The door to the ballroom was locked.
Zeffre closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. Leaning her head against the intricate wooden door, her hand resting on the brass knob, she considered her options. 'I could just knock', she thought. She was, after all, a rational and reasonable adult.
Turning the knob until it stopped, she kept applying force. The sound of metal snapping came from inside the lock, and then she pushed the door open.
Inside were all of the other new students either sleeping or getting ready to go to sleep, makeshift beds on the polished black tile floor of the ballroom. Large chandeliers hung throughout the hall giving off a faint orange glow. The windows, adorned with deep purple curtains, ran the length of the hall. Zeffre glanced at the staircase leading to the second floor of the room before turning her attention to a group of three girls bickering, and she saw a familiar face.
Smiling she made her way directly towards them, stepping over other students who were lying on the ground.
"Hey!"
"What?" Zeffre said, staring directly at the boy, helmet ominously reflecting his face. The matte black of her armor seeming to draw in the dim light.
"Sorry. Never mind."
Turning Zeffre continued.
"What is your problem with my sister? She was only trying to be nice!"
"She is a hazard to my health!"
"Hi Ruby."
Everyone stopped to look at the newcomer, with Zeffre giving Ruby a tired smile.
"Zeffre? What are you doing here," Ruby asked, her annoyed expression quickly melting away into confusion.
"I got offered to go to Beacon and took it," Zeffre said, sliding her luggage across the floor to an empty spot.
"Oh. I didn't see you on the airship," she said tilting her head.
"Yeah… I sort of slept in and missed the airship," Zeffre said scratching her cheek.
"Hey Ruby", the blond girl said, draping an arm around Ruby's neck, "who's your friend?"
"Hey. I'm Zeffre. Me and your sister met in the back of a police car," she said, smirking.
"Oh really?"
"That sounds way worse than what actually happened," Ruby said, trying to hide her face.
"I knew it! You are a troublemaker," the girl wearing a nightgown said before storming off. 'Huh, must've missed something.'
The blond girl approached Zeffre smiling before holding out her fist. "Hey Zeffre, I'm Yang."
"Nice to meet you Yang," she said returning the fist bump.
"Why are you covered in dust?"
Looking over at the girl with the book Zeffre let out a sigh. "Well, after missing the airship I kinda sorta walked here," she said deciding to sit against one of the black pillars lining the hall. "And Beacon is at the top of a cliff."
Yang raised an eyebrow at her, "Aren't there other flights you could've taken instead?"
Zeffre buried her face in her hands "I learned that after I got here."
Yang began cackling at her expression before people around them started shushing her. Even the girl with black hair was smirking. 'At least Ruby looks sympathetic.'
"Anyway, Hi. You probably already heard me say this before but I'm Zeffre," she said to the girl with black hair.
"Nice to meet you Zeffre, I'm Blake," she said, before going back to her book.
Yawning Zeffre looked over to her other case that she brought with her luggage. 'Do I really want to go to try it out right now?' Humming for a moment she made a decision. With a gesture of her left hand a dome of starlight formed around her, the specks of light reflecting off the polished black floor. Immediately she could feel her weariness fading away, replaced with a new sense of energy. "Ahh… that feels much better."
"Hey."
"Woah."
"Hm…"
Blinking Zeffre looked around at the other girls. She noticed that her dome of starlight was surrounding the four of them while also drawing some confused and interested looks from the other students.
'Oh crap.' "Uh… Yeah, sorry about that," Zeffre said giving a nervous laugh. "I forgot to reduce the radius."
Blake was staring at her intensely. "What was that and why do I feel awake?"
"Awake? I feel amazing", said Yang before being shushed. Again.
Ruby tilted her head and looked at Zeffre. "Uh, Zeffre. What was that?"
Zeffre started to laugh again as she began to stand up. "So, sometimes I use one of my abilities to rejuvenate myself after a long day. It, uh, replenishes my stamina and makes me feel wide awake. Anyway, I kinda forgot how close you guys were and didn't reduce its radius so… uh… Yeah."
"That's a very useful Semblance," said Blake, looking back to her normal reserved self.
