Chapter Text
A man sat on his bed in a room covered in darkness. He looked out a barred window, and even obscured, distress was easy to see on his face. Then, another figure, also shrouded in darkness, appeared. They exchanged words before the new figure handed him some sort of amulet. They shared a hug, before the new figure vanished.
The man got up and placed his hand on the door for a few moments, before he pushed it open. Then he snuck out of the room and deeper into the mysterious compound he was in.
He managed to find his weapons, a cane and a sword, before he departed entirely. In the middle of the walled compound was another man, this one with a katana. The two traded words, before the first man lunged forward in an attack.
Flashes of moments came from there. The man with the katana was beaten, a giant of a man intervened and was beaten as well, but after what appeared to be a great sacrifice by the escapee, who stumbled out of the compound and collapsed onto the ground.
What followed was darkness.
/-/
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP…
A girl sat up straight, gasping for air as if she’d been drowning. She fumbled with her phone and ended the alarm before looking down at her lap, sighing heavily.
‘Another dream…’
Serina had been having these weird dreams for eight years now. Dreams of locations and people she had never seen, dreams of monsters and men, of love and loss. They had been a constant almost every night. Some, she could tell, were related to previous dreams, others were completely disconnected.
The fair-skinned girl ran a hand through her bright red, neck-length hair. Ice blue eyes blinked tiredly as they scanned the room. She was laying on a twin-sized bed with red and black sheets and a matching comforter, the bed placed in the back left corner of the room. Parallel to that was a desk with a computer system, a sketchbook, and a drawing tablet. On the opposite side to her bed was a wardrobe.
She pushed off the comforters and stretched before getting up, the off-white carpet was soft to the touch. She was wearing a large black T-shirt that hung over the rest of her figure, although she soon began to get dressed. It was Monday, the first day of the school year. She then grabbed her sketchbook from her desk and slipped it into her school bag.
Ever since the dreams started, she’d been drawing them, the images she saw, the scenes she was gifted. A normal person’s dreams were forgotten almost immediately when they woke up, but Serina never forgot these dreams. Not a single one. She felt drawing them was the best way to truly immortalize them, and she felt compelled to do it every time she woke up. Digitally if she had time, by hand if she had to go to school.
On that day, she didn’t have time. Aged seventeen, Serina was nearing the end of her high school career. She was at the start of her final year, and after it was over she would graduate and be thrust into the wide world, with the option to either go to college, join the workforce, or maybe seek out a trade school.
Her friends had tried to encourage her to become a full time artist, and while she made money with commissions online, she didn’t think she’d ever make enough money to fully live off of it. Her options were laid out clear as day, and yet…
She felt as if she was meant for… something else. She had no idea what it was, but this compelling force that tugged at her very being, likely the same force that caused the dreams, whispered to her that her destiny lay elsewhere.
She’d been having weird thoughts like that lately, and began to ask the question… were her dreams fake… or not? Were they something else? Why did they stick in her mind so clearly, even years later?
…Were they connected to her scarf?
After she slipped on her school’s uniform, a deep blue collared shirt, khaki pants, and her black running shoes, she looked in her wardrobe again. Folded up neatly inside was her scarf, the one she’d had since she was ten.
The scarf was orange primary, with loose black fabrics at either end, above the loose fabric were two icy blue crystals that, in a certain light, almost seemed to glow, in the sunlight they gleamed beautifully. A single black echelon on either side above the crystals completed its look.
It was a strange thing, a scarf that she could wear at any time of year, considering it heated her up in the cold and cooled her down in the heat. She’d had it since she was ten. One day, she had a dream, a dream so vivid that she remembered every detail. It was the first dream like that, and it was also the last time she saw her brother, Osiris.
He had died saving people in a fire at his college campus, and then one day he appeared to her and her parents, spending time with them and giving her words of encouragement. Then, he gave them each a scarf, and when the dream ended they all had them, one each, plus a fourth for her little brother, Neve, who hadn’t been born at the time.
She was certain that it was real, the scarf was all the evidence she needed. Yet, her parents seemed in total disbelief. Oh, anytime she brought it up, they’d agree with her and say they believed. Yet, she could see in their eyes that they were lying, they just couldn’t wrap their heads around what happened. Her parents had kept their scarves in their room, even if they didn’t believe they still didn’t feel right risking them getting damaged.
Yet, she wore hers every day. Once, it had gotten torn slightly, and she cried the whole night, thinking she’d damaged the last reminder of her brother that she had. Then, when she woke up the next day, it was completely repaired. As if nothing had ever happened to it. Her parents, of course, didn’t seem to believe that that had happened either.
She took the scarf and wrapped it around her neck, letting the two ends dangle on either side of her modest chest. Then she made her way to the bathroom, going through the rest of her morning routine before she stepped out, heading downstairs. She had made her lunch the previous night, just a couple sandwiches and some chips (it may be unhealthy, but high school was bad for her health anyway!), after slipping them into her black, insulated, tote-bag lunch box, she started for the door. Her friends joked about her having such an over-the-top lunch box when all she ate was sandwiches and chips, but she had her reason.
…Namely that it was the lunchbox her brother used before he died. It was one of the precious few things she had left of him.
His room hadn’t even been touched since he died, at least, nothing was moved from it. The only thing that had been done was Mom going in there routinely to dust it off, as if he could walk through the door at any moment, and the money he had been saving for a computer had been given to Serina. She hadn’t spent it yet, she was saving it for college, as it was a few thousand dollars, although she honestly didn’t want to spend that either. She knew if he knew she didn’t want to, he’d call her silly and tell her to spend it.
What could she say, though, she was nothing if not sentimental when it came to him and memories of him.
