Alright time for Chapter 9 of Dark Knight of Zero. For the technique contest Asura wins 1st place with Door of Veils, 2nd place belongs to Dragonboy51 and the FMA ultimate shield shadow form, and 3rd place goes to W1LdF0X for his Shadow area/gun move. W1LdF0X please send in a name for that if you have one. Also I'm skipping the whole plane thing for now as I view it irrelevant for Jaune as he has freaking Nevermores. So no whining as it will happen only later on. So without further ado let's move on to the final chapter of what I'm dubbing the Bond's Forged Arc and the next bit will take place at Beacon for the festival. I do not own RWBY or Familiar of Zero.
Begin Playing First Kiss
A history of the couple's romance that start's from the first kiss.
We see Jaune and Louise kissing on a boat before zooming out and the screen turns to white.
You, the one who cast magic on this destiny, suddenly appeared.
Louise wakes up with a blush on her faceand looks over to see Jaune standing by her bedside with a tray of food. Switch to a view of the academy and the words Dark Knight of Zero appear.
The sky where two moons never fade away.
Louise appears in front of a picture of the night sky with the two moons in the air which then switches to her practicing magic only for it to explode.
That's an impossibility, right?
A full screen is shown with Louise trying to knit followed by showing her going horseback riding before zooming in on her face. Derf then flashes across the screen and Jaune pops out in front of a framed viewing of Beacon
This is the first time I've ever felt anything like this.
The frame then switches to show Jaune laying on his mat.
I'm feeling more and more at ease with this place.
The screen then shows Jaune scrubbing laundry and then looking into a mirror where Pecus is seen staring back.
Even if you trip and become depressed
Kirche and flame are then shown followed by Tabitha and Sylphid, then Mortmorency and Robin, and lastly Guiche, sporting a scar over his left eye, and Verdandi.
I will always hold you tight with a squeeze
Siesta then appears followed by Henrietta with Wales in the background. Students and faculty of the academy then flash on and off the screen.
The story where we met that day stays hot with a sweet kiss.
Fouquet with her face covered by a hood is shown rising up on the shoulder of an earth golem.
See, you can cast magic, and the wishes will surely come true.
The camera swings around to Jaune and he brandishes Derf and Shadowfang in front of him while his eyes shift into grimm eyes. The camera then shifts to Louise raising her wand and a white aura surrounds her followed by a sphere of white light push outward from her position being seen from a sky-based view.
A history of the couple's romance that starts from the first kiss.
An Enslaved Nevermore flies across the screen and it shifts to show one break through some clouds with Louise and Jaune on its back. We then see Jaune and Louise up close and they send a smile at each other.
You, the one who cast magic on this destiny, suddenly appeared.
Jaune then leans over and kisses Louise before the screen cuts to black.
Chapter 9- Shadows of War
Louise's POV
I've just given Henrietta Wales's ring and I still blame myself for what happened. "Please forgive me your highness. If I had resisted that ring's power none of this would have happened." I fully expect her to blame me but instead she wraps me in a hug. Tears are falling from both of us. "No it's my fault Louise, I didn't see Wardes for what he truly was. So thank you for this final memento and his will." We stay like this for a while before I take my leave and head out into the hallway to see Jaune waiting for me with a concerned look on his face.
"You okay Louise?" I nod in response, not trusting my voice and he opens a door for us and we enter and come out in my room where I collapse on the bed. "So are you going to explain what happened to you Jaune." I can't get over how different he looks. I could care less about how he looks but this clearly is a side-effect of whatever he did to recover so quickly. Jaune gains an uncomfortable look on his face before answering. "Aura can't stop electricity, the brain wouldn't function otherwise. Sure if it was outside of me I could block it but inside is a whole other story. I was cooked inside out and would have died if not for my grimm side, turns out his name is Pecus. He offered me a deal to save me and it required that I allow the merge. Doing so allowed him to keep himself separate from me and now he has access to all my senses, freedom to modify my body, merged our aura reserves, and opened up a link between us for communication." He doesn't get any farther before I interrupt him.
"You mean you gave into your grimm side for me. Why? You described how much it scared you that you might lose your humanity." A smile works its way onto his face. "I think you forget I promised to protect you from all threats Louise, add the fact I love you into the mix and I will do anything to protect you, even if I die I will defend you." I can't take it anymore and start hitting him on the chest tears coursing down my face once more. "NO, I REFUSE TO ALLOW THAT! Get rid of that self-sacrificing attitude right now. You just told me you fused with your Grimm side and now that you'll die from me. NO NO NO, as your master I order you to live for me not die for me. As your girlfriend I do the same thing. You aren't allowed to just leave me. It's bad enough I'm to blame for what you had to do…" This time he's the one to interrupt me.
