Volume 6, Part 1
Blackness. That's all she saw. One minute, she was riding Cinder Fall to the bottom of an abyss, then the next she was unconscious. Great, she was falling to her death and couldn't even wake herself up to be conscious for it.
Something was... different this time. She was falling in her dream, too. If it wasn't for the random flashes of bright light and smoky haze that she was falling through, she'd think she was still awake.
Bolts of red, purple, and blue lightning erupted around her as she tumbled through the darkness, turning end over end while she flailed her arms and legs like a madwoman. An invisible force knocked her aside, then another one from a different direction threw her several dozen feet in the opposite direction.
She screamed, completely lost on what the hell was happening to her. This was unlike any other dream she'd had before, and she didn't know what caused it. A small part of her suspected that maybe it was because she'd transformed again. Kassandra had told her that using it somehow helped her. At least, that was the one thing she could come up with to explain why she was falling through an abyss inside of her own head.
A blue glow washed over her and she looked towards it. Her eyes widened at what she saw, a chill running down her spine like she'd been splashed with cold water. In the distance, there was an enormous ball of azure flame. It looked identical to the one she'd seen before, only, y'know, bigger. And now, she saw tendrils of red aura encircling it like chains.
The red aura was nowhere to be seen. That kind of worried her. There was no way it just disappeared, so where was it?
Then she realized. The red chains of aura around the blue flame seemed to move, slowly tightening around the aura that represented Kassandra. She couldn't let that happen. If that presence somehow cut off Kassandra, she'd lose her only access to her past. And who knows what it would be able to do to her if Kassandra was out of the picture?
Sera willed herself to stop her freefall and float in the air, as if there was no gravity. She tried to make herself move and floated towards the blue flame as if fired from a cannon.
Kassandra's aura grew larger and larger the closer she got to it until an enormous ball of azure flames raged in front of her. There was no heat, like a normal fire, but instead a sort of warm glow that washed over her and made her feel... content. Like she was seeing an old friend for the first time in years.
She narrowed her eyes at the red tendrils of aura encircling the blue flames and grabbed one, trying to yank it away. Searing pain lanced through her palms and up her arms, and she cried out before letting go.
"What the hell...?" she muttered, glaring at the red aura while trying to soothe her hands.
A deep, rumbling laughter shook her dreamscape, and she frowned. Sera knew that laugh. It's been haunting her dreams for months.
Salem.
"Get out of my head!" she screamed, then grabbed the red aura again, powering through the pain to yank it as hard as she could. Intense, stinging bolts of searing electricity raced up her arms and made her cry out. She didn't know something could shock and burn her at the same time, but she didn't like it.
"Give up already," Salem's voice reverberated through the darkness. "You've lost, Kassandra."
Sera clenched her jaw and pulled as hard as she could. The red aura in her hands seemed to fight against her, pulling away from her just as hard as she was yanking at it. The energy lancing into her made her entire body lock up and ignited her nerves with pure agony, but she refused to let go. She was in the most dangerous fight of her life, and she wouldn't give up now. If she did, she might as well as just let Cinder kill her.
The aura wasn't budging, and she could feel herself fading away. If she kept hold of it, she'd lose consciousness. How that worked in her own head, she had no fucking clue, but she couldn't risk it.
In a final desperate attempt, she squeezed her eyes shut and reached inside herself, searching for the power she'd used against Cinder. When she found it, she dug into it and let its energy course through her like a raging river.
Sera clenched her jaw tightly and pulled harder on the red aura. Slowly, from the tips of her fingers, she could see her skin turning pale and spreading up her arms. The pain in her hands dulled slightly, and she clenched the tendril of aura tighter.
The air shifted, as if Salem was realizing what she was doing.
"My name is..." she grunted with exertion, feeling her eyes shift from violet to crimson. "SERA!" she screamed and yanked as hard as she could. The aura in her hands gave away with a loud, ear-piercing RIIIIP.
Sera laughed with relief, then grabbed another tendril, ripping it away with much more ease than the first. Then another, and another, and Kassandra's aura seemed to glow a bit brighter with each red chain ripped away.
"No," Salem muttered. "Stop this!"
