Alright time for RWBY volume 3 to come into play. Hope you all enjoy the first chapter of the Festival Arc. I do not own RWBY or Familiar of Zero. Fans of Cardin (do any actually exist?) might not want to read this chapter. Shoutout to Asura for the idea for the micro-camera
Chapter 10 – A Message from the Grave and a Frosty Reunion.
Blake's POV
It's been a while since we saw Jaune and begun our search for him. Honestly I feel sick every time I think about how I treated him, not even reading my novels helps. Now we're sitting in Port's class along with the transfer's for the festival listening to his lecture about the new rules. "So class you will have classes till noon at which you will head out to prepare for the afternoon matches, fighting is prohibited unless you've been knocked out or you aren't part of the doubles round." Port is interrupted when the door opens and we turn to see a pink haired girl with a cape attached to her uniform come in.
"Sorry for interrupting you Professor but we had to wait for our uniforms to be delivered." Port waves her off. "No need young lady but you said we, where is the rest of your group?" A voice soon comes through the open door, one I recognize quite clearly. "Why can't you just stay in the Shadowplains for now? It's class for crying out loud." I recognizes the next voice as that sword of Jaune's "I am not going back to that place for a long time partner." Jaune then walk through the door and I do a double take. Not only has he grown taller but his hair is to his shoulders with a streak of black from the top of his head heading to his right eye has appeared. He also appears to have gained several Faunus like qualities. I then look over to see Pyrrha staring at him quite intently.
"Hey Professor is it okay if Derf here stays? I'll never hear the end of it otherwise." Port merely nods, shocked just like the rest of those that knew Jaune at the changes. He and the pink-haired girl then take a seat at the front of the class and settle in for Port's lecture. The girl, who I guess is Louise, listen's with rapt attention along with Jaune surprisingly until Port calls on Jaune. "Now my boy I've heard about your feats in battle but never saw them myself. Since you're not competing in the festival would you care to provide a demonstration?" Jaune nods and then moves to get up only for Louise to pull him down and give him a kiss straight on the lips. "For luck, even if you don't need it." Jaune smiles down at her and then heads off to change. When he goes by me I notice he still has his gloves on.
Five minutes later he's down in front of a cage waiting to fight its contents, he's wearing his normal get-up but he's still ditching armor. Port opens the cage and an Alpha Beowolf pops out, it's like a switch is triggered. My instincts are telling me to run from what's down in the arena and not because of the Grimm. The Beowolf then rushes at Jaune and swipes at him and he merely raises a hand to stop it. I close my eyes only to hear a thud, when I open them Jaune's hand is completely coated in shadows. "It'll take more than that to break through my shield." Jaune pushes outward and the Grimm stumbles back and a predatory grin forms on Jaune's face. I can now see his canines have become fang-like. "My turn now."
Jaune then moves in a burst of speed leaving black rose petals in his wake, Ruby gasps at that. I don't blame her, I'd do the same if someone somehow copied my semblance as well. He appears in front of the Beowolf and punches it in the chest sending it flying into the wall. It struggles for a few seconds before pulling itself lose and growling at Jaune who only smirks at the thing. Jaune then holds up his hands and claws shoot out. A glyph appears under the Beowolf and sends it flying towards Jaune who catches it by the neck and slams it into the ground. From there he proceeds to slash it across the chest and this finishes the thing off causing it to fade away. Everyone is silent at seeing such a brutal display.
Port congratulates Jaune and he heads back to change. When he comes back it's through one of those dark portals. The rest of the lesson goes somewhat normal except that the reason no one listens to Port is that they're whispering theories on Jaune's new strength. When class lets out he and Louise move on before we can talk to them and we don't end up seeing either of them till lunch. Louise is sitting at a table by herself eating her food when Neptune, who didn't share Port as first period, sits beside her and puts an arm around her shoulder. "Hey there cutie, are you from Heaven cause you look like an angel?" Louise shakes his arm of and gives him a dark glare. "Twenty seconds, that's how long you have to get away from me." Neptune shakes the threat off and continues flirting, Louise's hand is twitching and seems to be headed to her pocket. Just when it looks like she's about to attack Neptune a dark atmosphere settles in and everyone turns to see Jaune with a shroud of black aura surrounding him.
"Are you trying to flirt with my girlfriend?" his tone is so cold and has a sharp edge to it. I notice Pyrrha tear up a little after hearing true confirmation of what Jaune and Louise are. Neptune starts sweating as Jaune walks up to him while Louise is barely holding back laughter from the looks of it. "Oh boy, you've done it now blue boy." Derf cuts in with a laugh and Neptune tries to placate Jaune. "Sorry man, didn't know she had a boyfriend." It doesn't work and Jaune grabs Neptune by his collar and whispers something in his ear, I'm only able to hear what he said due to my Faunus hearing. I didn't realize that it was physically possible to do that. Ruby then tugs on my arm. "What's he saying Blake?" I shake my head at Ruby. "You don't want to know." Neptune is then released and stumbles off pale as a sheet and joins us at our table. His team soon comes and joins us with their trays. Sun stares at his partner before turning to us.
