"What the hell happened?" Yang demanded when she and Ash got back to their dorm room.
"Blake's just gone!" Ruby cried.
Apparently, when they got back to the room, Blake and Weiss had a falling out, and Blake might have accidentally revealed that she was a Faunus. From Ruby's story, Blake had said, "Maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!"
"And you let her go?" Ash asked.
"Well, I—Uh—" Ruby stammered.
"It wasn't her fault," Weiss interjected. "It was mine, and we were both a little too shocked to chase after her."
"Then what do we do now?" Yang asked.
"We go look for her, duh!" Ruby said.
"In the middle of the night? There's no way we'd find her," Ash said.
"We have to try!"
"Ash is right," Weiss said. "It'd be best to start in the morning, when we're all rested and ready."
"I agree," Yang said. "It's been a long day, and we shouldn't run ourselves ragged."
"Exactly," the amnesiac said. "Now, come on, we'd better turn in so we can get an early start," she set her shopping bags in her closet, not even bothering to unpack them.
Ruby sniffed the air for a second like she's caught a whiff of something. Ash glanced down at her singed clothes from the nightclub fight.
"Do I smell smoke?"
. . .
The next morning, the four of them set out to find their missing teammate.
It didn't go very well. Turns out that Ruby and Weiss had forgotten to mention that Blake may accidentally let it slip that she was a Faunus.
They searched for hours. They asked almost everyone they met if they'd seen Blake. Spoiler alert: no one did. Ash suggested that they get team JNPR to help as well, but Ruby wanted to keep this only between them.
Hours passed like this. It was well past noon by time their first interesting occurrence happened.
Weiss was rattling on about how she would end up being right about Blake being a criminal. 'The innocent never run,' as the heiress put it. Then Penny showed up, freaking all of them out.
"Ah! Penny! Where'd you come from?" Ruby exclaimed.
"Hello, friend Ruby! What are you doing in the city today?" Penny said cheerily.
"We're looking for our teammate, Blake. Have you seen her?" Yang asked.
"Oh, you mean the Faunus girl!" Penny said.
Ash blinked. "How did you know that?"
"Uh, the cat ears?" Penny asked, holding her fingers up to her head to imitate the ears of a cat.
"What do you mean, she wears a… bow…" Yang trailed off.
"…Uh-huh," the amnesiac said, more than a bit shocked at the realization.
"Anyways, have you seen her?" Ruby asked.
"No, I have not! Why is she missing?" Penny asked, frowning.
"We sort of had a falling out…" Yang said.
Penny gasped and grabbed Ruby's shoulders. "That's terrible! But don't you worry, friend Ruby! I will not rest until we find your teammate Blake!"
Yang suddenly grabbed Ash's hand and pulled her in the opposite direction of Ruby and Penny. Weiss glanced between the two parties, then ran after her yellow and white teammates.
"What are we doing?" Ash asked while she was pulled along.
"Getting out of there before we're stuck having to deal with Penny!" Yang replied.
"What about Ruby?" the amnesiac looked over her shoulder to see the younger girl still held captive by Penny.
"It's too late for her, just run!" Weiss shouted.
The three of them turned a corner and ran down an alley to put as much distance between them as they could.
Finally, they arrived at another street and stopped to catch their breath.
"I think you two are overreacting, Penny isn't so bad," Ash said.
"We needed to split up anyway," Yang said. "We were moving too slow."
"Agreed," Weiss crossed her arms.
"Where do we search now then?" Ash asked.
"I guess this way," Yang pointed towards the north.
Out of the corner of her eye, Ash saw a flash of black and yellow. She turned her head to see Blake and that monkey Faunus running atop the building. From the looks of it, they were heading in the direction of the shipyard.
'What's she doing with that Faunus?' she wondered.
"You guys go that way, I'll search in this direction," Ash hooked a thumb where Blake was heading. "Cover even more ground."
"If you say so," Weiss shrugged. Then she turned and walked off without a second thought. Ash blinked, wondering why she has to act like that.
"Better go after her before she finds more Faunus to discriminate against," Ash suggested.
Yang laughed. "You're probably right. Don't get lost in the city, Snowball," she waved as she trailed after Weiss.
"I told you to stop calling me that!" Ash shouted after her.
