Some semblances are oft crafted by the soul of the person, yet some are shaped by the experiences of their owner. In that case it can be either a blessing or a curse and for one Jaune Arc, when captured by the White Fang, he learns his Discompose certainly seems like the latter.
Pain is Merely a Touch Away.
By
Hibiki
Imagine you could have the rights to RWBY, but for the rest of your life, you would have to clean up every mess or problem created by every Rooster Teeth 'Million Dollars, But..." challenge accepted. Would it be worth it? Not for me.
RWBY is created by Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth.
Chapter One: To upset the order of; disarrange; disorder; unsettle
Nicholas Arc Struggled against the hellish looking blade of the Bull faunas before him. The young masked man held only a small grimace as he held the large buster sword at bay with a surprising amount of strength, despite the white fang holding his long weapon single highhandedly. Behind the Arc patriarch and whimpering in fear was his seven little girls and his wife, though much to his panic and anger, his 15 year old son had been separated from them by a brute of a wolf faunas during the initial surprise attack on their annual train trip through Forever Fall Forest. Nicholas cursed himself for allowing such a thing to happen and used that to allow the few hits he took to fuel his semblance. To his vexation, it seemed that the bull faunas was also absorbing, meaning a similar build up attack.
The older man bit back a curse once he realized the man one of the white fang underlings called 'Adam' wielded a semblance much like his own, the damage the two of them could unleash, amplified and reflected over again until their aura wore out could almost guarantee the destruction of the train they were all on, if not a large chunk of the forest. It also seemed that this Adam also figured out the problem and his grimace became a full frown. With a dredge of sheer willpower Nicholas pushed the young bull away, allowing a small bit of breathing room.
"It seems you also realize we're at an impasse as well."
"I'll cut you down before you-" The man was cut off as another subordinate came shouting from the forward car into the one the White Fang and Nicholas had all but destroyed.
"Alabaster says a large force of Atlas troops on their way! We've got the cargo and brat as hostage, we're clear to go, Adam!" Adam sneered and whipped his blade back into it's rifle sheath.
"Feh. You're lucky we've got what we need, human." It seemed like the Bull was to say more but a explosive rocked the carriage they were in. "I'll kill you next time." He turned and began racing off as more detonations rocked the train they were riding. Nicholas raced after them, his rage mounting.
"ADAM! Give me back my son, you bastard!" Nicholas raged as he stepped out onto the roof of the train, watching helplessly as the bullhead loaded with terrorists, dust and his teenaged son zoomed away from the incoming Atlas battleships.
"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUNE!"
(-o0O0o-)
One and a half Years Later
He snapped awake, heart racing. The memories of that time slowly fading into the recesses of his mind as he quickly slipped off his muted blue onesie and took to his shower with military efficiency. Once he finished toweling off he remained nude, standing center of his room. Closing his eyes he breathed softly, trying to calm his mind and stay his hand. Several minutes passed in this way, the only sign of the turmoil in his head was the slow subtle quiver beginning in his right hand that soon turned into a full on tremor. With a frustrated and shaken sigh the young man opened his cobalt blue eyes and stared remorsefully to his trembling digits before glancing at the clock on his wall.
"Three minutes, twelve seconds. Eight seconds longer this time." His voice was that of a boy turned man, voice cracking with the last vestiges of puberty, but also with a pained sense of gloom that belayed his stubborn progress.
Looking around his room he quickly found his normal outfit, Long heavy duty pants, so sturdy the legs couldn't be hemmed by a normal sewing machine, so he wrapped them around his shins tying them securely, the added layers between exposure and his legs a comfort to the young man. His torso was covered in a heavy long sleeved shirt, sturdy and durable, similarly to his pants they were also bound shut at his wrists, but not before full fingered gloves slipped on and their forearm ends covered by bound cuffs. A neck to nose cloth mask soon covered his face and a hood from his shirt covered his sun kissed hair.
[knock knock] A soft knock echoed from his door. Panic filled him and he quickly covered his blue eyes in shades, trying to calm his trembling as the voice of his mother called forth.
"Jaune, are you covered?"
"Y-yes." It was only then his door opened and his mother walked in. There was relief in her eyes, something she was trying to hide, along with guilt as she saw his covered state. "Good Morning Mom."
"Good Morning, Sweetheart, did you sleep well?" He nodded.
"Fine." Not for the first time, Jaune thanked his coverings as he lied to his mother about the nightmares. She and their father both still easily felt like they failed him all those many months ago, and his night terrors were a still heavy reminder of their supposed failure. "What's for breakfast?"
"Sapphire's favorite." Ah, Waffles. He smirked, glad that they had finally gotten over trying to 'fix' things by making his favorite every morning. A family could not live of chicken nuggets alone. "You're friend is here as well." His smirk grew to a full smile and he quickly finished his ensemble with combat boots, covering their tops with the thick layers of folded pants and tightening the pant cuffs over. It was warm and stuffy, it was heavy and uncomfortable, it was oppressive and restricting.
