Jaune Arc was standing atop a pile of chilling corpses of his enemies. Grimm in various forms, creatures of dark and worshippers of evil were littered across field of red before walls of Vale City. Flags of yellow and silver that carried his Crest were raised upon the ramparts of city walls, the soft fabric of the banners billowing in the dawn's cool breeze.
The wind tousled Jaune's mane of golden hair, blue eyes looking down at the remaining Grimm creatures and their wretched Grimm King he had pinned under his heel. The horrid creature attempted to get up from where Jaune had it pinned under his foot.
The Grimm King's crown of dark metal laid broken and discarded while Jaune's crown was made of jewels and gold. The Crown gleamed in the light of the dawn as Jaune began his speech.
"It is Over. Your evil reign has ended and by my Sword, the Hopebringer, I banish thee and thine wretched race from Remnant!" Jaune declared in booming voice before raising his burning silver blade above his head.
With great roar he swung it down at the chest of his greatest foe and with a thud of steel meeting Grimm flesh, the back of Evil was broken.
The King of Remnant stood and turned towards the city of Vale, its valiant defenders waving flags bearing his symbol and cheering his name. "Jaune! Jaune! Jaune! JAUNE!"...
"JAUNE, WAKE UP!" a feminine cry snapped 15-year old Jaune Arc from his delightful dream. He glanced towards a old clock in the wall after discovering a small pool of drool on a book that he had used as pillow. The clock revealed that Jaune had fallen asleep reading his favorite storybook in the Arc family lodge's small library.
'Wait. it's already 5 in the evening. That means….' Jaune thought groggily 'Oh no. Dinner. Must not be late. Father is coming here, today, must prepare. Clean room. Brush teeth. Become hero.' he pushed himself up from the table with slightly shaky hands and slid off the hard wooden chair to chase the scent of freshly cooked food.
Late evening sun illuminated the dining room and kitchen of the Arc Family's summer holiday lodge in Shion village. Outside the window yellow and orange leaves danced in the autumn wind, and the wind occasionally sent audible groan through the old wooden building.
The lodge had been recently refurbished and cleaned as the Arc family had grown to ten members, although the building did show clear signs of aging.
The Shion village was regular holiday location for the Arcs as the village was famous for its safe and beautiful hiking trails combined with calm atmosphere- making it a stark contrast to the hustle and bustle of the City of Vale where the family lived for most of the year.
"Ah, there you are. Were you reading again Jaune?" his mother, Juniper Arc, asked as Jaune walked into the kitchen while trying to rub the last vestiges of sleep from his eyes. Juniper Arc was well built woman on her late forties yet looked easily decade younger, her deep blue eyes giving Jaune an inspective gaze as she scooped food from frying pan into her plate.
"Ehehe, maybe?" Jaune answered to her mother's question while trying his hardest to look more awake than he felt. Juniper's eyes narrowed and Jaune scratched the back of his head.
"Uh-huh. It seemed more like you were trying to absorb the book via osmosis brother..." a slightly snarky voice commented from the dining table.
Glance to the other side of the room revealed his oldest sister Sapphire holding the youngest of the Arc sisters, 8-year old Coral, in her lap. Sapphire was looking at Jaune over the dining table where she had been trying to convince Coral to eat her vegetables. She had apparently succeeded in her task as Coral had conceded defeat and was grudgingly chewing on carrot, her cheeks puffing adorably. Second-oldest of the sisters, Jade, was eating half-heartedly while looking out of the window at the breath-taking scenery towards the forest.
Rest of Jaune's seven sisters were still in either Atlas or Vale, having decided to go abroad or stay behind in order to spend more time with their respective friends.
"I found you snoring away on top of the book pile you call library- were you 'reading' those hero fantasy novels again? You were so cute I didn't want to disturb you" Sapphire smiled saccharinely, pulling out her Scroll to show picture of Jaune sleeping on book. She turned the Scroll towards to their mother who cooed at the picture before taking her and Jaune's now-filled plates of food to the dining table.
Sapphire had saved money for long time to afford herself a top-of-the line Scroll, and she was quite proud of it. It also made her one of the few people in the town of Shion to own a Scroll beside the rest of the Arc family. She loved to impress the young kids (and when her mother wasn't looking, the young adults...) in the village by showing videos or pictures she had taken from Vale to them.
