It was the dead of night and almost everyone was asleep. We come to the ADMA dorm room with I-no being dead asleep dreaming about something she would probably have forgotten upon waking up. At least it would have been but what was a normal dream turned strange. It's almost like your favorite show being paused to play an amber alert, except instead of a loud annoying noise all I-no got was a message told to her by a strange looking man. "Emerald Forest, relics, 5:45 PM." The man repeated the message over and over again drilling it into her head and I-no could do nothing but listen, the man pulled out a revolver and shot her in the head ending the dream as she jolted up from bed in a cold sweat. She checked her head and no blood so it really was all just a weird dream but she had the message ingrained into her head that she needed to find out what's going on in that forest because there's no way that was a coincidence. Axl at the same time was coming out of the bathroom having just showered and currently in a bathrobe, he looked over to see that I-no was awake and greeted her "Morning I-no, lovely day today isn't it? How did you sleep last night?"
I-no got out of bed in her Pajamas and responded to Axl "Well I'm still the same shitty creature I was the day before so how does that answer your question?"
"Not great then huh, well get dressed because it's about to be lunch soon." Axl said as he got dressed, I-no looked at her clock seeing it was already 11am, also Dizzy and Anji were nowhere to be seen. She grabbed a towel and went into the bathroom to take a shower, all she could think about was what she heard in her dream and to be there at 5:45PM.
Both teams FKAB and ADMA sat at a lunch table together eating lunch, nothing too out of the ordinary for them really. Axl and Sol were playing a little game with Axl tossing grapes at Sol and him catching it with his mouth and Dizzy joining in a little soon after. All was normal except for Aria looking at a notebook of hers, it was an old book that she used to draw in but all the pages were filled up with doodles and art. She had a lot of doodles of either cute things or stuff she found funny but she lingered on one page of a man with roses on the back of a jacket with a little tagline saying "Together 4ever" it made Aria frown remembering the memories from the past. Baiken nudged Aria which made her quickly close the book and look towards her friend as Baiken asked her "What's up with you Aria? What's with that notebook?"
"It's nothing Baiken, really." Aria said, putting it away.
"So, one last day to fool around before the break is over. What are we doing today?" Baiken asked the people sitting with her.
"Me and Dizzy are going out on a date." Ky said nonchalantly while eating his lunch as everyone stopped what they were doing and just looked at Dizzy and Ky with shock and confusion. Ky didn't understand what caused such a reaction while Dizzy was embarrassed and dismissed everyone's thoughts of their relationship status. "As friends of course! Friends can go on dates after all!" Dizzy said while having a nervous giggle and her tail wagging. I-no couldn't help but laugh at that as everyone went back to what they were originally doing.
"I was gonna head down to the record shop, trying to get into some new music. You wanna come I-no?" Axl asked her, Axl didn't know much of the music of this world as his identity as someone from another world is still a secret to everyone but I-no. "I'd love to Axl but I have something to deal with, it's deadly serious and I might not be back for a bit." I-no told Axl who looked down, not being able to hang out with her.
"Alright so that leaves me, Aria, and you Sol. Wanna go fight some grimm or something? I've been dying to fight some monsters for once." Baiken suggested and both of her free teammates seemed to like the idea but Anji intervened. "Baiken, did you complete the essay due tomorrow for Professor Peach?" The smile that Baiken had completely faded away knowing she hadn't written a damn word for that essay. "Aw come on Anji, maybe she'll buy the one arm excuse?"
"Baiken, you have used that excuse multiple times since we came to Beacon and it never works. I will not have you get a failing grade because you are lazy. We are going to write it together so let's go." Anji stood up and Baiken groaned and reluctantly followed Anji back to the dorm rooms.
"Well I guess Baiken is out of the equation then, so Aria what's it gonna be then? Work or vacation?"
"Vacation obviously!"
"Good choice. Now how does driving to wherever the road takes us sound?" Sol asked with Aria nodding in agreement as they both ran to take advantage of their last day off.
