Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY.
Blood
By: Imyoshi
Life and Death were two sides of the same coin.
Truthfully, Jaune couldn't understand why his mind was anchored to such a thought, it seemed redundant. It might've had something to do with the way Pyrrha's hand hovered over his chest, directly above his beating heart. At a moment's notice, she could pierce her fingers into his skin and end it all. These thoughts were random at best and childish at their worst.
Yet even still, Death prowled like a wild wolf hunting his thoughts—plaguing his mind.
"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee."
Surrounded by a calm force of energy, Jaune forgot to breathe as the mantra awakened something buried deep in his soul. Loving warmth slowly raised from every possible pore of his body, and the easy smile blossoming on his face couldn't possibly be tainted. Pyrrha matched a small smile alongside his, and everything seemed utterly perfect for them as Jaune's snowy Aura flourished forth.
However—Crunch!—perfection's only a fleeting possibility that's gone before anyone truly spotted it.
They never saw it coming. Never! Only Jaune and Pyrrha's bodies jerked movements alert them to what's happening before their instincts could protect them. And before either of the two Huntsmen-in-Training realize what was truly happening, Jaune's on the floor with a Beowolf's jaws wrapped firmly against his neck, and claws pinched deeply into where his heart beat a mile-a-minute.
"Jaune!"
Frozen, Pyrrha Nikos couldn't move fast enough to strike the Grimm; hone instincts barely kicking in, before the Beowolf's claws have already torn through Jaune's skin and armor, and at his defenseless heart. By the time her spear had successfully impaled the beast's back, the damage's already far too great. She could see it. He could feel it.
The blood... his blood... it's everywhere.
It dripped both down his jaw and destroyed neck from the damage done, and the champion knew from the dull, dying light in his eyes, that he couldn't survive this. Not with his Aura barely reaching the surface. The injury alone was too great to heal on a moment's whim. There's simply not enough time to heal the damage, not enough experience to properly channel the Aura to protect and rebuild the missing tissue. There's just not enough time.
But there was enough for her to kneel down and let out a strangle breath—a desperate, weak wail that broke apart in her throat.
Reaching out, her hand quivered as she's unable to control her emotions. Her hold on Jaune's weakening fingers was all for naught. "... I'm sorry."
Jaune made an attempt at saying his last words, anything, but the damage done by the Beowolf's teeth had ripped apart too much. Only a strangled gasp came forth before the Arc closed his eyes for the last time, and Pyrrha couldn't hold herself together anymore and ran as fast as her feet could carry her.
She ran away, powerless to stop some stinging tears from escaping her, blind to Jaune's snowy Aura still working to keeping its host alive and moving. Blind to the dead Beowolf, lodged between Jaune's heart and jaw, beginning its process of turning to dust. And blind to the Grimm's ashes converging alongside his Aura in a mix of warmth and cold.
She's blind to it all, too busy running away.
And Jaune's heart was left to fend for itself in a monster-infested forest.
...
Running, Pyrrha's trekking fast through the woods, and she didn't have any sense of direction. All her mind could focus on was Jaune's unfortunate death. All she could see was the pool of crimson. Her failure! That's what it was. A cruel reminder of her failure to protect. The images were still so vivid. They plague her like a bad disease. Following her without rest. And she lacked any sort of cure.
Some Huntsmen she's turning out to be, training or not. Couldn't even protect one person from the weakest of Grimm.
The Beowolf's jaws, she could still see them wrapped tightly around Jaune's neck, even after her spear had struck and killed the beast. Still see the blood and lifeless eyes that'd probably haunt her dreams for years to come. Only a few minutes into it and she'd already seen someone die. And it wasn't just a random face. It was someone she wanted desperately as a friend. Someone who only wanted a nice, quirky girl to talk to.
It's her fault. She kept telling herself that. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she could hear her logical part of her brain deny that false accusation, but Pyrrha bluntly ignored that wail, falling into a sliver of despair. The irony wasn't lost on her. If only she had been more careful, more aware of her surroundings, then perhaps Pyrrha could have saved him. Saved the one person who had no knowledge about her, and treated just like another random girl like she's always dreamed of since her rise to stardom.
A fool's dream.
Crash!
Not paying any real attention into her run, Pyrrha crashed right into another body. The surprise collision almost knocked her off her feet, but her adrenaline's far too high for such nonsense. A quick dig of her foot prevented her fall, but not so much for the other person. And the champion's forced to wince when she noticed her earlier and eccentric companion, Weiss, fall flat onto her butt in what looked to be a nasty topple.
It didn't take long for the girl in question to do a quick glare at the perpetrator, but her glare died, without missing a beat, when her eyes fell upon Pyrrha. A spark registered in her eyes and she grinned proudly in satisfaction, pushing back any lingering doubts back into the recesses of her mind, like the annoying grin of a certain red-hooded girl who she could spot out the corner of her vision.
Weiss was up before Pyrrha could offer her a hand. "Pyrrha! I'm so glad to see you!"
The enthusiasm wasn't quite returned. She forced to smile. "Oh! Hello, Weiss. It's nice to see you as well. I'm sorry for bumping into you—!"