"Fuck you!" Sera screamed into the darkness as she pulled away another of the strange vines. Her voice reverberated through the abyss even more loudly than Salem's screams of outrage.
The rest of the red aura flickered dimly, as if losing some of its former energy. Sera was a machine, moving from vine to vine and yanking them away with every ounce of strength she could muster.
Sera smiled. She couldn't help it. Salem was losing her mind that she could resist her so easily, and it made her genuinely happy. She laughed as she kept pulling more and more tendrils of aura away from the azure flames.
Finally, she saw the last one wrapped snugly around the center of Kassandra's aura. Sera smiled broadly and grabbed it with both hands, bracing her feet against the (somehow solid) blue flames and yanking as hard as she could. When the red vine ripped away, she went with it, floating backwards for a few yards before halting in the air.
"You're going to regret this. I was going to have you returned to me, but now, your demise is all but certain," Salem promised, her voice dripping with venom.
"Eat a dick, you crazy witch!" Sera cackled. Very mature, she thought. "You're just an evil, spiteful, wicked lady and you don't have shit on me! This is all me, baby! Take your best shot, because there's not a thing you can do to me now!"
At least, she hoped.
Pure, seething anger washed over her like a tidal wave. Salem screamed angrily, voicing her displeasure for Sera managing to subdue her dark side. Behind her, the red aura she'd discarded came together and formed its usual red pillar of flame. Only now, it looked a bit smaller than the last time she'd seen it.
Sera folded her arms behind her head and gazed at Kassandra's aura, blazing with blue fire like she too was celebrating their triumph over Salem. She smiled, just soaking in all the hatred that Salem was sending her way.
She glanced over at the aura of the "person" Salem had allegedly implanted in her head. Its flames flickered weakly, despite now being a towering pillar of fiery aura.
"So," Sera said, returning her eyes to the ball of blue fire in front of her. "What now, Kassandra?"
The surface of her flames seemed to dance invitingly, and Sera stiffened. She approached the aura cautiously, unsure of what Kassandra was trying to tell her.
On a whim, she raised her hand, and a narrow column of the azure aura reached out to meet her. Sera gulped and pressed her palm against it. The blue fire was... soft, and warm. She didn't think it would burn her, but still, you could never know with weird blue aura.
Immediately, the aura ran up her hand and flickered along her skin. She tried to pull her arm back, but it wouldn't budge. Her palm was stuck to Kassandra's aura like cement.
Blue fire enveloped her entire body, seeping into her skin until it reached her very center. Admittedly, Sera panicked a little. She didn't know what was happening, and it scared her. If you suddenly got enveloped in fire, how would you feel?
All she could do was stare at the flames dancing along her skin, but thankfully, it still didn't hurt. If anything, it was... warm. Like a hug, but all over her.
Then the fire went over her eyes, then into them, and she screamed.
. . .
Sera sat bolt upright and brought her hands to her chest, checking all over herself as if to put out the blue fire. When she realized there was no flames, and she was no longer in the dark abyss of her dreamscape, she exhaled heavily and fell back onto something soft.
She felt beneath her, quirking an eyebrow. She was in a bed, covered with a warm blanket. Last time she checked, she'd been falling to her death under the Vault in Haven. So... where the hell was she?
The room was unfamiliar to her. It definitely wasn't her room in Mistral, so that meant her friends hadn't miraculously saved her.
Sera looked around. There were overlapping rugs of all different shades and patterns covering the floor by the queen-sized bed she laid in. The walls didn't look right. After a moment, she realized she was in some sort of enormous tent. A doorway at the other end of the room had no door, but instead a long piece of cloth hanging from the top like a curtain.
A narrow bookshelf rested against the wall beside a tall wardrobe, and long wooden chest sat on the floor at the foot of the bed. A square hole in the wall worked as a window, allowing sunlight to wash over the bed. Outside, she saw green grass and a wall made of vertical logs with sharpened points, with tall trees on the other side of the "fence."
