Announcement: Just so everyone knows, I've started a poll for this story. The subject? Basically, who should Sera be shipped with? I know, I know, not exactly the most important thing she's worried about. She said so herself when the dance was coming around. But what's a good story without a little romance? One person has voted already, so if anyone would like to contribute to it, absolutely feel free. That's what it's there for after all. No pressure though, I just wanted some input from the people that made it this far in the story. Thanks for that, by the way. I definitely appreciate that this story is getting some attention.
In conclusion, there's a poll to vote on who Sera should be shipped with, and thanks for reading! :]
Sera Calypso woke up in the arms of Yang, which was probably the second-weirdest thing that's happened to her today. She was still dazed and fatigued, but at least she and Yang were both safe.
They were on top of the train again, but she wasn't sure how Yang got her up there. She had a weird image of the blond just tossing her unconscious body to the top, hoping she didn't miss and throw her off entirely. She laughed quietly, drawing her teammate's attention.
"Sera!" she said. She tried to set her onto her feet, but the amnesiac immediately started to fall forward. "Whoa!" Yang caught her, putting Sera's arm around her shoulder for support. "What happened to you?"
"Tell you later?" she said breathlessly, her eyes still swimming.
"Yeah, of course," Yang blinked. She was worried. "Are you okay?"
"Tired," she responded, leaning heavily onto her teammate. Out of the corner of her vision, she saw Ruby, Weiss, and Blake appear at their side.
"What happened with stopping the train?" Yang asked.
"They broke the console," Blake answered irritably. She was upset with herself that Roman had subdued her so easily, and the deed was done just before Weiss could come in to help.
"Then what now?!"
Sera looked up to find a rather alarming sight in front of the train—a wall.
"Uh…" she lifted a finger towards the front of the train. The others turned to see what she was pointing at, and all of their faces went white. Sera didn't blame them. They were speeding towards a head-on collision with a metal wall, and they were in literally the most unsafe place to be—apart from the very front of the train. Plus, where were Oobleck and Zwei? They couldn't have just disappeared.
Ruby and Weiss traded glances, then the heiress went to work. Weiss brought Myrtenaster onto the train and expelled all of her ice Dust, creating an enormous room of ice around the five of them. The ice continued to expand and thicken, creating a wall of armor around them.
Sera had just enough time to think, "Huh, that's convenient," before the train crashed into the wall. The five huntresses were thrown forward and a sense of weightlessness overcame them while the ice flew. For several seconds, there was nothing, then they too crashed with enough force to topple Beacon Tower.
The ice shattered and Sera was thrown from the darkness of the tunnel and into blinding sunlight. The others went in different directions, but they all hit the ground at nearly the same time. Sera wished her body wasn't so sore and tired. If she was at full strength, she could've used her aura to absorb the blow, but she could only muster enough strength to slightly soften her landing. Instead of being flattened into a pancake, it was more like a ball of dough being dropped onto the ground.
She groaned and peeled her face off of the concrete, her limbs wobbling as she got to her feet shakily. Her ears were ringing and drowning out all other noise around her, until the ringing began to fade and get replaced by a siren screaming in the distance. Sera rested her hands onto her knees and checked her surroundings.
The five of them had landed in downtown Vale in a sort of common area, surrounded by debris and onlooking civilians. The square was fairly large and had a big center platform. There was a massive hole in the ground where the train had crashed and exploded. Ruby and the others were scattered on the ground a few dozen feet away from her, just as dazed as she was.
Unfortunately, they didn't get any more time to recover. Just as Sera started to stumble towards her friends, a deep rumbling sound came from underground. She turned just in time to see the enormous head of a black King Taijitu erupt from the hole in the ground and hiss at the dozens of people in the streets. More Grimm jumped out of the whole, ranging from small Creeps to Beowolves and Ursai. There were even a few Alphas. Sera thought it wasn't too bad, but the more she watched, the more Grimm emerged until they were nearly covering the streets. Civilians ran for their lives, screaming and causing a panic.
