All that is light, warmth, and sun: gentle but can just as easily burn. All that is dark, foreboding, and mysterious: harsh but can just as easily turn soft and fade away. The predators shadow combine with the glowing embers. Thus is born something both calming, passionate, humorous, determined, and suspenseful, dark, twisted, and cruel. It is essentially all we hope to be and all we can be. It is the root of what we are creating: a battle of light and dark, of hope and despair. This is the story of the team that will give their everything to keep that spark of hope and vanquish the twins of darkness as they lay siege upon the growing golden ray of light. Though they have all been tempered through the fires who will reign victorious and who will fall to the tribulations of Tempered Gold?

"All there was, was darkness, and I was a part of it"

Chapter one: A New Beginning (Hyacinth's Point of view)

"EEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKK!"

"Out of the way, faunus."

"Honestly, I will never understand why Beacon let's their kind in. They are a danger to everyone."

"Oh gosh I think she just flashed her fangs at me! Gavin, HELP!"

I walked past the insulters, holding my head high and ears perked, all the while ignoring their racist comments. I strode through the crowd of new and returning Beacon students, all of them jostling to get onto the airships. I breathed in deeply, my brown and green eyes surveying the crowd before confidently walking up the tarmac to one of the guards.

The guard looked down at me disdainfully, as if I wasn't worth going to such a prestigious school.

"Name?"

"Hyacinth. Hyacinth Crevan." I replied coolly.

"Show me your ID and paperwork."

I rolled my eyes, getting the requested papers and credentials and such out of my bag and handing them to the moody sentry. I honestly don't understand what these people's problems are, I thought. Oh wait, they have a thing against Faunus and think because we are part animal, we are animals. 50 points to Hyacinth for that beautiful clarification!

The guard grabbed the sheets of paper, smirking at me before beginning to read. He looked over my papers, and began scowling, more and more the farther he went down, his large paw-like hands crinkling my credentials. I frowned the teeniest bit, noting that my papers had been perfectly smooth before he had yanked them out of my hands. I quickly smoothed out my face, making sure to seem aloof and calm.

He grimaced, and shoved the papers back into my hands, saying, "Get on board before you miss the trip. And try not to let your, uh, animal, instincts to go astray."

I gave him a sugary grin, flashing my teeth (and letting my canine teeth grow the tiniest bit), before saying in the sweetest voice I could muster, "Don't worry, I won't bite anyone unless they, ya know, annoy me."

The sentry's face paled, and he backed away as I put my papers back in my carry-on and flounced up the tarmac, humans scattering and flashing different hues as I made my way into the airship. Once I got inside, I scanned the interior, searching for a place to sit with a good view. I quickly found a good seat and made my way over.

As I got closer, I noticed that there was a girl with blonde hair sitting with her back to me on one of the seats (they were like those round booths in a restaurant that sit 8-10 people, but less curved). I squinted at her. I noticed that the aura around her was dark and standoff-ish, but not like the others. This was more of an, "Everyone leave me alone" sort of vibe, not "Look, I'm racist, stay away fox-human". The colors surrounding her sparked different hues of black, grey, silver, and the occasional red. I moved even closer, noticing the difference between the normal dark hues from other people and hers. Hers sent off several different emotions at once; anger, pride, sadness, longing, loneliness, and one that surprised me a bit- a very, very little, almost-not-there-but-it-is-there, spark of hope.

I was admittedly a bit shocked- most people here didn't have hope. At least, not the same as hers. Hers seemed more precious, more hesitant, than the others. Almost like her hope has been crushed over and over before and she's afraid to let it grow, but she can't let it go, for fear of it disappearing forever.

Whoa, Hyacinth, back up a bit. You haven't even met her yet and you're already trying to figure her out! At least talk to her first! I thought to myself.

I took a deep breath, and finished my walk to her and stood on the other side of the bench. "Is this seat taken?"

She didn't appear to have heard me. Then I noticed that the blonde girl was wearing a pair of steel grey headphones with red accents on it and she appeared to be writing or drawing something in a thick, black, leather-bound journal. I shrugged and sat down on the opposite end of the bench. It was then that the girl looked up.

"Can I help you?"

I was taken aback a bit by the tone of her voice, but that was to be expected from the waves of emotions radiating off her. I cleared my mind and smiled a bit and spoke.

"Nope, I was just wondering if I could sit here. Most of the other people here are a bit hostile to different people" at 'different people' I made quotation marks with my fingers, "and you seemed lonely so I sat here. Is that alright? Oh I'm Hyacinth by the way." I said all of this in a bit of a rush, yet still in a calm and happy way. She blinked at me, once, twice, then said,

"Okay. Seeing how you're into name sharing, I'm Pyrope."

"Nice name. Pyrope, a type of red gem. Pyro, Latin for fire. Seems to fit you." I stated. Okay, so I may be a bit of a nerd. Well, more like a dork. I like to know the meaning of things (names, objects, words, etc.) because I want to know if the name fits.

Pyrope raised one delicate eyebrow, before shaking her head a little. "You are one strange faunus. What are you anyway? Some sort of dog, cat thing?"

"Nope," I cheerily replied. "I'm part fox. Ears, eyes, retractable claws and teeth."

I narrowed my pupils, let my claws and canines grow a bit, and hissed, all within a matter of seconds. The blonde seemed slightly taken aback, before smirking a little.

"Okay, that was almost cool. So, I'ma go back to doing my own thing, you just, I dunno, try not to talk too much, 'kay?"