"Yeah, yeah," the blond waved her off.
Ash rolled her eyes once she was gone and set off in the direction that Blake and the monkey Faunus had gone.
"Now," Ashley thought aloud. "Where are you two Faunus heading?"
. . .
It was almost dark by time she made it to the docks, where Blake and her partner in crime had led her to. Unfortunately, the two of them disappeared as soon as they got there. Ash saw them go between two buildings, then they were gone.
She wasn't sure why she didn't tell Weiss and Yang about seeing Blake. Maybe it was because she wanted to know what she was up to, and she thought that her other teammates would confront her before she could find out. Besides, she could always just contact them with her scroll.
The amnesiac searched between towering piles of shipping crates for her teammate, but she found nothing.
"What the hell would they be doing here, of all places?" she asked aloud. She searched several more rows of containers, cursing at how long it was taking to find them. Then she turned a corner and saw someone standing in a lane between the shipping containers. She was short, at least a whole head shorter than Ash. The girl was dressed in white and pink and brown. She had long pink and brown hair, and a pink parasol sitting across her shoulder. Her color scheme reminded the huntress of ice cream.
Fortunately, she was facing away from Ash and didn't see her coming.
"Hey, who the hell are you?" the amnesiac pointed at her. The short girl turned to face her, her heterochronic pink and brown eyes blinking at the white-haired huntress with uncertainty. "What are you doing here? And have you seen a girl in a black bow?"
The ice cream girl smirked at her and twirled her parasol without a word. "Well? Answer me!" Ash shouted.
The girl casually closed her parasol and spun it in her hand, then held it firmly in front of her with the head pointed at Ash.
The huntress smirked and drew her sword from her back. "Fine, then. I guess I'll just have to beat it out of you!"
The girl rushed forward with her parasol, and Ash almost laughed. A parasol? What was she going to do with—
Her opponent slammed her weapon into Ash's side and knocked her into a shipping container. The huntress grunted and fell to her knees, the ice cream girl smirking down at her.
Ash held her sword tighter and gritted her teeth, jumping to her feet and swinging widely. The girl dodged it easily and returned with a swing from her parasol, which Ash deflected with her sword. The two traded blows for several moments until the sound of loud engines interrupted their fight.
The amnesiac looked up to the sky while she was locked in a power struggle against the shorter girl. Several Bullhead airships were touching down in the loading area and extending their landing gear.
Ash kicked the girl in the gut and made her double over, then she ran down the lane until she emerged in the clearing. A few dozen people in white clothes and strange gray masks over black hoods emerged from the ships carrying assault rifles. Then the huntress spotted a man with orange hair, a bowler hat, and a white coat walking down the ramp of an airship with a cane in his hand and a cigar between his lips.
"What the hell…?" Ash muttered. Then she saw the logos on the side of the airships. A bloody wolf head with claw marks across the front. She's seen it all over the news enough to know who these people were.
The White Fang.
"All right, we don't have all night! Get the Dust loaded up and let's get the hell out of here!" the man in the bowler hat said.
Ash was suddenly yanked backwards, and she tumbled for several feet before she could pick herself off the pavement. When she got to her feet, she saw that it was the hooked handle of the ice cream girl's parasol that had pulled off her feet.
"Okay…" Ash hefted her sword. "Guess that was my fault for turning my back on you." The girl gave her a weird look, but the message was clear enough. "Duh, you idiot."
"Why don't you talk? You could at least tell me your name before I kick your ass all over this shipyard," she tightened her grip on her sword.
The girl pressed her fingers together and moved them along her lips, mimicking the closing of a zipper.
Ash grinned and rushed the weird girl. Once again, she easily dodged her strikes, swaying her hips from side to side and ducking under the sword's swings. The girl smirked and smacked Ash with her open parasol, causing her to stumble just long enough for the ice cream girl to jump into the air, spin her body, and deliver a kick to the back of Ash's head.
The amnesiac clenched her teeth and faced the shorter girl. She was toying with her. As much as she hated to admit it, Ash might be out of her league here. That wasn't going to stop her from trying, though.
From the loading area, Ash could hear a fight break out. Gunfire and explosions filled the air, and it didn't take long for her to figure out that Blake must be the cause of it.