"Nonsense! I'm perfectly fine!" Weiss grabbed the champion by her wrist, shaking it with a little too much enthusiasm. "I was just looking for a partner. And Fate seems to have brought us together. With the both of us working together, we'll be the strongest partners in Beacon. This couldn't be better!"
Pyrrha attempted to smile, but it's a poor thing compared to the first time she heard Weiss's plan. Her heart was simply not in it, not anymore. Yet, sad as the fact may be, Pyrrha Nikos was in search of a replacement partner after her recent scuffle with Death. The thrill may have fled, but the mission still remained. No matter what, abandoning her mission after watching a comrade fall wouldn't do his death justice. Quite the opposite in fact.
So Pyrrha's forced to break off the one-sided, awkward handshake with a soft pull. Luckily for her, Weiss didn't seem to notice her hesitation. "Okay."
"Perfect!" Or she pretended to simply not see it. Though Weiss did smile brighter for her, Pyrrha just couldn't find the energy to care.
"We should get going."
Neither Weiss nor the silver eyes peeking from behind a tree catch the hollowness of Pyrrha's tone. Only when the two new partners leave, did the owner of the eyes remove herself from her hiding spot, and into the middle of the clearing where Weiss and Pyrrha had stumbled upon each other. A girl no more than fifteen, both in age and mindset, sighed as she watched the fire and ice combo leaver her behind. And she could understand the redheaded one, but for Weiss to turn her back on her without so much as a passing glance, well, it really stung.
Pride and confidence were a fickle thing, and hers had been stabbed repeatedly in the back.
Ruby Rose sighed and went the direction Weiss's partner had come from, hoping to find her Relic as fast as possible, and to maybe avoid bumping into them, but it was seventy percent the mission. And the quicker the better. She didn't want to run into anymore mean people. Maybe if she's lucky enough, Ruby would bump into Jaune again. Screw her earlier opinion on him. Anyone was better than the resident Ice Queen. So what if he appeared useless in a fight, she could be wrong for all she knew. Dead, dead wrong!
A large part of her was really hoping for that.
Humming sadly to herself, Ruby found herself kicking a pebble for comfort with her shoulders hunched. The sound of the rock bouncing aimlessly on the forest floor did little to ease her conscious. She tried to cheer herself up, not liking the idea of Grimm closing in on her position, but found the action more impossible than getting her dad to be cool. It's not her fault she sneezed on Weiss. Okay, maybe it was a tiny bit her fault, but she apologized! Her dad always said that apologies made things better. Now Ruby's learning that's not the case, and her dad's a big, fat noodle-head. Saying sorry had only made her angrier.
"So much for making friends, Yang."
...
Left to die alone, a soul tried to reach the light at the end of the tunnel, but the darkness proved to be faster than even the light.
Without hope to hold onto, there's only despair to pull a person under. And Jaune sunk into the cold abyss, finding the reflection of the light murky between the ripples of hopelessness. And the deeper he sunk, the colder he got, and the harder it was to see the light. And when all hopes seemed lost, a beacon of light broke through the cold water and gripped his soul in an iron grip.
The rest was up to Jaune now.
His heart beat weakly, pushing and moving the Grimm's dust that merged with his Aura to the holes where his blood continued to spill. The newly born Aura still reached out and clung to Jaune and the Grimm's fragments, slowly attaining life in a whole new way. And slowly, but surely, the snowy white complexion of Jaune's Aura turned deathly pitch-black as the remnants of the Grimm got absorbed into his body by the pull of his Aura and frantic heart.
All the warmth his Aura gave withered away to the Grimm's ashes, gradually corrupting his Aura until nothing remained except for a husk of a shell that's bedridden with loneliness. A part of the Grimm's dust had transformed the opened gashes from the Beowolf's assault into freshly created bone-plating. The other half had restored the blood running in Jaune's body with a murky fluid, dropping his body's natural temperature to a new level, keeping him alive and his heart beating strong once more with an unnatural rhythm.
Eventually, the sensation of life came back to Jaune Arc, and he opened his eyes back to the world of Remnant. The dark blotches slowly dissolve away from his vision, and the clear sky and surrounding bush of trees focus once more. Birds were chirping a blandish tune and he felt unnaturally different. Not in a bad way, but not in a good way, either.
Just different.
Born in a pool of his own blood, Jaune Arc slowly stood up with renew vigor, wrapped in a feeling of pure cold and sensing a consuming hollow sensation deep within his chest that never seemed to die. Large parts of his body hurt—strongly his neck and chest—and this gnawing hunger settled within the pits of his broken soul. And eventually the pain subsided, leaving behind a husk of loneliness and detachment where even the blood fell off his clothes effortlessly. It would warrant a reaction, or at least should, but he found it impossible to care.
"What... happened?" He's left standing in the clearing, alone. The blood underneath his feet spoke of a story he couldn't read. "The last thing I remember... was Pyrrha unlocking my Aura... and then I think a Grimm attacked my neck?"
