that."

Once they were out of sight, Kiana sighed heavily, drooping against a dilapidated, stone wall. She allowed the forced control she held over her breathing to dissipate and her body became wracked in huge, heaving gasps, her lungs demanding more air than she could supply. Her limbs spasmed and cramped violently, twitching muscles overriding her fevered brain's desperate attempts to regain control.

Eventually, her muscles relaxed and the migraine dulled. Through the haze of exhaustion, Kiana witnessed something that caused her blood to ice over in her veins.

Numerous sable shapes were emerging from the forest, glowing, scarlet eyes and ivory masks leering as they steadily approached her collapsed form.

---

Weiss

The plan to dispatch the Nevermore was preposterous. It was insane and borderline suicidal. It was something that she would never have even considered a viable option. Yet, as she summoned glyph after glyph, her crimson partner perched atop a gravity sigil on what looked to be the world's largest slingshot, Weiss had a niggling feeling that this crazy, nonsensical plan might actually work.

"Of course you would come up with this idea."

The preparations had been finished, the bird pinned by its tail feathers to the adjacent cliffside. A trail of glyphs to accelerate Ruby glowed brightly along the sheer wall. The makeshift launcher was drawn back and primed to fire with yet another instance of her semblance.

"Think you can make the shot?"

She was asking that now?

"Hmph," Weiss preened, "can I!"

The purpose of a rhetorical question apparently flew well over the crimsonette's head, her attention abruptly snapping to her partner in evident concern.

"Can you?"

She would never receive her reply, as a pained scream echoing throughout the dilapidated ruins thoroughly derailed their carefully coordinated attack.

"Oh no, Kiana!" A look of horror flooded Ruby's face, and she craned her head back in vain, even as she prepared to launch at the Nevermore.

Wide, staring eyes pierced Weiss's own. Though she didn't speak, her voice stifled with worry, the desperate question that those silver orbs relayed was clear. Cold pragmatism demanded that they end the Nevermore while they had the chance, but Weiss couldn't just allow one of her group to be left in danger. After a moment's hesitation, the heiress permitted the gravity glyph to fade, allowing Ruby to drop to the ground.

"Go," she commanded simply. "We'll figure something out here for now. Get Kiana and get back here."

Ruby nodded resolutely before vanishing in a blur of red and rose petals.

Weiss let her concentration drop, the trail of glyphs fading away to be replaced with desperate waves of frost and stone, intent on restraining the avian grimm even as it pulled free from its bonds, losing some tail feathers in the process.

"What happened?" Yang demanded as she landed astride the heiress.

"Kiana's in trouble, Ruby went back to get her."

"Should we go back?" The bow-adorned girl in black, Blake, questioned as she also dropped from her position atop the ruined structures.

"I don't know!, but the ice isn't going to hold it for long!" Already, the Nevermore was jerking itself free of the frigid restraints, only to find its progress arrested once more by a new layer of ice shoring up the breaks. "I'm almost out of dust!"

"Let's go." Jaune decided. The rest of the group, Ren, Nora, Pyrrha had also congregated at their location.

They needed everyone if they were going to topple this bird.

---

Kiana

Kiana cursed fiercely. She was surrounded, her ammunition spent. In the excitement surrounding the scuffle with the Deathstalker, she had completely forgotten about the horde of beowolves waiting just out of sight and was now paying dearly for it.

They had slinked back into the very edge of the treeline when the fighting was well underway, and had only made their reappearance when she was separated and alone. Kiana knew that beowolves were slightly more cunning than most grimm, regularly employing pack tactics to isolate and hound their targets, but this level of coordination was well above anything she expected.

Now devoid of a ranged option, Kiana resorted to pummeling the creatures with her fists. Her superhuman strength actually succeeded in dishing out severe damage to whatever she struck, but it was still clearly a losing battle. There were simply too many of them, and she could not dodge every single strike. Already, her sleeves were torn and multiple shallow cuts had begun to accumulate on her flesh. A sharp hiss escaped her lips as she failed to completely dodge a particularly heavy blow and a large gash opened up on her left bicep.

She needed more firepower, and whether or not she could muster that firepower was no longer relevant. The simple fact was that she had to. It was a matter of life or death.