Sera willed herself to stand strong and drew her sword, even if she wasn't sure how long she'd be able to fight. She put two fingers into her mouth and whistled as loud as she could, drawing the attention of most of the Grimm.
"Hey, you bunch of ugly fuckers! Come get some!" she jumped onto the platform in the center of the square and lifted Igni at them, trying to hide her shaking arm. It's not that she was afraid or anything, she was just still feeling weak.
Thankfully, her friends joined her and readied their weapons. They didn't look much better than her, but at least they were ready to make their final stand. The Grimm rushed in, seeking to tear the huntresses apart.
Sera swung her sword and cleaved a Creep in two just as it jumped at her. Maybe she wasn't as weak as she thought she was, or maybe some of her strength was returning, because her limbs stopped wobbling and she felt herself feel a bit more like her usual self.
Ruby zipped around with her semblance and spun Crescent Rose to make a deadly cyclone of metal and rose petals. Weiss sliced and stabbed any Grimm unfortunate enough to get in her way, as well as fired different kinds of Dust at anything out of melee range. Blake dashed around and made use of her semblance to fool the Grimm before cutting or shooting them down.
Yang stuck by Sera's side and launched explosive rounds at larger Grimm that her teams' firepower was having a tougher time with. She was still a little worried about Sera's condition after the events on the train. Even though she was holding her own against the Grimm at the moment, she knew that just five minutes ago, she was having to hold her friend up just so she could stand. She glanced over to the purple-eyed girl and raised an eyebrow at the look of determination in her eye.
Sera kicked a Beowolf in the knee and made it whimper before driving Igneous Amethyst through its chest. The light faded from the Beowolf's eyes, then she dislodged her weapon to attack another beast. She quickly inserted a shard of fire Dust into Igni and ignited the weapon, violet flames dancing along its blade. Several Grimm seemed wary of the flaming sword.
Full-size Nevermores flew through the air and made Sera wonder where they'd come from. She didn't have time to worry about it though because an Alpha Ursa came charging towards her and Yang. They dodged in opposite directions and Yang was forced to jump to her feet to protect herself from another group of Grimm. Sera came up as fast as she could and fired both rounds from her Boomstick into the Ursa's face, but that just seemed to make it angry.
"Uh-oh," she thought aloud, then dodged backwards and landed on her butt to avoid the Ursa's swipe with its paw. She crawled to her feet and slashed its shoulder with Igni, landing a fairly deep cut. The Ursa tried to bite her, but she was fast enough to duck under the attack and bring her sword up and impale it through the Grimm's jaw.
She was glad she was managing to take down fairly powerful Grimm in her fatigued state, but she knew she'd need to fight more reserved to not get too winded. Her friends were doing a good job of taking down as many opponents as they could, but unfortunately there were just too many Grimm coming out of the holes in the ground. They were starting to get overwhelmed so much that the five of them were forced to take refuge on the raised platform.
Sera held Igni in one hand and her shotgun in the other, slashing and firing buckshot into any Grimm that came at her. She ducked under a Beowolf's swipe and blasted an Ursa's head off before stabbing the Beowolf with her sword. The others did their best to kill as many Grimm as possible, but even they were starting to slow down. Ruby and Weiss panted hard, barely able to keep up their semblance powers.
"Have we called for backup yet?!" Sera's chest heaved, holding her weapons at her sides because she only had the strength to lift them for an attack. She quickly reloaded her Boomstick and took aim against another monster.
"I got ahold of Jaune!" Ruby called back. "Help should be here soon!"
"Tell him to hurry!" Weiss sliced a Creep in two.
The five of them managed to hold their own for another few minutes before Sera started to get genuinely worried for their health. She was running low on ammo and her sword ran out of juice to keep it aflame. She didn't have any more Dust on her, and she didn't want to ask Weiss for any because she'd been burning through all of her Dust like it was a competition.