Checking to see if his memories proved right, Jaune's very surprised to find a sturdy like material attached to his neck, kind of reminding him of the sensation of callouses on his skin. It's slightly hollow to the touch, a small thump of his knuckles reveal that, but Jaune could still feel his nerves react to the perception of touch. And when he tried to remove it, normal pain came forth, effectively stopping the Arc from continuing his action after a few more attempts.
Faintly scared, he quickly grabbed Crocea Mors and tilted the handle of the blade to get a reflection off the polished metal. Instantly, he spotted the white layer of bone where the Beowolf had bit him, lightly frightened to even consider touching the strange material again. There's a few rows of sharp points sticking up on the bone that distinctly resemble a layer of teeth that curved halfway across his neck until it reached a little more than halfway, before it abruptly stopped. The bone's short, hardly half the length of Jaune's neck, but against his skin, it was plain as day.
"Okay, I'm totally freaking out now." Except he's not, not at all actually.
Jaune Arc couldn't really feel that emotion or properly act on it, saying it more based off force of habit. He's scared, but the dark glare of his eyes on his great-great grandfather's sword said otherwise. It didn't reflect back his panicky emotions and he's no longer so sure if he's truly frighten or acting out the emotions for his own twisted benefit. And for a split-second, he thought he could make out a thin veil of darkness around his person before it faded away.
Tilting his sword at a hue of blood dripping down his cheek, he spotted the same cut from before. "Didn't Pyrrha say my Aura was supposed to heal this and protect me? Wait? Is this boney thing my Aura? Damn, I really wish I knew what Aura was. And where is Pyrrha?"
Peering away from Crocea Mors, Jaune traced his finger over the cut, drawing blood. Out of habit he stuck his thumb in his mouth, tasting the irony liquid in a childlike fashion. Strangely, he found the taste impeccable. Flavor exploded in his mouth. He wanted more—no, he needed more, but refrained from eating away his own blood. Still, it was already too late.
He already developed a taste, and by depriving himself of a meal, that gnawing hunger had returned with a vengeance. Like a craving it was impossible to ignore. Only this craving wasn't exactly aimed at blood, but a taste he didn't know the name to. Jaune just knew that blood would lead to the meal his soul longed for. A frightening thought, or so he would assume. Morality just didn't seem to be with him today.
Gnaw!
A sudden, stronger urge stopped Jaune's thoughts, calling to him with a high need. He didn't know what to make of it, but the impulse forced him to stare off to the forest, making him wait until the Arc could see an outline of a very familiar reaper rustling angrily through the leaves. And without even needing to hear her voice, he knew she felt sad, betrayed, infuriated, and most of all, very, very hurt.
Beyond strange.
"Dumb, Weiss." Ruby grumbled sadly as she walked through the lonely woods with the pebble she's been kicking around her only friend. "Stupid bee's knees... stupid rules... stupid negative friend. Who needs them! I'll show her! I'll show them all! I'll find a better partner! One who doesn't ditch me for someone stronger!"
Not knowing what to do, Jaune's urge returned, stronger than ever. It's putting both the sensation of fear and distrust into his brain the moment his eyes lock with her silvery ones, but the Arc quickly shook most of the emotions away—because that's Ruby and there's nothing to be afraid of—only leaving behind traces of fear and some longing of anticipation to bold alongside him.
The fear won over.
Quickly grabbing the hood of his sweater, Jaune pulled it over his head, obscuring away everything with the hint of shadows, except for the shine of his cobalt eyes, strands of his hair sticking out here and there, and part of his lower face. Part of the boney plate peeked out as well, and the blood from his cut had finally dried from natural healing. The fear had still forced him to grab Crocea Mors and shield and hold them in a false sense of security.
Jaune didn't understand why he did all that, but he did. No matter how hard to tried to latch onto other emotions to level on, they simply turned to ash between his figurative fingers, dust to the wind. So when Ruby spotted Jaune, after kicking her lone pebble and watching it land beside his feet, she didn't immediately recognize him. It might've had something to do with the way Jaune's empty eyes pierced Ruby's inner soul like a predator on the hunt, or even the way Jaune's posture screamed out dangerous. She's not too sure.
But what she was sure was that she fell down on her butt from the surprise, falling prey to a tree root she overlooked.
"Gah!" Wincing from the fall, Ruby quickly got up. Her hand's already reaching for Crescent Rose. "Who are you? What do you want?"
Lost, Jaune could literally feel the fear and slight tremors of anger coming from her and an even stronger urge to reach out toward it. Instead, his eyes widen slightly in shock, to be followed with a light, hollow laughter that rattled Ruby's emotions even more so. How he knew? Simple!
These whispers told him so.
"Ruby? It's me..." He moved to remove his hoodie, but instead stopped halfway, enough to allow for his eyes and blond hair to pop out. The whispers told him to. Why he listened was up in the air. "Jaune Arc! Don't tell me you forgot already? You must stink at memory games."
"Jaune? Is that... you?"
He found her skepticism amusing. "The one and only. Unless you know another Jaune Arc." The joke's as flat as a flat-line. Maybe he should try smiling next time. "Ruby? Are you okay? You look scared?"
