The Shining Beacon

A warm light for all mankind to share. The very definition of a Shining Beacon… but that beacon can come in many forms. A tower that sits upon the edge of the world, a school, where young students go to become heroes. Sometimes, those beacons are a little smaller… but all together, they make a beacon that burns brighter than any other.

Blake

She was twelve when it had happened, when she'd heard the story from her father. The story of the Star Bound Magus, and more importantly, the White Lancer. This character from the three hundred year old fairy tale had many names, but what had happened to them remained a mystery… or at least, her father said most people claimed it was a Mystery.

"When the White Lancer and the Star Bound Magus had gone to fought the Wicked Witch, the Magus' body, that the Wizard had warned would be unable to handle the power of the stars, gave out. The Magus collapsed, halfway to the Wicked Witch… but the White Lancer marched on to fight her, while the Wizard brought the Magus back against his wishes," her father had maintained. One of the many 'variations' that had flown around Menagerie.

There was the version where it was the Lancer who had collapsed, or where the Lancer had returned to the stars above. The Magus, despite being Human, was still a hero, but the general agreement was that, after his journey to face the Wicked Witch, either in success, or in failure, he always survived, while the White Lancer vanished from the tale. That was why she'd actually believed her father first.

Because there was no way a headstrong leader, a great and glorious, if rough hero like the White Lancer, was going to just stand back when her friend fell behind. But her Father didn't know what had actually happened afterwards, nor was she sure he was actually right.

What she was sure of, as she looked out upon the night sky, sitting atop the roof of her father's manor, was that the story had to be true. It wasn't just a fairy tale to her. The stars above held their secrets close, and she wanted to find them.

The Faunus had many stories of both the Star Bound Magus and his 'companion' the White Lancer, but they also had stories of just the White Lancer herself. Sadly all of them came from a time after she'd been 'called from the stars' by the Star Bound Magus, but it made sense. But it was one of those tales, that her mother had told her, that she was going to try and solve tonight, after all her little bits of research, guesswork and just trying to figure out what was just a story, and what wasn't.

Blake clutched her legs to her chest and closed her eyes, the find ruffling her ears before she stood up, and climbed down from the rooftop and ran off into the night. Her mother and father were asleep, but she had wanted to do this at the perfect time. When the stars were brightest, and the moon was full. Early, she'd seen what she'd thought was a sign.

A single star, glowing brighter than any other, off in the distance, that was her sign to try.

She was going to seek a relic of the stories, a piece left behind by the White Lancer's adventures across the world after seperating from the Star Bound Magus for a time. Menagerie was always a land of beasts, even back well before it was the home of the Faunus. It was also the place that the White Lancer had apparently come whenever she separated from the Star Bound Magus to go on her own adventures.

Running through the streets, she looked towards the island tiny island that sat just off the shore of the beach, connected by an old wooden bridge, and topped with a single palm tree that bent in an extremely weird way, and looked like it had at one point been struck by lightning. She ran to the bridge and then looked at the waves, churning in the starlight as she began to slowly walk across the bridge.

It creaked under her weight, and she nearly paused… but then continued forward, each step felt like it could send her plunging into the water below. Thankfully it wasn't very deep water, but she'd rather not explain to her parents why she was soaking wet in the middle of the night.

But about halfway across the bridge, a wave surged, and Blake yelped before running just straight across the bridge before it could really hit her. She stopped the moment she hit the tiny island, and turned back… and then stared, confused as to how the wave had done that? The island was in the way, so how had a wave from from the… shore to try and sweep her away?

Turning away from the bridge, she walked forward into the tiny isle. It was only about ten meters across, but surprisingly high given it poked out over the sea at a decent seven foot height. The grass that covered it was so green she could barely believe that it was actually sitting by the sea. And the strange palm tree covered most of the isle in the shade of its leaves. Looking up towards the stars, she saw the one that still glowed, oh so bright in the sky of the night.

Walking forward, she turned around when she reached the edge of the island, looking up at the sky above the palm tree, staring at the stars above. She looked back down towards the tree, and blinked for a second.

There was a blue strip of cloth poking out of the ground, wrapped around the very roots of the tree. Walking towards it, she bent down, grabbing it slowly and tugging. It was tightly bound, and very much halfway underground, but she went for the knot instead, slowly untying the knot before, once she'd managed that, ripping the cloth out from around the root, and holding it up to her face. The light blue cloth was still waving in the sea breeze as she held it skyward. Was… this it?

"The relic? Is this?" she muttered, before turning out towards the sea once more, walking forward, and clutching the thing to her chest… her childish dream filling her heart as she looked out over towards the brightest star in the sky and spoke.

"Hero of the stars… I call upon you. Come forth and give me aid!" she started quiet, before raising up to a crescendo and raising the cloth into the air… and nothing seemed to happen for several moments. The wind was picking up, but that was about it. Slowly, she lowered the cloth… and turned around her eyes drooping as she slowly started to walk away, lowering her head.