The five girls were back-to-back, tiredly launching attacks as best as they could. They relied on each other to keep them safe in the ocean of Grimm that surrounded them. Sera resorted to sheathing her sword and primarily using her shotgun to blast Grimm away.
"There's too many!" Blake shouted over the roars of several Grimm.
"Just keep fighting!" Ruby stated, slicing several Beowolves to pieces with her scythe.
Sera fired and reloaded, over and over, just to keep the Grimm at bay. It was when she'd taken aim at an Alpha Beowolf that she realized she was on her last shell. The huntress chewed her lip and pulled the trigger before she watched the shotgun's pellets tear into the Alpha and made it roar at the sudden pain.
"I'm out of rounds," she holstered her shotgun and drew Igni once more.
"Me too," Yang replied.
"Almost out," Blake checked her clip.
Ruby slammed a fresh magazine into Crescent Rose and pulled its bolt. "Last one."
"Well, nice fighting with you all," Weiss raised her rapier.
"It's not over yet!" Yang punched a Creep in the face.
Sera and Blake traded nervous glances. She knew they were good fighters, but they could only survive for so much longer before they were completely overwhelmed. There was an ocean of Grimm surrounding them, and there was no telling how many were roaming the streets and attacking civilians. Where were their reinforcements?
Then Sera heard the loudest voice imaginable boom over the blaring sirens and roars of Grimm.
"SERA CALYPSO!" the voice yelled, drawing team RWBY's attention.
Standing on top of a one-story building to their right was a familiar tall and buff woman with tan skin and a broad smile on her face.
"Janis?" Sera blinked uncertainly.
"You know her?" Weiss asked.
"She's my blacksmith," she answered, still confused as to why she was there. Then Janis held aloft something familiar, yet she'd never seen it before. After a moment, Sera's eyes widened when she realized what it was.
The weapon was gorgeous. A mixture of violet and black with six strings that shined in the light, Sera gave her biggest smile at the work of art. Janis threw it at her, and it flew end over end towards team RWBY.
Sera stuck her hand up and caught the guitar weapon she'd commissioned from Janis. She held that pose for a moment, just to fully soak in the feeling she was experiencing. Plus, she had to show off for her team.
She held the instrument like she'd done plenty of times before with the other guitar before the school dance and allowed her fingers to run along its neck.
"What is that?" Ruby asked, her eyes glossing over the new weapon.
Sera pulled a guitar pick out of her pocket. She'd gotten into the habit of carrying one on her at all times. She quickly twisted the tuning pegs and lightly strummed each string until she got to the tune she was listening for. Once it was ready, she put the instrument's strap over her shoulders and held it in a comfortable stance. It was gorgeous. It was shaped like a BC Rich Warlock, painted two colors. Mostly black, but with a few violet stripes and a big violet Omega symbol at the bottom right. Strong, violet metal strings gleamed in the sunlight as she ran her fingers over them.
"Time to put on a show," she grinned at her friends. The guitar wasn't even plugged in, but if Janis had built it like she'd requested, that shouldn't matter too much. She pulled a guitar pick out of her pocket then raised her hand to the sky and brought it down hard, hitting a massive power chord that reverberated through the streets. Glass shattered and Grimm eardrums popped when the soundwave hit them, and Sera could only smile wide while excitement filled her core.
The sound of someone shouting drew her attention, and she looked up to see Janis with her hands cupped around her mouth. "Turn down the volume and tone controls! You're gonna make us go deaf! Bring it down a notch!"
Sera blinked and looked down at the instrument, then turned the knobs near the pickup selector switch from ten down to five. She gave a test strum and the volume was several decibels quieter—but still loud enough to hear over the sea of Grimm.
Janis tossed down a small cloth bag to the others, and Yang caught it out of the air. Inside it were a handful of Dust crystals and vials, as well as rounds that would fit Blake's weapon. Weiss distributed the Dust how she thought best, then they were ready to fight again.
