Disclaimer: RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum, not me. This is merely a fanwork meant for entertainment purposes only. Cover image courtesy of Jan Chrt (jeni-cek on deviantART). All rights reserved.

"Jaune...what happened to you?"

As Jaune grabbed the weapon embedded in the ground, it was if time had ground to a halt as dark energy surged up its hilt, rushed up Jaune's arm and enveloping him in a nebula through which nought but deep blackness could be seen. The Grimm, too, had stopped in place, their beady eyes watching in something between curiosity and a kind of respect, if there was such a thing amongst their kind. However, as the impenetrable orb around Jaune began to dissolve, drawing its essence into his body, the Grimm changed their tune; here and there, whimpers were heard above the howling wind that now whipped through the room, and even stranger, a few of them turned into a full-on retreat.

Not that they ever made it to the exits, of course.

A kind of dark electricity rushing through his body, Jaune swung the blade in an imperious arc, and in a flash, the running Grimm found themselves impaled upon organic purple spikes, their length oozing with a liquid that seemed almost eldritch in nature. The worst thing, however, was how the spikes only seemed to harm and contain the Grimm; even as the poor creatures screamed at a pitch that ruptured the ears, they could find no release from their pain, prevented from disintegration by whatever malevolent force possessed the blade. Seeing this, the comrades who had remained to watch turned hostile once more, most of them surrounding Jaune in a circle and the rest rushing over to Bianca.

What...what do I do? I don't have enough aura left for another teleport, and Jaune is…

Ignoring the various Grimm that had him 'trapped', Jaune turned on the spot to face Bianca, his face set in a monstrous rage.

"MINE!" he roared at the top of his lungs and, with another swing of the blade, sent a whirl of tenebrous pellets at lightning speed, leaving the targeted Grimm with more holes than body. The ones surrounding him, meanwhile, saw ample opportunity to strike, diving towards him simultaneously and efficiently as their teeth and claws attempted to find purchase in his vein-covered skin. For a moment, the plan seemed to work, and it wasn't long before the Grimm's natural weapons tore Jaune's form to shreds, leaving nothing but the remnants of his clothing in their wake.

...and yet, even as the Grimm held victory in their grasp, they whined, looking around in confusion. Where was the blood, the gore? All that had poured from Jaune's corpse was a fine purple mist, and while several of the creatures tried their best to devour it, the mist simply passed straight through them, slowly collecting until Jaune was reformed, garbed in armour that pulsed an ugly, tainted red, its horned helmet completely open to allow Jaune's macabre smile to pierce through.

"FACE ME, WORMS!"

Now completely ignoring Bianca, the Grimm looked to surround the new threat as they had before, but unfortunately, Jaune wasn't staying in one place for long. Brief flashes could be seen of him as the air around the Grimm thickened, an unholy flurry of swings sending talons and torsos flying against the walls, and, amongst it all, Jaune laughed like an absolute madman, completely engrossed in his work. Finally, after the last Grimm corpse thrashed along the ground, eventually dissolving, Jaune snapped his fingers and, with a last yelp, the Grimm on the spikes were finally allowed the sweet embrace of death.

Then, he turned to Bianca.

He smiled.

"J-Jaune...are you...okay?" Bianca asked waveringly, desperately looking this way and that for some kind of escape.

"AURA!" Jaune bellowed, his voice a multi-faceted horror, "MINE!"

As Jaune charged towards her, Bianca was forced into panic mode, using the absolute last of her aura reserves to teleport her to the other side of the metal mesh that had stopped her and Jaune's progress before, hoping, praying that the creature couldn't follow her.

"MINE, MINE, MINE!"

Bianca had broke out into a run, realising all too quickly that the mesh wouldn't hold for a second against the torrent of blows sent towards it but, sadly, her control of Weiss' body was lacking once again. Tripping over as the mesh was blasted into the side wall, Bianca was forced to crawl as Jaune came ever closer, his laugh a low, ominous chuckle.

"No…" Bianca whimpered aloud, her face buried into the cavern floor, "It can't...end like this…"

At the very tip of despair, Bianca stopped fighting it, tears running down her cheeks as Jaune lifted her chin up from the ground, the claws on his gauntlets digging into her flesh.

"IT CAN'T?"

He chuckled.

"SUCH A SHAME THAT IT ALREADY HAS."

However, as Jaune dug his claws in harder, preparing for dust-knows what, there emanated a persistent crashing sound from up above them. If she had to compare it to anything, Bianca would have thought it to be another kind of Grimm mole, albeit an incredibly fast one. Snarling, Jaune grabbed Bianca by the throat, sending her flying against a wall as an earthen-clad figure flew out of the ceiling at ludicrous speed, its arrival shaking many of the dust crystals out of their sockets. Wasting no time, the figure gripped its enormous mace with both hands, pointing it threateningly towards Jaune.

Jaune snarled.

"WHO ARE YOU?" he demanded.

The figure slammed the hilt of his mace into the ground.

"My name is Spade."

The square of ground beneath Jaune's feet shot upwards, slamming him into the ceiling.

"And if you don't get away from her, you'll end up a lot deeper than six feet under."

Weiss!

...hrrmgh…

Weiss, come on, get up!

Need to...sleep...

Come on, Weiss! He needs your help!