"No you're not at fault Louise, Wardes is and I made sure he paid in full. I would do what I did again and again if need be though, so don't think I regret what I did. Besides Pecus said it would have happened eventually any way and if that's what you want then I promise to live for you." I feel relieved hearing that and get ready for bed with Jaune doing the same. When he's about to get in his mattress I ask a request of him. "Could you stay next to me tonight? Just so I know your still with me." He doesn't respond, mearly climbing into the covers next to me and wrapping me in a hug.
"I promise you Louise, I will always stay by your side." That calms me down and I soon fall asleep in Jaune's arms.
Jaune's POV
When I wake up the sun as just started rising and I turn into a shadow to avoid waking Louise. I then go about my normal morning activities and get some food for Louise. Once she's awake and ready she heads to class while I head to the training grounds, so many things to practice so little time. I want to try to develop some new techniques with shadows and get used to the new abilities Pecus has given me through the merge. Once I've gone through basic warm-up I ask Pecus for everything I can do now.
"Well you've already learned about the claws, enhanced senses, physical boosts, and increased aura level so there are only two thing you need to know about. First is our fused from. This is a new form that increases strength, speed and other attributes but sacrifices any aura skill except healing. Also you can go out of control if you get too angry in it so last resort only. The 2nd thing is my semblance. Don't act so surprised human, just because I'm stuck in your body doesn't mean I couldn't get one. I call it Aura Mimicry. I can mimic the way people use their aura, lets me pick up any new tricks we see someone use. Not to mention as long as the semblance isn't something we could do with shadows we can copy it as well. Never be as powerful as the original but still useful. I already have your ex-friends ready and we can test them and the fused form out now if you want." I can feel a smirk cross my face.
"Oh this will be fun." I then proceed to practice with the semblances of my ex-friends and then plan to move on to the new form before Pecus stops me. "Wait summon a Enslaved first and give it an order, want to test something out." I decide to humor him and bring out a Beowolf and order it to destroy a tree only to receive a big shock. "Yes Alpha." I've never actually communicated with them before. "Thought this would happen. The thing you need to understand human is that the Grimm aren't being enslaved like the birds and other things you tested this out on, they chose to follow you. They can tell you're part Grimm and they know you're stronger so they join your pack. This allowed them to keep their minds and once they become Enslaved they form a hive mind and share intelligence." Wow, just wow. I have so much to learn about Grimm even now. I then return the Beowolf after thanking it and move on to alternate form training.
Timeskip
Four days that's how long it took for Albion to prepare an invasion force. I was lucky we made progress in Void magic and Louise can access the Explosion spell but the charge time is ridiculous. We're currently in a meeting meant to inform the students that the academy will close. All the non-Tristan but a few are already packing their bags and when some Tristans start to talk about leaving Guiche rails on them. "Cowards, we have a duty to our country to fight. I refuse to allow our country to be taken over by some petty tyrants with a thirst for power." With his new scar Guiche has become quite intimidating to the other students. Louise then pulls me aside to talk.
"What do you think we should do? We have the power to help but revealing it could go badly for us." Louise is right, not a lot of details are known about what I can do and Louise's void magic is something we want hidden but... "We should fight, the Reconquista will probably target us anyway or leak the info about your magic. After the fight we'll go to my world to let the fact Void magic has reappeared in the world die down." I'd prefer if she stayed away from the fighting but I know that would be a losing battle for me. Louise agrees and I open a door to the castle. Upon arrival we get signed up with Henrietta to be part of the counter-force. I'm sent ahead to help evacuate the town of Tarbes where I find Siesta and her family. It takes us about five hours but we manage to get all the villagers to enter the forest despite the endless amount of hold-out cases.
"So human, ready to slaughter tomorrow?" Pecus really know how to ruin something. "Why the hell do you look at war as that? It's bad enough we have to kill those only trying to do what they feel is right but to view it so emotionlessly." Pecus is silent for a while before answering. "Remember human, I don't have that many fond memories to look at of your race. So I really could care less how many die, live, or just run off from the fight. All I care about is that we live, I have my own dream and you're not going to get it ripped away from me. GOT IT?" I reply that I do but he refuses to tell me what his dream is. I head off to rest under some brush for the night after that.
Louise's POV
I was assigned to stick with Henrietta and stayed with her at the palace while Jaune went to assist with the evacuation. Jaune asked me to explain our plan to Henrietta so I do that for him. "… and so after the battle if I have to use Void magic we're going to return to Jaune's homeland to let things cool down here." Henrietta has a look of worry on her face. "Louise, even with Void magic do you think we can win this?" I think on that for a few moments before replying. "Normally I wouldn't think so but Jaune can supplement our forces and has been doing some secret training, he said it was private in case something went wrong. Honestly there's no telling what he has up his sleeve this time." Henrietta giggles at that and then has a smile on her face.
