Chapter 37 – The Hall of Fears
Jaune
Jaune looks around the halls of the Beacon Dormitories; it looks so familiar but feels so different at the exact same time. He stands up carefully, helping Pyrrha up with him as he keeps her close in his arms. She still has her hands onto his torso as she keeps her body close to his, large emerald green eyes scanning the hall that stretches out before them. They look around, seeing that they are in a cross-section of the hallways.
I don't remember the hallway looking like this...
A cold breeze travels down the halls as they both stand tall inside, Jaune draws Crocea Mors when Pyrrha is able to stand without his help. She too draws Milo and Akuou, ready to fight whatever lurks inside of these doors. Inside of these room – and they need to find out how to get out of this damned place. Jaune walks forward, and he looks back at Pyrrha, she is still quite terrified of being here, trapped in the realms created by the one that tormented her. It is said that Vir Nominis Umbra will honour his end of the bargain if his challenger wins – the issue is...nobody has beaten him, and thus those words just feel completely void and hollow.
Jaune walks over to her, hearing the chinking of the metal in her weapons as she shakes. She stops though, when he stands with her. "We can't stay too long, Pyrrha. We need to keep moving, stay ahead of the Lord of the Wood while we still can." Jaune whispers to her, she sighs and nods her head, walking with him down the familiar yet different halls. There are so many doors in this hallway, and they can hear the faint caws of the Lord of the Wood in the distance.
"I don't like this." Pyrrha stammers, his eyes turn to her and he looks back ahead as he asks his question.
"Did he – did he put you in here, once?" Jaune inquires, and she looks at him as they walk down the hallway cautiously. Anything could be lurking in this layer of his cruel little game of realms.
"Not this one...this is new." Pyrrha tells him, and Jaune catches onto her description there.
"This one?" He asks, and she sighs.
"The last one? That was the Charred Forest, just a different part of it." She explains with a nervous voice. It appears the Charred Forest is much larger than they actually realise. It is not just a forest, there are hills and fields that are charred as well. Are there cities reduced to the same state? Is the Charred Forest an Alternate Version of Remnant right now?
Before he can wonder any more on these thoughts, they both stop and turn to a door. They are not fools, they know that they are bound to come across their fears sooner or later, and they cannot just keep walking in the halls. Clearly the hallways are infinite, just stretching on for miles before them until they start opening up more and more doors. Jaune raises Crocea Mors up in his hand, cautiously reaching towards the doorknob of this door. He looks at her, nervously breathing as he stares at her.
She looks just as nervous.
"Here goes nothing." He exhales, twisting the doorknob and unlocking the door. He pulls it open ever so slowly, the creaking of the door seems to be extra loud than physically possible. Jaune would be scared of what is inside, but he just rolls his eyes with annoyance and – somewhat – disappointment. Because Vir Nominis Umbra is in the Dormitory, in the form of Weiss once again with a guitar in his hand as he strikes the fingers with the sweeping action of his hand.
"Jauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuune!" Umbra playfully sings as he stands there, just as he did to Weiss when he was swooning for her. Jaune sighs, slamming the door shut in his face with an annoyed expression, turning to Pyrrha who cannot help but giggle. Despite how evil Vir Nominis Umbra really is, one cannot deny his sense of humour is on point – in a sick way – but still pretty entertaining.
"Is he always this annoying?" He sighs with the same frustrated expression on his face.
"Yep." Pyrrha answers, nodding her head. They both look at the door and then at each other. "Think it'll be different?" Pyrrha inquires curiously.
"Let's see." He replies, opening the door again.
Still in the form of Weiss Schnee, he starts dancing in a completely out-of-character fashion, kicking Weiss' legs back and forth as he plays the guitar to him. "Look at the blind boy!" Before he can even start the song he has started up in Weiss' beautiful voice, Jaune slams the door shut again with a sigh, walking away from it.
"I hate that guy so much." He sighs.
"You're telling me." Pyrrha scoffs, following him. They both turn a corner and Umbra is leant against the wall. They are not even shocked by his presence anymore, only when he shows himself as their fears or other things does it scare them.
"You didn't even let me start singing." He complains, holding the Guitar in his hand still.
"Ain't gonna let you start now." Jaune states, walking past them.
"Cor blimey, he's a grumpy pleb isn't he?" Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles. Pyrrha just walks past the Soothsayer, following Jaune and moving onward. But they know the fact is still at large, all of this playful banter that Umbra is giving them is merely a starting point for them. They know that soon he will start playing the game in a much crueller fashion. He has already brought Jaune to tears when taking the form of Skyler Arc – whose death is still a mystery to him.
"There's no escaping the fact, is there?" Pyrrha asks him.
"Huh? What fact?" Jaune replies with a question, looking at her as he walks, shield held up.