That would be putting it mildly. She's petrified. Her heart must be racing with how much fear she's throwing out. Which turned out for the worst since her emotions were like a sweat nectar he couldn't get enough of. It's wrong for him to be enjoying her fear, but the word wrong didn't seem to exist in his dictionary anymore. But that didn't mean he was going to send her to an early grave. Ruby's still his first friend. That should mean a lot to him. He's trying his damn hardest to make it so. And it's not working.
Time to throw in the Arc charms. With a simple throw of his arm, Jaune held Crocea Mors over his shoulder while he gave Ruby the best smile he could muster. "C'mon, lazy butt, get off you keister! The floor must be crawling with bugs."
Ruby still hadn't moved from her spot. Instincts scream at her to be careful. Uncle Qrow's always told her to rely on those. "Jaune? Is that really you?"
No one could blame him for rolling his eyes. "Are we really playing twenty questions? Just a fair warning, I have seven sisters, you have one. You're not going to be beat me."
Evidently surprised, she edged closer. "... You look different?"
Proper protocol would be to lower the hoodie and give his friend a warm smile. However, the little voice in his head denied the idea, whispering gibberish that oddly resembled not fear, but cynicism. An abnormal line of thinking for the Arc since Ruby was a friend. Yet, the feelings demand he remained hidden, blocking out any sort of emotions to surface forth. More importantly, Jaune gnawed over the fact that whispers plagued his thoughts. They didn't sound like his inner voice, more tone deaf and animal-like. And the more he studied over them, the more he wished he could feel a sliver of fear. At least then things would make far more sense.
But he trusted Ruby, screw his random instincts.
Grabbing the sides of his hoodie, he slowly lowered it for Ruby to find out what's so different about her friend, and Jaune could feel her confusion and fear melt away into curiosity in a heartbeat. But he's not really focused on that. His attention's captured by her silver eyes. They're so, deadly? Whoa! Time-out! Where did that come from?
"Whoa!" Ruby's instantly by his side with a fluster of rose petals not too far behind, touching the boney substance on his neck with a soft poke of her finger. It felt pleasant. "What is this? Is this your Semblance?"
Honestly? "I don't know. I don't even know what a Semblance is. I just woke up and there it was!"
"You were asleep?"
"No..." he recalled, flashing back to the incident. "One minute Pyrrha was unlocking my Aura, and the next I'm waking up to find all this and no partner in sight. Speaking of Pyrrha? I wonder what happened to my partner. Have you seen her? She has long, red hair and is as tall as me."
Feeling all her happiness die, Jaune saw Ruby's anger returning as she crossed her arms adorably. "Hmph! Don't talk to me about stupid partners! Mine ditched me... for yours!"
"Wait?" First a pause and then a tight frown. "What? What do you mean?"
Throwing her hands up in the air, Ruby glared and began walking in circles. "One minute me and Weiss are in the woods, and the next, Pyrrha runs by and Weiss accepts her as her partner, even though we saw each other first." Her anger died to sadness. Her arms droop. "She ditched me. She hated me so much that she broke the rules and ditched me. There must be something wrong with me if she didn't want to be my partner."
Being drawn into her sadness, and surprisingly not feeling any sort of his own at Pyrrha's sudden new choice in partnership, Jaune's overcome with the longing to bask in Ruby's grief, never wanting to be away from the sensation. It's a terrible thought, this much he knew, but for some odd reason he's attracted to that broken crack in her voice and dead atmosphere she'd found herself trapped in.
It's all so intoxicating, to the point he never wanted to leave her side. Yet, the gentler, more Arc side of him overpowered that need, but who knew how long that side would survive with his new mindset. Already the darkness was bashing it away.
"Who needs them?" The words were easy and powerful and take no second thoughts. The old Arc charm prevailed after all. "We can be partners! Better partners, even! We'll show them what they're missing! Nobody ditches us! What do you say, partner?"
Jaune's not going to lie, he really missed all that melancholy she had, but another part of Jaune loved the blossoming smile that's growing on Ruby's face. It's all so confusing and utterly terrifying, and he couldn't figure out why there seemed to be an internal battle going on inside his head. Every emotion he had couldn't find the right moment to act, so Jaune's been forced to improvise since the moment he laid eyes on her. Truth be told, it's getting a little exhausting.
Renewed, Ruby pulled on Jaune's sleeve, forcing his hand up along hers, thus shining Crocea Mors in the sunlight. "You're right! We don't need them! We'll make the bestest partners that Beacon's ever seen!"
"I'm not sure if bestest is a word, Ruby."
Ignoring him. "That'll show Weiss and Pyrrha!"
Freeing his hand and accepting defeat, a smile slowly morphed to match hers. "Yea... that'll show them."
This was the part he would feel bad about getting mock revenge on someone who had been only been nice and supportive to him, but the Arc couldn't find it in him to care. No matter what his mind told him, what years of wearing his emotions on his sleeve showed over and over again, the troubling emotions refused to come forth, lacking in a sense. The smile he had was somewhat real as well, different and stronger, but more forced than it should ever be.