She was close enough to school to walk, which was good for her. Once upon a time she used to take the bus, but ever since she started high school, she’d made it a point to walk. Her parents were worried for her safety, but she could take care of herself. After all, she’d been taking martial arts with her friend Katie since they were young.
By the time she got to the school, she found that her friends had yet to arrive, and the courtyard where kids hung out before classes started was still somewhat barren. In the dawn like this she knew that the school would be somewhat empty until the buses arrived with their passengers.
That worked for her. She had something she wanted to write.
She found a bench, made of stone; it had apparently been there since the school was founded a century ago. She could tell by the etchings some students of decades past had made on it.
Serina didn’t focus on that though, instead she dug into her backpack while sitting down and produced a journal labeled ‘Letters to him’.
Then, she flipped to a new page, and started to write.
‘My dearly beloved brother,
I had another dream last night. This one involved a figure obscured in shadow running through a strange, war torn, place. He seemed in a hurry, and while most of my dreams are very vivid, this one was more obscured. I couldn’t tell you why, but I know that the boy in the dream encountered a beast.
A wyvern, I know for certain that it was a wyvern. I don’t know how, but my mind is telling me it is. The boy talked with someone else, a smaller figure, before he took out his weapons. Two swords, I wasn’t sure what he was going to do with them, but then he joined them together and formed them into a bow. That was when I realized that the dream was a continuation, or a reminder, of ones I’ve had before.
…I can’t really make out the timeline for it. These things happen in such disparate pieces, fragmented memories cast into the sea, that I have trouble piecing this one boy’s story together. I’ve had more coherent memories of him, sitting at a pool of water with an older man. I’ve seen him with a young girl, fighting an even larger dragon, but every time his features are obscured.
Yet, he’s always fighting for good. Always fighting to save people. He never wavers, and he never once ran away. He kept pushing forward, even as people around him fell or gave in to the suffering, he pushed on. Like a hero in the stories we would read together when we were younger. Do you remember them? We used to pretend to be the heroes in those stories, slaying dragons and saving people.
I have my doubts, sometimes, but… I wonder…
Is he you?
The boy in my dreams, there is a strange, strange familiarity to him. I used to be certain he was you, three years ago, but now I’m unsure. I feel as if I know him and don’t know him at the same time, as if he’s… very important to me. If he is you, then how are you doing all of the things you are? Why is it, after giving your life to save so many people, you still have to fight?
…Maybe that’s just in your nature. You were always my hero, and you’re my parents' hero too. I’ve seen you before in my dreams, I can’t tell if the boy is the same as you, but… I’ve seen you standing there, holding your scarf up to shield your face from the wind, as you stare into the moonlit sky.
…Maybe I’m just being silly. Maybe you really are getting the rest you deserve, but I’ve always felt something strange was going on. Ever since you visited me, all those years ago. I don’t know if you meant for this to happen, but… I’m glad it did. It means you’re always with me, even if you’re not physically here anymore.
Wherever you are, I hope you’re safe. I love you.
Forever your dearly beloved sister,
Serina.’
Just as she finished the letter and started closing it up she heard a girl’s slightly low-pitched voice, “Hey, Serina.” She looked up and saw a fair-skinned girl with red hair tied back into a ponytail with emerald green eyes with an athletic build. She stood at a tall six feet.
Serina smiled and greeted with, “Hey Katie. You didn’t oversleep this time? I’m shocked.”
Katie huffed, “Look, I overslept one time…”
“You mean once a week?”
“Maann… you’re not fair.” Katie sat next to Serina, “Writing another letter? Did you have another one of those weird dreams?”
Serina nodded, “I still need to draw the scene, but I wanted to write a letter first.” She played with the loose fabric on one of the ends of her scarf, “I’ve been getting more of them lately, and they’ve been getting… weird. Most of my dreams aren’t just silhouettes.”
Katie rubbed her chin, “I’ve known you for how long now? Since middle school, and you’ve been having these dreams this whole time. Your life is so weird, dude! You’ve got a cool magical scarf, dreams you never forget, and it all ties back…”
“To my brother.” Serina responded, digging out her sketchbook and flipping to the first picture. A boy stood staring at a shattered moon, wearing a long white cloak with a furred hood over a turtleneck and a pair of jeans. He kept the scarf pulled up to his face, just like the dream she’d described in her letter, “And the day he gave me his scarf.”
“I know I’ve said this before, but I seriously wish I met him.” Katie frowned slightly as she took in the drawing, “The way you talk about him makes him sound like a real hero, and that’s not to mention… you know.” The way he died, Serina just nodded and Katie continued, “And that’s besides the whole ‘he visited me in my dream and gave me my scarf’ thing.”
Serina closed her sketchbook, “He is a real hero. Even after all these years I think about him all the time…” She slipped her sketchbook into her bag, “I’ll be going to the same college he did, I hope. I hear they’ve got a little plaque to commemorate that day.” She opted to change the subject, “Wanna go to the Usual Place after school?”
Katie nodded, stretching as she responded, “You know it. The others should be around too. Carina doesn’t have to worry about practice for a few days and Joan’ll go just about anywhere she does.” She chuckled, “Those two really need to just confess already. We’re in our last year, no guarantee we’re gonna see each other again after this year.”
It was sad to think about, but still Serina smiled, “Well, we’ve all talked about going to the same college, but who knows? We just need to make the most of the time we have, and as long as we think about each other, and keep each other in our hearts, then we’ll never really be apart will we?”
Katie stared at her for a few moments before chuckling and looking away, “Were you replaying that old game series again? I swear, you’re such a nerd, Serina.”
Serina blushed and shook her head, “Wh-Whaaat? No, I thought of that all on my own!” Lying didn’t come natural to her, and the smug look on Katie’s face told Serina that her friend didn’t believe her at all. She looked up at the sky and huffed, “Okay, maybe I have. My brother used to play it while I watched when we were younger, and sometimes he’d let me play. It makes me think of him.”