Jaune, however, lacked a Scroll for a reason that he didn't really understand. Apparently he was too "young and impressionable", and such he had not been allowed to have one- and when his father had asked what he wanted instead of a Scroll, Jaune had asked for a pile of fantasy books.
The books he had received were now adorned with worn covers and most of their pages had notches from use, however he didn't love them any less for it.
As Jade took a glance at the picture Sapphire was showing her Jaune blushed brightly while trying to shovel food down his throat as fast as possible in his desperate attempt to escape the inevitable teasing.
Sufficient to say, he failed miserably.
"So, dad is coming home today, right?" Sapphire asked after dinner while glancing at her Scroll "it's almost six already. Did he call that the ride was delayed or is he just taking his sweet time?"
"Patience, Sapphire. His mission likely took longer than usual, and although I don't know the details of it I'm sure he would have sent a message if he was delayed by more than few hours." Juniper answered from her seat in front of the fireplace where she had retreated to fix and patch some of their more worn clothes.
"I'm sure he will come- dad is too strong to be delayed by some Grimm!" claimed Jaune from beside his mother where he was once again looking at the ancestral blade and shield of Arc family, Crocea Mors, rested above the fireplace. The family would always bring the sword and its scabbard-shield with them in order to honor their ancestors and to stop thieves from stealing the blade from their family home in Vale when it was unoccupied.
Juniper saw Jaune looking at the blade and sighed quietly. Neither she nor her husband, Nicholas Arc, approved of Jaune's dreams. Her husband was always telling Jaune that he would help him become a Huntsman 'when the time is right'- and by 'right time' she knew Nicholas meant 'never' or 'when Jaune realized it was foolish idea' yet he was unable to shatter Jaune's dream.
Not that she blamed him.
She knew Nicholas was no hero. Or a blazing champion of light like how Jaune saw him. She knew Nicholas was just a tired Huntsman who had seen the cruelty of world and wanted to protect Jaune from all of it.
Jaune had not seen Nicholas when he had come back from the dreaded mission that had cost him the rest of his team or heard the pain-wracked sobs of a broken man when Nicholas had confided her in the horrifying missions he had undergone.
The truth beneath the propaganda that is constantly fed to the people of Remnant- farms and towns overrun, intelligent and highly adaptable Grimm capable of killing entire hunter teams, frontier outposts "losing signal" to the CCT, a communication network that linked all the four kingdoms, only to be discovered looted and butchered by the bandits or wiped out by the Grimm. Hunters were spread thin and many pleas of aid for hunters were either ignored or the hunter teams came too late to make a significant difference.
No. If Juniper had any way of influencing Jaune's future, she would not have him become huntsman. Yet she knew Jaune had inherited his father's stubbornness…
She stood up from the chair near the fireplace and walked to the window overlooking towards the village of Shion. 'Where are you, Nicholas…' she thought as she scanned the road.
'Oh?' She thought she had seen few figures move near the village. The lodge was outside the actual village but still within the walls of Shion- the walls were built generously, allowing quite bit of space between the town center and most outlying buildings.
She moved closer to window in order to get a closer look and saw something that froze her in place instantly.
Wisps of smoke and fire were starting to rise from the direction of the village alongside faint sounds of gunfire and streaks of tracers rounds. The Grimm would not set buildings on fire and any Grimm attack would cause the sirens of the village to alert the villagers.
Only one reason remained as to why the sirens would be shut off was if someone had shut them off before attacking. The only force that would be intelligent enough to infiltrate the village before attack would therefore be...
Bandits.
...
"Children, we must go, now!" Juniper said in clear and commanding tone from near the window. Jaune looked up from his usual thoughts about heroes and monsters to see his mother watching at him and the sisters. Her face was paler than usual, and her expression was stern yet her eyes were scanning the room erratically.
"Mom, what's wrong?" Sapphire asked from her seat, trying to wonder why her scroll had lost connection to Shion's communication tower which disconnected it from the local wireless network.