"What happened to him?" Yang is the one to answer him and points at Jaune and Louise's table. "He flirted with the wrong girl." Sun turns to see Jaune still glaring at Neptune and shiver goes through him. "Blake are you feeling that as well?" Upon seeing everyone's stares I answer them. "My instincts told me to run when I saw Jaune fighting that Beowolf. It felt like I was the mouse and him the lion." Yang nods and then stands up. "I'm going to go talk to him, we can't keep avoiding the issue." Ignoring our protests she heads on over to Jaune's table.
Louise's POV
Today actually was going fairly well till now. First some blue haired idiot tried to flirt with me and now some busty blonde has sat across from us. "Hello Vomit Boy." I think that was a nickname for Jaune and its confirmed when Jaune glares at the girl. "Don't call me that again Long." Ah so this is Yang. Yang falters but keeps talking. "So how about you join us at our table." Jaune just stares at her more and then snaps his fingers. A glyph forms under her and launches her back at her table.
"Hopefully that will keep them away." Jaune then starts eating and begins to explain the tournament to me. "So while people say the tournament is about peace, unity and all that stuff it's truly a muscle flexing contest. People see which country has the strongest future Hunters and that can influence a lot in this world. Businesses are more likely to have headquarters in a place they feel safe after all." So even when threatened by the Grimm people fight meaningless battles. Jaune is about to continue when we hear a cry. Looking over I see a bigger boy pulling on a Faunus girl's tail with three other boys boxing the girl in.
"I'm amazed Atlas let one of you filthy animals compete, all you creatures are good for is labor and nighttime activities. I think I'll introduce you to the latter." Jaune stands up with a dark look on his face muttering something about doesn't learn and permanent lessons. The boys don't even notice Jaune until he's speaks to them. "Winchester, let the girl go and you don't get hurt." So that's Cardin, Jaune mentioned him as a devolution of the human race. Cardin tugs on the girl's hair and tail before sneering at Jaune. "Oh really Jauney-boy, well it seems like you've joined the freaks so of course you care about them. That girl with you needs to be educated on why she should avoid animals. I think once I'm done with this one I'll go have a cha… GAHH!" He's cut off and his hands fly to his face when Jaune claws the right side of his face. Glyphs appear under the four boys and launch them in the air only for more to appear and launch them back down at extreme speed. I can hear bones break for the impact. Jaune then steps on Cardin's chest and grinds his heel into it.
"Honestly Winchester if there's three things I hate its racists, rapists, and those who threaten Louise. You just got in all three categories, perhaps I should put you down like a rabid mutt." Before anything else happens a purple glyph appears around Jaune and picks him up in the air. "Mr. Arc what do you think you're doing." I believe Jaune mentioned this woman is Goodwitch. Jaune just gives her a hard stare before replying. "I believe I was helping a Faunus being assaulted, funny you didn't appear until a human was in danger." Glynda growls at Jaune after that remark. "Did you just accuse me of being racist?" Jaune smirks down at her. "I believe I did." Anger enters Glynda's face and she moves to slam him into the ground only for Jaune to merge with his shadow when he touches the ground. He then comes up behind her and places Ebony to her head with a blank look on his face.
"I'm not the same boy that will put up with your crap Goodwitch, I recommend not testing that." Everyone in the room has been frozen by Jaune's actions, his former team and friends most off all. Jaune puts Ebony back in his shadow and comes back to our table. "Come on lets go check out the fairgrounds." I can tell he wants to leave and I follow him, on the way we make a stop at our room and change into our normal outfits. I'm really glad that Jaune started storing some of my clothes in his shadow. Once dressed we then head to the fairgrounds.
Jaune's POV
Honestly I wasn't expecting today to be so stressful, Cardin is worse than before and that's saying something. It has to be fairly recent or Ozpin would have taken care of it. The anger and annoyance I'm feeling soon melts away when Louise grabs my hand and starts pulling me around to check out the different booths. She's fascinated by all the different games and merchandise, especially the technology. I give her some Remnant currency I have stored and then we continue looking around. We end up going around market are before stopping at a noodle booth for some food. Of course things are going too well and RWBY and JNPR have to show up.
"Hey Jaune, did you see are match?" Ruby has sat on the side that Louise isn't on and is looking up and me with puppy-dog eyes. "No." I haven't paid attention to any of the matches on the various screens set up around the fairground, Louise has had my undivided attention. Ruby pouts some but cheers up when Weiss says the food is on her, then I get a good laugh when her card is declined. Pyrrha then offers to pay for everyone and their food arrives along with ours. I'd leave but the guy doesn't have to-go boxes. I find it hard to eat as Janice is giving me an evil stare during the whole meal. As I'm eating Louise tugs on my arm and then hands me a package she picked up at some point when I went to the restroom once.