Okay, she had no clue where she was. None of this was familiar to her. For a twisted second, she was afraid that she was in one of Kassandra's memories. Her surroundings fit with the little of Kassandra's past she'd seen. She was even wearing different clothes than she had been before. A white T-shirt and blue pajama pants under the blanket covering her legs. But then she saw Jupiter sitting in the corner, and that erased her theory.
The memories of her fight against Cinder and Raven all came back to her at once. She remembered seeing Weiss and Blake just before she'd sent herself and Cinder into the abyss. That couldn't be right, though. She must've been seeing things, because why the hell would Blake be there?
Then there was the whole incident that happened in her head. She'd freed Kassandra and stood up to Salem, then all she could see was blue fire.
Sera pressed her hands to her face, shielding her eyes from the sunlight. "I'm losing my mind..."
The sound of footsteps approaching didn't register to her until a new voice spoke. "Let's hope not. I didn't go through the trouble of saving you just for you to be crazy."
Sera froze. She knew that voice. Slowly, she lowered her hands and sat up. Standing at the foot of the bed with her arms crossed was Raven Branwen. The woman smirked lightly, regarding her with a cold gaze. Her posture was relaxed, so she must not have thought Sera was in the condition to rip her hair out like she wanted to.
"You," Sera said, her eyes narrowing.
"Me," she confirmed. "A 'thank you' would go a long way for you right now."
"What am I doing here?" she spat.
Raven smirked. "Isn't it obvious? I saved you, girl. You were on a one-way ticket to the bottom of a pit, and I pulled you out of it."
Sera tightened her jaw, staring at her with her best "I would like to kill you" look.
"Why?"
"Who knows? Maybe I was feeling a little merciful. Perhaps I didn't think you needed to die," she walked to the side of the room, looking out the window. Sera wasn't sure what she was looking at since there was nothing there but a wall.
She didn't know what to say. The last thing she expected was to be rescued by Raven Branwen, the woman who abandoned her family and responsibilities to lead a group of criminals.
Sera stared into her lap, hoping that the blanket would give her answers. Finally, she asked, "Where are we?"
"In my camp," Raven responded simply.
"No shit," Sera exhaled. "Where?"
"Not far from Mistral," she looked over at her.
Sera shifted. "And you won't let me leave?"
"You can try. I doubt you'll get far in that condition," she shrugged.
"I feel fine," she said.
"Yeah? Stand up," Raven raised her eyebrows.
She rolled her eyes and threw the blanket off of herself, then swung her legs over the edge of the bed. As soon as her feet hit the floor, a wave of nausea hit her like an airship and her vision darkened. Before she could lose her balance, she sat on the bed again and steadied herself until the dizziness faded.
"Told you," Raven snickered.
"Shut up," she grumbled. "What do you want with me? I know you're smart enough to not do something like save me unless you had an ulterior motive."
The bandit leader shrugged and went over to pick up Jupiter from where it sat. Sera tensed, her blood boiling at the sight of her touching her beloved guitar. When Raven saw Sera clenching her blanket, she smiled.
"I thought I'd offer you a choice," Raven said, running her fingertips along Jupiter's strings. "I lost someone important to me in Mistral. Join me, and you can take her place."
Sera scowled. "As if I'd-"
"Keep trying to fight Salem with Ozpin? That's a pipedream. You can't beat Salem. That's why I left. It's hopeless. Better to survive on your own instead of trying to do the impossible and ultimately fail, just like everyone else."
"Everyone else?" she asked, raising an eyebrow worriedly.
Raven laughed.
That ticked her off a little.
"Do you think this is the first time Ozpin's tried to beat Salem? Hardly. Plenty of people have tried, and they either end up dead or at her side."
Sera blinked. "Were you trying to rhyme that or...?"
She frowned and set Jupiter down hard enough to make the strings thrum dully.
"Hey! Watch the guitar!" she seethed.
Raven sighed and stared at her with hard eyes. "Look, kid. You can either stick with me and live, or chase after Ozpin and die. Your choice."
Sera clenched her jaw. "I'm not a coward. Unlike you, I don't turn my back on family."
Raven laughed again. Sera clenched her fists tighter.
"They're not your family. But this," she gestured around her. "Could be."
"Yes, they are," she said firmly.
