Prologue
By Our Own Actions
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I want to be strong.
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There are three types of people in the world. Most are the first type: Sheep. Sheep are kind, gentle, productive creatures who, generally, only manage to cause harm by accident. They are peaceful by nature... But are incapable of defending the peace. Still, despite such a seemingly negative portrayal, the second type of people tended to view them with both fondness and affection.
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The Woman in Red shared that view. They were, after all, society's backbone, gifted with a wide gamut of talents. Without them, the second type, Sheepdogs, would have no reason to exist. For the Sheepdog, gifted with the gift of aggression, seeks to use that gift, taking on the roles of police, firemen, soldiers and Hunters. Whichever path they choose to specialize in, their purpose is unified, their goal, one: to serve and protect.
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The Woman in Red was not a Sheepdog. For while she was indeed gifted with aggression, she had long since lost the desire to protect. No, she had found herself a different aspiration, one more suited to her talents... And the Wolf would not be denied. The Wolves of society were the liars, thieves, and murderers... And to achieve her goals, the Woman in Red was willing to resort to all three.
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Perhaps it was the way her amber eyes, peeking out from behind a glittering black mask, seemed to almost glow, giving them the appearance of lit embers to illuminate her predatory smirk. Or perhaps it was her poise, the way that her legs, long, bare, and immaculately smooth, slowly, sensually sashayed down the alley, her heels tapping out a steady rhythm against the stone. In the end, it mattered not, for the effect was the same: the Sheepdogs before her had been reduced to mere Sheep in her presence... And it would be a lie to say that she wasn't enjoying the moment.
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The Woman in Red crinkled her eyes in pleasure as her prey finally backed into a wall, having reached a dead end. The Sheep were boxed in, now, with buildings to their sides and the Wolf directly ahead. The only way to escape was through her...
In other words, they wouldn't. The first of their number had discovered that the hard way.
"You can tell me what I wish to know... Or Vale can strike all of Team Carmine from the rolls, as opposed to merely half."
Thud.
Two of the alley's three living occupants flinched as something heavy impacted the ground just to their left. They turned fearful gazes towards it... And gave off various noises of despair, causing the woman in red to grin viciously.
I want to be feared.
The third member of their team now lay in a heap at their feet... Or rather, his corpse did. Once a handsome man, the desiccated husk before them was only recognizable as Rhode A. Mint by the presence of his weapon, a kusarigama... Wrapped around his throat, where he'd been hanging from a fire escape. With Madge Enna, Rhode's Partner, also a corpse back near the mouth of the alley, that left only the C and the N of team CRMN.
They were as good as dead.
"I'm waiting."
The Woman's voice, previously velvety and saccharine, took on just the faintest note of steel as she stared the two surviving members of CRMN down. Her twin blades, wickedly curved, bearing multiple edges, and coated in blood, drawn and held menacingly at her sides.
"You... You bitch! We'll never tell!"
"Make no mistake, Nathaniel, I am fully prepared to kill you both and find someone else who will."
"Then you'd better fecking get on with it, you bloody bitch!"
"Hmmph. She can try."
"Real shit, Cinna. I'm not about to just roll over and die."
"Good. Because I absolutely refuse to die before we bring this bitch down."
"You're going to be disappointed."
The Woman eyed her opponents coldly. While it was amusing that they had finally rediscovered their spines and were attempting to be Sheepdogs again, it also heralded the death of her attempts to obtain the information she sought. Which left her only one course of action.
"So be it."
The battle began with a sudden flash of a bright red light, bright enough to momentarily blind The Woman. But she hardly needed her eyes to see what they would do next, and thus, she was easily able to defend herself against the opening flurry of attacks, her ears and her instincts aiding her where her eyes could not.
Still blind, and still blocking and weaving amidst the flurry of steel, The Woman grinned, and the patterned sleeves of her dress began to glow.
"What the fe-"
"Nat, MOVE!"