"I bet you know what's up his sleeves better than most right." I can feel the heat rush to my checks. "Wh… What are you talking about?" Henrietta just gives me a knowing stare. "I was outside your window that night Louise." Oh she saw Jaune kiss me. "Please don't tell anyone, I don't want to have to deal with my parents right now." Henrietta assures me we won't and we head off to check on the soldiers, I can see Guiche performing some sword drills in a corner. Henrietta's mother then appears and informs us that the airship is moving faster than expected and we'll need to set off now to reach the town in time. The soldiers load up and we head to battle.
Time skip.
When we arrive at a hill to see a massive airship followed by a large number of smaller ones panic moves through the men. Jaune then appears in front of us and questions the head strategist. "What's the plan for this? I sent a scout to check that thing out and it would take a massive air force to get near it with the amount of artillery on it, let alone the dragons knights I saw." The head strategist begins in a boastful tone and Jaune's eye is twitching only five second in. "The plan is to charge at the ships and get under them where they can't strike. Once there we plan on using fire magic to burn the hulls and send the ship up in flames." I honestly didn't know an eye could twitch that much.
"ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!? A MASS CHARGE ACROSS A WIDE OPEN PLAIN IS YOUR PLAN. WITH THE LIMITED AIR SUPPORT YOU HAVE THE MEN WOULD BE DEAD BEFORE THEY WERE HALF WAY THERE." The strategist is shocked by what Jaune says but after hearing him most of the other soldiers agree with him. Henrietta moves forward and addresses Jaune. "And what would you recommend." Jaune seems surprised he's being asked that but he recovers soon enough.
"We have earth mages, use them. Dig a tunnel system with magic and get under the ships and come out there. The fire idea isn't bad but it will need air magic to make sure it reaches the ships. I can handle air support so have the air mages go with you." Henrietta agrees and the earth mages get to work while the others ready for battle. As she prepares to head down the tunnel Henrietta turns to me and asks if I'm coming I tell her I'm sticking with Jaune, upon hearing that she turns to him and gives him a hard stare. "Jaune I should hope you understand what happens should Louise be harmed." Jaune stands his ground but he releases a gasp of air once Henrietta leaves. Once most of the troops head underground Jaune opens a massive portal and dozens of Nevermores fly out. This is it, time to defend my homeland.
Jaune's POV
Oh this is crazy, I'm about to lead Grimm into battle against humans. There's irony in there somewhere but I'll look later. I look at Louise one last time before we head into the fight. "And you're sure I can't convince you to stay on the ground or better yet the academy for this?" a glare sent my way shuts me up. Opening a door onto a Nevermore, Louise and I head into the skys and a thunder (According to the Inheritance Series) of dragons and their riders fly forth to meet the flock of Nevermores.
A mass of dogfights begins in the air as shots of flames and feathers scatter across the air. While my Nevermores have a size advantage they're having trouble hitting the dragons, but each feather is practically an instant kill. The Nevermore we're on flies over three dragons and I put a bullet in each of the riders' heads, with the riders gone the dragons simply fly around until feathers pierce them. The tide begins to turn against the dragon knights when their numbers begin to dwindle once I have some Acromantula appear on the Nevermores and yank the riders off their mounts with their webs. I then notice a large group of Dragon Knights appearing from some of the other ships and half of my Nevermores have returned to the Shadowplains.
"Louise charge up the Explosion spell now. I'll get us in close and we can take care of the ships." I can see that the Tristan army has come above ground again and have started to shoot flames up at the ships. Louise shouts a confirmation to me and begins to gather her energy for the spell. As we make a move to get in-between the Albion air-force a green dragon with a fully armored knight appears and a blast of lightning is sent at me. "Pecus." I can feel a shift in my aura and I use Nora's semblance to absorb the electricity "Derf any ideas on what's the difference between the green and red dragons?" Derf pops his head up and gives me some details.
"That would be a wind dragon partner. The power behind its attacks is weaker by comparison but the speed it has makes up for it." Thanking him for the info I then draw him to counter the Wind Knight coming in for an attack with a large ax. After deflecting the assault the Wind Knight starts flying around before coming in for more high-speed assaults. I'm barely able to stop the attacks and I gain a cut on my cheek which heals pretty quickly. I then notice that another thunder has appeared and they've managed to reduce the Nevermore's numbers once more. I sheathe Derf and have my shadow wrap around Louise to keep her steady.
Shadows then begin to gather in my right hand forming a sphere and more just keeps coming. "Partner what's this technique." A smirk crosses my face. "This Derf is one of my best techniques." When I've gathered enough shadows I have a very condensed sphere of shadow in my hand. Pointing my palm at the thunder and noticing the Wind Knight has joined them my smirk grows. "CONSUME, BLACK HOLE!" the sphere shoots forward into the middle of the thunder and from there it begins to suck the thunder in, crushing the dragons and riders into microscopic particles. No trace is left of the thunder. With them out of our way I have our Nevermore get in-between the ship and Louise stands up and shouts out the spell.