"There is no time. We must leave the lodge, now. Get your camping packs and meet here in five minutes. Dont argue with me!" Juniper said as Sapphire was about to interject. Juniper disappeared down the hallway leading into her husband's study, leaving rest of the sisters and Jaune to look at each other before shrugging and leaving to grab their prepackaged camping packs.
The entire Arc family was always expected to have a camping pack ready when they were in the village instead of inside the major cities, although why they had to have one ready was the question that always confused Jaune. His father had always answered that it was for "insurance" and never elaborated, which Jaune had never truly understood.
'Perhaps dad had a surprise trip planned, and that was why he was late?' Jaune thought.
He left the living room and headed to the family lodge's basement, having stored his camping package in there since he had little room to spare in his, uh, admittedly unkempt room.
He saw his camping package in the dark basement and reached to pick it up... only to fall over as he discovered that it had been filled with rocks and sand- Likely as a vengeance from his sisters for one or more of the pranks he had pulled upon them.
Jaune groaned.
'Where is Jaune?' Juniper thought frantically. They had to get away from the house- she knew from her husband's tales how bandit attacks upon outskirt villages proceeded. First the communications tower was destroyed in stealthy attack, cutting the village off from the kingdoms. Then the village was attacked proper, its huntsmen and defenders slain to the last men. The houses would be looted and survivors rounded up to be tortured until they were miserable enough to attract Grimm, which would then mop up rest of the village and cover the traces of bandits when the dropping off from CCT would be investigated.
She didn't want that to happen to her family. Nicholas had told her that should bandit attack occur, only way to survive would be to flee the village, clearing as much ground between the village and themselves before the Grimm would start to flood the village.
The bandits would be too busy killing the defenders and people who put up resistance in defence of their homes to take care of fleeing villagers- but only if they would flee before resistance would be overrun. The Grimm would be more interested in attacking the concentration of humans than to pursue a single human or small groups of humans- however the Grimm would eventually go through the village and then start to pursue the nearby stragglers still in the area.
Juniper knew their window of escape narrowed with every passing minute.
"Where is Jaune?" Juniper asked aloud from Sapphire who had taken to herself to carry Coral while Jade had their camping packs on her shoulders.
"Eh, he is probably repacking his camping gear- we might have replaced his stuff with rocks after he pulled that 'hair dye swapped with glue' stunt" Jade answered from where she had been tying her shoelaces.
Juniper paled even further.
"Mom, are you alright? You are really pale" Sapphire said, starting to get suspicious of her mother's actions. Something was amiss.
That was before Juniper lunged at Sapphire, grabbing her by the shoulders and beginning to talk in fast-paced, hurried voice. "Sapphire- Listen. you must take your sisters, and lead them to…"
Loud sound of breaking glass interrupted Juniper's speech as dark figure broke through the lobby's window, showering the sisters and their mother with shards of glass and wood.
Jaune was sweating profusely as he was re-packing his camping set, having taken the rocks away and now tried to stuff all the necessary camping gear back, such as some of his comics and set of board games.
He sneezed as dust got to his nose, accidentally sending little bit of snot at his now ready camping set before wiping it away sheepishly.
'Well, I'm set to leave, time to see what dad had in store for us' Jaune thought as he closed the map pouch after checking if it still contained one, its velcro tie feeling a bit unsteady from being in the dust for too long.
Jaune was hoping that his father had not planned another 'survival trip' up in the mountains near Shion. He swore he had felt the hard rocks in his back for full week after they had returned from that hellish vacation- That, or his sisters had sneaked rocks into his bed.
Jaune picked up the bags by the straps and started to make his way upstairs. When he had reached living room he could hear his sisters and his mother speaking in the lobby.
Perhaps they had seen dad come down the road and that's why they were all waiting?
He got an idea. His father had always been reluctant to talk to Jaune about Huntsman's job as hero and saviour of people (and slayer of monsters, bane of evil etcetera...). Jaune could tell that his father didn't think that Jaune was ready for 'official' Hunter training.
'Perhaps if I greeted dad with Crocea Mors in hand, holding it with ease and care, he would recognize that I'm ready to be trained!' Jaune thought. 'After all, how could I be trained if I couldn't even hold a sword?'