The foulmouthed butcher obliged his teammate and leapt back... Not a moment too soon, as he just barely avoided getting lashed by the whip that had suddenly been conjured, consisting completely of glowing orange shards. Fire Dust.
"A witch..."
The 'witch' rolled her eyes, and just barely repressed the urge to snort as her opponents regrouped. She herself was content to let them, a sly smirk on her features as the Dust returned to her sleeves, where it continued to glow.
"I prefer the term 'sorceress,' thank you. Though I'm surprised that a Huntsman would use such terms, knowing that anybody with a sufficient grasp of their Aura could utilize Dust in such a fashion." It went unsaid that Nathaniel 'Nat' Tal must therefore not have much control over his Aura. But what the sorceress was counting on was him not having much control over his temper, and she ended up being proven correct when the man rushed her not a moment later.
"Raaaaaahhh-ugh!"
I want to be powerful.
The Woman grinned evilly; it had been child's play to duck under the butcher's wild swing and shove a sword clean through his gut. The man's cleavers clattered to the ground... And he followed an instant later as The Woman dropped him, not even bothering to remove her sword first.
"You can still walk away from this, Cinna. All you need to do is tell me where the Fall Maiden is. Or even just who she is. Are you truly prepared to die, simply to keep such a small piece of information from me?"
"The only one of us who will be dying tonight is you."
The Woman opened her mouth, a witty retort on her lips... Only to throw herself desperately to the side mere milliseconds before a hatchet descended through the space her head had just been occupying.
"God dammit, Cinna, you just had to go for the one liner!"
"That was a good line and you know it!"
"Dude, so not the time!"
"It's always a good time for a one liner! You, for example, could've said something like: 'You forgot about me, bitch!'"
"Will you shut up already? Rhode and Nate are dead, in case you hadn't quite processed that!"
The Woman sighed in exasperation; in addition to being correct about the timing of Cinna Barr's one liner, Madge Enna had just managed to come back from the fucking dead! She had literally been in five different pieces just a few minutes ago! A quick glance over to that end of the alley-
"Regeneration..."
Yes. That was the only explanation. Madge's Semblance must somehow involve the regeneration of lost or damaged body parts. It was the only explanation the red woman could come up with for how three of the five pieces of Madge were still heaped in a pile on the other end of the alley, yet still managed to stand in front of her, whole and unblemished, aside from her clothes being missing from the regenerated parts and bloodsoaked where they remained. But to regrow nearly her whole body, and so quickly...
Her face slowly morphed from frustration into a devious grin.
"You must have used up most of your Aura on that trick, Madge. Let's see if you can do that again. Unless, of course, you'd like to talk about the subject Cinna here has been so recalcitrant to broach?"
"Not sure what that word means, but I do know that the only words about Amber you'll be hearing out of me are the following: Fuck you! She was here, but she'll be long gone by now."
"Goddammit Madge."
"What?"
"You just told her about the Maiden!"
"Wha- Oh. Shit..."
"And I'm the one who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut..."
"Ahem."
While Cinna and Madge had been busy bickering, the woman in red had taken the opportunity to step around them and retrieve her discarded weapon from Nat Thal's corpse. A corpse that was quickly immolated, just in case Madge Enna happened to be capable of reanimating other's corpses as well. Unlikely, based on the apparent method, but it never hurt to be certain. Especially after she'd already been surprised once; that was already one time too many. Of course, she didn't incinerate the body just for her own peace of mind. Oh, no. For in denying the enemy a possible resource, she had also eliminated every last trace of their friend.
"Shall we continue?"
It had the desired effect.
A widening of the eyes and parted mouths were the only outward reactions the surviving members of Team CRMN gave... But fear makes the Wolf grow bigger, and even the slightest trace of it was enough for The Woman in Red. Sadistic grin in place, she stepped forward to begin the slaughter...