"Make some noise on that thing," Ruby said to Sera, pointing at the new guitar. "Maybe it'll let Jaune and the others know where we are."
"You got it, boss," Sera gave a salute and got into position.
Ruby nodded and readied Crescent Rose to fight again. Sera could tell she and the others were tired. Hell, she was, too, but they had a job to do.
"The rest of us will cover Sera until help gets here. Try to keep the Grimm in this area and away from civilians," the team leader said, and the others nodded in understanding.
"A rock concert to call in the cavalry? Now that's an idea I can get behind," Yang grinned.
A Beowolf jumped at her and the brawler instinctively punched it away. It seemed that the Grimm were recovering from the deafening power chord their friend had unleashed. Weiss fired a volley of ice projectiles with her semblance and froze a small group of Beowolves and Creeps.
"Start playing!" Yang shouted.
Sera nodded determinedly. She pulled out her pair of Wayfarer-style sunglasses and stuck them on her face. With a quick grin, she strummed again, placing her fingers in the correct order and sequence to put out the melody she was planning. She played the first thing that came to mind, and it coincidentally might've been the perfect song for the situation at hand. She'd only had a few days to practice it, but hopefully it was enough.
The riff for the song she'd been working onrang through the streets and made Sera smile wider. (Aka the Season 1 intro song). She wished she could actually fight to the tune of the song, but that'll have to wait for another time. For now, she was content with just playing it and letting her team do the fighting. Already nearly a minute into the song, she was feeling pumped for the first time since the performance at the school dance.
Yang punched an Ursa in the gut then uppercut the creature into oblivion. "Oh, I love this song!"
"I don't know what it is!" Ruby sliced through several smaller Grimm. "But I like it!"
Weiss rolled her eyes and stabbed a Grimm through the chest. "How long do we have to keep this up?!"
A distant explosion drew their attention. The five girls looked up just in time to see a familiar pink blur flying towards them standing on her hammer.
Nora cackled as she caved in the skull of an Alpha Ursa, then pulled the trigger on her hammer's shaft to discharge an explosive round to both destroy its body and send her flying to her next target.
Sera grinned at the sight of her friend. She struck the guitar's strings with more power, playing harder and allowing her fingers to fly across the strings on its neck.
Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren landed on the street not too far from team RWBY, their weapons brandished and ready to attack.
"Go!" Pyrrha barked, then the three of them sprinted towards their friends. Unlike RWBY and Sera, team JNPR was at full strength and ready to tear the Grimm apart.
Nora laughed crazily and smashed Beowolves left and right, sending them flying for dozens of yards before dissipating into shadow. Ren dashed around and emptied his guns into various Grimm. Pyrrha took on the King Taijitu from earlier by herself, spear and shield in hand. Jaune faced down an Alpha Ursa and went to work, slicing away at its exposed skin to take it down.
Sera was still shredding away on her new guitar to keep the Grimm's attention, but a Creep jumped at her out of nowhere and tackled her to the ground. Her team had their hands too full to notice what happened or why the music stopped, so she had to save herself.
The Creep was trying to bite at her face after it took her to the ground. Sera winced and grabbed at its jaws, squeezing them shut before kicking the creature off of her. She scrambled to her feet and turned just in time for the Creep to leap again. Sera swung the guitar into the Grimm, sending it flying over a building and out of sight.
"Home run!" she stated smugly. She held the guitar by its neck at her side, prepared to once again use the base of it to smack any Grimm that came at her. Unfortunately, that was exactly what had happened.
A Beowolf slashed at her, nearly taking her head off if she hadn't ducked. Sera brought her new weapon up fast, smacking the wolf under the chin before kicking it towards Ruby, who sliced it into two as soon as it was in range.
"Sera!" Janis called again.
"She's still up there?" she asked herself, looking up at the blacksmith on the roof.
"Hit the button near the head!"