Before the conversation could continue, something strange happened.
A bird that had been flying through the air began to slow down in mid-air, as if someone had set a video to .5 times speed. Then, it stopped all together and Serina’s eyes widened as it hung in the air, “K-Katie, look at that!”
Katie did so, yet she just furrowed her brow, “Look at what?”
Serina blinked and the bird was back in motion, flying away, “Wh-What…” She scratched her head, “It… It wasn’t moving…” This wasn’t the first time this had happened to her, but she had written off the first time as her just seeing things. Was she still seeing things, or was something else going on?
Katie placed a hand on Serina’s forehead, “You alright, Serina? Are you sick? I know it’s the first day but if you are, you should go back home. Schools are a lot stricter about that stuff ever since the happening those years ago.”
Before Serina could say anything else, another girl’s voice caught their attention, “Hey guys!” They both looked and saw a thin girl, just as tall as Katie, with deep blue eyes and fluffy golden hair tied back into a ponytail. She was wearing a hoodie that was large enough to basically be a dress, ending at her thighs and covering her hands. Under that she was wearing her uniform, no doubt. This was Joan, another of their group.
She stopped before them and smiled, “You guys excited? We’re almost done with high school!”
Katie gave another concerned look at Serina before turning her attention to Joan and smiling, “You know it. You’d better hurry up and get Carina to ask you out already, Jo! Who knows if you’ll be going to the same college? Or if Carina will just go to a trade school?”
Joan blushed and looked away, “I-I, w-well… I just… I haven’t found a good time!” She had stopped trying to deny her crush ages ago, now it was just a matter of both people being too shy to bring it up.
Serina welcomed the change in topic, though her mind lingered on the strangeness of what she saw, “I swear. You guys all have girlfriends or are going to have girlfriends and I’m stuck here, not a single boy has asked me out! Most of them don’t even look at me.” She crossed her arms and huffed, “Am I just ugly or something? Is it the hair?”
Both Joan and Katie were quick to push back against that, with Joan saying, “Don’t be silly! You’re like… one of the hottest girls I know!” She placed her hands on her hips, “I think I told you before that if you were into girls I’d have totally asked you out a long time ago, well… if I didn’t… you know, care about Carina that way.”
Katie giggled, “Yeah, you’ve got nice hair, your features are super beautiful and symmetrical, I think the main thing keeping them away from you is that they think you’re gay.” She grinned, “I mean you do hang out with a whole cadre of girls that are all dating other girls. Maybe they think you’re just, like… the Alpha Lesbian or something.”
Serina groaned, “Damn it, and it’s way too late for me to try and fix that.” She pouted, “I’m so going to make sure I set the record straight when I get to college. I’ll make sure to hang out with boys too! Maybe I’ll even be the one to ask them out!”
Being the ‘token straight’ of her friend group was a funny joke at first, but now it seemed like everyone just assumed she was gay as well. It was incredibly inconvenient! She’d wanted a boyfriend for years, but of course everyone just assumed that the quiet girl with neck-length dyed hair who draws and writes a lot is gay.
…You know, when she puts it like that, she sort of understood where they were coming from. Even if it was still frustrating.
Still, she smiled, “Thanks for the confidence boost, guys.” Before the conversation could continue, the sound of an electronic bell rang out through the school, signaling that it was time for everyone to get to class. Luckily, Katie and her shared the same homeroom, although Joan had a different one.
Carina was there, she was a fair-skinned, indigo eyed, muscular and broad-shouldered girl with burnt orange hair that fell to her upper back. She was wearing a dark blue polo shirt, khaki pants, and red running shoes. She was the captain of the football team, and had been for her whole time at school. Normally girls weren’t allowed on the men’s football team, but Carina was the exception. She could have easily continued into college, but she had chosen to stop playing football after Senior year.
Instead, she wanted to go into MMA.
Serina always admired her strength, she herself was far from the ‘fighting’ type. She wanted to say she was a lover, not a fighter, but it seemed like nobody was interested in being her lover, so she remained neither. ‘What a sad life I live…’ Serina lamented her woes while sitting with Carina and Katie.
At least she was able to busy herself by drawing the scene she had seen. This one was simpler than most, it was just silhouettes. Carina observed this, “Another dream?” Serina nodded, and Carina rubbed her forehead while groaning, “Man… All your stuff with the dreams and the scarf makes my head hurt.”
Katie snickered, “You mean like math? And science? And-”
Carina blushed and shook her head, interrupting Katie, “Hey, hey. I have dys…dyscalculia. It’s a real problem!” She huffed, “Anyway… What’s this one, Serina?” After it was explained to her, she nodded, “Oh, that’s… weird, that you couldn’t see it.”
The conversation was cut short as the homeroom teacher walked in. She was a relaxed older woman, but it seemed she had an announcement today. She stood at the front and as the class quieted down she spoke…
And Serina, again, wondered if she was going insane.
The teacher gesticulated as she spoke, “Ianua aperiam.” Then, she spoke with some form of conviction that did not belong to her, “Mox via inter mundos patebit et sono adventus finis!” The others acted like nothing was wrong. Then, the teacher looked right at Serina and said, “Tu es qui aperias ostium.”
Serina blinked a few times and shook her head, only to notice the teacher looking at her. She asked, “Serina, are you alright? I asked if you’d be willing to run a paper up to the office for me.”
She wasn’t even going to try and explain that one, so she just nodded, “Sorry, just… Not used to waking up so early, you know?” She laughed nervously. Luckily, her teacher bought it, and so she was off with a paper she needed to hand off to the office.
‘I have to be going crazy. There’s no other explanation, I’m gonna get thrown in a padded cell! And be given meds! And wear a straitjacket!’ Serina shook her head as she hurried to the principal’s office, the halls were empty, so luckily it didn’t take very long.