Tilting her head Zeffre looked at Blake. "What's a Semblance?" She had been meaning to look it up but kept putting it off till later.
Now all three of the girls were looking at Zeffre confused.
Blake closed her book. "Are you serious," she asked, the intense look was back.
"Yeah? Why do I get the feeling I just asked a very stupid question," Zeffre said looking around at the others.
"A Semblance is an extension of a person's Aura. It—," Blake began before stopping as Zeffre raised her hand.
"Sorry, before you continue", Zeffre said, putting her hand down. "Uh, what's an Aura?"
"Okay, you have to be messing with us", Yang said quietly enough this time to not get shushed.
Zeffre shook her head. "I swear I have no idea what an Aura is or what a Semblance is." It was rare for her to feel this confused.
"Hey," a hushed voice said off to their right, "some of us are trying to sleep."
Zeffre looked in the general direction of whoever said that looking annoyed. "Right… I was going to go find the range anyway," Zeffre said walking over to the larger case she had brought with her. "I bought a new rifle before coming here and I really wanted to test it out," she said grinning as she petted the case like it was a precious artifact. "You girls wanna come with? We can continue talking without disturbing anyone."
Yang shrugged. "I'm down. Besides, it's not like I'm going to be able to go to sleep anytime soon," she said giving Zeffre a smirk.
Ruby looked at the case. "What kind of weapon is that," she asked.
"A very expensive Anti-Material Rifle."
Now it was Ruby's turn to look very curious. She glanced at her sister before looking back. "Okay. Oh, I can show you Crescent Rose," she said smiling.
"Aces. Blake, you in", Zeffre said looking over at the girl.
Blake was staring at the ground, a contemplative look on her face. Zeffre, Ruby, and Yang were all looking at here with different levels of expectancy. "How will we get back inside the ballroom? The door is locked."
"Not anymore it isn't," Zeffre said smiling.
Looking at her for a moment Blake let out a small sigh before nodding her head. "Alright."
"Great! Everyone get dressed and meet me outside, we're going exploring," Zeffre said before someone threw a pillow at her. "I get it! We're leaving," she said, this time in a whisper as she threw the pillow back.
"Soooo… Can you finish explaining to me what an Aura is," Zeffre asked as they walked down the covered walkway consulting a map.
Remnant's shattered moon hung high in the night sky while the group walked, passing through the occasional light hanging on the wall. Something Zeffre noted to herself was how the architecture of Beacon seemed to favor arches and towers with conical roofs. Even at night the look was distinctive, especially with the abundant use of white stone for the walkways and towers. The occasional water feature was a nice touch.
Zeffre was leading the group, with Ruby and Yang on her left and Blake on her right. Everyone save for Zeffre had changed back into a more casual outfit with Ruby wearing a black long-sleeved blouse with red trim and a matching skirt, Yang a tan jacket with puffy arms that expose her midriff and shorts, and Blake a black buttoned vest with coattails and a sleeveless white shirt. Zeffre felt underdressed in her armor sans helmet.
Looking over Zeffre saw that Blake was deep in thought, looking at the ground as they walked.
"Simply put…," Blake began as if struggling to find the right words, "Aura is the manifestation of one's soul. It protects us from harm, enhances our abilities… Everyone has an Aura, but not everyone has the ability to use it," she said, pausing occasionally as if she were trying to explain something so basic that she hadn't had to put it into words before. "Practically everyone at Beacon who is training has already unlocked their Aura…," she said before looking up at Zeffre. "Except you."
"Huh… Neat", Zeffre said, considering her words. "I'm guessing you mean protect us in a more literal sense rather than something spiritual right?" Looking at Blake's expression Zeffre took that as a yes.
"Welp, the closest thing I have to something like that is this," she said before manifesting a transparent purple barrier in front of her as she walked.
Neither Ruby nor Yang said anything as they watched the two talk.
Blake gave her a contemplative look. "Zeffre… How many abilities do you have?"
Zeffre looked up at the ceiling. "Uh… like twenty-five."
Blake stopped along with everyone else to look at her. "What? I've already shown you three of them," she said, not seeing the big deal. She knew that in this world people seemingly had something at least comparable to her powers.
