Volume 1

A tale as old as time for the world of Remnant. Light vs. dark, good vs. evil. Countless wars fought; countless lives lost in the name of whatever cause that those people were pledged to.

Two sides of the same coin.

But what if someone who was born from the darkness, fought for the light?

. . .

Deep within the heart of Forever Fall Forest, a lone girl lay unconscious on the lush grass. Moonlight filtered through the branches and washed across her slim form and reflected off of her snow-white hair. Suddenly, her eyes fluttered open, and she blinked uncertainly at the red trees above her.

The girl sat up only for her head to throb painfully and force her back to the ground. After what felt like hours, the dull throbbing in her head faded away, and she managed to sit up again. She took in her surroundings, finding nothing of interest. Apart from about a million trees and bushes, that is.

She tried to think back to find out why she was in this forest, but she ran into a problem. She couldn't remember. In fact, she couldn't remember anything about herself, much less why she was there.

"Well," she thought aloud, mainly to hear what her own voice sounded like. "That's a problem."

The girl ran everything she knew through her head, which wasn't much. She woke up in this forest at night, she had no memory and no idea who she was, and she was in trouble because she was completely lost.

Carefully as not to trigger another head pain, she got to her feet and inspected herself. She seemed to be in good shape, since her body appeared athletic and toned, and there were no injuries that she could see. Her skin was pale in the moonlight. At least, what she could see of it was. She was clothed in a white leather overcoat, a violet cropped tank top, black tactical pants, and black lace up combat boots with violet soles and laces.

At least I have a sense in style, she thought to herself with a brief smirk.

Next order of business: checking her pockets. She rifled through every pocket she could, and all she found was a bottle cap that said, "People Like Grapes" and a shattered rectangle of glass. It was capped with white at each end, and she could recognize it as a communication device. But seeing how it was completely inoperable, the girl simply tossed the broken device aside.

Final order of business: finding her way out of the forest.

Her idea was to use the position of the moon to figure out which way was north, but the problem was that she couldn't see the moon through the trees. So, she settled for her second-best option: pick a random direction and hope for the best.

With a heavy sigh, the lone girl marched in the direction to her left, silently cursing her poor fortune of waking up in the middle of the forest with no memory.

Of all things, I wake up with no memory? I think I would've woken up with, like the inability to talk or something. Or a missing arm. Either one would be better than amnesia.

She sighed, ducking low-hanging branches and thorn bushes.

Hiking trip through an unknown forest. Yippee!

. . .

Hours later, the girl stumbled into a clearing where the sky was visible from the ground. She sighed in relief and bent over to catch her breath. She's been walking almost nonstop through dense foliage and weaving around trees, trying to keep her heading. Some people don't know this, but walking through a forest with no idea of where you're going isn't that easy.

The amnesiac girl looked up at the night sky, and sure enough, the shattered moon hung high and cast light onto the dark landscape. Now she could use the position of the moon to determine the direction of north, or rather, south. She wasn't sure why, but something told her she needed to go south. Like some sort of mental tug.

She studied the sky and stars for a few minutes before she figured it out. Fortunately, while she was walking, she'd been heading east. She hadn't been going in the complete opposite direction the entire time. That thought crossed her mind more than once. Now, she needs to head in the direction to her right: south.

Unfortunately, a low rumbling noise came from the bushes to her left, breaking her from her thoughts. Her first instinct was to run, but she steadied herself and stared in the direction of the noise. This time much louder, she heard the noise again. She recognized it as growling, and her heartbeat quickened.

Okay, not good. Alone in the forest with a mystery creature that has its sights on me. Come on, think about your options! What can you do in this situation?

Instinctively, her hand flew to her hip, only to grab at air. Her expression puzzled, and she only had a microsecond to think about it further before the creature leapt out of the bushes.

It landed right in front of her, its paws thudding against the forest floor. The girl looked it up and down, a pang of fear racing through her. Its entire body was covered in fur as black as midnight, and glowing red eyes glared at the lone girl. White bone-like armor covered its face, limbs, and parts of its back and chest.

"Hey t-there. G-good doggy," her voice quivered. "You wouldn't happen to know the way out of these woods, would you?"

Its pointy ears flattened against its head, and its maw opened to reveal rows of sharp teeth just before it threw its head back and let out an ear-splitting howl.

That's my cue, the girl thought before dashing towards the trees to her right. She ducked under tree limbs and leapt over fallen logs. Her heart pounded in her chest and sent adrenaline coursing through her veins.

She could hear the creature just a mere few feet behind her. It roared and sent chills down her spine, but she kept running.