'I have to get over there,' she thought to herself as she looked over to her assailant. 'But this girl isn't going to make it easy.'
She tried to make a run for the bigger fight, but the pink and brown-haired girl suddenly appeared in front of her with a smirk on her face. She spun her parasol and allowed it to rest on her shoulder.
"You're a stubborn one, aren't you?" Ash groaned and raised her sword.
The girl simply winked at her, then charged. Ash jumped to the side to avoid her downward swing, then slammed her shoulder into the shorter girl and knocked her aside. Immediately following up with a flurry of strikes, Ash thrusted her sword with one hand. Finally, she managed to lay a formidable blow on the smaller girl.
Just when Ash thought that victory was hers, the mute girl spun out of the way and smacked her with her parasol again. The amnesiac growled and threw a wide swing that her opponent easily avoided.
"Enough of this!" Ash shouted and performed a flip to the side. She slammed her sword's hilt into the girl's upper back and made her stumble forward. It gave her the perfect opportunity to sweep her legs out from under her.
Ash kicked the girl across the face and sent her into a shipping container so hard that it dented inwards. Finally, the ice cream-colored girl was down for the count.
The huntress rushed to the loading area and gaped at the fight before her. She could see Blake and the monkey Faunus dueling with the man in the bowler hat, as well as fending off countless White Fang members. Then, with a flash of red, she saw Ruby fly across the area and fire her sniper-scythe at a trio of incoming airships. Then Ash saw someone else leap from the buildings with a dozen floating swords behind her.
"Is that… Penny?" she asked.
The strange girl was using her many swords to toss White Fang members aside in a terrifying blender of spinning blades. Then Penny turned her attention to the airships, and her swords began to spin rapidly pointing away from her while she pulled her arms back. While her swords spun faster and faster, a ball of green energy formed in the middle of them, then, she thrusted her arms forward, and the energy fired at the airships in a colossal beam of light. The green energy cut the ships in half and sent them crashing into the water on the opposite end of the dock, then they promptly exploded and sent water, mist, and flames billowing into air.
"Uh… What?" the amnesiac asked. She tightened her grip on her sword for fear of dropping it in awe.
She saw the bowler hat guy withdraw, hopping into an airship with the remaining White Fang members. His lip curled with distaste as he lit another cigar while the airship lifted into the sky.
But then his eyes flicked to a white color among the dark ground, and he saw Ash standing there, her white hair blowing in the wind from the airships. The bowler hat guy's eyes widened, and his jaw dropped, causing the newly lit cigar to fall from his mouth.
"You've got to be fuckin' kidding me," he cursed, then the airship's turbines turned horizontal, and the Bullhead rocketed across the sky.
"Is it over already?" Ash murmured. Her eyes widened when she remembered the ice cream girl, and she whirled around quickly to find her. Or rather, she found that the girl was missing. 'She must've ran once the others escaped…'
The amnesiac turned to see Blake and the others regrouping and putting their weapons away while they watched the airships make their escape. When Ash got to them, they were all facing away from her, and she grinned to herself while she casually approached them and sheathed her sword.
"So," the amnesiac put her arms around Blake and Ruby's shoulders. "What'd I miss?"
"Wah!" Ruby jumped away from her. "Where did you come from?!"
"Oh, hey, Ash," Blake said, unperturbed.
"Salutations!" Penny said cheerily.
"I was here the whole time, Rubes," Ash said. Then she turned to the monkey Faunus and jutted her chin. "What's up, monkey man?" Then she noticed Blake's head, and her lack of a bow. Sitting atop her head were a pair of black cat ears. "So you are a Faunus! How's it going, kitty cat?"
"Long story," her teammate said slightly irritably. but a small smile played on her lips.
"Where were you at?!" Ruby demanded. "We could've used your help!"
"I tried," she said. "I was a little preoccupied."
"With what?" Blake raised an eyebrow.
By time she was done describing her fight with the strange mute girl (she made sure to leave out the parts about her having a hard time), the police and their other teammates had arrived on the scene. They were giving their report to a bearded detective when Weiss and Yang approached them.
Ruby ran to meet them, but Weiss walked straight past her.
"Weiss, it's okay-!" Ruby started, but the heiress held up a hand to silence her. She stopped right in front of Blake, and the Faunus opened her mouth to explain.
