Chapter 25 – The Watchers

"Jaune… are… are you alright?" Ruby asked cautiously. Jaune turning into his darker self, caught Ruby by surprise.

"I'm fine Ruby. Why wouldn't I? Can you please remove the ropes for me? It seems like I regained my stamina again. It's pretty… weird." Jaune said.

"I… I don't know. Maybe we should leave you like that a little longer, just… just to be sure."

"Ruby… I'm fine. Really I am… see?" Jaune smiled at the rose, but his smile felt too sinister for Ruby, as if that smile was comprised of nothing but pure lies. A smile that only a deceiver would use to gain trust of the people around him.

"Well… why do you have your dark aura on? Your eyes turned just like they were when you fought Adam and Cinder."

"It's a subconscious thing. I… forgot to mention it back in the taxi. Now remove these ropes."

"You told me to not listen whatever you say."

"Forget what I said okay! Remove these ropes now!" The dark knight at this point had enough of what Ruby had to say.

"No." Ruby said.

"What?"

"I said no!"

"Get me out of this rope now Ruby!" Jaune started to force his way out of the ropes, but it was useless. The rope was tight and the handcuffs made him impossible to use his semblance or even his aura to break out.

"What… what is wrong with you?" Ruby asked silently, witnessing the person she love turn to a completely different person, a person she never thought Jaune could be.

"What's wrong with me? Nothing is wrong with me you naïve girl. This is the Jaune you always knew. Untie me now!"

"NO! That's not the Jaune I know! You're not Jaune!" Jaune stopped struggling and begun to laugh hysterically. His laugh was enough to scare Zwei, causing him to run behind Ruby to seek protection.

"You were always naïve Ruby and you still are too. You think you know what I am going through yet the truth is that you know absolutely nothing!"

"What… what are you saying? I know exactly what you are going through!"

"No you don't! You always had it easy growing up. You are just like Weiss! Everything you could ever want was handed to you on a silver platter! You had an Uncle who knew how to fight and taught you everything you needed to know. Your uncle knew Ozpin and that is how you managed to get to the academy at such a young age. I only had one person who taught me how to fight and that person was Pyrrha. Unlike you I lost people who I was close to, my father, Pyrrha, and Jay. I had to witness their deaths in front of me and this is what it turned me!"

"Well I lost…"

"Let me guess… your mother. Ha don't make me laugh Ruby. That's the only person you've ever lost in your life." Ruby couldn't handle the words coming out of Jaune. Listening to Jaune's darker half was changing the way she viewed Jaune as.

"Pathetic, I'm forced to look at a defenseless girl who hides from reality through hopes and dreams. It almost makes me feel bad for you Ruby."

"These dreams that I have are no different than yours Jaune. We both seek the same thing and you should know how we can make it a reality."

"A reality? Hahahahahaha! Look at me Ruby and what do you see?"

"I don't know what you are…"

"WHAT DO YOU SEE!? YOU ARE SEEING SOMEONE WHO FELL INTO DESPAIR BECAUSE OF A NAÏVE DREAM THAT CAN NEVER BE A REALITY! I have fought day in and day out in order to see even a glimmer of hope that I can achieve this thing called peace, yet it seems that whatever I do… I make things worse! Do you know what that does to someone Ruby? Do you?"

"Jaune I…"

"I'm going ask you one last time… let me out right now or when I get out… the first thing I'll do is make sure you watch as I kill every single person you've ever loved and then… and only then… will you know how I really feel." Ruby turned around and covered her ears, hoping that the words would be muted, but Jaune's voice grew louder. All Ruby could do now was sit behind the tree and not look at what could possibly be the real Jaune Arc.

"You know what… I take back what I said." Jaune said to Ruby who sat silently by a tree. Ruby looked towards him with a sad look on her face as if someone told her that someone close had just passed away.

"…"

"What's with the depressed look? I thought you loved me for who I am? Hahahahahaha!" After listening through an hour of threats and getting psychologically tortured by Jaune's words she had enough of it. She sped towards the dark knight with crescent rose drawn and had the blade in mere inches away from the boy's neck.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Jaune smiled at what was transpiring. By the looks of things, it seemed that he was amused by what he was seeing.

"Are you upset?"

"I've had it with your stupid remarks and your stupid threats!"

"So the first person you're going to kill is the person you love huh? At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if you become just like me."

"I'll never be like you! I'm going to be the very thing that is going to stop you!"

"Well then do it. Go ahead and kill me. That is what you are trying to do right?" Ruby took a moment to realize what she was doing and threw her weapon away.

"What… what am I doing?"

"You know what Ruby… I'm not going to kill anyone." Ruby looked at Jaune with a puzzled look on her face.

"Killing the people you love isn't as fun as watching you fall."

"Fall?"

"I want to watch as you slowly realize that your dream will never become reality."