"Shit, shit, shit!" she cursed to herself. She turned around to see how close the monster was, and immediately regretted it. It was on her heels, and when she faced forward again, she saw that was heading straight for a wide tree. Having absolutely no time to think, her body acted for her. She jumped into the air and planted her foot against the bark, then ran up the side of it for a few steps before leaping backwards and over the monster. It had tried to follow her up the tree, its body outstretched with its rear paws on the ground and front paws on the tree.

She landed on both feet, then blinked and looked at her hands as if she couldn't believe they were her own. Unfortunately, the monster before her didn't allow much time for self-reflection. The girl took off again, sprinting southbound.

. . .

Squatting on a thick branch in one of the many large trees in the forest, a tall man clad in gray clothes looked down at the form of a young woman racing through the woods. She swiftly leapt over fallen logs and around the trees, all while managing to stay just ahead of the Beowolf on her tail. Normally when someone's getting chased by a Grimm hellbent on making them its lunch, that person is understandably terrified. But this girl's face completely calm and tight with focus.

"Huh," the man said, his voice gruff and slightly raspy. He rose to his full height and rested his large sword on his shoulder. "This could get interesting."

Officially, he was here on orders. "Go to Forever Fall and keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. I hope it goes without saying that is classified." That was all Professor Ozpin told him before leaving. Of course, he wasn't allowed to protest or ask any other questions.

After taking a long swig from his silver flask and tucking it back into his pocket, the man sighed and jumped from branch to branch, effortlessly keeping up with the girl on the forest floor. Several questions popped up in his head. Who was this girl? Where did she come from? Why was she in Forever Fall, without a weapon? She should know that this is a Grimm-infested forest.

Kids, he thought.

. . .

The girl was running low on steam. She's been doing a pretty good job staying ahead of the monster, but she's starting to get winded. She knew she couldn't do keep it up forever, and she needed to find a way to either escape it, or kill it. And she needed to do it fast.

Then she burst out of the tree line and suddenly came to the edge of a cliff. She slid to an abrupt stop, her boot nearly slipping off the side.

"What the hell?" she muttered, gazing down the cliff face. The forest kept going at the base of the cliff, but when she looked up, a gasp escaped her lips. In the distance, an enormous city stretched out across the horizon. What really got her attention was the giant tower and castle off to the right. It was much closer than the city, and therefore became her new destination.

A thought came to the forefront of her mind, as if there was something she was forgetting. Then she heard it.

'Oh, right. Monster.'

She whirled around just in time to be batted to the side by a large paw. The girl rolled on her side for several feet before coming to a stop. Luckily, she wasn't just pushed off the cliff. Maybe the monster wasn't all that bright. Maybe it was hungry. She preferred the first option.

She noticed that she wasn't hurt. Getting hit with its paw only felt like a dull push, and when she inspected herself, there was no injury. She didn't have much time to think about it, though. She rolled out of the way to avoid being pounced on. Part of her wanted to try and kick the monster off of the cliff, but she wasn't sure she was strong enough for that. She jumped to her feet and stumbled away from the dark creature. Its glowing eyes bored into her while it crouched low to the ground, its ear twitching.

She thought back to when she ran up the tree, how her body acted for her. She wished that would happen again so that she could somehow defeat this creature, but no such luck.

What the hell do I do now? Dance with it? She thought to herself, and the absurd thought of doing the tango with this beast filled her head. Shaking the thought aside, she did the natural thing—she raised her fists and got ready for the worst. Then the creature howled, and she clamped her hands over her ears.

Within moments, she heard leaves crunching in the trees. Casting her eyes to the side, she saw several more creatures identical to the one that had been chasing her.

"Oh," her heart plummeted. "Fan-fucking-tastic."

The first one growled at her, returning her attention to it.

She tried to come up with a plan, but given the situation, there wasn't much she could do. She considered jumping off the cliff, but there was almost certainly a zero-percent chance of survival. She could fight, but she wasn't confident in that option, either.

Nevertheless, she kept her fists raised and prepared herself.

The first creature lunged, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Much to her surprise, nothing touched her. Instead, she heard the sound of flesh being sliced apart, then two thuds of bodies hitting the ground. The girl's eyes opened, and a tall man stood with his back to her. She could see the remains of the monster. It was sliced in half at the waist, and its halves were dissipating into shadow while the glow in its eyes went dim.

The man held a large, wide sword at his side with black liquid dripping to ground from its tip. His tousled hair was almost black and reflected the light. A red cape-like piece of cloth hung from the back of his stylish white shirt, and his black dress slacks were caked with mud at the bottoms of his legs.

"You've got guts, kid," he said, his eyes still on the tree line. "Not many people would face down a group of Beowolves without a weapon."

"Wha—who—Huh?" she stammered.

The other creatures emerged from the forest, their glowing red eyes glaring at the pair of them.

"Stay back, kid," the man put his arm up as if to shield her from the Beowolves' attention. They rushed out of the forest, but the huntsman was fast. Three of the creatures rushed him and he cut them apart in seconds.