A sudden glow off to the side interupted her, capturing the attention of all three. The Woman turned her head to look... And was surprised to see a kid, no older than perhaps 16, stumble out of a portal and directly into the sharp point at the tip of one of Madge Enna's axes. Both seemed to be surprised at the sudden turn of events... But the kid recovered quick, his visage quickly turning to a snarl before he grabbed the haft of the axe he'd been impaled on and smashed his forehead into Enna's nose, breaking it with a resounding crack. The axe slipped from Madge's grasp as she reeled back with a curse, before bumping into Cinna. Who himself had been forced to stand his ground and block an attack from The Woman or else allow Madge to be cut in half. He himself had suffered for it, however, as his weapon, a dual bladed sword, was incapable of blocking both attacks, having come from different angles. To save Madge, Cinna had allowed one of the woman's blades to glance off of his shoulder, doing no lasting damage but in return consuming a decent chunk of his Aura.
"Ow! C'mon, kid, tha woth an abbiden-"
"We don't have time for this, Madge! Kid! You get a freebie because Madge stabbed you, but if you attack us we will not be able to show you mercy! So stand down!"
The Woman smirked. She'd seen the look in the kid's oddly colored eyes; he was pissed off, and wounded to boot, with his perceived assailant directly in front of him. Add in that he'd been stabbed just moments after arriving in an unexpected situation and he was probably equal parts confused and terrified as well. All perfectly valid reasons to trigger man's fight or flight instinct, and if the way he'd reacted at the moment of his stabbing was any indication, The Woman had a pretty good idea of how this was going to go.
He chose to fight.
With a wordless cry, he rushed forward, swinging the axe in a hard downwards motion... Which Madge was forced to block with her own axe, for the same reason Cinna had blocked The Woman. But what she hadn't accounted for was her own lack of strength, sapped, as The Woman had deduced, by regenerating most of her body in one go. And, as The Woman noted, it had apparently been sapped enough that she couldn't even fend off a wounded, Auraless civilian.
This battle was hers. But first, she would need to deal with her own opponent. Who had suddenly become two. The Woman raised an unseen brow; she had not expected that. But it was no matter; this would be over quickly.
It would not be without effort, however, for even with two weapons in hand, she now had to contend with what amounted to two opponents, both of whom used two weapons that relied on agility to wield effectively. And agility Cinna Barr had, as each attempted strike with one blade instantly transitioned into a spinning slash with the other, keeping him always moving... And with there being two of him, he was able to time it so that even while he was spinning away, the clone was spinning towards her.
All that meant was that it was time to remind him that she was a mage.
The Woman's sleeves began to glow, and this time her lash struck true, striking and penetrating the Aura of one the two Cinna's to leave a bloody furrow across his chest. A split second later, the other one found himself missing his hands, a result of her blades slicing them off at the wrists; his scream of pain was cut off in the same instant his head was. After that, it was easy work to finish off the remaining Cinna. But as the man's body hit the ground, another pained scream was heard, causing The Woman to turn towards the other battle.
"Interesting..." The Woman murmured upon bearing witness to the battle. Despite being wounded and apparently without Aura, the kid had seemingly managed to get a few good knocks in on his opponent. Who, the Woman reminded herself, was a trained Huntress, albeit drained of Aura herself. However, he himself had received the worst of the encounter, having been the one who cried out when Madge managed to cleave into his side with her remaining hatchet.
That didn't mean it was over.
In an astounding repeat of his earlier feat, the kid- or rather, the young man, as The Woman found herself forced to acknowledge out of respect- grabbed the wrist holding the axe before Madge could remove it, a slight jerk being the only evidence that she had even tried. And she had, quickly too... Which made it all the more impressive that the young man had managed to lock her down. Something he immediately took advantage of by using his own captured axe to take her arm off at the shoulder.
The scream that tore itself from the disarmed woman could have woken the dead. Idly, the Woman marveled at that, figuring that with a Semblance like hers, she'd be used to such agony... No matter. The fight had drawn out long enough, The Woman decided, and that last scream in particular would have defied all efforts to avoid further attention. It was time to end it.