"Are you sure your abilities are not related to your Aura," Blake asked.
Zeffre gave her a small dismissive wave. "Yeah, pretty sure. I mean, my powers aren't even unique to me, anyone can get them if they do the right things and go to the right place," she said, remembering her first time visiting the temples. 'Do I even have an Aura?'
"Oh! Could I get those powers too then," Yang asked, looking at her expectantly.
"Technically? Yeah, you could, but… Uh… You probably won't," Zeffre said, trying to think of the right way to say this. "It requires a lot of work, a whole lot of travel, and a long time."
'Not to mention a space telescope, a Grav-Drive, and heavy mining equipment', she added to herself.
"That's not very specific Zeffre," Blake said.
"Yep."
Taking in their confused looks Zeffre shrugged and continued walking. "Anyway, I guess a Semblance then is something related to a person's Aura that gives them a unique ability, right?"
Blake narrowed her eyes. "Good guess."
"Wasn't a guess. When I fought this guy named Qrow he said—"
"You fought Uncle Qrow?!"
Zeffre looked over to both Yang and Ruby. "Yeah, long story. He kicked my ass and stole my dinner – it was great," she said, smiling at the memory. That was a fun fight. "Anyway, as I was saying, when I fought him he mentioned something about a Semblance after I slowed time to try and move faster than him. It, uh, didn't work."
"You can slow time?"
Zeffre smirked at Blake. "I can do many things, don't put boundaries on me," she said in a teasing tone.
A sudden look of realization passed over Zeffre's face. Stopping abruptly Zeffre dropped her case and rushed over to Ruby, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Wait! Ruby! What does Harbinger transform into! I need to know," she almost shouted, shaking the poor girl.
"A… Scythe…," Ruby managed to get out in between the shakes.
Zeffre stopped shaking Ruby immediately. "Oh, okay. Thanks," she said before picking back up her case and continued walking, leaving behind a dazed Ruby.
"How much further to the range," Yang asked, hands behind her head as she walked.
Zeffre hummed for a moment. "A few minutes. We gotta go to the indoor range to hopefully not wake anybody up."
"Do you think we'll get in trouble," Ruby asked sounding a bit nervous.
"Only if we get caught," Zeffre said giving her a cheeky grin.
Blake hummed thoughtfully, her gaze on the ground as they continued walking.
As the lights flickered on Zeffre's immediate impression was that this was in fact an indoor shooting range. The aesthetics were different, sure - with white marble floors and high vaulted ceilings, it was definitely the fanciest shooting range she had ever been to - but the fundamentals were the same. Individual wooden booths lined along one side of the room, and targets on the other.
Rubbing her hands together Zeffre put the long, heavy case on a nearby table, Ruby standing at her side. Flipping the latches, she opened the case revealing her new favorite thing. "Ruby Rose, may I introduce you to the Veiled Night 20mm Anti-Material Rifle," she said with a dramatic flourish.
Packed neatly inside the case surrounded by safety foam was the Veiled Night, the entire weapon a polished onyx black that reflected the lights from the ceiling.
"Woah…," Ruby said as Zeffre removed the rifle and its barrel from the case.
"Check out the size of these rounds! Like, I knew they were going to be huge, but this is a bit silly," she said handing over one of the 20mm armor piercing rounds.
As Zeffre was assembling Veiled Night, Ruby took out one of the rounds she used in Crescent Rose. The 20mm round was a fair bit larger and had a lot more Dust propellant than what she was use to.
"And… There. Just needs the blade," Zeffre said, finishing the minimal required assembly. The rifle, when fully assembled, was almost as long as she was tall. In fact, it was longer than Ruby was tall. Toggling a switch the weapon collapsed into a more compact form, with the stock shifting to look more like a hilt and the barrel retracting and collapsing to form the blunt end of some blade.
Reaching back into the case Zeffre brought out the final piece; a long cobalt blue blade that matched the color of her hair. Glancing over the instructions for a second she attached the blade to the rifle in its compact state, making it look more like an Odachi with a magazine sticking out of it.