The bandit's lip curled. "Fine. Leave if you want to so badly. You'll only be going to your death if you follow Ozpin."
She didn't respond. Sera just held Raven's gaze unwaveringly. Before she could even think of something to say, the woman turned and headed for the door.
"Think on it," she said before stepping out. "You have one day."
Then she was gone, and Sera was left alone in the bedroom. She was worried about how she was going to get back to Mistral if she could hardly even walk. And she was worried about who the hell put her in the clothes she was wearing.
The huntress sighed and tried to stand again. Just like before, she immediately got lightheaded. But instead of sitting down, she tightened her jaw and leaned onto the wall for support.
The fight against Cinder wasn't that bad. Not bad enough to leave her in a state like this, anyway. She got banged up a little, but that was a given. So, what the hell was wrong with her?
Sera groaned as she struggled to walk. Every step made her feel like she was walking from Patch to Mistral all over again.
"Come on," she muttered irritably, taking another shaky step. "You're a huntress. You've stared down death before breakfast. You can walk ten feet."
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she made it to the corner of the room. She pressed her back to the wall and slid down beside Jupiter, taking the guitar into her hands. Sera exhaled and hugged it to her chest. Her weapon was the only thing here that she knew was real.
She slid her fingers across its smooth neck and smiled lightly. Her sword was presumably still in Mistral, and Cinder melted her shotgun, so Jupiter was all she was left with. Except for-
Sera sat up straight and searched the room. Where the hell was Pyrrha's shield?
"Raven!" she shouted, struggling to get to her feet. She planted Jupiter against the floor as she walked, using it as a cane to leave the bedroom. "Raven, the fuck did you go?!"
Sera made her way through the enormous tent, ignoring its rather impressive furnishing until she found the exit. She stepped out into the sunlight and searched the camp for any sign of Raven. It took every ounce of her will power to not fall over, but Jupiter helped her stay upright.
A crowd of people of every shape, size, and color turned to look at her as she stumbled through the campsite. Some of them were hard at work setting up defenses and adding onto the wall of sharpened logs. Others were carrying boxes of supplies or lounging around. But when she stepped out looking like she was ready to tear anyone that came close to her apart, they stopped what they were doing and reached for their weapons.
Sera ignored them and turned in circles, still looking for Raven. "Branwen!"
From around a tree, Raven appeared out of nowhere and walked right up to her with a smug look on her face. "Well. Look who's on their feet."
She turned towards the bandit leader, leaning on her guitar for support while trying to look as threatening as possible. A few of Raven's "family" members came to see what the commotion was and surrounded her in a twenty-foot radius.
"Where's my shield?" she said firmly.
Raven smiled and reached into her kimono top, producing a golden bracelet with an Omega symbol on the front. Sera narrowed her eyes at her at the sight of it.
"This old thing? I thought it'd work as payment for taking such good care of you. Seeing as how I took you out of that mountain and delivered you here, and all," Raven slid her finger across the bracelet's polished surface.
Sera's blood boiled. There was no way Raven was keeping Pyrrha's shield. It was the only thing she had to remember her friend by, apart from the memories themselves. And she'd be damned if it was taken from her by the woman that tore apart her other friend's life by being a terrible mother.
She held her hand out expectantly. "Hand it over, Raven."
"Or what?" she asked.
Sera smirked lightly, already reaching for the energy that laid dormant inside of her. She watched her fingertips turn pale and spread up her arms until her eyes morphed from purple to red, and her sclera from white to black. Black veins webbed across the backs of her hands, arms, and the sides of her face. Upon feeling the familiar energy course through her, she smiled.
"Or you're going to lose another family because of your own stupid decisions," she stated, lifting Jupiter to rest it on her shoulder.
Raven's smile melted in an instant. She glanced at her tribe and flicked her eyes towards Sera. One of them, a big guy wearing a tan vest and his bare chest on full display, clamped a hand to Sera's shoulder. Immediately, the huntress grabbed his wrist and flipped it, pinning his arm behind his back before kicking him away. Honestly, she was surprised she even could after what it took just to walk outside, but fortunately, her transformation seemed to rejuvenize her. And she was able to just change with little to no effort.