But then the wave kicked up, surging from behind her and washing over her, she didn't even have time to gasp as it… seemed to grab for her, the cloth fell from her hands, she didn't know where it went as she was dragged backwards by the receding wave, nearly going over the edge of the small isle… before something grasped her wrist.

"You ok kid?" A bright, and quite peppy voice said as Blake opened her eyes, hanging part way over the edge as she looked up, seeing a young girl in mostly pink, dressed like she was from Mistral with a sword on her hip… and pair of small cat ears atop her head, parting her pink hair… or was it blonde? She couldn't tell. Quickly the girl pulled her back up, and away from the churning ocean and gave her a bright smile.

"Who… where did?" Blake looked around, before looking up, the palm leaves getting in the way as the girl just rubbed the side of her head for a second, blinking as she started patting it, turning around and holding both hands to the sides of her head.

"Huh, wear are my?" Blake just watched as the girl confusedly grasped for something, parting her hair with one hand to reveal the lack of human ears on the side of her head, before raising her head and slowly going for the ones that were twitching atop her head in confusion. "What the…" she muttered.

"Uh… are… you alright?" Blake asked, confused as to why the girl seemed to be having trouble. Sure she didn't have two sets of ears like Blake herself did, but lots of faunus had only one set, why was that such a problem?

"Uh…" the girl turned around, bending forward towards Blake before chuckling. "Yeah, I'm fine! Just gonna… have to get used to that… but you called kid?" the girl said, bending down to be eye level with Blake before smiling… and then coughing, turning away from Blake, who just watched for a second, and then gasped as the girl started spitting up blood into the grass. She went up behind her, grabbing her arm.

"What's wrong!?" Blake shouted in concern as she stopped coughing, taking a moment to look at Blake, blood running down her mouth, but she took a moment to look at Blake, and tried to smile.

"Just my… health issues, its nothing, I'll be fine," she said, slowly standing up and looking back down at Blake. "Now, you're the one who called for a hero weren't you!?" she asked, far more peppy, despite the blood still running down her chin.

"...You're a hero from the stars?" Blake asked expectantly as the girl looked up towards the moon, and just blinked for a second before looking back down at Blake.

"Yep, seems like it, I'm Okita Souji!" she said, sticking her thumb to her chest before chuckling. "Now uh… where am I?"

"...You're on Menagerie," Blake muttered in response as the girl just sighed, and tried to rub the side of her head, and just paused for a second before sighing, leaning forward, her ears drooping as she did so.

"Right, different world, uh… ok, question, any stories about Mages or Holy grails, aliens or what have you?" she asked, only holding up one finger on her right hand as Blake tried to process this… strange faunus.

"There's the story of the Four Maidens… and then there's the Tale of the Star Bound Magus," she responded, naming the two she knew off the top of her head, and that second one had Okita perk up, her ears twitching rapidly atop her head as she bent down and looked Blake in the eyes.

"Can you tell me about this 'Star Bound Magus?'" she asked, and Blake just nodded.

"He was a human hero who used the power of the stars to fight, and to summon a Hero from the stars, the White Lancer," Blake replied, and Okita just seemed to pause for a moment, and there was silence for several more… before.

"WHAAAAAAAAAT!?"

Blade had to cover her own ears with her hands, her cat ears clamping against her head to block out the scream as best she could as Okita started coughing again.

"Those two!? Wodime and Caenis!? Them!?" Okita just started shouting after spitting up a bit more blood.

"You know their names!?" Blake had stars in her eyes at that, the names of the Magus and the White Lancer had never been found out, or they'd been lost, but she'd just said! But her excited response had Okita pause again, a torn look on her face, as she winced.

"So they're… heroes huh?" she asked calmly, bending down as Blake nodded.

"Yep, of their own fairy tale! The duo who went to fight the Wicked Witch! And traveled the world!" Blake started, her childish joy emerging full force as Okita just… gave a very soft, almost sad smile, before grasping Blake's hand.

"Come on kid… let's get you back home… wherever that is… I think I need a bit of time to… process all this," she started, and Blake just giggled as she tried to lead Okita back down the bridge, the wood creaking beneath them both, but not giving away. And while the lights had come on, and Okita looked around in both confusion and some awe, Blake walked on with her towards home. Not caring how she was going to explain this to her parents… yet. She could do that later.

And yet, she was unaware that she'd just joined a story just as great as her hero's, the second pillar of the four. A Shining Beacon for all mankind, Human and Faunus alike.

AN: I know I promised Hektor, but I had to get this point just in case while I had to idea in my head. But yes, two 'The Shining Beacon' stories back to back, don't expect more for a while, I just had this idea of how to go about it. But hey, I'm trying. Yes, Okita has cat ears, this is funny to me. But the plot 'thickens' I guess. I see a lot of you figured out, very very quickly who both the Star Bound Magus and White Lancer were, as should be very obvious. But that's only part of the puzzle. Let's see what some of you can put together from it. ;)