The principal was a kind, older, light-skinned man with tousled silver hair and brown eyes. He wore a pair of spectacles, a dark-green button up vest, a green shirt, and a black suit. When he saw Serina, he smiled at her, “Ah, Serina. Ready to start another year?”
Serina smiled, “Yes, Mr. Phadrig, I have this paper from Mrs. Klein here for you.” She held it out.
As Mr. Phadrig took the paper, suddenly, he seemed to freeze in place, as if a video was paused. Before Serina could say anything, he appeared to shatter like glass, causing her to gasp. Then, when she blinked, he was back to normal and looked at her with concern, “Serina, are you alright?”
Serina felt dizzy.
She took a deep breath and nodded, “Y-Yeah, I’m just… Feeling a bit tired, that's all.” She turned and started to leave, “I have to get back to homeroom, it was nice seeing you again, Mister Phadrig. Night!”
Another thing she’d picked up from him. A shred of his memory, from that dream that was too real to truly be just a dream.
“Anytime you want to see someone again someday… never say goodbye. Instead…”
“...Tell them goodnight.”
He told her that, and she took it to heart. She never told someone she wanted to see again goodbye. She’d just tell them goodnight.
Thankfully for her, Phadrig didn’t question her any further. She was able to retreat back to homeroom just in time to start her first day of classes.
She had no idea what the hell was going on, but she could at least hope that it didn’t happen again. Maybe she really was just tired…
Thankfully, she didn’t experience any further… visions throughout the day.
Classes were normal, and once they were done, she was able to go to her group’s usual place, aptly named ‘The Usual Place.’
Really, it was just an old mobile storage building that Serina’s parents had bought back when her dad was more active at his job. After a few years, it mostly just collected dust, and so with her parents’ permission she and her friends turned it into a hangout. It had chairs, a mini-fridge, even an AC unit and a heater. A very nice pad, even if it was only about the size of Serina’s bedroom.
She had, with the help of another friend of hers who was into construction and liked to do handiwork, even gotten some dark blue carpet installed. There really was only one thing out of place in the wooden-walled abode…
A door that didn’t lead anywhere that was attached to the back wall. It had golden accents to it and was entirely circular. It had been there for as long as Serina could remember, and anytime they tried to open it or get rid of it, it just… wouldn’t budge. You couldn’t even see its other side on the opposite side of the wall, so Serina wondered if it was just a weird interior design decision by whoever made the building.
Her and the others sat around and mostly just screwed around on their phones while talking about whatever struck their fancy. The final member of their group was there, Hilda. She was a fair-skinned girl with straight brown hair that fell past her shoulders. She was also Katie’s girlfriend, and had been for a few years at this point.
She was also the one who was always intent on getting them to go out and do stuff, “Soo, why don’t we go to the beach this weekend? It’s right there, and we didn’t get to go over the summer!”
Serina had been drawing in her sketchbook, and she looked up from the chair she was in to ask, “Is that really a good idea? I mean, we should be focusing on classes…”
Hilda rolled her eyes and leaned back in her own chair, “Serina, Serina. You’re only in High School for so long! After this year, it’s all over, and thus we’ll scatter-” she tossed her hand out in some grand gesture while speaking in an equally grandiose tone, “-like leaves from the vine!”
Carina had her own opinion on the idea, “I say we do it, but if we’re gonna go, we should really make it a big deal. Like… Friday, we should go and get all the stuff we need for the perfect day at the beach. Who knows…” She smirked at Serina, “Maybe we’ll pick you up a bikini that’s capable of getting a guy to look at you.”
Serina’s face heated up as she shook her head, “J-Just because I’d like a boyfriend doesn’t mean I wanna date the first guy that looks at my body!” She sighed, “Still… I guess having one big beach day wouldn’t hurt. It’s better to do it at the start or the end of the year, so things aren’t too tough yet in class.”
Joan clapped her hands together a couple times, “Woo! Serina’s in, we’re good to go!”
Katie grinned, “The Alpha Lesbian has spoken!”
That prompted Serina to toss a pen at her friend, and for the rest of the girls to laugh.
Even still, Serina couldn’t stop from smiling. She loved her friends, and though she knew these days wouldn’t last forever, she was going to cherish them for as long as they were there.
/-/
The next day started the same as any other, although it was a rare day where she didn’t have a dream. The dreams weren’t constant, anyway, but their not showing up was less frequent than otherwise.
She got to school, greeted her friends, and everything seemed normal.
Except Carina didn’t show up that day.
The whole group was worried, because Carina hadn’t called or texted any of them about it, something she always had done in the past. She was responsible—her spot on the football team depended on that—and thus, it was cause for concern that she hadn’t shown up.
Joan in particular was worried, because if she of all people wasn’t being sent a message at the bare minimum, then something was definitely wrong.
That was what led the group to go to her house after school, and that was where things went from concern to panic.
Joan looked horrified as she asked, “What do you mean she’s not here?!”
Her mother looked just as alarmed as she responded, “We thought she was staying over with you!” She turned pale as she rushed back into the house to alert Carina’s dad. When she came back, she said, “We’re going to go to the police station! Can you girls keep looking for her in the meantime?”
Of course, they agreed, and so the group set out to search all of the places they suspected she might be. Hilda went to the gym, Joan went to see if she was talking to her coach, Katie went to check a few shops in town, and Serina?
Well, there was only one other place to check.
As absurd as it was, she headed to the Usual Place. It was right there in her backyard, but she remembered there being a few cases in the past where everyone thought someone was missing, only for the ‘missing person’ to be somewhere obvious that they overlooked.
It was growing dark by then, if Carina wasn’t there, then their hopes of finding her that day were pretty much zero. She just hoped that, if that was the case, then the police could find her.