"EXPLOSION!" white light comes out and soon the ships catch on fire and begin to fall down. The Tristan army surrounds the crash sites and fight the survivors who come out. A decent sized group come out of one of the ships and makes a move to catch Tristan's forces in a pincer, not on my watch. A bow made of shadow forms in my hands and when I draw the string back an arrow appears. I aim ahead of the group and let the arrow fly. Midway it splits into hundreds of arrows which turn the enemy into pincushions. I can see Guiche with a few of his Valkyries struggling to hold a line for injured to be dragged behind. "Louise stay here okay." I then use Louise's shadow to reach Guiche's shadow and form Shadowfang while drawing Ivory. I'm back to back with Guiche in the midst of the fighting.
"Guiche direct your Valkyries to back me up okay." Guiche shouts his agreement and I call out my Enslaved Valkyries and have them grab Tristan injured while finishing off downed but not dead enemies. A great sword wielder attacks with an overhand swing which I push to the side and use Ivory to but a hole between his eyes. A group of spearmen charge me after him only for me to have a Boarbutusk come out of my shadow and use them like bowling pins. The Boarbutusk returns to my shadow as I cut down some swordsmen only to jump back when I hear gunshots, my opponent isn't so lucky. I turn to see a row of gunmen aiming at me and the injured behind me. However when they fire Guiche's Valkyries appear and block the shots.
"Charge!" with that cry from Guiche the Valkyries move forward and impale the gunmen on their spears. I follow up by forming a large amount of shadow spears in the air before shooting them forward to impale more Albion soldiers. A cry followed by a hull being blown outward draws my attention to a huge green figure coming out of the wreckage of one ship. "Guiche what the heck is that thing." Guiche has gained a worried look on his face now that this creature has shown up. "That would be an ogre, to think that Albion would be able to tame one of these creatures." If they used that ring like they did on Louise I could see how it happened.
The ogre raises a club only to stumble back when an Alpha Ursa Major come out from my shadow and shoulder tackles it. The Ursa releases a roar and charges the ogre where they engage in combat. The ogre fights without regard for its own health giving it a slight edge but it soon falls to my Ursa. Seeing what must have been their trump card so to speak fall lead to most of the forces surrendering on the spot. "Jaune!" I look up to see Louise jumping off the Nevermore which has got on fire from a spell most likely. I use a glyph to jump up to her and catch her. Unlike with initiation I'm able to land on my feet this time.
With Albion's forces surrendering I take Louise to talk with Henrietta. We find her organizing the watch for the POWs. "Princess we'll be taking our leave now to avoid the after effects of what just happened. Could you do a translation spell on Louise for us?" Henrietta nods in response "Yes, give me a week or two and I should be able to get the war hawks to quiet down." She then casts the spell on Louise and I give her my thanks before turning to Louise. "So ready to see Beacon?" A smile crosses her face "Of course." With that I open a door to Ozpin's office and we move through it.
Ozpin's POV
It's been a long year but it's finally time for the festival. Tomorrow is the first day with the 4v4 fights occurring. I'm currently going over a few more security measures when one of Jaune's doors opens. Coming through it is Jaune looking some-what worn out and a pink-haired girl shorter then Ruby, I presume this is Louise. Jaune is the first to speak. "Hey Ozpin. I'd like to introduce you to my girlfriend/master Louise." Louise waves to me and holds out her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Ozpin." I shake her hand while replying.
"Just call me Ozpin, Jaune has told me a lot about you. Now what is it you need Jaune." A sheepish look crosses Jaune's face and he rubs the back of his head before replying. "Well Louise and I need a place to lay low due to some info becoming public knowledge." If I had to guess it's about that Void magic Jaune mentioned in passing. "That's fine Jaune, however you'll have to attend classes since I can't have you simply wandering around." Jaune seems to be thinking it over and gives his answer a few moments later after a sigh. "Fine, but don't expect Louise to be able to do the course work." Ah yes the written languages are completely different. "That is fine, here's your keys for your new room, a map to said room, and I'll have uniforms delivered tomorrow." Upon seeing their stares I answer their unspoken question.
"Standard procedure for transfer students." Nodding in response and thanking me once more they head off, once they're gone I open up a compartment in my desk and stare at the contents, a micro-hologram projector. The owner was Arthur Arc, Jaune's grandfather. I found it wedged into a niche in the shield of Crocera Mors. I watched it and planned on giving it to the Arc's but decided to wait for when Jaune returns, I hope he forgive me for what I'm about to do but all of them need to hear Arthur's final message. I then use my scroll to make a call. "Mr. Arc I need to see your entire family, it's about Crocera Mors."
So I hope you all liked this chapter. Can't wait to start working on the next one.
