Main theme: Enemy by Imagine Dragons and J.I.D
Theme: Happy Birthday by Myuu

Blake Belladonna was happy.

She strolled through the pristine streets of Vale, looking up to the clear sky above with a slight smile across her face. The slight show of emotion made her blush. She wasn't used to, what was in her standards, a monuments display of emotions, but she couldn't help it.

It was her birthday.

The ears underneath her bow twitched, and she resisted the urge to scratch them. If she did, she might drop the books that she'd been gifted to her from her classmates. She smiled again. Kind people, they all were. Nice people. She would hate to leave them.

But she was going to.

She had been surprised when she discovered that she was the only one in her class in Compass Academy to be going to Beacon. They had all decided to go to places like Atlas and Haven and Shade, but she was the only one to want to go to Beacon.

It was sad. She was going to miss them, and when they had split up following their last day of school (today, on the same day as her birthday), and when they had traded gifts and sad farewells with each other, she had made sure to hug every one of her former classmates before they all departed from each other and went away on their own unique journeys.

It was sad, but at the same time, it didn't really change her mood.

Blake Belladonna was happy.

She blushed. She wasn't used to such displays of emotion. It felt... embarrassing to do so. Silly, in fact. She wasn't used to being so open about herself, and she doubted that she ever would.

But maybe that would change in the future. Beacon Academy was a whole new world, one with whole new opportunities as well. Maybe there things would be different. Maybe then she'd feel less adverse to expressing herself more.

Maybe there she'd feel more comfortable with revealing her heritage, and the ears atop her head.

Her cat-like ears twitched under her bow once more. She had never felt comfortable revealing herself as a Faunus to anyone outside of her family. The only reason that her classmates knew was because she had accidently walked out of the changing rooms without her bow once, and though they had been supportive of her and had no negative feelings towards her heritage, that didn't mean that others wouldn't feel the same.

So, for now, she kept the bow atop her head, covering her secret like prisoners within a prison. Maybe one day, she'll find the courage within her to take the bow off. Maybe one day, she'll find the will to expose her hidden traits to the world. Maybe one day she'll walk out into the middle of the Valerian marketplace, take off her bow, and just see how the people around her react, if they even react at all.

Maybe... but not today.

Today was her birthday, and Blake Belladonna was happy.

She reached her family home and put her books down onto the porch, reaching for the key in her pocket to unlock the door with. Earlier that day, her parents, Noire and Sombre Belladonna (a Human and Faunus respectively) had promised that there was a surprise for her when she got back home. She didn't know what that surprise was, but that was, of course, the point of a surprise, wasn't it? All she could do was smile to herself and-

Wait.

The door was unlocked.

The door was open.

She pushed the door open and picked up her books from the ground, "Mum?" she called out into the seemingly empty home, "Dad?"

No response. She smiled to herself. They were probably waiting inside with the surprise. Strange of them to lead the door open and unlocked, though.

She walked down the short adjoining hallway and into the living room. Empty as well. Were they upstairs? The light to the kitchen in the opposite room was on, shining through the open doorframe and into the living room. The smell of baking filled her nostrils. It was sweet, yet smelt unfinished.

"Mum? Dad? Où es-tu?" she spoke in Old Valerian, knowing that her parents understood it. She stepped toward the opened doorway to the kitchen, "What are you-"

Someone grabbed her from behind.

"Mu-"

A knife embedded itself into her throat.

Blake let out a muffled scream as a hand covered her mouth, blood gushing from her neck. A scuffle followed between her and her attacker, and she found herself falling to the ground, onto the books that she had dropped, slamming heart on the ground as she found herself looking into the opened doorway to the kitchen and-

There were her parents, her mother and father, lying dead on the ground, covered in spilt cake batter and draining blood from their throats onto the tiled floor beneath them. Their eyes were wide open, their mouths shocked screams.

Blake couldn't even scream as blood flooded into her mouth, clogging her mangled airways. She tried to push her aura into her neck to seal the wound, but her attacker stabbed her in the back, drawing another gurgled scream from her as she was flipped over onto her back and-

She stared at herself.

Her attacker was herself, a woman who looked exactly like her, clothes and hair and all, even down to the face and the eyes. The only difference that there was between them was the cold look in her amber eyes, uninterested in the still warm body beneath her.

Her doppelganger didn't even speak as she brought the knife-

{STAB}

"MMMGH!"

-Back down into Blake's throat, twisting it around and opening the wound, all the while pressing her hand against Blake's mouth to silence her screams.

Blake wriggled and writhed under her would-be murderer, trying at first to reach for anything to use against her attacker and finding no purchase, not even on her Gambol Shroud weapons, before panicking at the face of death at her own hands and scratching at the hands holding her down and killing her, only to find that her killer had her aura up, and so no marks on her skin was made.

Blake was panicking. Crying. Tears were streaking down her face and onto the ground as blood drained from her throat and mouth. Survival instincts took over as she continued to try and scratch and claw at the hands holding her down and pressing the knife into her throat and-

Her doppelganger twisted the blade, and Blake felt the last whisps of life leave her body.

Her limbs went limp and still.

One last mangled breath escaped her form.

And the last thought that she had before she died was:

But... it's my birthday.

Blake Belladonna was sad.

(Kira Oscura was dead.)

Blake Belladonna was dead.

(Blake Belladonna was born.)

Reviewer response time:

ReDestrobo: I remember Henceforward! I used to read that quite a bit, but left near the end of it when the English translations got a bit too much for me. Great artwork, terrible translation.

bosterflaming: Hey, if you're going to leave, then you might as well leave with a bang. At least, that seems to be Blake's philosophy.

Baneis: Aw, thanks a lot for the kind words! I don't regard the Initiation Massacre arc as well as I used to when compared with the Atlas arc, so it's nice that you think that way about it! And someone on A03 did ask if they could make an animation about Ascendancy, but I haven't heard from them since. Still waiting on a TV Tropes page though. Hopefully one day...

MilitiaMasker: Perfidious is a word that I know now! And wow, that's a lot more of a reaction than I was expecting, so I'm glad that I got that reaction from you!