Getting on Sol's bike the two left the parking garage and rode off to wherever the road took them as they took the nearest highway and enjoyed the last bit of freedom they had together before they were supposed to go back to classes. I-no went back to the ADMA dorm room as she could already hear screaming from the next door over with Baiken and Anji arguing about something stupid. I-no opened the door to find no one in the ADMA dorm room, she wasn't in the mood to talk anyway. The world has been getting a lot more gray in her eyes, Beacon has been getting dull and killing grimm just wasn't all it was cut out to be. In Glynda's class everytime she is called up to fight she'd always half ass it and end the fight in a minute or just give up after said minute. It was almost like she was losing the feeling of pleasure, things that used to excite her feel dull, looking out the window all she can see is the gray dullness of the world. Her teammates are now keeping their parts of the rooms clean thanks to Dizzy but I-no was still a mess as she didn't care enough to clean despite protest from the others what was the point.
She didn't even notice time passing as she stared at the ceiling contemplating her place in the universe. Is she even real? Why is she here? What's her purpose in the world? Does she even care enough to see the future? She looked over to her clock and it was already 4:30, might as well go find out what that dream of hers was trying to tell her. "Emerald Forest, relics, 5:45pm." She grabbed her guitar Marline and her witch hat and made her way to the Emerald Forest. Normally she would use her semblance with her guitar to speed up her journey but she just wasn't in the mood for it.
It was surprising that she didn't hear the sounds of a single grimm, much less find one on her way over to her destination. Guessing by the message her dreams told her that she was supposed to head towards the location where ADMA and FKAB acquired their relics. She arrived at the relic location at 5:40 leaving her to wait for 5 minutes for fate to tell her if she was losing it or not, the relic location seemed to be more broken down than the last time she came here. She stared at her scroll watching the clock tick down, 5:41, 5:42, 5:43, 5:44, that last minute felt like a lifetime pass by and it's almost as if time itself stopped then the clock hit 5:45 PM she looked around to find nothing, she waited a bit and still nothing, she looked at her scroll some more until it hit 5:46 and still nothing. "I should have known, of course there would be nothing here, it was just a dream after all, I'm just crazy enough to believe anything." She told herself, getting up to go back home.
But just then she heard a voice behind her, the same voice from her dream "Y'know this world is a broad, colorful carpet."
I-no turned around with her guitar out as she was startled by the man who simply just looked at her with a smile. His skin was light cerulean blue, his hair blonde and unkempt with two horns poking out, a black halo over his head, orange accents around his body with a black leaking heart tattooed along his chest with yellow teeth, orange glasses with lenses in the shape of X's. He wore normal black pants that had two gun holsters by his waist. I-no didn't even believe he was there at first until he started to keep talking.
The man ignored her question and started to talk "But if you pull a single thread from beneath your feet and start to unravel it, you realize, in the end, that the carpet's just made of one long thread. That thread's name is necessity. Everything is connected. One may witness an unfathomable sight and call it a miracle, but that's a misnomer. It's all cause and effect. And you should never mistake necessity for fate. Humans have the freedom of choice, but it seems you know that already." The man told I-no as they were both silent for a minute with neither taking any action as the man grew a disappointed look and started to stretch "What no questions?"
"I have several, such as what are you, who are you, and why did you want me to come here?" I-no asked the man as she was ready to bash him with her guitar.
"You smell that? Dust and plants everywhere." The man spread his arms and took in the world while completely ignoring I-no's questions.
"Answer the damn questions weirdo."
"Geez, such a rush for answers. You try being locked in a windowless room for 100 years. You see all those questions aren't really the easiest to answer but I can answer the last one, you lack necessity and purpose, you live in a dull gray world. Now some might call this depression but I can tell ya that you aren't gonna fix this problem with some therapy. You I-no were an accident, you weren't even brought into this world until a couple of months ago."
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"I remember you saying something about parents who love booze more than you to that blond guy, mind telling me those parent's names."
"My parents' names were…" I-no was drawing blank, she couldn't remember their names and she couldn't even remember her home, her past was here but it was all blurry with people she thought she used to know not even being there at all. It was almost as if all of her memories before joining Beacon was all fabricated.