She opened the door to the Usual Place and pulled it open, expecting to either find nothing or find Carina sitting there, likely confused as to why she looked so panicked.
She did not expect to find a figure shrouded in a maroon cloak with its hood pulled up standing there, staring at the extra door in her shed. To say Serina was scared and startled was an understatement. She almost slammed the door shut, but she felt like she was paralyzed. The figure turned around, their hood completely obscured their face. Yet, Serina could tell it was a woman, based on their body type. She didn’t say anything, instead she opened the door that had been lodged against the wall.
Behind the door was a black void, nothingness. Yet, the figure stepped into it all the same, and shut the door behind her. Serina finally shook herself out of her fear, “H-Hey!” She stepped into the building before closing the door behind her and walking up to the other, stranger door, moving to pull it open, “What’s the big idea-”
Yet, there was still nothing, just the black void. Not the woman, not Carina, nothing. She was about to shut the door and walk away, pretend it never happened and chalk it up to her hallucinations, but then a tugging force pulled her forward. Like a powerful vacuum it yanked her in, and she screamed in shock.
Everything went black.
/-/
Falling.
She was falling.
But… it didn’t feel like falling.
It felt as if she was being pulled down by a riptide, or a current, except there was nothing but a tenebrous void. At least, at first.
As she continued to fall, she spotted something strange. It looked like a platform, but it was made out of stained glass. The glass itself was colored various autumnal colors, orange, red, bright beige, burnt orange, and more. Moreover, it depicted a startlingly familiar set of characters.
Ruby Rose was depicted the largest, seemingly leaning against the side of the glass and sleeping. Her side rested at her side, propped up against the same side of the glass she was leaning against, with Crescent Rose forming part of a circle that held her symbol on it, black roses on a red backdrop. In smaller circular portraits behind Ruby was other familiar faces.
Yang grinned while looking down with her eyes closed, Weiss had her nose upturned, her eyes were also closed, Blake was, similarly, clutching a book against her chest, and her eyes were closed. Cinder Fall was depicted, facing away, her face obscured, and Emerald and Mercury were next to her. Mercury had a grin as he faced front and center, smug and self-assured. Emerald looked more uncertain and worried, looking off at something that couldn’t be seen.
Serina was pulled onto the surface, and was surprised to find that it held her. Not that she was heavy, but it was stained glass. She swallowed a lump in her throat as she stood up, and only had one phrase to describe how she felt, “What the fuck…”
But that wasn’t all.
A pedestal rose out of the glass, shaking the platform as it did. Serina, after getting over the shock of seeing a pedestal rise from nothing, walked up to it. There was a… sword? Sitting there.
It looked strange, with its grip rose red, two rectangular cross guards surrounded it, and she saw that the blade was single-edged. Where one end was sharp, the other was blunt, and at the top, there were two key bits sticking out near the top. The blade and bits were bronze.
She reached out and took hold of it, looking it over and muttering, “Is this a damn keyblade? I totally died. I had a heart attack when I opened the door to the shed, and died. Now I’m in some weird limbo.” She nodded several times, “That makes the most sense.”
She was certain she was dead, and thus the beast that crawled up from the edge, which she recognized as a Beowolf from the show RWBY, one she used to watch with her brother, she was almost prepared to just let it bite her and get this weird limbo over with. Yet, as it lunged at her, the blade seemed to move on its own, commanding her to brace herself and then thrust the weapon forward.
It caught the lunging Beowolf in the throat, its surprisingly sharp bits providing no impediment. The beast exploded into blast mist, making Serina cough and wave her hands in front of her face to get the mist to part.
Once it cleared, she saw stained glass platforms making stairs leading up to yet another platform, “Wow, okay.” She muttered as she started to walk up the stairs, “This really is Kingdom Hearts, where’s my plucky loveable sidekicks?”
As she reached the next platform, however, things went awry. As she stepped off of it, she noticed the stained glass depiction and gasped.
It was her! She was in a similar pose to the one Ruby was in, except the very weapon that was in her hand hung from hers in that pane. The colors were different, cherry red accents with primarily light blue for most of it. There were different circles, and she recognized her friends, most of them were smiling and looking forward, while Carina… Carina’s eyes were closed, and she looked off to the side.
Then, there were two more.
One was a man with black hair wearing a white coat with a furred hood, her brother, Osiris. His eyes were closed and he was looking downward, his hands seemed to be on some kind of cane, but she couldn’t make out any details of it, as only its top was in view. Finally, there was a girl that Serina recognized vaguely from her dreams. Burnt orange hair that fell to her shoulders, red panda ears on her head, a bolero and chest wrappings… She was looking away, but her eyes were open, her irises were black, but in spite of that they held clear worry. She was looking in Osiris’ direction.
Serina wanted to contemplate what this all meant, but as she stepped forward to get a closer look, the glass began to crack. She turned around to try and hurry off the platform, but the stairs and platform she had been at previously were gone already.
She whirled around to look at the pane again, the cracks webbed across, covering her friends’ faces, and then Osiris’. Only hers and the strange girl’s were unobscured, and yet, all the same, the pane shattered.
Again, Serina saw nothing but darkness.
/-/
“Seri…”
“Hey! Don’t you…”
“Come on…”
“Please…”
“WAKE UP!”
Serina’s eyes blinked open, and she saw that she was staring at a canopy of trees, with a blue sky overhead. That was, at least, until her view was filled with her friends' worried expressions.
“Woah!” She exclaimed as she sat up, “Ow- my head, ugh… What’s going on? Where are we?”
As she looked at her friends, she added another question, “What are you guys wearing?”
Joan was wearing a set of white robes with red accents, a red collar, and a chain belt. It reminded Serina of a white mage from Final Fantasy. She was also clutching a plain wooden staff in her hands.