"Weiss, I wanted you to know that I'm not in the White Fang anymore, and—"
"Stop," Weisss said. "Do you realize how long we've been searching for you? Eleven hours. That means I've had eleven hours to think about this, and I've realized… I don't care!"
"You… don't care?" Blake asked.
"You said you're not with them anymore, right?"
"Yes, I haven't been since I was younger, but—" Blake said.
"Ahp bup bup! I don't want to hear it!" Weiss interrupted. "Next time you have a problem, you come to your teammates and not some—" she looked past Blake and at the monkey Faunus, who had introduced himself to Ash as Sun Wukong. "Someone else," Weiss finished.
Blake's eyes searched Weiss's face, then she nodded, a smile on her face.
"Yeah, team RWBY is back together!" Ruby cheered.
When Sun got closer, Weiss jabbed a finger at him. "I'm still not sure how I feel about you!"
Sun chuckled nervously and held his hands up in surrender.
"Hey, where'd Penny go?" Ash asked. The strange orange-haired girl had simply disappeared.
The students were given a ride back to Beacon, and they had a lot of explaining to do. Foreseeing this, Ash had suggested ahead of time that they get their story straight before they were confronted.
Her plan was to lie.
Blake knew what she was doing at the shipyard, but it'd be better to play it off as a classic "right place, right time" rather than the professors knowing that she was seeking out the White Fang.
Fortunately, Ozpin seemed to believe them.
Afterwards, team RWBY and Ash headed straight to their room and practically dove into their beds. Or rather, Ash dove into her sleeping bag, and promptly passed out.
. . .
"Well, there you are," the same voice came to her in her dreams. Only this time, she could actually understand what was being said to her. "Somehow survived and found your way to Ozpin, I see."
"Huh?" Ash said to the black abyss that the voice came from.
"You have no idea what's coming, do you? No, I would think not. Living under a veil of lies, using a false name during your stay under the roof of the enemy."
"Who the hell are you?" the huntress reached for her sword, but it was not there.
"You'll find out soon enough," the voice said with an amused tone. "But before I leave you, I'll impart some knowledge unto you, as a token of kindness: your name."
Ash's breath hitched when she heard that. The voice was cold and calculating, and full of malice. She didn't know if she could even trust what it was about to tell her, but that didn't stop her from shaking with anticipation.
Her name! She could finally have a clue about who she really is! How could she pass this up? But… what if it was a trick? What if she was being lied to?
"Okay, I'll bite—what is my name?" she gulped.
A deep rumbling noise came from the abyss, and Ash realized that it was laughter.
"After you awaken, go tell Ozpin what you've learned. I'm sure he'll be relieved to hear some sort of news about me, what with his idiotic huntsmen running about trying to find me."
"Uh… okay," Ash blinked. "The name, now? Can you make it snappy?"
The abyss rumbled again, much more powerfully this time and conveying sheer rage.
"I should break your mind and kill you for that alone, child," the voice said, then the rumbling seemed to calm down a bit. "But, I mustn't shoot the messenger. A warning—your new life is going to come to an end much earlier than you think…"
Ash gulped, patiently waiting. Her heart stilled, her body shuddered with anticipation, and her violet eyes stared directly into the abyss. The only thing she could hear was her own shaky breathing.
"Sera."
Then the dark presence that she felt disappeared, and the amnesiac immediately sat bolt-upright in her sleeping bag. Sweat poured down her face, and her hair was matted against her forehead and the back of her neck.
Her chest rose and fell heavily while she ran her fingers through her matted hair.
"What the hell…" she panted.
Fifteen minutes later, she was standing in Professor Ozpin's office in her usual clothes. She'd just got done explaining the contents of her dream to the headmaster, Professor Goodwitch, and Qrow, who happened to be on his way to send Ozpin a message as well.
"And you're sure?" Ozpin asked, his fingers interlaced in front of his face while he sat at his desk.
"Positive. That's what the voice said," she nodded.
"What exactly did this voice sound like? Could you describe it?" Goodwitch asked.
'Ash', or rather, Sera, concentrated. "I'm sorry, no. All I remember is that it was… malevolent. Being spoken to by it felt like standing in the eye of a hurricane—powerful, yet strangely calm."
Qrow glanced at Ozpin, and the headmaster subtly nodded.