Seeking that familiar pain again, she loosed a fan of those odd spears into the horde, felling some and driving back the rest. The migraine seemed to compound with every construct she forced into existence, but she grit her teeth and bore it.

Her senses were ablaze, overloaded and hypersensitive to any stimulus. The dull glow of the misty grove pierced her retinae like a floodlight, leaving her surroundings an overexposed mess. The snarling and roaring of beasts reverberated and beat on her eardrums incessantly, a jumbled cacophony of noise and sensation that she could not extricate from itself. The acrid smell of swiftly decaying grimm carcasses burnt her nostrils, and the sickly sweet copper tang of blood made her nauseous and threatened to expel the contents of her stomach onto the weathered stone below.

Even still, she bore it, grasping a lance and swinging wildly, blindly, keeping the beasts at bay, if only for a moment.

But this position was only tenable for so long. The wide perimeter, born of caution, slowly shrank as the grimm grew recovered from the surprise attack. Individuals would systematically pounce at the besieged girl only to be bifurcated moments later, but not before landing a glancing blow, or causing yet another crimson lesion to blossom on pale skin.

The grimm were methodically wearing her down. They could smell the exquisitely rancid odor of fear and pain wafting off of this prey, tinged with an odd, unidentifiable scent. It was something like malice, but disinterested and aloof. Something like hatred, but cold and calculating.

If the grimm were beings that fed on negativity, this was a being that was negativity. It was the cruelest, most depraved aspects of humanity and something else, something alien, incarnated in physical form. This cocktail of dark emotions spurred the beasts into a frenzy, their individual lives deemed inconsequential in the face of the singular goal of toppling this supremely rare delicacy of a human.

They charged.

Roaring in pained defiance, Kiana thrust her head back and flung her arms wide. An array of white spikes materialized behind her, far more than she had ever summoned previously. Each lethal needle trembled, poised to fire. She just needed to give the command.

Crack

All at once, she stopped. Like fractures creeping along the surface of a frozen lake, Kiana could feel her psyche beginning to splinter, burdened beyond anything it could hope to carry.

Into an infinitesimally small point, each spike collapsed in on itself, compressing smaller and smaller before expanding into a pitch black orb. Multitudes of immaterial black spheres blotted out the sky. It was a net of errant, crackling energy, a lattice of destruction.

Crack

She struggled to reign in the power that threatened to rage out of her control, but found that it no longer obeyed her. It thrashed in her grasp like a trapped and wounded animal, rebuking all attempts to restrain it.

Like planets orbiting a star, the orbs oscillated around Kiana. They jittered wildly and spasmastically, and where they touched, deep trenches were gouged out of existence, beowolves eviscerated or swallowed whole.

Crack

It wasn't the cracking of ice, Kiana decided as she thrashed to her knees, hands clasped tightly upon her temples. It was the cracking of an eggshell. Something was emerging from the ragged tatters of her mind, and try as she might to restrain it, it paid her no heed, eviscerating any semblance of resistance with contemptuous ease. Something ugly and malevolent was peeking out through her eyes, through its eyes, hungrily drinking in the world that it was soon to be birthed in.

The destructive orbs vanished without a trace, the mutilated earth and severely thinned horde the only evidence that they had existed at all.

All was silent. No birds chirped. No wind blew. The grimm ceased their incessant howling. Even her own ragged breathing was muted and quiet in her ears.

CRACK

Something broke. It was free. The brittle prison of her mind finally gave way under the stress she had continually piled upon it since the start of the fight. Whatever lurked within pulled itself to the forefront and she was shoved unceremoniously to the side. Distantly she could hear high pitched, unhinged laughter resonating in her ears. Like a puppet without its strings, she crumbled to her knees, and darkness rushed to fill her vision.

---

Ruby arrived just in time to witness the destruction that Kiana had wrought. She surged forward, heedless of the danger of the colossal grimm bird still circling above or the scattered remnants of the grimm horde head. The surviving beowolves were confused and wary, but she could tell that they were beginning to pluck up their courage and reorganize, slowly edging towards her unresponsive friend.

With a pair of well practiced swipes, she felled two of the grimm stragglers that had not yet noticed her. She was almost there, she would make it!