Jaune finally felt like he was safe. His hand, unbeknownst to him, finally stopped shaking.
He walked down the stairs, his mother a few steps behind him. At the foot of the steps was a beautiful figure. Her lithe form accentuated in monochromatic highlights that was only offset by the almost purple highlight of morning light against her long wavy locks and her amber colored orbs that stood against pale flawless skin as she took in his sight. He had no doubt she had heard him coming, beneath her black ribbon he knew of her cat like ears. It was her one outstanding show of faunas heritage that despite the horrors that had been inflicted on his family and to his person, meant little at all to them.
For this girl, Blake Belladonna, was the sole reason he was walking down the steps of his home now. She had turned her back on the people who she had fought for and with, for him. She saved his life.
"Hey." He softly called out. She echoed it later with a wry sardonic smile. "Hungry? Mom is making waffles."
"Okay." She fell into step beside him. "Can I have a small bit of tuna on the side, Missus Arc?"
"Of course dear." Juniper rushed off to complete the meal, leaving the two alone.
"How long did you manage to repress it this morning?" Blake finally asked, sensing his unease.
"Eight seconds longer." Blake merely hummed, she glanced about before pulling off his hood, exposing his shaggy golden locks. Jaune held fast despite the wave of panic at being exposed but in a bizarre twist calmed the moment her hand gently caressed his scalp, him dryly thinking it odd that it was the cat petting the human.
"See, I told you, you can do it. It will take time, Jaune, but I know you'll be able to hold back Discompose indefinitely one day." The belief in her voice was palpable, making almost believe her.
"...Blake..."
"Don't Blake me, I know you can do it." Her hand slowed. "And when you can, you won't need me anymore." There was a hitch in her voice. It had been seventeen months since he had met Blake, fifteen since he counted her a friend and fourteen since her unlocking his Aura and their escape. Despite the short amount of time that seemed he still did not like when this beautiful friend got like this.
"Never." He turned to look at her, his gloved hand resting on her shoulder, closer to her neck than he meant but her golden eyes held him frozen. "Even if I fix this curse of mine, I'll never not need you Blake." His glove reached up and touched her cheek and the girl leaned slightly into it. "You're the best thing to happen to me, and even if I had to be given Discompose to meet you, I don't regret it."
"Jaune..." Something in her voice, the tingle that was sparked in the way she said it, was something all the more new to the lad, and had been happening more and more these last few months, even before they had learned of her immunity to his semblance. Her hand had slid down to his mask, her beautiful face seemingly all the more intense. His heart was beating so fast.
"Blake?" Juniper called out. "Are you and Nick taking Jaune to the field again?" By the time the matriarch of the Arcs walked in the two were separated by a wide margin, only Blake showing any sort of flushed nature as due to Jaune's clothes hiding his. "Everything okay?"
"F-fine! I'll go set the table Missus Arc!" Blake was gone in a flash, leaving a confused Jaune with his mother. Juniper looked back and forth between the two teens for a moment, her maternal instincts aroused.
"She is a good girl." Jaune could do nothing but nod, not trusting his voice to squeak. "And she cares a great deal about you."
"I feel the same." His mother's eyebrow rose subtly. "It's not just the fact she saved me, or that she can touch me without Discompose activating. She is..." Jaune look lost for a moment. "She's just Blake."
"...Just Blake?"
"Yeah. I don't know how to describe it. She has her moods and all,and I'm worried she's only here to try and pay me back for what the Fang did to me, but... when she smiles, especially her laugh. I'm happy to hear them. It makes her... Blake. I... uh." He pulled his glasses off a moment and rubbed his face with a gloved palm. "I don't know what I'm saying. Never mind Mom. Don't mind me. I'll go wake up the girls." Jaune moved onwards, back up the steps to the second floor leaving his mother staring at his back, a small sad smile on her face clutching her hand over her weary heart.
"My baby boy's all grown up." She shook her head and headed to get the finishing touches done on Breakfast.
(-o0O0o-)
[SWIFFF!] The arc of Croeca Mors blurred even to Blake's vision as she and a broad shouldered man with blond hair and emerald eyes stood side by side, watching Jaune swing the sword with slight awe.
"Rargh!"
"Again." Nicholas barked.
[SWIFFF!] Once more the blade moved with astonishing force, bending the blades of grass before the teenaged boy from the force of the swing.
"RARGH!" The boy looked almost ready to faint and Blake started before Nicholas commanded again.
"Again."
[S-SWIFF!] The ancient blade cut vertically this time, the grass bending in towards the dark robed figure as the vacuum of the upwards thrust pulled at it. This time Jaune's form all but staggered. Nicholas seemingly snapped back from his hard staring and looked away guiltily.
"Take a break. Well done Jaune." The older man remarked as Blake walked forward, a canteen of water in hand.
"T-thanks Dad." Sweat poured from his brow and Jaune pulled down his mask to gasp at the cool air and the proffered water.
"Your attacks are powerful Jaune, but not fast." Blake commented as her friend's breathing calmed to a much more pleasant and normal pace. "However your stamina, even now in summer with all these heavy clothes on, is amazing. We just need to work on your speed."