"I thought you'd like these and since you gave me some spending money." I'm touched she got me something. "Thank you Louise." I open the package to find a new pair of white gloves with my symbol on them, my old ones were starting to fall apart on me. I begin to switch my old pair for the new ones when the others gasp. Oh great I forgot about my runes, I'm just so used to them now. Blake is the first one to speak up. "Jaune is that a brand?" There's a worried tone in her voice and I know why. I figured out she was a faunus pretty quickly because of how much that bow moved. There have been cases where faunus were branded like cattle just for fun so she would of course fear that.
"No it's not, just drop it." I pull my gloves on and as we're both finished with our food we make to leave but Janice calls out to me. "Wait a second, I don't know why but Ozpin wants you to come to his office tonight." I nod a response before heading off with Louise. Noticing her interest in the buildings I take her around and we sit at a bar for to watch some of the matches. The bartender doesn't even notice us as he's tending to an older guy with a cape and a giant sword. The first match I have any interest in is JNPR vs. BRNZ, I'm interested in seeing how much they've improved. It's quite disappointing actually. Nora ignored a clear opportunity to use her semblance to gain a power boost when the field produced lightning, Ren was knocked out early by BRNZ's sniper, and in the end it was Pyrrha who won the whole thing using her semblance to win. The other match I took interest in was SSSN vs. NDGO since that blue haired guy is on it.
It was an interesting fight, although Neptune is odd. His weapon is a trident and he's named for some old religion's sea god yet he's afraid of water. I was a bit upset I couldn't see what this Sage guy could do, my money would be it has something to do with time. I feel for Scarlet though as a coconut to the groin took him out. In the end the last three members of NDGO were taken out by Neptune using an electrical function in his weapon to shock the poor girls in the water. After that Louise and I left the bar to head to Beacon and were on our way when we noticed a fight going on between that guy at the bar and a familiar face to me.
"Hey human, isn't that the Schnee girl you fought before?" Yes it is. I meet her when I learned of an off the books mine. Off the books also meant it was clear slave labor. I got all the faunus out and "confiscated" the dust before collapsing the mine. On the way out I ran into Winter and got in a fight with her. I ran out there as fast as possible since my skills were way below hers. I motion Louise to move on and we almost get away before I sense something coming at my back and summon Shadowfang to cut some icicles to pieces. Winter is heading towards us with a look of rage on her face.
"I was hoping I'd run into you again. I owe you for that mine you collapsed and the work animals you stole." Louise looks at me questioningly but I send her a look to leave it till later. I can see Weiss and Ruby in the crowd but I keep my focus on Winter. "I recall freeing some faunus slaves not stealing some mules or horses." Winter charges with her rapier at me but I block it easily enough. She then sends a flurry of stabs at me but I dodge them and use my shadow to paralyze her. "Now then let's get this straight, I have a hard drive which can cause your last name to be worth less then mud…" a total bluff but one she can't afford to gamble on. "… so leave me alone and it doesn't get to the media." I grab Louise and pull her through a portal into our room upon which she gives me a stare signifying she wants answers.
"I found out about a slave camp her family had and rescued the labor force. It's how I got my dust supply. I collapsed the mine while I was at it and ran into her on my way out, I got out quickly and left her there. The only reason the authorities aren't always on my tail is the fact an investigation would expose the truth of the site and the Schnees couldn't afford that, they incite the wrath of the White Fang enough as it is." Louise nods before asking another question.
"Should I come with you to Ozpin's office tonight?" I think on it for a few seconds and then reply. "Sure, I'd tell you what happened anyway." With that I lay down on the bed and try to nap for a few hours and then feel Louise snuggle into my side. A smile forms on my face and I wrap an arm around her before drifting off. I wake up about two hours later and shake Louise awake and we had to Ozpins office. When we get there I resist the urge to slaughter the occupants. My "family" is here.
We have Janus Arc, the man that provided half my genetic material, Luna Arc, the woman who held me for nine months, and all my sisters. Their names from oldest to youngest are Daisy, Flora, Sapphire, Topaz, Yin and Yang, the other set of twins, and Janice. Glares are sent my way and Janus starts ranting at me. "So you finally are ready to return Crocera Mors you little beast, and you certainly look the part now. I don't know why you still carry the Arc name, I told you not to call yourself an Arc since you're a disgrace to the family." I ignore his rant and the others rant's and Ozpin brings his cane down to get their attention.