Sera was improving, getting even stronger. And she couldn't wait to see the looks on her friends' faces when she busts it out at the most random time. She could already envision the look on Weiss's face.
Unfortunately, in the present, she was getting surrounded by a bunch of dirty, smelly bandits that intended to stomp her into the dirt. She turned her eyes to Raven and held her hand out again.
"Last chance," she warned.
Raven stared at her, palming the golden bracelet. "Make me."
Sera brandished her guitar and flashed a smile. "I was kinda hoping you'd say that."
She swung Jupiter into the nearest bandit and sent her flying into a tent.
'Huh. No aura...' she thought to herself as the bandit picked herself off the ground, groaning and holding her chest where Jupiter had hit.
The others all rushed her, and she jumped ten feet into the air. She did a quick head count in midair, surprised that she was even able to. When she hit the apex of her jump, everything seemed to slow down around her.
Her semblance.
How was she doing it?
Back to the matter at hand, she counted seven men and five women, each one looking more pissed off than the last.
Sera cranked up the knobs on her guitar placed her fingertips on Jupiter's neck, smirking confidently as she brought her free hand down to play a deafening power chord that made the bandits clutch their ears. Raven scowled, but otherwise remained unbothered.
On her descent, she brought Jupiter down onto another bandit's head, just hard enough to knock him to the ground. He stayed there, unconscious from her blow.
'No aura, either,' she noted. She could only assume that none of them except Raven was trained to use aura. No wonder the Branwen tribe had such a shitty setup.
Another bandit rushed her and she ducked under her machete. The weapon was rusty and looked like it was falling apart, but it was still a blade. Sera grabbed her wrist and threw her into another goon, sending them both to the ground. She slammed Jupiter into the gut of a tall guy with a mohawk and made him double over.
Two more came at her at the same time and she ducked into a crouch. To her amusement, instead of punching her, the two of them punched each other in the face. She laughed and spun, sweeping the legs out from under one of them before grabbing the other by the hair and bringing her knee into his face.
She felt good. It was like she hadn't even been in a near-crippled state to begin with. Sera didn't know why she'd had so much trouble walking before, but transforming cured that pretty quickly. Maybe all she needed was a little boost.
The bandits that remained looked nervous to approach her, especially when she was all pale and scary-looking. So, she went to them. Sera swung Jupiter into one and simultaneously kicked another, twisting in midair to land on her feet. When she looked at the last of them, they backed away like she'd drawn a gun.
"Come on, you're supposed to be big scary bandits," she scoffed.
They glanced to their leader, and Raven shrugged with indifference. Even Sera was able to decipher the hidden message in the gesture: "Get it together, or you're gone."
Steeling themselves, they raised their fists and approached her cautiously. And one by one, she took them down as easily as she would some of Junior's goons. Now, she stood in a circle of unconscious and/or groaning bandits on the ground.
Sera rested Jupiter on her shoulder and turned to Raven, willing her crimson eyes to glow a little brighter. She smiled lightly and took a step towards the bandit leader, planning to give her the same treatment. It didn't matter if she was the Spring Maiden and almost definitely more powerful than Cinder. She was pissed.
Then Raven raised Sera's bracelet aloft, and she froze. Raven tossed it to her, and Sera caught it reflexively.
The bandit leader smirked. "Welcome to the Branwen Tribe."
Sera stared at her as she turned and strolled towards her tent, leaving her underlings in the dirt.
"What the hell does that mean?" Sera demanded as she slipped the bracelet over her wrist, then followed her into the tent. She willed her transformation to fade until her skin was its normal shade. It surprised her that her previous soreness hadn't returned, but she didn't complain.
Raven went to what Sera assumed was a sort of kitchen and took a narrow vase-like container off of a shelf. She poured two cups of mystery liquid and held one out to Sera rather casually, as if she hadn't just beaten down a dozen of her tribemates.
"You passed," she said simply.
"Passed? Passed what?" Sera demanded.
"The test," Raven smirked.
She stared at the Spring Maiden, unsure of what to think about what she'd just said. "Beating up a bunch of losers with rusty knives was a test?"