A sudden lunge and a quick slash later, and Madge joined the rest of Team CRMN in death, a result of the red smile opened on her throat. Still, her earlier regeneration left The Woman unwilling to take the chance that Madge had somehow survived that, so with only a little bit of concentration, she willed the Dust from her sleeves once more, this time as a cloud of particles to shroud the dead woman's body. A body that was set alight as soon as the shroud settled into place.
"Holy shit..."
The Woman smirked as she turned her gaze on the young man. He had nothing to fear from her... But he didn't know that, and it was evident in his tone. The Woman reveled in it.
Strength. Fear. Power.
Three little words to describe the entirety of her desires. And at the moment, she was high on all three.
"St- Stay back!" The young man stammered out as he made to brandish the axe he had claimed, only to collapse as the accumulated blood loss finally sent him into shock.
"Chup... I... I don't want to die..."
The Woman frowned at the sudden change in behavior. To see one who had demonstrated such desperate strength, turn so craven when faced with their end... She liked it little. But at the same time, she could understand that sort of reaction, even if she didn't encourage it herself. So, wishing to see some more of the strength the young man had demonstrated during the fight, she chose to distract him. "What do you want?"
"I want... I want to be strong. Strong enough to make a difference. Strong enough to create a world in which monsters don't exist..."
And with that answer, The Woman knew she was right about him; this one had potential. Granted, it would take some work to twist his beliefs to the point he would willingly join her in her goals... But the potential outcome would be worth the trouble. And The Woman did enjoy a challenge. "Then close your eyes, and when next you open them, you'll be able to take the first step towards doing so."
"I'm not... I'm not an idiot. I'm... dying. How-"
"What if I told you I might have a way for you to survive?"
"Normally, I'd say you're... That... Crazy. But I also just watched you roast someone with magic, so instead, I'd ask why; why bother? You seem like the type that only cares about people she might have a use for. What use could you possibly have for a guy like me?"
The Woman allowed herself to grin. Strong, intelligent, and perceptive? She was beginning to actually like the guy.
"Only what you already want to do. Become strong. Strong enough to make a difference. Strong enough to create a world in which monsters like... Them, cannot exist. I intend to create such a world... But I will need help."
A long pause ensued, the young man just staring at her. For a moment, The Woman worried that he was about to fade away... But the shrewdness of the gaze reassured her of the man's continued survival, albeit at the cost of her patience.
"Well?"
"You're lying, but it's not as if I've got much choice at this point, so I'll do it... But whatever you're going to try, you'd better be quick; I don't think I have too much longer..."
On the one hand, she was dissatisfied that he'd seen through her so easily. But on the other, she supposed that it was her own fault, for attempting that sort of line so soon after he had witnessed her murder two people. But the fact that he hadn't fallen for it meant that he wasn't naive; she could work with that. "Very well. This won't take long." Kneeling, The Woman placed a hand on the man's shoulder, and intoned:
'For it is our actions alone which grant us immortality. Through our own efforts, we become paragons of ambition and control. Infinite in potential and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my power enable thee."
And as she opened her eyes, a deep blue glow enveloped the man's body, shining bright for a long moment before dulling down to a faint hue. But the man's eyes remained bright, not quite glowing but clearly brighter than they had been before.
"Woah..." The man breathed out in a tone of wonder, causing The Woman to smile smugly.
"You're going to be okay; it took my action to kick start, but the power that protects you now is your own. And it would seem you have been gifted with quite a bit of it. But you need to rest now in order for it to heal you properly." The Woman paused, a thought coming to her. "However, before you do... What is your name?"
"My name... My name is..."
A/N: Please bear with me for the next while or so, I wrote this prologue AFTER I had already gotten 8 months and 20ish chapters in! Currently reworking everything before the current chapter, I hope to be done and moving forwards again before Volume Four is released. But the story won't be changing much, just some of the narrative, so please read on! And don't forget to review!
-CeruleanSorbeltz