"Well, as long as you're okay," Ozpin rested his hands atop the desk. "And it seems that you've learned your true name, so there's no need to call you 'Ash' any longer."
"What about my fake name? Am I just going to get my license changed or something? And what about my friends? Do I just keep going by 'Ashley Amethyst?'"
"That is entirely up to you, Sera," the headmaster replied. "Tell your teams, don't tell your teams—it's up to you. Officially, I'll keep your huntress' license under your alias name, at least until we discover your true identity. But with your first name, it should expedite the process of finding your past. Rest assured; we will take care of this."
Sera nodded, unsure of what to say. This entire situation was a mess, and she didn't know what to do.
"You must be tired," Ozpin broke the silence.
Sera sighed. "Extremely. But after that dream, I almost don't want to sleep."
"I understand," he chuckled. "Have a good rest of the night and try to get some rest. You have the weekend, so that should be plenty of time to recuperate before class on Monday."
"Yes, sir," she gave a slight bow, then made her way to the door, then back to her dorm. However, on her way down the elevator, her scroll buzzed, and she brought it to her face.
A message from Qrow, just one word: terrace.
. . .
Sera stepped out onto the same terrace that she had met Qrow on before, and she found the older huntsman leaning against the railing and gazing out across campus.
"You called?" she asked as she approached him. Qrow dipped his head and chuckled before turning to face her.
"So, you know your real name now, huh?" he asked.
"Well, just the first name," Sera shrugged. "I don't think the malevolent voice was going to be nice enough to give me the last name, even if I begged." She leaned onto the rail beside Qrow and looked out towards Vale.
"You're probably right," Qrow said.
After a few moments, Sera broke the silence. "You know who it is, don't you? The voice, I mean."
Qrow half-shrugged. "We have a pretty good idea."
"Let me guess—classified?"
"Bingo," the huntsman nodded.
"Any hints?" she nudged his arm.
"Nothing good, I can tell you that much," he said. "Feels like the goddamn Brothers of Creation are about to drop a planet on us. No matter what happens, you keep an eye on my nieces, y'hear?"
The amnesiac said nothing, simply giving a nod. She just gazed out across the sky, then finally settled on the shattered moon.
"Oh! I have something for you," Qrow picked up a case from the ground, held it out for Sera, then he clicked the tiny latches holding it shut. Qrow opened the lid, and the huntress got a peek of what lay inside.
A double-barreled shotgun. Its barrel was cut short, extending just a few inches out from its forearm. Its stock was standard and wooden, 'standard' as in she could brace it against her shoulder like a normal gun if she wanted.
"It's made of cobalt-blue steel, a walnut stock, and has a hair trigger," Qrow explained while Sera lifted the gun from its case. She popped the breech open and gazed through the barrels. The gun was in top condition. Its metal was polished, and the wooden stock didn't have a scratch on it.
"There's a custom holster for it in there, too," Qrow smirked.
"A holster?" she asked. "What kind of shotgun needs a holster?" Then she saw it. The brown leather holster was shaped like a sort of glove for the shotgun, built so that she could easily draw it from over her shoulder with one hand. It would cover the gunmetal well enough to prevent mud or water from getting on it while holstered, and the wooden handle only stuck out far enough so that she could immediately get her finger on the trigger.
The straps for the holster went over both shoulders, as well as on either side of just above her hips to hold the shotgun firmly in place. A smaller strap went at an angle across her chest between the two wider straps across her shoulders. Then she noticed a thick loop of leather firmly attached to the side of the holster, and she realized that it was where her sword would go.
"Well?" Qrow asked as he closed the case and set it down.
"I love it," she murmured. She quickly removed her old holster and put on the new one, tightening the straps so that it wouldn't come loose, then smoothly holstered the double barrel and her gifted sword. She practiced drawing the shotgun and aiming it with one hand. She quickly realized that was how it was meant to be wielded for quick use.
After she mimicked reloading the weapon and aiming it again, she holstered it and rolled her shoulders, getting used to the feel of the added weight.
"How do you feel, Snowball?" Qrow smirked once she seemed finished.
Sera gazed up at the moon, a smirk on her lips and a determined glint in her eyes.
"Groovy."
End of Volume 1
Hail to the king, baby.