Raven shrugged and took a sip from her cup. "Have to earn your place somehow. Usually, that's how it goes. Either take a beating or give one out, and you're in."
"I don't want to be in!" she complained. "I want to see my friends again!"
"You haven't touched your drink," Raven noted, and Sera glanced at the cup. She threw it aside and glared at her. Raven sighed, "That stuff's hard to come by."
"What, some kind of alcohol?" she guessed.
"Clean water," she replied.
Sera stiffened. "That's your problem. You're the one who decided to run off with a bunch of thieves and murderers."
Raven set her cup down and rested her hand on the hilt of her katana. "I'm not here to be lectured by a child. You needed help, so I gave you help. I offer you a place within my tribe, and you throw it in my face. That doesn't sound like gratitude to me."
"Gratitude," she scoffed. "The last thing I want is to be grateful to you. And why couldn't you just, oh, I don't know... take me back to Mistral?!"
"To see if you were as smart as I hoped you were. Clearly, I was wrong," she spat. "I told you—pursuing Salem is a fool's game."
Sera tightened her fists. "I don't care. That woman took everything from me, and I'm not giving up until I show her how big of a mistake that was."
"And what did she take from you?" Raven crossed her arms. "Let me guess. You're still upset about Beacon. Get over it. That place was a pile, anyway."
She tensed, fists clenching even tighter at her sides. "My friends. And my home. And my memory."
The Spring Maiden faltered, a look of confusion flashing across her face. "That's right. You're the amnesia girl. Cinder mentioned that."
"Was that before or after you decided to attack an innocent city?"
Raven sighed. "Before. The only reason I did that, was to avoid having a target placed on my back if I refused. To protect my family."
"By trying to kill your brother, daughter, and niece. Nice job, Super Mom," she spat. "Then you attacked Cinder anyway, so there was really no point in even helping to begin with. And you know, Yang looked for you everywhere. Do you even care?"
She didn't respond.
Sera scoffed, exhaling a brief laugh. "Figures. Gods, what am I even doing here?"
Raven shifted like she wanted to say something, but she kept her mouth shut. Good. Sera didn't want to hear whatever bullshit excuse she had for her actions.
"How about this?" Raven said, her tone even and controlled. "You tell me your story, and I'll give you what you need to make it back to my brother. It's either that, or I kick you out and let you take your chances in the wild. Deal?"
Sera thought about it for a good minute. Part of her wanted to tell Raven to piss off and leave, but from what she saw outside, Mistral wasn't close. The mountain range looked about a day's walk away, and she didn't feel like roughing it for that long. With supplies, she'd be far better off.
She clenched and unclenched her jaw thoughtfully, then sighed. "Fine. Deal."
"Good," Raven nodded and gestured to a low table nearby. What was with this continent and not having chairs?
When she sat on the cushion and crossed her legs, Raven sat another cup in front of her.
"Hungry?" the bandit asked.
In response, Sera's stomach growled. Raven chuckled and went outside, presumably to find her something to eat.
Sera stared at the cup in front of her and fidgeted uncomfortably. When she looked outside, she saw that the sun was starting to lower to the horizon. Great. How long had she been asleep?
Raven returned minutes later carrying a plate of cooked meat and steaming vegetables. As soon as Sera saw the food, her stomach rolled over and begged like a dog. It was a seared chicken breast, beans, and a chunk of bread. After setting the plate and a fork down and removing her katana from her hip to set it against the wall, Raven sat on the opposite side of her and interlaced her fingers.
"Eat, then we'll talk," she said. When Sera gave her a wary glance, she rolled her eyes, picked off a small piece of chicken from her plate, then popped it into her mouth. "It's safe," she swallowed. "Eat."
And that was all she needed. Sera cleaned her plate in less than five minutes and drained the cup of water. When she was finished, she sighed contently and leaned onto the table, propping her elbows up. She didn't want to compliment a group of bandits on their cooking, but it was good.
"Finished?" Raven smirked.
She nodded and rested her chin on her interlaced fingers. "My story, huh?"