Sera frowned and explored the underside of the guitar with her hand until she found a small metal button. She clicked it, then nearly dropped the instrument when the sides of its body opened up and folded inwards, allowing thick blades to expand from inside until she was holding a huge axe. She smirked and gave a two-fingered salute to Janis, who winked in response. She'd forgotten that she asked that to be part of the weapon's design. It was mostly a joke. Her 'axe' was literally an axe, and all that. She got the idea from some cartoon she'd watched an episode of with Nora and Ruby.
Back to more pressing matters, another Beowolf leapt at her and shook her from her thoughts. Sera swung her guitar and cleaved into the beast's neck. After yanking her new weapon free, she turned towards her team to help wherever she was needed. Fortunately, as soon as she turned, she saw a fleet of airships flying towards their position.
Ruby noticed it too, waving at the incoming reinforcements when they got closer.
The airships' front mounted machine guns opened fire, shooting a volley of rounds into the crowd of Grimm. A couple of Bullheads swooped in closer and opened their side doors for a pair of teams to jump to the ground. Sera instantly recognized a couple of her friends in each team.
Cerulean Myst and the rest of CSHL dropped from their ship with weapons in hand. Cerulean spun her trident and barked an order that Sera couldn't hear over the gunfire, sirens, and roars of Grimm.
The second ship's passengers took a little longer for Sera to recognize, but she saw a familiar pair of bunny ears to let her know it was team CFVY.
"Finally!" Yang thought aloud. "It's about time more help showed up!"
"You'd think that Ironwood would've been all over this like, instantly," Sera thought to herself.
Ruby lowered her scythe and let out a sigh. "I think we can take it a little easier now that they're here."
"Yeah," Weiss panted. "We've done enough."
"I can still fight," Sera held her guitar tighter.
"You could barely stand fifteen minutes ago," the heiress said.
"And now I'm running on all cylinders!" she replied, even if it was only half-lying. She could feel her sore body begging for rest, but she couldn't just sit back and let other people fight her battles.
Unfortunately, even if she had to jump back into the fight, it was pretty much already over while she was talking. The airships' machine guns made short work of most of the Grimm. Paired with teams CFVY, JNPR, and CSHL taking down as many as they could in less than two minutes, the Grimm turned tail and ran back where they'd come from.
Coco wielded a huge gatling gun that had transformed from a briefcase-looking object and shredded a crowd of Beowolves to shreds. It ripped apart Nevermores in the air and destroyed the bone armor on a Deathstalker. She was a one-woman army, and Sera was jealous of her machine gun.
Cerulean sliced apart and impaled Grimm with her trident. Her team was at her side, using their respective weaponry to thin their enemy's numbers.
Finally, the square and streets were mostly cleared. The Grimm were retreating into the train tunnel, and a very angry-looking Glynda Goodwitch appeared out of seemingly nowhere to fix the destruction with her strange semblance. Rubble and debris flew through the air and returned to where it had originated. Then just like that, the fight was over. The Grimm were gone, and team RWBY could relax.
Apparently, Sun and Neptune had joined them, because they showed up out of nowhere to see if their friends needed help.
The other student teams went to stand with RWBY and Sera, too. They all said their greetings, and RWBY thanked them for helping. Cerulean appeared in front of Sera with a grin on her face.
"Looks like you guys had your hands full there," she planted her trident in the ground.
"Eh," the amnesiac returned her guitar to its default form and slung it over her shoulder. "I had it handled."
"Ri-i-i-ght," the blue-haired girl put a hand on her hip.
Sera cracked a smile and pushed her sunglasses up her nose. Truthfully, she was glad the fight ended so soon. She and RWBY had been through a lot the past two days, and she was just ready to get some sleep.
"Sera!" a voice called, and the huntress turned to see Velvet approaching with Coco at her side.
"Velvet!" Sera greeted. She hadn't seen her in what feels like forever, but the two of them hugged each other quickly and traded smiles. "You guys were awesome for coming in with the rescue like that!"
"It was nothing, the least we could do," the Faunus replied. "How did all of this happen?"