With that brilliant plan in mind, Jaune stood to take Crocea Mors off its holder above the extinguished fireplace. He strapped the shield-scabbard into his belt, choosing to keep the blade at hand. The sword felt heavy but not unmanageable while the shield was hard to carry on its folded form, its point of balance too high for his liking and making it jump uncomfortably on his hip as he walked.
As Jaune was getting used to the weight of the sword, he heard glass break in the lobby.
The sound of breaking glass was soon followed by female screams and loud, rough male voices.
It did not sound good.
'Mom? Sis? What is happening?' Jaune thought before dropping his camping pack, holding to the Crocea Mors tightly.
Without hesitation, he made up his mind- if his family would be in trouble, he would save them!
No matter what!
He ran to the lobby.
.
..
...
What greeted him was a scene of chaos.
His sisters were huddled in the corner of the lobby- Sapphire was holding up a frying pan she had pulled from her camping kit, Coral was crying, and Jade was looking shell-shocked with blood on her face from the nasty cut on her forehead. Jaune, however, didn't spend too much time looking at the sisters as his attention was caught by three burly men with their backs towards Jaune.
Jaune saw that two of the men were were holding onto his mother, her face showing tell-tale signs of bruises and she was bleeding from a cut to her face as the third man was twirling a dagger on his hand.
Jaune saw red.
He charged, his red-tinted vision and ringing ears partially blocking the scream that came from his mother as Jaune shouted a war-cry he had learned from one of his books.
The Ancestral blade of the Arc Family streaked silver through the air and into the gut of the man with the dagger as he turned towards the charging teenager.
Feeling the blade sink deep into the flesh, Jaune started to pull the blade away only to see one large hand grabbing his face and other hand punching him hard in the stomach, before sliding the hand off to the side.
Jaune fell over to the wooden floor, his sword slipping from his fingers as the man it was stuck on doubled over.
He heard his mother and his sisters screaming his name. Odd, he couldn't quite see straight as he looked towards the hazy forms of the sisters.
Lightheaded, Jaune tried to stand up only to feel a hollow, gnawing sensation in his stomach which made his legs feel as if they were made of stone.
Jaune tried to push the offending object away only to feel his hands slip on something wet. He lifted the hindrance upwards and tried to focus his eyes on it only to discover a red, lightly ribbed tubes of… stuff… spilling from inside him through a massive wound on his stomach. A red-covered steel knife protruded from his side at the edge of the wound.
He passed out.
Pain.
It Hurts. IT HURTS ITHURTS!
Twitch. Light shone through. Man speaking?
Man. Hit. Hand. Red-covered tubes.
Screams.
Calm voice.
"...And through our actions, archive immortality..." Jaune heard a male voice speaking in hushed tone.
He felt tired.
"Jussht few moore minuuts, moomh…" Jaune mumbled. A nightmare must have passed, and he needed more sleep. Perhaps he could find his blanket? He felt around with his right arm, looking for the soft sheet, yet all he found was hard wooden floor.
"Thank Oum, it worked… It worked… Jaune…" he heard the male voice speak again. It sounded familiar...
...And he was engulfed in bear-like hug Jaune definitely knew.
"Dad… I... I had a bad nightmare. Can you tell me one of your stories?" Jaune spoke, feeling numb. What was the white light? Was he glowing? Oh no… Had he become a princess?
"Jaune… I don't think it's going to be possible." Nicholas Arc said, still holding onto his son. "Up you go. Don't look behind you" Jaune felt himself being lifted from the ground as he looked at the face above him.
"What happened" his father continued, in his regular matter-of-fact tone despite his tear-streaked face looking directly at Jaune. 'Was something wrong?' Jaune thought groggily.
"Uh, I'm not sure. What do you mean? I think I was uhh…. studying in the library earlier, and I think I might have overdone it and…." Jaune tried to speak.
"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!" his father shouted, startling Jaune. "Ah! I… I'm sorry my little knight… I'm sorry… I didn't meant to do that" he continued in softer tone, rubbing Jaune's back as he hiccuped, his father engulfing him again in a hug.
"Did you see what happened to your sisters?" The man asked. "What happened to them?"