Almost like a fragment of him had died and he had to act the part to keep up appearances.
Plus, he's not the only one thinking it, even if said adorable person didn't verbally tell him. Her emotions spoke louder than words. No matter how impossible the idea of sensing emotions seemed to him, there's no emotional doubt to back it up, so by a process of elimination, he could feel emotions. There's no two-ways about it.
Jaune knew he could feel a slight hitch of fear in Ruby's glow, and he could almost see it in her eyes with the way she had quickly adverted her gaze. All of it confused him. These feeling were not just coming from Ruby, but from all around them. Other feelings like happiness and frustration have also made themselves known to the knight, and he's sorely tempted to seek them out and—?
And what?
An honest share of him wanted to seek their attention, possibly bask in the negative ones, but another; darker share wanted to snuff out those feelings! To break them until they're nothing but dust and then devour the leftovers for his consumption! That empty hunger of his demanded it with a bloodthirsty roar and curdling fetish. Like his first taste of blood, just maybe a tad stronger. And it should scare him.
Please Monty, why didn't it scare him? Why did it provoke no feeling? No emotion? Nothing. How come nothing made sense anymore?! Why couldn't he feel? What happened to him? Where's his humanity? When did he ever lose it. Who stole it?
Each one of these thoughts scared him, but his smile remained unchanged. The edge was never lost to him, and the sensations were pressing down on his psyche like an invisible weight. Only the depressing emotions seem to push away the weight, if only for a little while. And he's ready to go seek them out to revel in their presence. Yea, there's definitely something wrong with him.
He wanted to blame them on his new urges, those random whispers that exist in the back of his mind, but that would only make him at fault again. Talk about a double-edged sword.
If this was Aura, then he didn't want it.
"C'mon!" Jaune urged, wanting nothing more than to seek out the emotions. The hunger's getting to him. "We better go complete the mission. We don't want to get kicked of Beacon before we even start. How else are we supposed to make everyone else look bad?"
"No..." Ruby grumbled, finger to lip plus a pout. "That would be bad. Yang will never let me hear the end of it."
Relieved, Jaune hid his head to the world, hiding away behind his hoodie once more. The darkness comforted him in ways he couldn't put into words. Luckily, Ruby didn't seem to mind, actually, she's taking the time to hide behind her hood as well. They're hoodie-buddies, both of them. That alone helped her mood improve.
It might've had something to do with the bouts of depression she had. People tended to hide away in the dark whenever sadness became too much to bear, he should know, but feelings or no feelings, Jaune didn't like to see Ruby sad in anyway. Grief didn't suit the little reaper. No matter how much the darkness hiding in plain sight loved to feed off her emotions and tell him so. Some of his Arc pride still resided within him. And it probably helped that he liked the way the shadows of her hood complimented her innocence.
She looked cute. Jaune liked cute. Good to see he could still feel something. Be it a side of lust, but he'd take it! Sins are fine. They're totally fine.
"Well come on! Let's go! I bet I could beat you out of this forest!" He pretended to be happy for her sake and challenged her to a race. "First one out... is... a... loser?"
Whoosh!
Jaune Arc's left standing there, talking to a floating rose petal that was originally his new partner, while Ruby was busy instantly vanishing from his line of sight, but not from his range of perception. Even if trace amounts of doubts washed over from his side, farther down in the forest, Jaune could feel Ruby's new happy emotions wrapping around her like his snuggly onesie.
It's both a relief and disappointment.
He just suckered himself into a losing bet.
Defeated, Jaune stared toward the direction where Ruby's emotions lay, ignoring the all powerful ones around him. Partners didn't abandon each other and he's still determined to win this one-sided game of theirs. Hopeless or not. Yet, he knew it's hopeless.
No one's that delusional. Not even the whispers, scratching at the back of his skull, offer up a moot point.
And speaking of whispers, the Arc might as well take the time to figure out what's happening with him. Ruby's intrusion didn't exactly give him a lot of time to figure things out. Heck, he's lucky she didn't see the massive blood stains on the ground, or things would've gotten really awkward. Small mercies.
Kicking his feet on the dirt, Jaune glared at the floor with an emotionless mask. Now that he didn't need to keep the mask up, he preferred to drop it. Kind of hurt to keep his face smiling when the muscles acted against it. His jaw actually ached a bit. Whoever thought smiling could be so painful?
Checking his surroundings with bored eyes, he did a quick sigh before following after Ruby's trail of breadcrumbs, or rose petals. Didn't matter. The way he dragged his feet meant for this to be a slow journey. He had questions. His lack of emotions made him virtually fearless. The unknown needed to be explored. And all his answers lied with the whispers coming out to play.
"If you can hear me, say something."
Silence.
An absence of sound made the forest a loud place. The wind howled in the distance. Leaves rustled on the forest floor. There's telltale of gunshots in the background. A person could get stuck out here with only their thoughts to keep them company. Then, breaking through the imaginary world, that deafening whisper returned. Words were shuffled, their message was unclear, it almost sounded like they're submerged underwater. Occasionally, he could make one out, like he'd been doing all this time, except those times the messages had been clear from the start.