"My dream will be a reality and yours will t…"

"YOUR DREAM IS GOING TO DIE AND THIS… THIS IS WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO BECOME!" And just like that, Jaune's dark half fell unconscious. The black veins retracted and his dark aura settled down. A few seconds later, Jaune slowly opened his eyes and looked at Ruby with concern in his eyes.

"Ruby… what's wrong?"

"Jaune?" Ruby asked, tears streaming down her eyes.

"Why are you crying? Did something happen?" Ruby didn't answer and just jumped towards him with a relieved smile on her face.

"Tell me that it's really you Jaune!"

"It's me. What happened while I was asleep?" Ruby did not respond and continued to hug the knight tightly around her arms. The sight of the real Jaune Arc returning was a blessing for her. Hours watching Jaune's darker side was similar to a never ending nightmare, a nightmare that was a reality. After a minute, Ruby untied the knight and allowed him to stretch his muscles, but he immediately stopped when he noticed Zwei shaking anxiously. Jaune crouched and stretched his arm towards him, but Zwei growled and ran behind Ruby. Jaune slowly returned his arm to his side and sat back down on the ground.

"You both saw it right?"

"… yeah we did." Ruby sat next to the crestfallen knight.

"Jaune… I know that you aren't that thing. The Jaune I know keeps moving forward and wouldn't let anything stand in his way. The Jaune I know keeps fighting until his dream becomes a reality." Ruby's word touched Jaune, but Ruby felt as if though she didn't mean it. The darker half of Jaune seeped into Ruby's thoughts. The possibility of her becoming like Jaune frightened her and by making sure Jaune continued walking forward made it her feel that she wouldn't become something like that.

"Let's set up camp for the night. You're going to need your energy for tomorrow." Jaune said. The night passed and everything seemed as though it returned back to normal, but Ruby could not sleep throughout the night. That image of Jaune's darker self was engraved in her brain. That frightening image of him would not escape her mind. When morning came, Jaune noticed that Ruby wasn't being her normal self and decided it would be best to not bring it up. An hour passed and they packed up and continue moving forward to their destination.

"Hey… don't you think it's odd." Jaune said.

"Odd in what way?" Ruby asked.

"We haven't seen a single Grimm since we arrived here. I would have at least expected a few but this forest… it seems free of Grimm. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing."

"Let's just say that it is a good thing." Ruby said. They group continued moving forward as the hours passed and before they even knew it they were a few miles away from their destination. Zwei who was frightened before returned to his normal self and was no longer afraid of Jaune. He cheerfully played with Jaune and Ruby along the way and that helped them pass the time. They reached a path that had footprints on them. Jaune carefully inspected them and realized that these were human footsteps rather than an animal's paw prints. Jaune told Ruby to remain alert, just in case these people were hostile and before he could react, an unknown knight swung his sword at Jaune with great speed, causing Jaune to hit a tree that broke due to the force behind the attack.

"Jaune!" Ruby yelled. She saw 3 other sword and dagger wielding knights appear out of the woods and attack Jaune with the intent to kill. Although they noticed Ruby and Zwei, they paid no attention to them and only focused at the dark knight in front of them. Jaune quickly released his dark aura causing the 4 knights to get pushed back, which allowed Jaune to manifest his dark knight armor. He drew his sword and was ready to fight against the four sword wielding knights. The knights after witnessing what Jaune did slowly circled around him and were very cautious when doing so. Jaune yelled at Ruby to keep her distance and stay out of this fight, but stubborn as she is, she failed to listen to him and aided him. Two of the knight kept their focus on Jaune whereas the other two paid close attention to Ruby who drew crescent Rose. Zwei ran towards Jaune's side and stood in front of him as if to say that he was going to protect him at any cost. The two knights who stared at Jaune slowly stepped back, but Jaune used this moment to go on the offensive. He jumped towards them with dark Crocea Mors in his hand and swung viciously at the two. Sparks flew around as their swords as they made contact with each other at every second of the battle. Ruby was having no trouble with the two knights at her side, but she noticed that they weren't aggressive like the ones who were battling Jaune. Jaune pushed one of the knights back and the other performed a somersault attack forcing Jaune to block rather than to dodge. The impact was so great that his sword amassed a powerful attack once Jaune was able to attack again. Jaune swung his sword at the knight hitting him on the shoulder and that caused him to go soaring across the forest. The other knight turned to look at Jaune who wasn't affected by their attacks and slowly raised his blade and pointed it towards his foe. Jaune observed as the knight aggressively swung his sword and dagger at him. Jaune thrusted his sword at his foe, but was parried by the knight and managed to land a devastating blow towards Jaune. Jaune staggered and the knight performed a spinning ankle slash that caused Jaune to fall on his back and take massive damage. At this point Jaune's aura was depleting and had no choice, but to use his dark aura that he hoped to not use against his foes.