Hilda was wearing a black wide-brim conical hat with a wilted top, a set of flowers adorned it, a black layered ruffled dress and a pair of black boots. She had a staff similar to Joan’s, although it had a strange black gem on the top.
Finally, Katie was wearing an unzipped black jacket with a folded down collar, a white T-shirt, a pair of jeans rolled up at the hems, and a pair of black laced boots that stopped at her calves. She had a double-edged sword colored a dark gray, with a black grip and gold pommel.
Katie was the one who smirked and crossed her arms, asking, “We were about to ask you the same thing, Alpha.”
Serina blinked and looked herself over. She was wearing a pink and black dress that stopped at her upper thighs with decorative silver buttons going down her front right and front left sides. There was a short zipper that, when fully unzipped, stopped at chest level, revealing a white shirt underneath. She had a black belt and a pair of black belted boots on as well. The only familiar thing about what she was wearing was her orange scarf. The sword she’d picked up in the strange place she’d been at previously rested on the ground next to her.
She groaned and closed her eyes before opening them again. Seeing that she was still there, she sighed, “I wish I knew. It’s cute, at least.” She picked up what was apparently supposed to be her blade and stood up, “How’d you guys get here? I thought I was the one who died, unless you guys died too.”
Joan shook her head, “I don’t think we’re dead… We’re somewhere else, but we’re definitely not dead. This doesn’t look like any afterlife I’ve ever heard of before…”
Hilda looked around, “I dunno, but I don’t think we’re anywhere in town… I’m pretty sure we’d recognize it if it was.” She rubbed her chin, “I guess the best thing we could do right now is look around. We’ve got these outfits and these… weapons? We might as well try and figure out what this is. Maybe Carina’s playing some sort of elaborate prank.”
Serina grumbled, “If she is, I’ll kick her ass. I don’t care that she’s twice my size and two times as tough.”
Katie, in spite of the circumstances, managed a chuckle. She patted Serina’s back, “Well then, fearless leader, why don’t you guide us? You’re the Alpha Lesbian, after all.” Serina groaned and rubbed her forehead as the others laughed at her expense. Regardless, she took point as they started to walk through the forest, trying to find any sign of life.
They found some fairly quickly, but it wasn’t any signs they were expecting to see.
Joan let out a yelp of fear when she saw them, more Beowolves, ten of them. She hid behind the rest of the group and exclaimed, “What are those things?! They look so freaky!”
Serina felt fear in her heart too, but she’d been dreaming of these things for years now. She’d seen her brother slay them by the hundreds, she’d seen others overcome them with grit and determination. If this was the challenge presented to her, then so be it. She raised her keyblade, holding it in both hands, “Grimm, like from RWBY.”
Katie raised her own sword, holding it in one hand as she slashed the air, “You’re telling me those dreams you had were real or something? What are you, some kind of prophet? Ugh, I’ll figure out another nickname for you based on this after we avoid getting killed.”
Hilda looked at her staff before holding it tightly and nodding, “I don’t know what I’ll do with this, but… there’s no reason not to try and fight. It’s us or them.”
Joan shook her head, “Listen to yourselves! They’re monsters!” Then she took a deep breath and stepped back, also holding her staff lightly in her hands, “i-I guess we don’t have a choice…”
The Grimm noticed them and the largest one, an Alpha, howled. The pack charged, before starting to circle them while not breaking pace. One broke from the circle and lunged at Serina, who swung her sword in an unrefined but forceful manner at the beast, treating it more like a club than anything else. She managed to catch it on the neck just as it was about to reach her, severing its head in one swing.
Another jumped out at Katie, who stepped forward and thrust her sword outward, catching it in the throat and yanking her blade back as it fell. One more tried to jump at Hilda, and she winced back while holding out her staff seemingly on instinct. That was when a bolt of lightning shot out of the gem, striking down the Beowolf and then jumping to another two behind it, frying all three. When she opened her eyes and saw this, she gasped, “I can cast magic?!”
Joan’s eyes widened before she smiled, “Oh! Let me try!” She held her staff afloat and suddenly a large ball of stone appeared above her head, easily as large as one of the Beowolves, and then it rocketed out, crashing into one of the beasts and sending it flying back into a tree, “Ooh! Cool!”
Serina huffed and muttered, “Oh, they get cool magic, but all I get is this?” She shook her head, “Maybe later.” Four remained, including the Alpha, which charged at her. She braced herself and ran towards it in return. As it tried to swipe at her, she batted away its paw with her blade before bringing it up and swinging down, chopping into its head and causing it to roar. She violently, if clumsily, repeated the act, killing the beast with a flurry of blows.
The remaining three, seeing their leader vanquished, ran away with their tails between their legs. All four girls were breathing heavily, Serina wiped some sweat off her brow, “Well… at least it was over quick. So we are on Remnant… There’s gotta be some way to get home.”
Suddenly, in a blink, they were right back where they started. The group looked around in confusion and Katie shook her head while asking, “What the hell is this?” Serina shared her sentiment, this was… odd.
The only thing they could do was try and look around to find out what the hell just happened. Then, in around the same amount of time as last time, it happened again. They kept going, and it did again, like some weird groundhog’s day loop. Joan thought they were stuck in hell, Katie cracked a joke about seeing their shadows, and Hilda speculated on different possible causes.
Serina, meanwhile, was focusing on trying to figure out where they were and what they were doing. The presence of Grimm was a given, that didn’t narrow it down at all. The climate indicated either Vale or Mistral, but outside of that, there really was no telling. At least, there wasn’t until eventually, in the distance, she heard the sound of gunfire followed by an indignant Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee fighting with each other. She recognized the conversation, and thus, she could deduce where they were.