In the end, the sounds weren't really words, but more like a collage of sounds that occasionally create a passable word.
"I guess it's random?" In a way, Jaune did get what he asked for. Just not the way he expected. Then to his everlasting annoyance, the whispers come back to affirm this before slinking back into the puddles. "Gee, thanks! That was really helpful. I sure learned a lot."
Good news, he's not crazy. Bad news, he's not crazy.
The whispers were as real as the bugs crawling on the floor. Judging by the way they stayed at his shadow's side, they're here to stay. Their purpose's unknown. It's as if they're simply along for the ride, being a co-pilot in what he called a life. A dark passenger for lack of a better phrase. Of course he's not going to call it his dark passenger.
That'd just be silly.
"Are you at least on my side? Can you answer me that?" To answer his question, his hunger vanished. Jaune instinctively knew it wasn't forever, but small victories eventually lead up to winning the war. "Still doesn't really answer my question, but I'll take it."
Whelp! Now that he's left with more questions than answers, Jaune picked up the pace to catch up to Rubes. He seriously doubted the whispers were going to be convenient when he wanted them to be, so better to make the best out of a bad situation and complete the initiation. Which also meant he needed to keep up appearances until he figured everything out. So it's back to playing mind games.
Brushing a branch aside, possibly the same one that scarred him earlier, he spotted Ruby's outline farther down the path. Sighing, Jaune for all intents and purpose threw up another smile. The odd sensation of forcing his muscles to retract like that, minus the lack of any emotion, really made the gesture uncomfortable and quite possible scary.
Gosh! He really hoped that wasn't the case.
...
Reaching the end of the forest with her boots leaving behind a trail of dirt and rose petals, Ruby smugly grinned in the direction where she left Jaune behind to eat her dust. No one challenged Ruby Rose to a race and hoped to win. That's just plain stupid. Not even her sister Yang would make that bet, and the girl lived for trouble and mayhem. Her dumb dad might humor her, and that made it hard for her to take him seriously, especially since he cheated with using words to discourage her.
Dumb dad and his stupid guilt trips!
In the off distance, she could spot him making his way toward her, grin strong and all. And it's that smile of his that caused her to take a hesitant step back and almost another before she steeled her nerves at the pointless struggle. Pointless or not, though, her instincts tell her to be cautious of that smile of his, no matter how ridiculous the urge felt or how strongly she felt against such a useless and meaningless thought. Because ever since she spotted Jaune those few moments ago, her heart threatened to stop on command. And every once in a while it skipped a beat.
Why it did such things scared her.
Jaune's smile was different. In every possible way it's different, no two ways about it. It's easier and there was this new air of confidence that made her want to be wary of him. Nothing from it stood out, but she couldn't put her finger on it. It just seemed so lifeless. So dull and utterly empty. Like everything inside him had up and died from her carefree friend she had only met yesterday.
Like he was dead inside.
A crazy thought, one that's fueled by nothing, and she shook away the troubling idea before it caused her another negative friend. Monty forbid she got anymore of those.
Seconds later, Jaune reached Ruby with him gasping slightly for air. The action caused the girl to giggle at Jaune's defeated, sweaty face, knowing that he was the loser of their little race. A nice try. She might even give him a pat on the back later for his futile efforts? He did end up making her smile. That's got to count for something.
"What?" he wheezed, standing straighter with his back arched. "Was that? How were you able to run so fast?"
More giggling. "That was my Semblance. I'm a speedster! Speed's my game! And I'm the master!"
"Semblance?" he echoed, catching all his breath. There's pure confusion haunting him. "I still don't know what a Semblance is, Ruby."
Taking a moment to wonder how her partner even got into Beacon without a Semblance, Ruby quickly pointed a finger in the air with the same confidence as a Professor or his own father. He's not sure which comparison bothered him more.
"A Semblance is like a super power you get that kind of responds to your Aura! See!" She moved closer to him in a flash. The rose petals getting trapped in his hair was just a bonus. "My semblance makes me super-fast! No one could catch me! Just try it! I dare you!"
Jaune lazily grabbed her hood, fixing her a leveled glare. "Caught you."
"No!" she yelled at him for missing the point. "Gah! You know what I mean!"
He did and then he didn't it. Was this strange hollow feeling in his chest his Semblance? What about the bone on his neck or his weird ability to feel Ruby's emotions? How about this hunger? Were they all part of his Semblance or was this just his Aura? Better question, who would want this power if this proved to be the case? Unsustainable hunger? Emotionless doll? Outer appearance change? Seemed like a heavy price to pay for a super power.
Even so, the concept wasn't lost to Jaune, but the execution left a lot to be desired. "So how do I get my Semblance? Do I just close my eyes and wish for it to happen? Is there like some secret mantra I gotta say?"
Pulling her hood away, she shrugged. "I don't know. Sometimes you get it while you're training, or other times it just happens... are you sure this isn't your Semblance? Because this isn't normal!"