"I… I think I heard screams… Do you think they are in trouble?"Jaune stammered. His father sighed and reached to put his hands on Jaune's shoulders.
"We don't have time for this, Jaune. I'm sorry, but you have to remember"
Jaune was turned around. He saw a bloody, mangled corpse wearing familiar clothes in front of him.
"M- mom?"
He almost passed out again. Hard slap to his face, however, snapped him from his daze.
Jaune looked up to the hard, tear-stained face of the man he called his father
"Jaune. Where are your sisters" His father said, calmly, as Jaune started to sob.
"T.. They… were taken? I'm not sure… I wasn't... I wasn't strong enough to stop the bad men from… from…" Jaune tried to remember. He really did.
"Where were they taken, my little knight?" Nicholas asked, gentler but with underlying tone of urgency "Can you remember. Please."
"I… I don't know where they are. The men had red and black clothing" Jaune stammered.
...
'Red and black' Nicholas thought 'Bandits with Her colours… Taiyang, i should have believed you...'
For now, however, he needed to get Jaune safe- or at least as safe as this village-turned-hellhole would allow his son to be.
'His Aura is now unlocked- his fate is in his own hands. I wish there had been better way, but his stomach wound was infected already, not to mention that his intestines were cut... Aura was the only thing that could save him...'Nicholas looked down at his crying son. There was no guarantee as to where his daughters were- although if he guessed it would be right at the center of the bandit encampment or dead already, if they were lucky. 'I never wanted to force it on him, to walk the same path...'
He could not save his daughters alone- he could not take on an entire tribe of bandits. Neither would Jaune be able to get out alone, the bandits no doubt having set a perimeter around the village and reaching into the forest and roads.
To get out one would need something to draw the bandit tribe's attention away.
A distraction.
"Dad, where are we going?" Jaune asked as he was being carried by his father.
Jaune's camping pack and Crocea Mors were strapped on his father's back, and Nicholas's own gun-blade and folding shield hanged off their respective sheaths in the man's hip. Nicholas was running at full speed through the dark, nightly forest and away from the blaze of the Arc holiday home- the house having been set on fire by Nicholas before they left.
"A funeral pyre for your mother- It's the best I can do. The only thing I can do for her- I won't let her body be defiled" was the answer Jaune got when he asked for the reason for the act of pyromancy.
"Oof!" Jaune felt himself fall the the ground as Nicholas came to abrupt stop.
"Jaune- Listen. There is a perimeter around the village, likely set up with Aura trackers and motion trackers- they know i'm here. But they don't know that you are here, your Aura is too weak to be picked up and you can move off-road where there are less likely to be motion trackers." the man recounted with haste in his voice "You must go. Now. Don't look back" Nicholas continued in fast, hurried voice as he pulled his gunblade and unfolded his shield, standing on the road.
"Take Crocea Mors and your backpack. Discard the backpack only if it slows you down too much, then the shield of Crocea Mors. Keep the blade with you. Don't come looking for me, I'll come to find you. Be safe, I love you." He continued in fast, rough voice before giving Jaune a quick, one-armed hug and pushing him away before Jaune managed to speak or react.
"GO!"
Jaune turned, grabbed the camping pack and the sheathed Crocea Mors, strapping them to his frame with internal whine 'heavy!', and began to run away from the village, and from his dad.
From everything.
Nicholas didn't look back to the running form of his son as it disappeared into the woods.
He didn't dare to look back at his son, knowing that he would not be able to continue forwards if he did. So he instead he ran further away from the village on the dark road.
Until he felt more than saw a buildup of Aura on the road in front of him.
Blood-red portal bore through the air and Nicholas opened fire with his gunblade without hesitation, aiming at the center of the portal.
A white streak came out of the portal and danced out of the way of the bullets, drawing a red blade from its rotating holster.
Nicholas moved his shield to block the slice at his legs only to see the blade pull back mid-swing. The figure changed the momentum into kick that landed hard against his shield.
He felt himself skidding back on the gravel road, opening few metres of space between the two figures.
"Raven." He said, observing the female with her signature full-face Grimm mask. She was clad in short red and black kimono and short black skirt with loose leather stockings reaching up to her thighs.