The girl heard a fourth roar, and she looked to the side just in time to see another one of the creatures swiping its claws at her. She instinctively fell to her back and brought her feet up fast, kicking the beast as hard as she could in the chest. It was propelled backwards for a dozen feet, but it recovered fast. Fortunately, her savior was faster. Before the monster could even attack again, the sound of a gunshot filled the air, and the creature's head exploded.

When she looked towards the origin of the gunshot, the man still had his weapon pointed at the dead creature. His sword's blade had folded out of the way to reveal a gun barrel. He lowered the weapon and it collapsed into a more compact form, then he stashed it behind his waist.

"You okay, kid?" he asked, reaching his hand out to her. She took it, and he helped her to her feet.

"Yeah. Thank you," she said gratefully.

"No problem," he tipped his head to her. "What's your name?"

"See, uh, that's the thing," she scratched the back of her head nervously. The man raised an eyebrow. After a quick explanation detailing everything that's happened to her since waking up, he scratched his chin uncertainly.

"That's… a pretty big problem you got there," he said.

"You believe me?" she asked.

"I mean, yeah. I've seen weirder stuff, trust me. But what you're doing here in the middle of the forest is what I want to know."

"Me, too," the girl sighed. "I wake up here, then immediately get chased by these…these monsters."

"Beowolves," he corrected.

The girl blinked. "What?"

"They're called Beowolves. One of the Grimm. Man, you must actually have amnesia if you don't remember the Grimm. There might not be much we can do for you," he rubbed the back of his neck. The look on the girl's face must've been pretty good, because he immediately gave a crooked smile. "I'm joking. Don't worry, I'll take you back to my boss. If anyone knows how to help, it's him."

"Oh. Good," the girl relaxed her shoulders.

He smirked and rolled his sleeves up. "Now that that's settled—" he stuck his hand out. "Qrow Branwen, licensed huntsman."

The girl took his hand and shook. "Crow? Like the bird?"

"Well, kinda. With a Q instead of a C."

"Whatever you say, bird man," the girl quirked an eyebrow.

Qrow chuckled wryly. "Anyways, let's see if there's anything we can learn about you."

She shrugged. "Nothing, really. I already checked my pockets and everything, found nothing."

"Nah, nah. I mean about you. What kind of person you are. I mean, I can tell a good bit just by looking at you," Qrow told her.

"Like what?" she asked curiously.

"Well, look at you," he gestured. "You look about, I dunno, eighteen-ish? You could be a huntress in training. At least that's what I think after seeing you in action. You've obviously had some sort of combat training."

"How can you tell that?" she frowned.

"You stayed calm during that entire fight and did a pretty good job at fighting back. There's not many untrained people that could do that. Plus, I saw your aura working," Qrow said.

"My what?"

"Your aura—its kind of like your own personal suit of armor against danger, and it can heal you, too. You can see it sometimes. Yours is purple, by the way. Matches your eyes," he explained.

"That explains why it didn't hurt when that first Beowolf hit me," the girl guessed.

"Exactly, that was your aura—"

"Wait, did you say my eyes are purple?" the girl interrupted.

Qrow blinked. "Yeah? You didn't know?"

"Ah, you're right. I should've looked in the mirror before leaving home. Or asked a friend to remind me. Or—"

"Alright, alright I get it," Qrow rolled his eyes. "Smartass, huh?"

The amnesiac girl shrugged.

"Okay, fine. You have white hair, too, did ya know that?"

"Huh?" she grabbed some of her hair and brought it in front of her eyes. "On second thought, yeah I knew. I saw it while I was running, just didn't really think about it."

"Understandable, I guess. Moving on—you're dressed like a huntress, too. Are you sure you didn't have anything in your pockets? No huntsman's license or anything?"

"Just this bottlecap," she dug the purple People Like Grapes bottlecap out of her pocket. "And a broken communications device."

"A scroll?" Qrow's eyes widened. "Do you still have it?"

"No, I tossed it. Did you hear the part where I said it was broken?" she asked.

Qrow sighed. "We could've salvaged the data on it, Snowball."

"Oh… Hold on—did you just call me 'Snowball?'"

"Yeah, cause of your hair. Why did you throw it away? Whatever, nothing we can do about it now—that is, unless you remember where it is."

The girl shook her head.

"Yeah, I figured as much," Qrow sighed.

"Anyways, let's get a move on. It'll be daylight soon," Qrow started walking away from her.

"Where are we going?" she asked, following the huntsman.

"That big tower over there?" he pointed at the nearby tower that the girl saw earlier. "That tower is called Beacon Tower, and it's a part of Beacon Academy."

"The castle?" she guessed.

"Yep," Qrow shoved his hands in his pockets, his shoulders slumping while he walked. "Welcome to Vale, kid."