"Setting in huh? The pictures in your head turned out to be blank, that none of it was real. You are a creature with no purpose in this world, no future, as if you were a glitch in the system. But as the saying goes, when life gives you lemons you make lemonade, cheesy I know but instead of making you a glass of lemonade-" The man walked up to I-no and stared at her directly into her eyes. "We'll be making you into god. How's that for a dull future?" The man told I-no who didn't seem too impressed, some part of her didn't believe him.
"Alright, say I can become a god then… What reason do you have to help me? Why don't you just go make yourself into a god since you know how to become one?" I-no asked him.
The man laughed a little then gave her an answer "You see I'm not looking to be the protagonist here, I'm not here looking for wealth, fame, or power. I'm here for the drama, I want to make a story that will keep kids up in history class. I want to make a play but using real people as the actors, what you decide with your power is up to you because I don't desire anything but pure entertainment. So in order to write this story I need a protagonist, now I could have used that Frederick guy or even that Axl fellow but you my friend are a blank canvas for which I can paint. So make your decision, say yes and we'll make you a god, or say no and I'll go away back to my windowless room and I won't bother you again but I don't think you'll enjoy the dull future that the world has in store for you, so what's it gonna be?" The man held out his hand for I-no to shake so they could seal the deal with I-no hesitating, can she even trust this man? Godhood does sound tempting and there's no signs to say that he's lying either? She doesn't want to be in this dull world anymore, she just can't.
I-no shook the man's hand as his smile grew ever bigger "I knew you couldn't resist, from today onwards your life will no longer be an anomaly but instead a new chapter in history. But this plan won't be a short one I'll have you know, it will be one of twists and betrayal so get ready to play the part of a triple agent. Now let's do something about that power of yours, ever heard of magic?"
"That term for made up fantasy bullshit? Obviously."
"Except it's all true. How do you think this world came to be, how do you think my student got a position at Beacon's Headmaster? How do you think That Man became the most infamous criminal in history? They had the world's best teacher to teach them. I'll teach you the ropes of magic I-no but it's not something which enough training can unlock, so here comes the first test." The man appeared in front of her grabbing her face and simultaneously freezing her body as he opened her mouth and a black ball appeared in his hands. I-no felt fear for the first time here as she wasn't able to resist or anything as the man told her "Open wide goddess." The man joked before dropping the ball into her mouth and all she could do was swallow it, the taste was foul tasting of licorice and milk which made her want to throw up but thankfully the ball went down. The man let her go as she coughed from the awful taste staying in her mouth and almost did throw up but she kept it in "Had your fun yet you psycho? What was that even supposed to do to me?"
"Unlock your magic seal, now side effects may include, nausea, throwing up, stomachaches, and excruciating pain starting in 3…2…1" Chaos snapped his fingers as I-no's entire body began feel as if it were trying to rip itself apart on the inside with her quickly falling to the floor as she yelled in pain she had never felt this much pain in her life and the man smiled watching her like a science experiment. Then what felt like an eternity of suffering turned into resistance, the pain was fading away but her body felt brand new. She got up and could feel the entire world around her as if she was awakened to a new state of mind, the green grass growing beneath her feet, the air flowing through her hair, the stares of the creatures of Grimm.
She looked to her left to find a deathstalker having found her and the man as they both looked at the deathstalker together. "Congrats on surviving the first test, your reward is taking your new body out for a test drive, now give our little test subject here a little whack why don't you." I-no grew a giant smile on her face and dashed up to the deathstalker and hit the giant scorpion as hard as she could. The death stalker was hit so hard it shattered the ground underneath them as the grim cried out in pain and quickly faded away, what once needed four people to take down was finished by I-no in a single blow and for once in her life she could feel her muscles start to burn. Was she enjoying herself? Was this the happiness she was looking for? Was this the thrill she always wanted?
"Looks like it worked, now enough playing around let's get to business." The man summoned a fancy convertible from mid air, one that I-no has never seen before. The man spoke to I-no and said "Happy Chaos."
"Happy?"
"Pretty sweet name if I do say so myself, rolls of the tongue doesn't it." Both he and I-no stepped into the car with him at the driver's seat.
"Remember this feeling I-no because after we're done, who knows if you'll be able to feel at all." Happy Chaos stepped on the gas and they drove off to whatever Chaos intends for them to go.