Flicking the switch again Veiled Night transformed from a large Odachi back into an onyx black anti-material rifle, but now with a large cobalt blue bayonet on it.
It was one of the most beautiful things Zeffre had ever seen in her entire life.
"So cool…," Ruby whispered next to her.
"I know right," Zeffre whispered back. "Cost me almost everything I had, but it looks even better than I had expected."
"Nice gun," Yang said, lazily walking up towards them.
"How many rounds in the magazine?" asked Ruby, ignoring Yang.
"Three," Zeffre said. "I'm only going to need to use her when dealing with something large. Good thing too, because the ammo for her is really expensive", she continued, remembering her shock at the cost for each round.
Ruby gave her a sympathetic pat on the back. "I know the feeling… Cresent Roses's ammo is, uh, not cheap either."
"Ember Celica's ammo is pretty cheap," Yang added before both Zeffre and Ruby glared at her muttering 'must be nice.'
Yang put her hands up before slowly backing away.
They both watched her walk away.
"Anyway, let's shoot some stuff," Zeffre said, her voice full of excitement.
"Yeah!," both Ruby and Yang yelled.
Blake was in a soundproof booth reading her book.
Walking over to one of the booths Zeffre interacted with the display there and made a selection. A stylized target looking like a werewolf appeared at the far end of the range.
Taking aim Zeffre fired, and it felt like getting punched in the chest by a Terrormorph. The sound of the shot reverberated off of the stone floor, with the sound proofing on the walls trying their best to dampen it.
"Welp, that hurt about as much as I expected it to," Zeffre said, glad she was wearing her armor to absorb most of the impact.
Looking over she saw Ruby's mouth was moving, but she couldn't hear anything beyond the ringing in her ears.
"WHAT," she shouted, hitting the side of her head.
After a few moments her hearing returned.
"Sorry, what," she asked again, this time at a more reasonable level.
"That was awesome," Ruby said, grinning.
Looking over at the target Zeffre saw that it had broken off the stand, and that the wall behind it had a very large new hole in it.
Smiling she cycled the bolt, ejecting the spent casing and loading in the next round. "Hey Ruby, want to give her a try," she said holding out Veiled Night.
At Ruby's enthusiastic nod she handed her over. As she watched Ruby take aim at another target a single thought crossed Zeffre's mind. 'Should I have given a fourteen-year-old girl my Anti-Material Rifle?', she thought before nodding her head. 'Absolutely.'
Ruby, for her part, fired Veiled Night like a pro, seemingly handling the recoil with ease. Her shot was also perfect, annihilating the range target.
Looking over towards Yang, who was currently firing at her own targets using her gauntlets, Zeffre yelled "Hey Yang! Wanna get tinnitus!"
Zeffre couldn't remember the last time in her life she'd had this much fun.
The four of them were relaxing at the empty range. Even Blake had eventually decided to come out from reading, and Zeffre had convinced her to fire a shot from Veiled Night. Ruby had offered to let Zeffre fire Crescent Rose, and if Zeffre was completely honest with herself, she would begrudgingly admit that Crescent Rose was slightly – just slightly – cooler than Veiled Night. By like one percent.
Ruby and Zeffre were both performing maintenance on their weapons, with Zeffre taking the time to familiarize herself with how her new rifle worked.
Spent 20mm casings littered the floor.
As she reassembled her rifle Zeffre heard a door opening and time slowed down. She immediately sprang into action, gathering all their belongings into neat piles and placing them in front of their respective owners. She then silently shushed the other girls as she looked through the walls to see who it was.
From what she could see it was an older man pushing a cleaning cart. From the way he was walking however Zeffre got the sense that the man was suspicious about the lights being on.
Looking around Zeffre gestured for them to follow her as she went to open the window.
"Hello? Is somebody in here? The range is closed," the old man said, sounding a bit tired.
Reaching the window Zeffre silently opened it and allowed everyone else to leave before her. Ruby looked scared to death.
As Blake was leaving, Zeffre quickly began to follow her, but then she heard 'Hey you!' That was enough for her to quickly close the window behind her and yell "Run!"