"Long, long story that I'm too tired to go into right now," she waved it off. "But tell you later?"
"Of course," she nodded.
"Hey, you're gonna tell me, too," Cerulean nudged her.
"Well, duh," she said.
Coco cleared her throat, drawing their attention. "Not too shabby for a team of first years," she complimented.
Sera nodded in thanks. Now that they were face-to-face, she sized up Coco properly. She had the aura of someone who knew they were a badass, but that was okay because Sera had that same problem.
"Well, if one of us had a gun like yours, we probably wouldn't have needed the help," she said.
Coco placed a toothpick between her teeth. "True," she said smugly.
Sera smirked. She and Coco had been having a stare-off the entire time they talked, as if they were trying to see who'd look away first. There really wasn't much of a point since they both wore sunglasses, but that didn't seem to matter. Coco was the type to assert herself as top dog with whoever she met, but Sera wasn't going to let that happen. She had no ill-will towards the girl. She was Velvet's friend and they'd only just met.
Finally, Velvet spoke up, recognizing the situation. "Well, we'd better get back to Beacon. Right, Coco?"
"'Course," she responded, eyes still on the white-haired girl. "Let's get outta here, Vel."
The two of them left her and Cerulean there and rejoined their team. Cerulean's team called her over as well, and the blue-haired girl left Sera, too.
She took a deep breath and turned to go back to her friends, hoping they were ready to go.
"Hey, Sera!" Nora greeted. Ruby and the others turned to greet her, honestly relieved that she was back. After the time they'd had on their mission, they just knew they all needed to be together, as if they were still on-assignment.
"Gods, can we get out of here already?" she groaned. "Also, good to see you guys, too," she told JNPR. She hoped they didn't hold it against her that she didn't act overly happy to see them. She was just exhausted.
"That's what I've been saying," Yang groaned, crossing her arms.
Jaune chuckled. "Things must've gotten pretty crazy for you guys."
Weiss scoffed. "That's putting it mildly."
Sera heard a familiar boisterous laughter and turned to find Professors Oobleck and Port talking with each other. Zwei barked happily and spun in circles at their feet. Sun and Neptune talked with Cerulean, apparently pointing out just how similar the two blue-haired students were. (A/N: Fun Fact: Cerulean and Neptune are coincidentally similar in obvious ways due to the fact that the author (me) completely forgot that Neptune existed while creating Cerulean. She's an unintentional rip-off, design wise.)
She gave a small smile, happy that everything ended up fine for them. They'd stopped Torchwick's plan, and he was currently being loaded into the back of a police van in handcuffs. Blake finally accomplished her goal, and now they could rest easy for a while.
Over to the side and in the shadows of an alley, an unexpected group of students watched team RWBY and Sera silently. Cinder Fall's lip turned up in a sneer at the students who'd so easily foiled their plans. Then again, the train wasn't even close to what they had planned for the finale.
And even though this step of that plan didn't go exactly how they wanted, the end result was still the same. Cinder smirked. Plus, while all the students and most of the professors were away from Beacon, they'd accomplished their goal of gathering even more intel.
. . .
As soon as they all got back to Beacon, Sera passed the heck out. She was privately informed by Goodwitch that Ozpin was going to want to talk to her about the assignment. After all, it was Sera that requested to be on that mission. She said she would but wanted to sleep first. The professor nodded, thinking that was more than reasonable given the situation.
Amazingly, Ozpin had left the most wonderful gift for her while she was gone—a bed. It was a small twin-size nestled in the corner near where she'd been sleeping, which she was perfectly fine with. She practically squealed with joy before jumping into it, not even bothering to take her clothes off before passing out in seconds.
She slept like a rock and fortunately didn't have her usual dream of floating through the fog. Sera just slept and slept until without her even knowing, over a day had passed. Her friends were getting a little worried, but they didn't try to wake her.