"Incoming!"

Ruby could not discern who called out the warning, but jerked her head, glancing over her shoulder in time to see the Nevermore loose another volley of razor sharp black feathers. The spread this time was quite wide, and she could see the approaching forms of her sister and the rest of their group swallowed up in a cloud of debris.

Reacting quickly she flung herself to the dirt, twirling Crescent Rose in the hopes of knocking aside any projectiles that strayed too close. She bolstered her aura as much as she could and clenched her teeth as the wave of destruction finally reached her. Her vision exploded in a hail of dust and dirt as the ground around her erupted from the force of each missile. She seethed and gnashed her teeth as the impact of each feather deflected sent a harsh jolt up her arms.

Seconds seemed to stretch into hours, but eventually the assault ceased, the screeching of the bird overhead still audible as it surveyed its handiwork.

"Ugh," the small girl groaned as she pulled herself to her feet, knuckles white around the haft of her scythe. She had not been lucky enough to completely deflect the onslaught and was clipped several times by the raven's feathers, her aura just barely managing to hold out until the end.

"Yang! Jaune!" she called out into the murky air. The wind was dead, and the fine particles of earth still hung stubbornly, suspended in the air. "Weiss! Is everyone alright?"

"Yup, all good."

"Still alive here."

"I think I'm going to hurl…"

Sighing in relief as more voices sounded in, she turned her attention back to her initial goal. "Kiana? Kiana! Are you alright?"

When no response came, Ruby felt apprehension embrace her body with frigid arms. Vainly, she swung her trying to see something, anything, but the haze obscuring the field persisted in blotting out her vision.

"Kiana!" She furiously swung Crescent Rose in large, heavy arcs, trying to blow away the errant dust in the air. "Please be okay, Kiana!"

As her vision finally cleared, she could make out a field of black feathers, some erected like grave markers over the rapidly decomposing corpses of grimm that had been unlucky enough to get caught in the crossfire. Ruby paid these no heed, her eyes seeking the heart of the destruction for her friend.

From boneless fingers, Crescent Rose dropped, denting the ground with a dull thud.

Kiana knelt on the ground, head pitched forward and shoulders slumped, arms hanging limply at her side. Snowy, grime-stained hair was thrown into disarray, cascading freely down to the shattered earth, released from the large braids they were normally restrained in. From the center of her half-jacket, a crimson stain was beginning to encroach upon the formerly pristine, white fabric.

Ruby felt her eyes tear up and her chest seize. She struggled to breathe, but found her lungs fought her in heavy, convulsing sobs.

Her feet were leaden weights, clumsily stumbling against each other in their haste, sending the girl careening to the ground. Half crawling the final distance to her fallen friend, she tenderly grasped Kiana's shoulders before recoiling violently upon seeing the dull, glassy stare that saw nothing from behind half-lidded eyes.

From Kiana's lifeless body, a pitch-black pinion sprouted, impaled squarely through her chest.

---

I think I must have rewritten this chapter a dozen times over and I'm still not fully content with it. I dislike how limited FF's editing tools are. I dislike using custom page breaks, but I feel like the in-built ones are too intrusive. It makes switching between scenes in rapid succession kind of clunky, in my opinion.

Fight scenes are hard, yet I still saw fit to shove two into this chapter. Providing adequate descriptions while maintaining the pace and feel of combat is such a chore. The lull at the start of the chapter feels too much like filler to me, but I wanted to establish some sort of rapport between Kiana and the RWBY cast before we jump into the story proper. Future chapters should be faster paced.

I need to expand my vocabulary. I can't help but feel like I keep reusing the same handful of words and descriptors over and over and it gets kind of repetitive. I wonder how many times I've referred to someone as simply "she" or "he" in this chapter alone. There's gotta be a more exciting option. Thesaurus is kind of hit and miss when it comes to finding synonyms because half the words it pulls up only seem to be tangentially related to the feeling I want to convey.

This chapter took around a month to get up. Hopefully the next one will be sooner, knock on wood. It's already around a quarter written since I keep going ahead and writing snippets of future chapters whenever something exciting comes to mind and putting off the chapter currently in progress.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.