"Right." Jaune remarked, pulling up his mask once more. "I feel like I got this down Dad, so... what's next?"
"Sadly Jaune, you're getting to the point I'm not certain I can help you much longer." Nickolas Arc remarked as he sat down. Jaune looked stunned if his heavily garbed body's reactions was any sign. "I might have wielded Croeca Mors for years but I switched to something else not long after I went to Beacon... Which is what I wanted to talk to you both today." The trio, mostly for Jaune's benefit, sat down in the shade of a tree near the clearing they had been training in. "I want you to go to Beacon."
"I thought you didn't want me to be a Huntsman?" Jaune remarked. His father nodded.
"That was before the attack. Before Blake saved you by unlocking your Aura and semblance, before you two escaped from the White Fang." Blake looked uneasy. "I'll never be able to repay you Blake for saving my boy, but in unlocking his Aura you opened a door he cannot close. With his semblance constantly active as well it worries me."
"I'm sorry." Blake's head was bowed, her ears flat. Jaune instantly took her hand, looking angrily at his father.
"Dad stop it!" Jaune's voice was low and full of threat. "I wouldn't be here if not for her!"
"And I know that." Nickolas picked up Blake's chin, the girl looking at him uneasily. "For that I would do anything to help you Blake, never think that we would feel any less than grateful to you. But the fact remains, in unlocking your aura Jaune, and this semblance, you can't go back to being a normal person anymore. The creatures of Grimm will target you for your Aura, coupled to a semblance that can bring a lot of negativity to those exposed to it, you need more than Blake and I can give you.
"You need to be trained by someone who knows Aura better than anyone I have ever heard of outside of those crazy Atlesian scientists up north. That person runs Beacon. I've spoken to him about the both of you." Blake and Jaune shared a look before accepting two letters. "His words were this. 'I would be delighted to help your son in any way I can. However it seems that Miss Belladonna would be a part of a packaged deal, but given what you have told me she would also be highly welcome at my school, despite her previous... let us say occupation. If they agree they merely need to show up on the first of August, and I will do everything in my power that by the time they finish beacon, Mr. Arc will have full control of his Semblance.'" Nickolas finished. "Kids, I know you both have been through a lot. Your my son, Jaune. You, Blake, might as well be my daughter." The faunas smiled in embarrassment at the thought, looking slyly at Jaune in the corner of her eye. The look was still caught by the elder Arc. 'Perhaps more than I realized.' "Whatever you both decide, your family here will accept it."
Somewhere deep in his heart he already knew what they would pick.
(-o0O0o-)
A Year and a Half before:
"Adam, why did you bring the kid?" The tall chain-sword wielding wolf remarked as he looked to his shorter superior. They had landed a few miles away to Jaune's reckoning and had entered an old frontier town that seemed to have been abandoned years ago.
"I wasn't certain how far Atlas would have chased us so I needed a hostage. I forgot about him afterward." Adam looked to the young man, only a year or two younger than him. "But you know, he gives me an idea. His father annoyed me."
Jaune looked up into the monstrous mask of the bull faunas before him and the sinister smirk below it.
"Lets see just how much a human can take before they break. It will be good training for the new recruits to watch. They need to see that humans can suffer the same way we faunas do everyday at their hands..." Tears began to run down the boys face as his mind seemed to connect what was being said. "We can send video of it to his father for his arrogance in facing me."
"Adam..." A ebony haired girl, seemingly Jaune's age softly called out, her unspoken question seemed to make the White Fang leader's mood sour more.
"Blake, take him to the cells. Make sure he eats." Adam turned away. "He'll need his strength." Jaune was gently picked up by his bound arms and lead away by this 'Blake' and placed in a old cell in the dilapidated old Sheriff's office the terrorists had made into their base. He was left alone for a few minutes before the girl returned and slid a plate of... something into his cage.
"Please... Blake was it, please don't do this." He pleaded. Her golden eyes held much sorrow as she picked at her own food.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry." His panicked sobbing in his cell did little to ease the conscience of his jailor that day. It was hard to feel you were morally in the right when your leader was off preparing who knows what to a scared boy no older than herself.
Blake's ears flattened and she threw her food aside in disgust. There was no way she could eat knowing what was coming. Was this really her father and mother's dream?
(-o0O0o-)
Next Chapter: To disturb the composure of; agitate; perturb;
This is a story that has been around, toyed with and fiddled with since my time in the Naruto fictions. There is even a story very much this in Naruto that I got the idea from. However I haven't seen it touched in years, and so I thought about this as a possible semblance due to something horrible happening to Jaune for some time.
Team Ideas:
Blake, Arc, Ren, Nora - BARN/Barn
Schnee, Rose, Yang, Nikos. - SYRN/Siren
OR
Weiss, Yang, Valkyrie, Nikos WYVN/Wyvern
Blake B, Jaune A, Ren L, Ruby R BARR/Bar (like SSSN/Sun) or BARL/Barrel