"Now before I hurt every last one of you disgraces I wanted to admit something. Jaune never took Crocera Mors, I simply felt you all didn't deserve it. While I was messing around with it I found a micro-hologram projector, I watched it and felt all of you should watch it as well." Without another word Ozpin activates the machine and it projects a hologram into the air which shows what looks like a much older version of me leaning against a broken wall holding a hand to his gut and a baby wrapped in cloth in his lap and Crocera Mors leaning against the wall. This has to be my Grandfather. My Grandfather face the camera and then begins to speak.
"Oh boy, now that's a sign when you're getting old. I used to kill Grimm by the hundreds and a simple Boarbatusk takes me down. Now I hope this message survives the chaos out there. Now then Janus remember to watch out for your family, Luna keep my idiot son in line okay. My darling Granddaughters I know you'll go on to be great Huntresses just like your Grandmom. Jaune, my only grandson, you've got a bright future ahead of you. When these monsters broke through our gates you were born. A light standing against the sea of darkness that was engulfing our town. You were so brave during the whole ordeal, when the hospital went into lockdown with us on one side and the rest of our family on the other you kept quiet even when I was fighting the Grimm. If you can hold in your fear as an infant you'll go far someday as a hunter. I don't regret dying to protect you, it's my job as a hunter to protect the helpless and as a Grandfather to protect my family. I know you will be one of the greatest hunters ever, a light leading your generation against the Grimm, after all you'll have the Arc clan backing you up. So live your life, find a girl you love, have a family of your own, give me some great grandkids to watch over from the other side. I leave you Crocera Mors to use, it will serve you well. This is Arthur Arc signing off for the last time. Give these Grimm bastards hell everyone." The video ends and I can feel tears dripping down my face. He truly did love me, I always feared he regretted protecting me.
Louise's POV
Jaune is crying now and I'm doing so just as much. So this was his grandfather, I wish I could have met him. Jaune's father turns towards him with watering eyes. "Jaune, I'm sor…" he doesn't get any farther before Jaune turns a killer glare on him with his eyes in Grimm mode. "WHAT?! YOU'RE SORRY NOW. YOU ACTUALLY THINK I CARE, I COULD CARE LESS ABOUT ANY OF YOU. MY LIFE WAS A LIVING HELL, I'M SURPRISED I WAS ABLE TO SURVIVE TO BE THIS AGE. YOU SEE THESE EYES, THIS IS YOUR HANDIWORK, YOU GAVE ME TO THOSE BASTARDS TO BE USED AS A TEST SUBJECT. DO YOU FEEL GOOD NOW, DOES IT MAKE YOU HAPPY THAT NOW ALL THAT CRAP YOU PREACHED IS TRUE. I'M HALF-GRIMM NOW, NO CHANGING THAT. STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME AND LOUISE OR I SWEAR I'LL GIVE YOU A UP CLOSE SHOW AT WHAT THOSE SCIENTISTS CREATED." Jaune then grabs Crocera Mors and glares at his family once more although his eyes are normal now.
"I'll be taking my inheritance now." He then opens a door and turns to look at me with pleading eyes. The fool should know better by now that I'll go anywhere with him. Going through the portal we exit in a graveyard. I follow Jaune who seems to have a clear destination in mind. After a few minutes of walking we end up in front of two graves.
R.I.P
Arthur Arc
XXXX-XXXX
R.I.P
Guinevere Arc
XXXX-XXXX
So these are his Grandparent's graves. Jaune stares at his Grandfather's grave before he begins to speak. "Hey Granddad, I finally saw your message to me. I hate to be the one to tell you this but your belief in our family was wrong. They abandoned me, blamed me for your death, had me experimented on, and turned me into the pariah for this town. I don't think I can be a Hunter now, I've got a job as a Familiar now. I did meet a girl though, you'd love her. She's as stubborn as an Arc sometimes, but she make me feel a warmth I've never felt before. I also know your wrong about me being a light. I'm a shadow that will consume all that threaten the one I love. Anything that aims to harm her will drown in darkness. I accept Crocera Mors though, even though I have another blade I'll try to use it from time to time. So thank y..ou for sa..aving me, and know th..at I lo…love you." Jaune breaks down after he finishes and I hug him which he returns. Once he's calmed down he opens a door back to our room and after putting Crocera Mors in his shadow he collapses on his bed, I join him soon afterwards. He doesn't say anything, just wraps me up in his arms and buries his face into the crock of my neck. I rub his back while he cries once more. For all his strength Jaune can be so fragile sometimes, I'm the same way though. We rely on one another to pull the other out of this mood when it happens.
"Jaune please remember this, I'm here for you. I will never leave you, you're the only man I will ever love. So cry all you want, I'll stay by your side for as long as you need." Jaune doesn't respond and I see he's asleep. I rest my head on his shoulder and soon I join him in the realm of sleep.
So what do you all think? I really hope you all like this chapter as I enjoyed writing this one. See you next time.