As they ran across the grass field, Zeffre and Yang giggling like they were mad, she saw Ruby burst into rose petals before reappearing at the opposite end of the field. 'Okay, that might have been an overreaction,' she thought, smiling as they made their daring escape from the janitor that didn't get paid enough to deal with them.
Blake had suggested they sit out under the stars.
Laying down in the grass with the others Zeffre looked up at the unfamiliar night sky, the lights flickering a familiar twinkle that she knew intimately.
"Zeffre… Why do you want to be a huntress," Blake asked as they watched the night sky.
She raised an eyebrow at the question. "Why do you want to know," she said, tone slightly teasing.
"Just curious."
Yang sat up to look at her. "Yeah, come one. We can all share our own reasons. I'll start; I want to be a huntress because I love the action," she said grinning. She looked over to her sister. "Hey, Ruby, your turn," she said reaching over to nudge her a bit.
Ruby sat up and thought for a second. "Growing up, Yang used to read to me every night stories about heroes and monsters… I dunno, I wanted to be like those heroes from the stories. To be someone who fought for what was right, and protected people who couldn't protect themselves."
Zeffre smiled looking up at the stars. "That is a very cute reason Ruby."
"I know right", Yang said before she leaned over to hug Ruby. "My baby sister is a little hero!"
"Yang, cut it out," Ruby said struggling to get away from Yang.
"How about you Blake," Zeffre said, ignoring the two siblings as they play fought.
Blake sat up, looking at Zeffre. "Didn't I ask you that question first", she asked raising an eyebrow.
Zeffre shrugged.
Blake stared off into the distance for a moment; her golden eyes illuminated in the moonlight as if they were glowing. "We all have things we regret and… well… becoming a huntress gives us the chance to make amends," she said, her tone neutral.
Blinking Blake looked at Zeffre.
"Alright, alright", she said grinning. Zeffre raised her left arm, studying the arcs and curves of her black armor. For a moment, she considered lying to them.
'How should I put this…'
"For the longest time I was… Lost," she began, her voice neutral as she inspected the details on her armor. "I lived my life chasing a single goal, and I achieved it over and over and over again. It got to the point where nothing else mattered to me… It didn't matter who I hurt, who I allowed to get hurt… All that mattered to me was that singular goal," she said her voice wavering a bit. "I did… many things I'm not proud of, things I'll always regret. I…," she could feel tears welling up in her eyes. "I let a lot of people down."
"One day I met… someone who was the final version of the person I was becoming," she said, a flash of anger and disgust passing through her at the memory. "This… person… she entirely devalued life. She was what I would become if I entirely lost my empathy."
'Damnit, why am I being so honest?'
"It took me a while to find out who I wanted to be, and it took some help, but eventually I found it. I wanted to be beneficial. To at the very least leave this universe a better place than when I got here." She took a shuddering breath before shrugging. "Protecting people from literal monsters seemed like the easiest way to do that."
As she finished Zeffre put her arm down and focused on the twinkling night sky. She could feel that the others were looking at her.
"Sorry about that," she said wiping away the faint tears in her eyes as she sat up. "That was a surprisingly honest answer from me," she said giving a small laugh as she scratched the back of her head.
"You don't need to apologize," Blake said, giving her a smile.
"That's why we're all here isn't it? To help people," Ruby said.
"I… Yeah. Yeah, that's a good way to put it Ruby."
"That and kick some ass," said Yang, grinning at her.
"Well yeah, that too," Zeffre said smiling, rubbing away something that was suddenly in her eyes.
"We should probably get back to the ballroom. The sun is coming up soon," Blake said, standing up.
"Good point. How are the rest of you feeling," Zeffre asked as she and the others stood up.
"Still like I just had a great night's sleep," Yang said stretching.
"Aces," Zeffre said as she attached Veiled Night to her back.
As the group began to walk back to the ballroom Zeffre smiled to herself. This was the best night she had had in a very long time.
Author's Note:
So... Originally this was going to be a really short chapter that was only a minor introduction to the characters... It kind of evolved into something else entirely. Anyway, I really do hope that I was at least close in portraying the characters correctly. Thank you for reading!