I nodded, figuring I'd ask Pyrope more questions later. She put her headphones back on, got more comfortable in her seat, and continued writing (or drawing) in her leather-bound journal. I shifted in my seat. I looked around the airship, observing all the students, the last few stragglers hurrying through the entrances. I smiled a little, noticing the amount of Faunus in the airship. So many humans degraded my kind, saying that we didn't deserve citizenship or privileges, like attending Beacon. But hey, look where we are now. Attending prestigious schools, owning successful businesses, and lot's more.

I decided to stop thinking deeply for a while and decided to doodle on my arm (I was feeling too lazy to get my art stuff). I took out a bunch of colorful gel pens from one of my hidden pockets, and absentmindedly drew on my hand, then my wrist, then up my arm, humming a song below my breath. Pyrope was still doing something in her black journal and had her headphones firmly in place. I could faintly hear the music (no one else could 'cause I have awesome hearing). It sounded like a mix of gentle violin, heavy bass guitar, and a steady yet fast drum beat. It sounded, in one word- awesome. I wanted to ask what the music was called, but figured the girl might glare at me again, so I shut my mouth and continued doodling. I wasn't sure how much time had passed since I started drawing, but when I draw I tend to lose track of time.

"What the hell is that?"

I jumped out of my daze, looking up at Pyrope with wide eyes. She was leaning across the table, her attention drawn to my left arm where I had been doodling. I glanced down, then my eyes widened even more.

There, on my hand, wrist, and forearm, was an interesting (and weird) drawing. Starting at the back of my hand, small runes in some ancient language that I didn't understand were twisting and curving around it, each one cutting off after a bit and starting over again a bit away from each other, but faint waves and lines still connected them together. Lower down on my arm appeared to be some floral design in the shape of a girl's profile. I began to make out the facial expression, hair, and clothes. The girl looked pretty sad, not sure why though.

"Who the hell is that?!"

I looked up again at Pyrope again. She kept looking up and down at me and my arm. I shrugged. "I honestly have no idea. I've never seen her before, nor do I know what those runes mean."

Pyrope looked up at me, raising an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed with my answer.

"I'm serious!" I shouted. Several people looked over at me, and I blushed before lowering my voice and speaking again. "I really don't know. Sometimes when I doodle I draw things that I've never seen before. Like, I've never seen these runes, except the few on my weapon. And I've never seen the girl either," I looked closer at one of the marks. "Though this one looks an awful lot like… waaaiiiiittt… no way!"

"What?! No what way?!" Pyrope cried, leaning over the table to get a better look at my hand. I looked up at her, a smile tugging at my lips. She glared slightly at me, gesturing me to continue.

"I'm saying no way, because this symbol," I pointed to said object, "looks just like my emblem, and it has my colors in the same places, and I don't usually doodle my symbol." I stood slightly, showing her the side buckle on the right side of my belt along with my hand. On it was my emblem, a single hyacinth with a heart inside it and an arrow sticking in it, exactly like the one on my hand. I sat back down again.

"Wait a sec," Pyrope muttered, reaching over and grabbing my left hand and inspected it. She pointed at one drawing a little to the right of my emblem. "Why is that there?" I looked at the mark. It was a grey skull with a red sword piercing it, with red flames decorating the sword. It was pretty neat to be honest. "I dunno," I responded, not quite understanding why she was being slightly hostile (well on the outside. The colors surrounding her were much more hostile). "I don't know any of the symbols other than mine, and I really have no idea what the runes mean, if you're gonna ask."

Pyrope gave me a 'Seriously?' look. "No, I was not going to ask that. I'm just curious as to why you have my emblem on your hand."

"Your emblem?" She sighed, and pointed to the bottom-front left corner of her leather vest. There, innocently staring up at me, was the ashen skull that was set aflame by the sword. I stared at it for a few seconds, completely dumbfounded.

"Huh."

"Yeah, huh, now tell me how the hell you knew what my emblem is or I swear I will set you aflame and throw you into the pits of Tartarus. After I let the Grimm chew some of your limbs. And toss you out this very window."

I glanced out the mentioned window, attempting to gauge how far I'd end up falling. Pretty damn far, to be honest. I gulped, fear creeping in and something dark poked at it. Well that's a pretty easy way to go, the thing whispered. It could be covered as an accident. I mentally shook my head, attempting to rid myself of the shadowy creature. I'm not goin' down that way! I yelled in my mind. I just got rid of you, and you will not sneak your way back in that easily. I banished the deadly thoughts to the tiny chest at the back of my head and locked them in.

I glanced back at Pyrope, her face still hard, the colors surrounding her swirling even more viciously, and her eyes appeared cold and calculating.

"Will there be cookies there?"

"What?" Pyrope asked, taken aback by my question and clearly confused.

"I said, will there be cookies in Tartarus? I'm hungry, and I have a friend who claims that he went to Hell and they had some pretty good pie. I figured if Hell has pie then Tartarus could have cookies. Also getting chewed on and set on fire will really drain my energy. Oh, I have another friend who says he used to live in heaven and they had cake. I wonder if all resting places have desserts? That would be cool…" I rambled, and then went quiet. I stared as the blonde's face changes several times in the space of about 5 seconds. Her face went from shock, to confusion, to amusement, and finally landed on a slight smirk with a twinge of sadness in her eyes.

She let me go, and sat heavily in her seat. "Geez, girl, you are really innocent. I'd hate to see that break." I sat down as well, and we both stared out the airship's window, watching clouds float past and little towns scoot by, lost in our own little worlds for a few moments.

End of Chapter One

Hey guys, I hope you liked chapter one, there's more where that came from. I actually have the first four chapters written but I was gonna wait on posting the rest (I might post chapter 2 sooner) but if you liked it and wanted more just let me know. Also if you have any feedback I would love to hear it. Thanks!