When Raven didn't say anything, she sighed and started from the top. The whole thing took nearly an hour, but Sera never stopped talking. If Raven wanted to hear about her history, she was going to give her something to remember. She mentioned everything she could think of since waking up in Forever Fall. Once she reached the part where she and the others were on their way to Haven, she figured Raven knew the rest from there.
"...My real name is Kassandra Kallisto," she finished.
Raven's eyes widened slightly. "You're lying."
Sera laughed. After talking for that long, she was fried. The last thing she expected was to be called a liar, but in Raven's defense, she did sound a little crazy for even saying such a thing.
"Why the hell would I lie about that?"
"What you're saying is impossible."
"You think I don't fucking know that?!" she yelled.
Sera forced herself to calm down and take a deep breath. Getting worked up wasn't going to solve anything, she learned that a long time ago.
"Look," she said, resisting the urge grind her teeth. "I know it sounds ridiculous. But it's true. All of it. Believe me or don't, I don't care."
Raven considered her words carefully, staring at the huntress. After a moment, she sighed. "I've heard crazier than that."
"Like what?" Sera deadpanned.
"Before I tell you... do you have any questions? This is going to take a minute," Raven sipped her water.
Without missing a beat, Sera asked, "Where's my clothes? And my scroll?"
Raven reached into her kimono and pulled out a scroll, sliding it across the table and into Sera's hand. It looked undamaged, thankfully, but it was out of battery. Great. At least she had it back, she thought.
"As for your clothes," Raven said. "You were lucky I didn't find you stripped. Your clothes were burned so badly, they were practically falling off."
She deflated. "My jacket?"
"Scorched to ash," Raven said.
Sera took a minute to process that. She's had that jacket since her first semester at Beacon. It was the one thing she always wore, and losing it felt even worse than losing the shotgun Qrow had given her. She felt like she'd been stabbed all over again.
"My sword?" she murmured.
"I gave it to your friends that came down to the Vault. I thought they'd want it since, well, you're 'dead'."
That made her feel a little better. If she lost her shotgun, jacket, and Igni, that probably would've made her depressed. But when she made it back, she'd have it again. That sword was like an extension of herself. She'd designed it, forged it, and carried it to hell and back. Sera tapped her nails against the table, chewing her lip as she grieved the death of her favorite jacket.
"How the hell did you save me?" she asked.
"That was pretty simple, actually," Raven gave a small smile. "You've seen my semblance."
"Got me blasted in the face with a fireball, yeah," she grumbled.
Raven chuckled, remembering the incident. "The way it works is that I can create a 'link' with someone and make a portal at their location. I can do it for Tai, Qrow, Yang, Vernal, and you. Got to you just before you could hit the ground."
She shifted, staring at the table. "...Thank you," she muttered.
"I'm sorry?" Raven leaned closer, holding a hand to her ear.
"Oh, piss off, you spiky-haired cartoon character-looking-"
"You're welcome," Raven cut her off before she could finish her insult.
Sera caught herself mid-sentence and leaned back. A sort of understanding passed between them. Respect? No. No way, she thought. Not this woman.
To shift the conversation, she cleared her throat. "Whose clothes are these?" she asked, pinching her white shirt.
"Vernal's," Raven said. "She won't have much use for them now, so..."
She didn't respond. Great, she was wearing the clothes of a dead woman. "No more questions."
Raven leaned onto the table. "Ozpin is much, much older than you think he is. The Relics, the Maidens, and Salem are all intricately linked to him, and the very future of Remnant."
"This oughta be good," Sera muttered under her breath. Raven flashed a sharp glare, and she rolled her eyes. "Okay. Listening."
Well, we all know how this song and dance goes. The Brothers, Ozma's death, Salem's immortality, how the Maidens were created, the Relics and their purpose for summoning the Brothers and the whole humanity united thing yada yada yada. Nothing else about Ozpin, though, really just Salem's perspective on the events.
When Raven was finished, Sera could only stare at her with wide eyes as she processed what she'd just heard. Raven held her gaze and waited for her response.
"How do you know this?" she asked, her voice reflecting how shocked she was.