When she relayed this information to them upon yet another loop, Katie groaned, “For real? Okay, well…” She shrugged, “At least we know where we are. So what’s the plan, Nostradamus?”
At the new nickname, Serina facepalmed, “Oh great, another one.” She lowered her hand and looked around, “Well… Something’s gotta be causing this. We wouldn’t be here without a reason, with these powers and weapons… So, I think we should try and see if something is wrong with canon, and if we can, we should fix it.”
Hilda nodded, “It’s the best option we’ve got. Let’s keep walking around until we find out what’s causing the problem and then try to solve it. Maybe that’ll get us out of here.”
With that being the only theory they had to go on, the group started to search around. It took a few tries, because of the amount of times they ended up back at square one, but eventually they were able to discover an abnormality. Well, it was more like the abnormality almost fell on top of them.
Jaune Arc fell from the sky, and Pyrrha’s javelin missed. He crashed onto the ground instant and the resultant mess was bloody and, to the four high schoolers, terrifying. They barely had time to scream before the timeline reset, and they were left trying to reconcile what just happened in their minds. Joan exclaimed, “He… died! He just- He fell from the sky and died! G-God, I can still see it…” Meanwhile, Hilda was emptying her lunch behind a tree while Katie patted her back.
Serina was shaken, too, but her friends’ were more important in her mind. She stepped over to Joan and pulled her into a hug, “It’s okay, Joan. Breathe. Ssh…” She patted her friend on the back as the girl sobbed into her shirt, “I think that’s the abnormality. Jaune, that’s the guy we saw, isn’t supposed to die here. The timeline must be looping because of that.”
Katie looked over to her, a bit pale but otherwise keeping it together, “Okay… then I guess we know what we need to do. We need to stop him from… splatting. That shouldn’t be too hard, right? Then maybe we’ll be able to go home.”
With that, the game was afoot.
The first thing they attempted was trying to get Jaune to not die on impact with the ground. They had a whole plan put together, get a bed of leaves, try to use some sort of magic to catch him or shield him, and have Katie and Serina stand under his likely point of impact to catch him.
However, their plan fell apart when Pyrrha’s javelin caught him like it was supposed to. He was still disoriented, and so the four fled and hid behind some bushes and trees to watch what happened next. Joan whispered, “What if this is it? Then maybe we’ll be good to go!”
Serina whispered back, “I don’t know. There’s a lot of chances for him to die from this point on, we need to keep our eyes open.”
They watched as Pyrrha showed up, and Serina had to close Katie’s mouth when she first saw her. The girl was the epitome of the term ‘useless lesbian’ when it came to stunning girls. Then again… all of her friends were useless lesbians, they were just better at keeping it under wraps.
They kept a reasonable distance from their objective, hoping to be able to intervene should something begin to go wrong.
Then Jaune and Pyrrha went into the cave, and their group couldn’t reasonably follow them in without getting caught. So they waited with bated breath, hoping to see the two leave the cave safely.
However, instead, they ended up back at their starting point, and Serina couldn’t help it. She yelled, “Fuck!” at the top of her lungs and caused the others to start at her sudden outburst. She shook her head and muttered, “Shouldn’t have even died. Had his aura and everything, what could have happened? I swear to…”
Normally Serina wasn’t that quick to anger, but this whole adventure has been one weird thing after another already, and her patience was thinning. She wanted to get this fixed so they could hopefully go home, or keep looking for Carina, or both.
She took a deep breath before she returned her voice to normal and said, “Okay. So, new plan. Katie, Joan. I need you two to wait where Jaune will fall and get ready to stop him if something goes wrong. Hilda, you and I are going to the cave. We’re going to try and stop this problem before it begins.”
Katie gave a two finger salute, “Sure thing, Fearless Leader.” She smiled, “Let’s finish this and get home, I’m starting to get hungry.”
Joan nodded, “I’d rather not see him crash on the ground again, but… if we’re there, we can stop it.”
Hilda smirked, “This is a new side of you, Serina. You might end up stealing Katie right out from under me, with that kind of attitude.”
Serina rolled her eyes before turning away, “Glad to have your support, guys, now let’s get this job done!”
So, they split the party, two going one way and two going the other.
Serina trusted her friends to get this job done right, they still didn’t know the limits of the powers they had been given, but there was no way to find their limits without a bit of stress testing.
When she and Hilda got to the cave, the natural question was asked as they came to a stop and Hilda questioned, “So… how are we going to take care of this thing?”
Serina rubbed her chin before a lightbulb went off in her head. She grinned and pointed dramatically towards the cave, “You’re going to blow it up!” As Hilda looked at her with alarm, she added, “You’ve got magic powers now, right? Well, maybe you have access to some kind of explosion magic? That would cave in this place, so they wouldn’t even go in here to begin with!”
Hilda blinked a few times before shaking her head and sighing, “This place is really making you show your true colors, Serina. When you’re not buried in your drawings and writing you’re… something else.” Nevertheless, she took out her staff as Serina stepped back. She held it out and closed her eyes in an effort to focus herself.
The resultant explosion was, all things considered, perfectly whelming, as if a grenade had been tossed into the cave. It had the desired effect, causing the front of the cave to shake before it started to collapse. As it fell, Serina smirked, “I might be a bit unhinged, but I know my stuff, don’t I?” She patted Hilda’s shoulder, “Now let’s go check with the others and make sure everything’s working out over there.”
They walked back to where Katie and Joan were, and found them hiding behind some bushes while watching Pyrrha and Jaune talking to each other about something. Serina and Hilda quickly joined them in observing, and they performed the same thing they had previously, keeping a reasonable distance from the partners while following them. Katie mentioned it made her feel like they were stalkers, Serina preferred the term ‘Guardian Angels’.