Her entire body ached as Weiss cracked her eyes open, trying her best to survey an environment that seemed almost non-Euclidean in its chaos. What had once been a uniform cavern floor was turned upside down in all kinds of strange places, jutting out in precise shapes that were perfectly cuboid, soon followed by a vaguely humanoid outline or two in the ceiling. Really, though, the upturned earth was the least of the peculiarities; here and there, purple-black spikes poked out from the walls and ceiling, their surface quivering in excitement as they waited anxiously to catch an unsuspecting combatant.

FWOOSH.

Was that...Cardin?

If she didn't know any better, Weiss might have guessed that Ruby was in this battle somewhere, considering how hard it was to keep track of its participants. Something that looked like Jaune teleported here and there, swinging Karyan's runic blade like a maddened berserker, and meanwhile, Cardin melted in and out of the ground, coming up at random intervals to make a surprise attack with his enormous mace. However, even as the weapon bit into Jaune's sword arm, its impact seemed negligible, and Jaune merely brought his other arm in for a gauntleted punch, sending Cardin flying back into the nearest wall, though, thankfully, his armour seemed to keep him intact.

Weiss, you need to help him! He can't win this fight on his own!

You...who are you? Why are you in my head?

Bianca, and the latter can be answered later. Right now, you need to focus on getting up and doing something about Jaune.

What happened to him? He looks...different.

I don't know! He grabbed that weird looking sword from the ground when a load of Grimm attacked, and now he's all crazy mode or something! If it weren't for Spade, we'd both be dead...or worse.

BOOM.

I'm just not sure what I can do. From the looks of it, he's just regenerating from whatever Cardin can throw at him. What can I…?

Looking to her side, Weiss found that she was now holding Zinnia, though she never actually remembered feeling it in her hands. Still, now that it was here…

You have an idea?

I do, but it's going to take time.

We don't have time!

We will if I can get my scroll. Ugh, where is it?

In a flash of pink, Weiss' scroll popped out from the wreckage it had been buried under, returning to Weiss' outstretched hands in...workable condition.

There, you've got your tech crap. Now what?

Flipping the scroll over, Weiss thanked her lucky stars that the device's back-panels were undamaged, moving over a particularly loose one to reveal a small, red button. Still weak as a newborn babe, Weiss only just managed to press it down, sighing wearily as the screen began to flash a soft green.

Meanwhile, Cardin was beginning to show signs of fatigue as Jaune grew more and more impatient, his blade currently caught in Cardin's grip. Still, little by little, the blade began inching closer to Cardin's face and, with his aura nearly depleted and his mace knocked to one side, he was beginning to run out of options.

"GIVE UP!" Jaune roared, "YOU ARE VANQUISHED!"

Cardin grimaced, using the last of his reserves to send a sharp roundhouse kick towards Jaune's stomach, sending him sprawling onto the ground. Unfortunately, it was mere milliseconds before Jaune was back on his feet, and with no strength left to fight, Cardin merely knelt down, clapping his hands together as Jaune gathered an orb of dark energy in his free hand, laughing maniacally all the while.

"YOU FIGHT WELL...BUT NOW, YOUR SOUL IS MI- EURGH!"

The orb completely evaporated as Jaune realised he had a rather large problem. Large in that it was important, and also large in that the scythe currently embedded in his chest was absolutely enormous. However, as he attempted to heal the wound, dragging the scythe out in the process, he found that various injuries suddenly began appearing all over his body in quick succession, and no matter what he did, he couldn't possibly fix them faster than they were being made. He tried thrashing out with his sword, but the sword arm's muscles were completely severed, and unless he completely reformed, not even dark magic was going to make it move.

"Hey, bartender!"

Even as he continued to sustain injuries, Jaune couldn't help but glance incredulously at the girl in white by the wall. Was she talking to him? And what was that...that wave-thing she was doing with her sword?

Wait, the ground...what was on the ground?

"I'll take my Jaune on ice."

There wasn't quite enough time for Jaune to react, and as what remained of his body quickly became encased, he could only really think one thing.

OH. AN ICE GLYPH.

CHNK.

…

The combat ended, Ruby sheathed Crescent Rose, walking over to her weary team-mate.

"It's okay, Weiss. It's over now."

Slowly but surely, Weiss lowered her hand, letting Zinnia drop to the floor with a loud clatter.

"...Ruby?"

"Yes?"

"I...I don't think I can walk."

"Oh. I guess it's a good job you have a strong team leader to help then, huh?"

Too weak to physically protest, Weiss could only squeak pathetically as Ruby picked her up bridal carry style, grinning all the while. However, as her gaze flickered over to Jaune's frozen form, her smile began to dim.

"Is he…?"

"He's alive." Cardin cut in, having completely shed his earthen armour, "For a given definition of alive, anyway."

"Why, 'cause he's frozen?"

Cardin sighed, returning his mace to its rightful place.

"Not exactly. If that sword is what I think it is, the thing you have encased in ice there is just Jaune's body. It's a husk."

"So...what does that mean? Where's his soul?"

Cardin pointed a finger towards the sword.

"In there."

"Trapped."

Gods above, this one turned out way longer than I thought it would! And, um, as a result, it was released almost three hours late. Woops. Sorry!

Anyways, back to the usual stuff. I would super duper appreciate it if you would leave a review or send me a PM, though rest assured, it is gratifying when I see people favouriting my story and such. It's just a little bit moreso when they also give me feedback in the reviews, ya know? Come ooooon, help a guy out here!

Ahem. 'Till next week, folks!