Ruby and Zwei

Ruby shot away at the knights that were focused on her, but they had no problem slashing at the rounds that were flying towards them. Ruby reverted crescent rose back to its original state and used her semblance to spike her speed and agility with every movement of her body. She was able to land several attacks on each knight in a few seconds. Neither one of them were able to land one of their own attacks on the swift and agile Rose, but after a while, they figured out the pattern at which she would hit them with an attack. Unlike Jaune, Ruby was repetitive with her attacks and can be easily anticipated. When she attacked once more with the same move, one of the knights parried her scythe and managed to grab hold of it. The other kicked Ruby towards a tree causing her to fall on her knees. Zwei noticed what was happening and head-butted one of the knights and caused him to fall on his back. Zwei growled at the other knight that held both of his weapons tightly on his hands, but the knight did not attack the growling dog and simply stepped back. Zwei noticed Ruby's weapon on the floor and quickly grabbed it with his mouth and wielded the scythe as if he has been training with it for a long time. Zwei did the same exact spinning ankle slash attack the dagger wielding knight did. Ruby wasn't surprised that her pup was able to do such things since she has seen it first-hand at what Zwei could do when he has a weapon held tightly in his mouth. However, Zwei's small body could only do so much. Crescent Rose was heavier than what he could carry so his movements were slower compared to what he can do with a fairly sized weapon. In a blink of an eye, all 4 of the forest knights were flung towards a tree and were unable to move. Jaune was using his polarity semblance to prevent the knights from doing more harm to his friends. Jaune proceeded to imbue Crocea Mors with a dark flame and intended to kill the knights, but was immediately stopped by Ruby who grabbed hold of his arm.

"What are you doing Ruby?"

"You don't have to kill them Jaune. They're already beaten."

"If I don't get rid of them permanently, they'll be back for us. It's better this way." Jaune stretched his arm back to finish it, but again was pulled by Ruby.

"I'm telling you it's not! Why do always think that killing is the best way to do things. You can still get the job done without having to harm someone!" Ruby yelled. Jaune looked at Ruby and looked back at the knights and lowered his sword.

"Why did you attack us?" Jaune asked. The knights gave no reply and remained quiet.

"They're not going to talk Ruby. Let me knock them unconscious then we can head towards Shadow woods."

"What business do you have in shadow woods?" One of the knights asked Jaune.

"Nothing that concerns the four of you."

"It concerns us greatly. Our job is to make sure that any sign of Dark presence is completely erased in Remnant."

"Wait… what. What do you know about the Darkness!" Jaune asked violently. Ruby had to calm him down to allow the knight to continue speaking.

"We cannot tell this information to the ones who are corrupted by the abyss."

"I am not corrupted. I have full control over this power." Jaune said.

"Jaune." Ruby said. Jaune ignored her knowing that she knows the truth.

"Yes you are. We can sense the Darkness consuming you. It will not take too long until you become like her."

"Like who?"

"Like Salem." Jaune looked at Ruby to check if she knew who this Salem person is.

"If you are a warrior who seeks peace, you will allow us to lock you away into the abyss in order to prevent you from harming more innocent people."

"You tried to kill us! Why should we believe you!?" Ruby yelled.

"Like he said. We took it upon ourselves to prevent any other person become a victim of this cursed power. If you follow us we will take you to the person who knows more about what we do." The other knight stated. Jaune and Ruby looked at each other and had no choice but to agree to it. They followed the four knights who were still cautious around Jaune back to their location which was in the same direction where they were heading.

"What do you know about this Darkness? Do you know how to stop it?" Ruby asked one of the knights who seemed a lot nicer than the others.

"We stop it by killing the person being controlled by it. The host manipulates other people to follow his or her command and the manipulated individual slowly gets exposed to his dark aura causing that individual to sooner or later become one like him. It is our job to make sure the spread of the Darkness is kept to at least minimum."

"How old is this darkness anyways? Are you four the only ones who know about this?"

"Information about the abyss was leaked and at this point we don't exactly who knows and who doesn't. As far as the darkness goes, it's been with us since the beginning. Humans were born from it and slowly moved away from it. The creatures of Grimm that you see nowadays are prime examples of the darkness.

"Well how many of you are there? I would think that there would be a lot of you to stop it from spreading."

"The Abyss watchers consists about 30 individuals. Each individual is tasked to notify the others about any signs of the darkness across Remnant. Most of us are spread around Remnant and only 7 remain here to prevent the mausoleum from opening."

"The mausoleum from opening? What's in there?"

"The abyss. That's where we keep Salem. To make sure she never escapes from there."

"And who exactly is the Salem? How did she get locked in there?"