Imagine their shock when the Deathstalker, seemingly awoken by the cave-in, managed to burst through the dilapidated cave and began to chase Pyrrha and Jaune. Luckily the boy hadn’t met his end yet, and so the four kept up their pursuit.
That led them to observing as Jaune and Pyrrha met with the soon-to-be Team RWBY and the other two members of what was to be Team JNPR. The fight started just as it was supposed to, with the two teams choosing to run and live. Serina’s group continued to follow from a distance, right up to the bridge. There was a minor bout of panic when Jaune landed on the Deathstalker’s side of the bridge and almost got trampled, but Pyrrha saved him at the last second. As the two teams fought, Katie asked, “Should we do something?”
Serina shook her head, “We probably shouldn’t interfere too much. As long as-Joan catch him!” She pointed towards Jaune as she saw him backed up against the broken bridge’s edge. He started to fall back, but Joan held out her staff and squeezed her eyes shut. As Jaune fell backward, he found himself landing on an elastic barrier that caught him and then shot him right back to the bridge, a safe distance from the edge. He looked confused, but otherwise went back to focusing on the Deathstalker.
The girls breathed sighs of relief, but remained on edge until the Deathstalker was finally defeated, just in time for Ruby to behead the giant Nevermore.
“Okay,” Serina began, “Now maybe we’ll- Another one!” She cut herself off again as she pointed in the air, another giant Nevermore flew towards the two groups, but neither had noticed it yet, “Hilda, blow it up! Blow it up!”
Hilda held out her staff and squeezed her eyes shut. This time, the explosion was much larger, as it seemed to be focused by several magical glyphs and sigils in the air before coming down on the Nevermore and exploding in a blast that rocked the whole area. Luckily it was far enough away from the two teams that, while they were shocked, they were otherwise unharmed.
After that, Hilda collapsed to the ground with a groan, “Tired… Need food… and sleep… lots of sleep…”
Katie knelt down and checked her before sighing in relief, “She’s fine, just tired.” She looked back out at the two teams as they made their way towards the cliff, “Did we do it? What happens now?”
As if to answer the question, something strange happened. A glowing golden keyhole appeared in the air, and Serina’s weapon responded, pointing at it as she muttered, “Okay, we’re doing this too, I guess.” A beam of light shot from her blade, before the sound of a lock being turned emanated out. The keyhole disappeared, and as it did, a door appeared nearby.
The four looked at it curiously, with Serina leading the way. She opened it, and found that it led… back to the Usual Place? Before she could comment on it, they were yanked through by an invisible force.
/-/
Serina fell through first, landing on the ground with a groan, before being promptly dogpiled by her friends as they fell too. Katie muttered, “Ugh… okay, that was rude.”
Serina grumbled, “You’re telling me.” Everyone began to get up, and found that they were back in their regular outfits, and no weapons were to be found anywhere. Except Serina still had her keyblade, “Huh…” She knew she’d have to hide it somewhere, or see if she couldn’t de-summon it, like in the games, because otherwise she’d have a hell of a time trying to explain what she was doing with a weird key-sword to her parents.
The door shut, and they couldn’t open it again, yet Serina still felt the pull, “I think… this thing’s going to open again eventually.”
Joan rubbed the back of her neck, “What do we do? Should we tell someone about this? It seems way out of our depth…”
Katie, who was bridal carrying Hilda, shook her head, “No way! We get cool powers and get to go on adventures? Sign me up!”
Serina looked at them, “Think of it this way, Carina went missing suddenly. The police are looking for her, and we’ve done everything we can here. What if… she’s through this door, in one of the worlds? We have to keep going, any chance we get, so we can find her! If she’s there, and if she’s not, well… there’s nothing we can do.”
Joan swallowed a lump in her throat, “I-I hope she’s through there, then… That seems less life-threatening than being lost here, even with all the weird magic and monsters…” She gained a look of resolve and nodded, “Right! We have to go back through, as soon as we can!”
Hilda nodded in agreement from her place in Katie’s arms, “Yeaah… besides, blowing stuff up is fun. If I can do it more, then it’s allll worth it… Hehe…” She giggled tiredly, clearly a bit loopy from the exertion of blowing up a giant bird.
Joan checked the time on her phone and gasped, “Oh my God! It’s almost three AM! I gotta get home, my parents are gonna be pissed! I’ll see you guys at school tomorrow!” She hurried towards the door, and prompted the others to check their phones in alarm.
Sure enough, it was the dead of night, and Katie sighed, “Serina, mind if Hilda and I crash in your guest room? I don’t think I can drag this sack of potatoes back to her place tonight.”
Serina nodded, “Sure thing.” She yawned, “Who knows, maybe we’ll wake up tomorrow and find out that it was all just a dream…” She highly doubted that, but it was a possibility. As she reached the door, she opened it and allowed Katie and Hilda through.
As she moved to join them, she stopped and looked back at the door. It was still calling to her, but she was too tired to answer now. It was a miracle that they solved the problem they had so quickly, and that it was so simple. She wondered if other worlds would have problems too? Would she have to fix them all? What would that even entail? Could she and her friends survive?
She didn’t know, but if there was a slim chance that Carina was lost in one of those worlds, then they were going to have to look for her. There was no other option, unless they wanted to just pray that the cops found her, and that she was just lost somewhere. Serina didn’t want to think about that though, because she couldn’t do anything in that case, she couldn’t do anything if Carina had been lost on Earth.
If she’d been lost on one Remnant or another, though? Well..
She could get her friend back, with this power she’d been given, and maybe she’d find some answers to the cause of her dreams. There were so many questions she’d had her whole life, on top of those she had recently gained, and this was an opportunity to get them answered.
Maybe, just maybe… she could find her brother?
She wasn’t going to hold her breath, but, just as with everything else she’d discovered today, there was no reason not to try.
She owed herself, and her friends, that much.