Raven smirked lightly. "I've never stopped spying on Salem. It may not be under Ozpin's anymore, but collecting information is always a priority. Over the years, I've learned a lot. A while back, I was fortunate enough to eavesdrop a conversation between Salem and someone else. I don't know who, I couldn't see them. But apparently, Salem had decided to recount the events of her life. Only she wants to use the Relics to glass the planet."
Sera gulped. "Well, we can't have that." She blinked. "Wait. Then why the hell are you against fighting her? If she gets the Relics, you and your tribe are dead anyway. What's the point?"
She shifted, tapping her fingers against the knuckles of her opposite hand. "Ozpin's plan to defend the Relics is solid. Admittedly, I never should have let your friends get the one in Haven in the first place. It's in the open now, and Salem can get to it. Without me, it'd be safe inside the Vault. All I can hope is that she never finds the other Maidens to get the remaining Relics. As far as I know, Cinder was unable to get Beacon's Relic. Not surprising, though. Ozpin hid that one a bit better than the others."
"So, you're just going to sit on your ass while we're trying to stop the end of the world," Sera surmised. "Some Spring Maiden you are."
"I'm doing what's best for my tribe," she shot back. "Sending a bunch of aura-less, untrained people against the Grimm will only get them killed. My powers only draw them in, and we're lucky we've gone so long without another attack."
"Then train them," Sera said. "You were one of the strongest huntresses in Beacon, on the strongest team the school's ever seen. What's the issue?"
"It's not that easy," she sighed. "Most of them aren't even capable of using aura."
"Fine, whatever," Sera crossed her arms. "Train them, don't train them. I don't care. Not my problem."
"But, like it or not, you have paid your dues and been accepted into the tribe. Whether you leave or stay, I can now offer my help."
"What if I don't want it?" she asked.
"Too bad, kid," Raven smirked.
Sera sighed. "Gods, you fuckin' Branwens."
"Take Vernal's room again for the night. In the morning, you may leave if you wish," Raven got to her feet and walked away from the table.
Sera glanced over her shoulder. "You hope that saving me will win you some points with Yang, maybe even Qrow. Trying to make up for that little stunt in Mistral?"
Raven stopped. Without even looking at her, she said, "What would be the point? I saved you because it was the right thing to do, and letting someone die when they don't need to goes against how I was trained."
"If you say so, Raven," she chuckled quietly. When she heard footsteps recede, she exhaled and leaned onto the table, putting her face in her hands.
Her life was just a never-ending rollercoaster of constant setbacks. But she wanted to know why Raven couldn't just teleport her to her friends and be done with it.
Then something really fun happened.
A sudden, intense pressure formed at the front of her skull and made her wince. Her entire body tightened and she held her head like it was about to explode. The worst headache she'd ever experienced just appeared out of nowhere, as if she'd been struck by a hammer square on her forehead. Only it also felt like a railway spike had been shoved into her skull.
She groaned, squeezing her eyes shut as nerve-frying pain lanced through her entire skull. Sera fell on her side and clutched the sides of her head, clenching her jaw so tightly she felt like she was about to crack her teeth.
"What the fuck...!" she groaned. 'What the hell is happening to me?!' she silently screamed, just wishing the pain would stop. Being killed would be preferable to what she was experiencing.
The invisible spike in her head suddenly widened and spread through her head like a balloon inflating, and she screamed in agony. It was relentless, like a vice crushing her skull and exploding outwards at the same time. A million tiny needles jabbing into her brain all at once, each more excruciating than the last.
Someone touched her on the shoulder and she opened her eyes for long enough to see Raven kneeling beside her, a genuinely worried look on her face as she watched her writhe on the floor.
"Kid? What's wrong?" she asked, but Sera couldn't form words to speak. When she tried, a loud scream erupted from her throat and she rolled over still clutching her head.
"I don't know what to do," Raven told her. "You have to tell me what's wrong with you."
"M-Make it stop!" she screamed, the pain only intensifying when she spoke.
Raven looked from side to side worriedly and sighed. She grabbed Sera by the front of her shirt and pulled her up, and the huntress could only yell with discomfort as she was forced to move. She looked up and saw Raven holding her fist up, a nervous light in her eyes.
"Sorry, kid," she muttered, then punched Sera hard enough to knock her out cold.