Finally, her eyes fluttered open and she sat up in her new bed, stretching wide and yawning for a solid minute. She tried to straighten her crazy hair, but ultimately had to give up. She just hoped that she could get herself cleaned up before anyone could see. Sera swung her legs over the edge of her bed and yawned again. That was the best sleep she'd had in months!
Quickly grabbing a change of clothes, she dashed into the bathroom to get ready for her meeting with Ozpin. She didn't even think to check her scroll until she was about to get in the shower, and her eyes nearly popped out of her skull when she saw the date. She'd slept for over twenty-four hours? How was that even possible?
She checked her messages to see if anyone had tried to get in touch. It was mainly messages from JNPR, but there were a few from Cerulean, Velvet, and Professor Ozpin as well. Pyrrha left a text asking if she was up for more training, and of course she was, but she waited to respond back. She'd wait until after the more pressing matters of the day.
Twenty minutes later, she was clean and getting dressed in the dorm. The shower had been so refreshing, she didn't want to get out ever. Deciding that she didn't really want to put much effort into her appearance for the day after her team's mission, the huntress put on a simple pair of black jeans, her laced boots, and a white hoodie with violet trim. She fluffed her hair and checked herself in the mirror before heading towards the door. With a moment of indecision, she grabbed her new guitar and slung its strap across her midsection before sliding the instrument to her back.
. . .
The walk across campus was awful. Sera hadn't really noticed it when she was in the shower, but she was sore. Her entire body ached like she'd done a full-body workout for several hours straight. Each step made her legs wobble to the point where she thought she'd fall over. She had to take a break twice just to catch her breath and let her legs rest for a moment. But finally, she made it to Beacon Tower and thanked the Brothers of Creation that she didn't have to take the stairs.
While she rode the elevator up, Sera took the time to message some of her friends to let them know she was okay. Ruby and Cerulean replied almost instantly and stated that they were glad she was awake. The others hadn't responded, but that was okay, she didn't need an instant reply. She tucked her scroll into her hoodie pocket and waited for the elevator to arrive.
Once the doors slid open, Sera took a deep breath and strolled towards Ozpin's office, trying to ignore the aching in her limbs. She knocked on the door firmly, then stepped inside once she heard a voice say to come in.
Professor Ozpin was standing next to a window, looking out across Beacon's campus and into the distance. Goodwitch and Ironwood were nowhere to be found, but that was okay with her.
"Miss Calypso," Ozpin turned to greet her. "I take it you had a good rest?"
"I did," she nodded, approaching his desk. "Thank you for the bed. It is much appreciated."
"It's no problem at all," he smiled kindly. "I only apologize for not getting it to you sooner."
"Oh, that's okay," she sat in one of the chairs in front of Ozpin's desk to get off her feet.
"Well," the headmaster cleared his throat. "I suppose your assignment was much more eventful than you expected."
"That's putting it mildly," she scoffed. "But yes, it was more than I thought it would be."
Ozpin shrugged. "I'm rather glad you were there. Who knows how much worse it would've been if we didn't have huntresses on-site from the beginning?"
Sera rubbed the back of her neck uncomfortably. "The others did more than me. All I did was get captured and play a guitar."
The headmaster smirked. "Professor Oobleck and the rest of your team have already given me their reports. All of them say that you were the one who found the hideout in the first place, and that if you hadn't broadcasted your location with that 'guitar playing,' who knows how long you five would've survived?"
She shrugged absently. Sera might've been the type to brag, but she didn't know how to handle recognition like this. She didn't think what she did was really worth praise, but she didn't protest.
Seeing how uncomfortable she was, Ozpin smirked. "I would've taken you for the type to boast about your accomplishments, but you're being modest. You continue to surprise me, Miss Calypso," he gave a curt nod. "Speaking of that guitar, where did it come from?"
Grateful for the subject change, the amnesiac sat forward and put her new guitar in her lap. "I had it commissioned from a local blacksmith. She was the one that helped me forge my sword, in fact. But since I knew I wasn't capable of making something like this, I just asked her to do it."