"A Nameless hunter. How surprising that you choose to flee rather than die in the defence of this village. Some would call such acts a sign of weakness or cowardice" Raven said, her voice distorted by the mask.
"You'd think that leaving a baby and a husband behind to seek adventure and thrill as a murderous bandit would qualify as act of cowardice" Nicholas spoke, seeing the red eyes behind the mask growing narrow.
"It seems that Taiyang has been blabbering. Nevertheless, you would not understand my motives so i won't bother with you. Now die" Raven spoke, ending her speech with lunge at his eyes. Nicholas blocked the red blade and paid for it as her sweeping leg almost threw him off his feet.
As the battle to death continued, Nicholas only hoped that his children would be safe…
Jaune looked back, tears staining his face as he was sweating and panting hard after running for so long. His father had said not to look for him, but he couldn't just leave him. Not after everything.
A sting of pain from his recently-healed stomach confirmed his feelings, whatever his father had done had sealed the wound but left a massive scar where there had once been a grievous wound.
Jaune unpacked a pair of binoculars from his backpack and slowly climbed up a particularly tall tree overlooking most of the road back to village. The leaves would cover him from view outside the tree.
He saw his father confront a curvy woman in red and black clothing with a white mask on her face crowned by wild black hair.
His dad was strong. Jaune was almost sure he would win. Almost.
His faith in heroes and fairy tales was waning.
Red blade shattered against his shield, leaving deep gash in the tortured metal.
Nicholas saw the opportunity and lunged at the woman in front of him, only for her dodge his attack and use the empty hilt of her sword to draw another blade from the revolving blade container at her hip.
"Did you think your little subterfuge would work?" Raven's cold voice spoke over the clang of metal as she struck, new blue blade sending sparks up the night sky as Nicholas blocked the nimble slashes and kicks from his deadly adversary.
"..."
"Did you for a moment, think that i would not know that your son ran away from here mere moments ago?" She continued, causing Nicholas's blood to run cold.
"I won't let you take him." He answered, losing a sizeable chunk of his Aura as he had to reinforce his shield to block Raven's vicious thrust.
The blue blade of her nodachi shattered against his shield and forced her to jump back.
By the time Nicholas had pulled his shield down, Raven had already replaced her lost blue blade with a red one.
"Like you stopped the rest of your family from 'being taken away'?" Raven countered, causing Nicholas to slip and allowing her to kick his feet from under him.
Nicholas rolled away and raised his shield while standing back up. He saw Raven where she had been standing before his fall, not exploiting the opening and instead opting to sheathe her blade.
"I always know. Don't worry. I'll take care of them- after all, if they are the offspring of a Hunter, they have potential. I will make sure that they will grow strong… or not at all. The weak have no place in this world." Raven added with mocking tone.
"While you sent your son to flee headlessly into a forest that will soon be bursting with Grimm. I do wonder, which of us is the real monster. In fact, I doubt there is need for me to intervene to end him..." she continued to taunt.
"ENOUGH!" Nicholas roared, charging at her with his shield raised.
She drew her red blade and struck the weakened shield.
Nicholas's world exploded in white pain.
Jaune saw as the fighters stopped and faint hope blossomed in his young heart- Had his father managed to convince the red and black woman away from her evil ways?
A moment passed before the two figures resumed their fight.
Through the binoculars Jaune saw his father charge at the woman wearing the scary Grimm mask, their forms starting to haze through the darkness that separated Jaune from them
Despite the dark, he saw the streak of white mask and the red trail of the woman's blade as she struck his father's upraised shield-
And Nicholas Arc fell, his shield broken and his body cleaved in half from his shoulder to his waist.
"…"
Jaune was quiet as he slid down the tree he had used as a vantage point.
He faced down at the hard bark, and his shoulders shuddered as he cried quietly.
AN:
After a brief session of bashing my head against a rock, I decided to publish a chapter of the story during weekend to set a proper release schedule timer.
The story will begin from before Beacon era in order to avoid excessive flashbacking and to give a backstory to some of the character interactions, capabilities and abilities- and the limits of said abilities.
As always, I appreciate all the reviews people send me.