She pointed to his neck and Jaune reached out to touch the bone-plating. "I really don't know. I just had my Aura unlocked before you found me."
Jaune could feel the surprise in Ruby before her eyes even light up. Emotion reading sure had its perks. "Really? You just had your Aura unlocked?" Nodding only made that wad of confusing, conflicted emotions more scattered. "Then maybe this is your Semblance and you just don't know how to use it yet?"
The answer seemed fair, and this whole Aura and Semblance deal was still new to him. He'd take what explanation he could get at this point. Didn't seem like Ruby's willingly to argue about it, anyways. Meek or not, the girl's stubborn to a fault. He didn't need to read her emotions to figure that out.
"Could be." He crossed his arms and sighed distastefully. "It would explain all the weird stuff going on with me."
"Weird stuff? What weird stuff." Ruby couldn't help but ask, taken back. "You're telling me there's even more? What other secrets were you hiding, dear partner of mine?" Jaune smirked slightly, amused at Ruby's conflicting emotions. They put him, well, not in a good mood, he had no such thing anymore, but a better mood. Ruby only got more impatient by his reluctance. "Tell me!"
Definitely pushy.
On the edge of revealing his hidden powers to her, with his tongue clicked with his teeth, that same whisper of darkness from before warned him not to reveal too much. The words were too clear for any chance of mistrust. He quickly thought about ignoring it, but it wouldn't budge, not on this, no matter what meaningless excuse Jaune made for it. And something told the Arc to really listen to the dark whispers this time. They're pushing too hard for anything less.
And perhaps it's for the best. Telling others he could essentially tell how they're feeling, or when they're lying, did have a foreseeable drawback. Future trust would vanish in smoke without a doubt. No one would care to converse him. And each word spoken would be clipped and carefully chosen with a level head. And honestly, that didn't appeal to the apathetic man. Why ruin a good thing over something as useless and trivial as fairness? At least that's what the darkness told him.
So Jaune lied.
He lied without remorse. He told Ruby about his ability to read and feel emotions, but only to a small extent, nothing close to what he actually felt , and he did leave out the little fact he couldn't feel his own or how hollow he felt inside. Nor did he reveal that he enjoyed seeing the light in her eyes die whenever sadness gripped at her. None of it was revealed to her against his weighted judgement. And the dark whispers stop, if only for a brief moment.
Lying by omission never felt so easy. So natural.
Ruby ended up reacting the way Jaune expected her to.
She never missed a beat. "That's... a weird Semblance." Ruby tried to hide some part of her disappointment, but quickly found Jaune forcing a smile on her instead. "Oh... sorry. I already forgot."
Jaune pretended to be offended. Without emotions, faking them was a lot easier than he ever thought possible. Keeping the muscles together was the hard part. And at a base level he felt no shame in pretending, but the second Ruby's hit with guilt, some parts of him both hated and loved that timid expression dwelling inside her. The sensation's too delicious to ignore. He's forced to bite his tongue or risk a groan. Luckily, his Arc pride won over and he quickly snuffed out that delight, poking the small girl on the shoulder in attempt to wash away any trace of grief.
Pity.
"Don't worry about it, Ruby. It's fine—I'm fine." There's still traces of doubt in her. Time to improvise. "Who knows? Maybe I could do some pretty awesome stuff if I practice a little. And besides, I can only feel your emotions randomly." Jaune randomly grinned, mocking in element. "And besides, your face like an open book. I don't need my Semblance to read your emotions."
Ruby nudged him in the shoulder. "You're a jerk!"
"You're a jerk!"
That alone seemed to bring her spirits back up, both to the amusement and disappointment of the harsh whispers of decay and blood floating inside his head. He'd have to find a way to control this urge, because it only seemed to be getting stronger, a fear he couldn't fully feel, but for now he's able to press it down. How long that'd last was hard to say, but Jaune's banking on not too long.
"Jerk..." she smiled and Jaune faked his own. He also learned that Ruby had a thing for nudging. Then she's pulling him close to a shoulder-to-shoulder victory pose. "And don't worry, I'll help you! We'll practice together! There's no obstacle Beacon's bestest partners can't overcome!"
The knight's not too sure on how she could help with an emotional based Semblance—if this was his Semblance—but he's not saying no to any sort of help. Not now. Especially not now. On the other hand, he's not saying yes. Definitely not saying yes. It's complicated in the cruelest sense of the word. Maybe he'd just stick to maybe.
Peering down at the short girl, Jaune gave it his best smile. She smiled back.
"Thanks, Rubes!" Jaune shrugged his shoulder toward an off-direction where he could feel panic and pure, unrestrained happiness lurking nearby. "Let's go! We need to complete this mission."
She nodded and they're off. And a few minutes into the walk with Ruby had put Jaune's new found line of power into full perspective. And what he learned should scare him, but it didn't.
Not one bit.
All of his emotions—the thing that made him feel normal—no longer seem to exist at a base level. He couldn't feel sadness at the thought of Pyrrha ditching him, nor could he feel a sort of connection and understanding when it came to Ruby's rant about lousy partners. Hell, he'd been forcing a smile each time the moment called for one. In fact! It's the same for all his emotions.