"And it's your design?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. She nodded in response, and Ozpin politely held his hand out. "May I? If you don't mind, of course."
Sera shrugged and handed it over. The headmaster inspected the instrument, immediately finding the button to transform it into an axe.
"Impressive," he commented. "What can it do?"
She sat forward and put her hands in her lap. "Well, it doesn't need to be plugged into anything to play. There are speakers around the body of it that get pretty loud, as you've heard," she said. "It transforms into that axe form for obvious reasons, but in its normal form it can still be used to hit stuff 'cause I asked Janis to make it out of a special material. Oh! And you can use Dust to give it like, elemental ranged attacks. I haven't gotten to test it yet, though, but that's how I designed it to be."
"I see," he handed the instrument back to her. "Well, it certainly seems like an interesting weapon. Although, it is odd that someone would have so many weapons."
She shrugged. "Different weapons for different situations. But it would be a little difficult to carry so many."
"I'm sure," Ozpin chuckled. "Moving on… I want to hear your side of what all happened on that assignment. The others told me what happened for them, but none of them can account for you. Yang mentioned that you fell unconscious on the train." He took a seat at his desk and folded his hands in front of him.
Sera's eyes widened slightly. She'd forgotten about that strange moment she had where everything around her froze. But she decided she's start from the beginning, when she had gotten up in the middle of the night to go for a walk.
Ozpin listened carefully, his eyes never leaving her as she recounted her experience. He seemed especially interested in what Roman had to say to her about a big plan, and even more so with her odd experience. She'd said that it just seemed like everything just stopped, but Ozpin waited until she was finished to speak. Once she'd gotten to the part where JNPR had shown up, that was all he needed to hear.
"Well, that is certainly interesting," he noted, tapping his finger on his desk. "But it seems like to me that… you might have begun to discover your semblance."
Her jaw dropped. "My semblance? Huh… I'd kind of given up on trying to unlock it. I've gone so long without it that I haven't even considered ever getting one."
"I understand," he chuckled. "But if what you say is true, you very well may just have a quite powerful ability."
Sera considered his words carefully and sat back in the chair. Finally, she said, "After that incident happened though, I passed out and was extremely exhausted when I woke up."
Ozpin shrugged. "The most powerful semblances tend to burn through a lot of aura. Just ask your friend Ruby, or even Nora. The more they use their semblances, the more drained they are physically."
She pursed her lips, unsure of what to think of it all. "Hm."
"I would recommend that you practice trying to do that again, if you can. But be careful. One wrong move, and it might just kill you," he said gravely.
Sera chuckled nervously. "You make me want to not have a semblance at all."
"Oh, no, you should definitely unlock your semblance. If my theory is correct, then you, Miss Calypso, would be quite the powerful huntress indeed," he gave a kind smile.
"…Huh," she sat back. "That's… a lot to take in."
"I'm sure," he took a sip from his coffee mug. "Now, onto the next thing I wanted to tell you…"
"And what's that?" she quirked an eyebrow.
"I have another assignment for you," he smirked.
"What?" she asked, genuinely shocked. "What are we doing now?"
"You are accompanying a huntsman on a mission to the south. Apart from that huntsman, this is a solo mission. He'll brief you further as to what you'll be doing, but just like your last assignment, you will follow orders," the headmaster said calmly. "But you'll have time to rest and recover from your team's previous mission, as well as practice with that new weapon of yours."
Sera leaned back in her seat. "Why am I alone being sent on this?"
"Because this is the perfect opportunity to test how far you've come in your training, and I trust this huntsman with the assignment and to look after you. This assignment could be particularly dangerous, so we need to take all necessary precautions."
"Okay, I'll bite," she crossed her arms. "Who is this huntsman that is taking me on an assignment?"
The door to Ozpin's office swung open and someone walked in. Ozpin smirked, watching Sera's facial expression change while the newcomer spoke.
"Hey there, Snowball," a familiar voice said.
Sera's shoulders fell. "Oh, crapbaskets."