"You'll have to ask our elder about that. He knows more about that than I do." After an hour of walking, they made it back to the small settlement. The Abyss watchers led the three to the elder of the settlement who held the knowledge that Jaune sought. The watchers who found the three explained the situation and the elder dismissed the four. Jaune, Ruby, and Zwei sat on comfortable chairs and were treated kindly. They were given tea by the caretakers of the cabin and were surprised to see that the settlement here looked as though they were living centuries back.

"So you are the one who has the darkness lurking inside you." The kind old man said. He appeared to be at the age of 80. Although he was very old, he seemed still capable of taking care of himself. The old man had a white goatee, blind from one eye, and had a visible scar across his face. Jaune looked around and was amazed by a weapon that was encased in a glass container.

"So I see that you have taken interest in that old Greatsword." The old man said.

"How old is it? I noticed that it looked very similar to the ones that the knights held."

"That Greatsword belonged to a knight who walked in the abyss. He was the first to take a stand against the Dark and was able to lock it away and was one of the very few who was able to control the Dark. With his companion wolf, they both were a force to be reckoned with, however even the mightiest of soldiers have a weak point."

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"He was put in a position where he had to choose whether to save a kingdom, or save his loyal companion wolf."

"What did he choose?" Jaune asked, intrigued by the story.

"He chose his companion. My grandfather told me that the abyss walker had placed a barrier around his companion in order to protect him from the corruption that is the dark. He sacrificed himself to protect his closest friend he ever had." Jaune lowered his head and thought about what the knight had to go through in order to protect something. Is a single friend worth saving if it meant sacrificing himself and an entire kingdom?

"He is our master and we were inspired by him to continue his legacy. We are here to prevent such a tragedy to ever happen again. Although there was a few times that the abyss was seen in a few kingdoms centuries ago, we took liberty to stop it from spreading by burning down an entire kingdom."

"What!" Ruby yelled.

"Why!? Why would you burn an entire kingdom!? How many times has this been going on!?" Ruby demanded to know.

"Like I said before… since we established this faction there were only a few times where we were forced to destroy a kingdom, but that was a sacrifice worth taking if it meant saving the rest of Remnant. One of the many kingdoms that fell was under the rule of the Vanquishers."

"Jaune… isn't that." Ruby said.

"Your circle destroyed the Vanquisher's kingdom?"

"Yes we did. They were the fiercest family that nearly wiped out our whole circle. They're hand to hand combat prowess as well as their hidden talent to create weapons that could bypass a person's aura were something to be very weary of. Although we managed to destroy the kingdom, many of the family members fled the land in order to avoid capture. From information I have gathered over the years, the Vanquisher's are still strong and most of them became Hunters."

"You mean Huntsmen." Jaune stated.

"No… I meant Hunters, individuals that hunt huntsmen and huntresses."

"That can't be true." Jaune said.

"By your reaction… it seems you must have known a Vanquisher in some point of your life."

"Yes I have, but he passed away. What makes you think that they are what you call a Hunter?"

"Have you ever noticed how they fight? Their weapons of choice aren't something that they would use against a creature of Grimm, but a weapon that would be used against a person." Jaune remembers the weapons that Jay would use in every type of situation. He remembers now that Jay never really excelled like many other huntsmen in training when it came to fighting Grimm, but when Jay faced other huntsmen and huntresses, they never stood a chance against him. Could this old man be telling the truth? Is it possible that Jay had a shady job outside of school?

"In any case, what brings you here to our settlement?" The old man asked.

"I… I came here to find out if any of you can help me with a problem I have been having with the Dark."

"What kind of problem have you been having?"

"Well… when I fall asleep… I… I lose myself."

"Ahh… you're saying that the dark takes over you unconsciously."

"Y…Yes. Is there a way for you to help me?" Jaune asked, hoping that his answer would be yes.

"Over the years, I have seen my fair share of the Dark. The knights here who watch over it have yet to see someone corrupted by it, but I must say that there was never a solution that didn't involve killing the host." Jaune felt a huge a weight fall on top of him. The old man's words were equivalent to that of a person who was told that they only had a few days to live. He couldn't bear to see Ruby and his friends watch as he was slowly consumed by it and turn to something that they will ultimately fear and the thought of him of possibly spreading it to others was what frightened him the most.

"What's your name young man?"

"Jaune Arc sir."

"Oh… an Arc? Now I know why you haven't been fully consumed by it. I have but one solution for you Jaune Arc."

"Anything will do sir, please tell me."

"The Dark uses your doubts, your anger, and your emotions to fully overpower you. You must face your dark side in order to overcome it and the only way for that to work is for you to walk the same grounds as the Abyss walker once did.

"And that's where?" Jaune quickly asked.

"Into the Mausoleum… where Salem has been kept for centuries."

Here is another chapter everyone. I decided to add some Dark Souls things in here since it seems like Dark Souls suits RWBY pretty well I must say. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and enjoyed the Dark Souls references in it. I will see you all later.