Every last one of them were nothing more than a hollow mask he put on.
The slight fear he had felt earlier looked to have been the last remnants of emotions he had left. For a lack of a better idea, the emotions he lost have appear to be buried underneath others. It's more of a give-and-take system. Where his emotions have been stripped away from his soul, in exchange with the power to feel the emotions of others around him and assess the situation. This made forcing his own emotions a whole lot easier to do. And again, Jaune Arc should be worried, but he's not.
It's an emotionally impossible task for him to worry.
"Hey!" Ruby pointed ahead of them, breaking him from his thoughts. "Look! A cave! Do you think we're supposed to get our mission objective from there? It looks pretty dark."
"Maybe..." he answered honestly, shrugging his shoulders.
That answer alone seemed to be good enough for Ruby, who's already running toward the entrance of the cave in a quick speed of rose petals. One of them landed on Jaune's nose and he coolly blew it away before running after her. A worthless effort as the girl came running out a second later, sliding aggressively beside Jaune with Crescent Rose locked and loaded with a fierce look of determination knitted down on her usually positive face.
Jaune Arc didn't even get a moment to ask what happened before a Grimm like scorpion thrashed out of the cave, looking positively fuming. The monster thrashed wildly against the cave rocks that have fallen on it, shrugging away the rubble with weak effort.
Adding a small glare, Jaune slowly raised his sword up, hating how he couldn't feel anger toward Ruby. On the plus side, no fear! "What did you do? You were only in there for less than a minute."
"Hey!" she huffed, emitting a tiny growl. "Why is it always my fault?" Jaune didn't answer, but he did give her a sideways glare. "Okay! Fine! I might have accidentally pulled its tail too hard... and almost tore it off. In my defense, I didn't know it was its tail! You should've stopped me."
He should honestly feel surprised and a tiny bit irritated with her. Maybe even some impression of tired and distraught. At least anger.
Nothing ever came.
Instead, he waved away the concern; feeling conflicted at the sight of the Death Stalker finally breaking free from the cave collapse. It spotted them huddled away from the entrance, one drenched in fear, and the other in indifference. Immediately focusing its eyes on the girl, it charged at her in a roar of fury, more than prepared to end it, but stopped—without any trace of anger—once the Grimm spotted Jaune protectively guarding alongside the irksome female.
Their eyes meet. Jaune's not too sure what he's supposed to do. Some human part of him told him to flee or fight. Another part of him told him to do nothing and interact. The urges, the hush whispers, and the slow beating of his heart resonating in his ears were all so confusing. And it seemed he's not the only one to be stunned.
The Grimm stopped before taking a hesitant step toward Jaune, acting very childish compared to only seconds ago. Each move's calm and calculated, meant to study the human that stood before it. Although, the Death Stalker appeared to be having problems sensing anything akin to life or emotions that normally attracted its kind.
Nothing came from the human standing before it. His eyes were filled with paralleled darkness. Compared to the other; this creature remained absolutely hollow inside. No fear, no anger, no joy, just nothing. Jaune's simply a hollow shell of nothing. Soulless in every sense of the word. Just like the Grimm standing before him.
A monster.
Feeling some sort of kinship with the monster, Jaune couldn't sense any emotion at all hiding inside. No anger like it had acted out—just like the way he forced himself smiled whenever Ruby talked and joked—or any real semblance of feelings.
There's simply nothing.
The bone attached to his neck, and his chest, felt incredibly warm and funny. That hunger sickening his soul was nowhere to be seen. The Arc could even say he's a little nervous to be glaring at eyes just as dead as his. Not a bad type of nervousness, but like a love struck kind, where there's butterflies fluttering aimlessly in his stomach.
Stepping forward, Jaune gulped with confidence, wanting nothing more than to connect. Everything about this was all still new to him, so the concept of what to do was hopelessly lost. Even when the rational thinking part of his brain told him to be afraid and on prime alert, a more primitive and stronger urge conflicts with that part of his mind and told him to reach out and connect. And eventually that sensation finally captured Jaune's interest, allowing the primitive urge to overcome his rational thoughts for a short period of time.
Burying the blade of Crocea Mors into the dirt, Jaune extended his hand out and slowly walked over and lightly touched the Grimm's skull, ignoring the soft gasp and array of haunting emotions bubbling up behind him. And subtly, ever so subtly, he lowered his hoodie to allow his bone-platted neck to be shown against the high sun, taking solace in the soft growl from the Grimm.
"Aren't you afraid of it?"
Tracing his fingers softly on the bone-plating of the Death Stalker, Jaune hardly spared Ruby a glance over his shoulder, or even an afterthought, feeding into not her curiosity but those tiny bits of fear radiating from her body. And he could feel the Death Stalker react to her fear as well, but he stopped it instinctively with a soft nudge of his palm.
Aren't you afraid of it?
What a silly question to ask.
"Am I supposed to be?"
Update: Edited - 1/9/2018
Word count increase: 3500