"We can't tiptoe around it – he designed this place to have fears behind every door. The halls won't have an end, Jaune. We need to open the doors." Pyrrha stammers, fearfully since she does not want to know what lurks within those rooms.
"I-I know...I just don't want to get to hasty. The Lord of the Wood is still in here with us, you know?" Jaune points out, still hearing the distant caws of the Leshen in the corridors.
Jaune and Pyrrha both cautiously walk through the corridors that are in here, then something changes. They hear the voice of Vir Nominis Umbra once more, emanating from all around them, slightly demonic as he speaks but still carrying the tones of the Soothsayer. And yet they know that this is no voice for a person, because he did not have the same cadence that a person has when they speak. His one...was so much more sinister, like a snake waiting to plunge its fangs into its prey from the shadows. "Oh – awful! This is terrible to watch!" Vir Nominis Umbra complains, like a bored child trying to have fun at something. "You are taking too long...how about I speed things up a little bit?" He asks them, then they hear a heavy rumbling emerge from behind them.
Jaune and Pyrrha both turn around as the rumbling grows louder and louder, feeling the heavy vibrations in their toes from the carpeted floor. It sounds like an earthquake, just a constant distant roar that just grows and grows. Then they see what is coming for them, their eyes widen with shock when they see it.
Gallons and gallons of water, perhaps a lake-full, come avalanching towards them, submerging the hallway behind them. "Run!" Jaune yells, sprinting behind Pyrrha, making sure she is ahead of him. The water crashes through the halls behind them, they can feel the cold temperature from the water behind them. It is like the Atlesian Ocean, so cold that metal freezes practically instantly in there. Pyrrha looks back over her shoulder to make sure that Jaune is still behind her – he is – but so is all the water that pursues them. It pours down the other paths as well that they do not take, but it is not giving up on them just yet.
"This way!" Pyrrha calls out, but as she turns the corner, she feels her weight suddenly drop into her ankles. She screams with shock and terror, seeing the hallway suddenly bend downwards at a razor sharp ninety degree angle. Umbra floats before them with a smirk on his face. Jaune stops behind her when he sees Umbra floating over the sheer drop, and he pulls her back from the edge that she nearly fell into. That fall would most certainly kill them, quite a harsh move by him, honestly.
"Mind the gap – remember, here the laws of physics are under my command." Vir Nominis Umbra advises with a smirk. Jaune turns back and can see the ocean of water still behind them, getting even closer. He grabs Pyrrha's hand and points at the nearest door. The room is now their best bet to get out of here now.
"Come on!" Jaune yells, and they both sprint towards the door, since they have no way out anymore. Jaune slams his shoulder into the door to open it, and the door bursts open. They both turn round and they slam the door shut, pushing their hands against it as the water crashes against it. In reality, the wood will shatter from this impact of all that water, but luckily for the, this is not in the universe that they are used to. Here physics are more like a video game's world physics.
They sigh with relief as they keep their hands pushed up against the wall, then they look at each other. The relief fades after they realise what they have just put themselves into – they are in a room, and it is not the one that they were hoping for. There is no Exit Point, and the Dormitory has a crate sat in the middle of the room. It is like a treasure chest for some reason, one that has the Schnee Dust Company Symbol on it...
Whether or not that is yet another jab at Jaune or just because that was the first crate that came to mind is up for debate. They both try and reopen the door, but it has been locked and they cannot unlock it.
"Shit!" Jaune exclaims with anger, striking the door with his boot to try and break it open, but it does not budge. If anything it pushes him back from it, he staggers and he presses his hands to his knees. "It won't budge..." Jaune exhales, staring at the door that just let them enter so easily at first. Now it refuses to open for them in any way, he turns and looks at Pyrrha. She is staring at that box, her wrist shaking slightly as she gazes at it. Something is drawing her to that box, and Jaune would be lying if it did not draw him as well.
"It's not going to open, not until we look in the chest." Pyrrha tells him.
"No, there has to be a way." Jaune states, pacing around the room to try and find a way out of this place. He pushes his hands against the walls and they sound hollow. He yells and strikes it with Crocea Mors, but the sword just bounces off the wallpaper, not even tearing it from the wall. Only sparks burst from the impact, like he just swung his sword into corrugated metal or something. He pants as he stands there, still recovering from their sprint from the water that chased them down that corridor, felt like they ran a marathon.
Pyrrha sighs, and she turns to him again, pushing some of her strands of red hair from her right emerald eye. "Jaune..." She tenderly says to him, and he looks at her after hearing her voice. She looks at him and then at the crate. "It is part of his game...we need to play it if we are ever gonna get out of here." Pyrrha tells him, feeling a shiver of fear up her back. Whatever is in there must be terrifying if it must be locked away.
Against his better judgement, he sighs and agrees, walking over to her and the crate which is still sat in the middle of the Dormitory. Jaune looks around, and it seems like they are in Team R.W.B.Y's old Dormitory back in Beacon. All the beds are stacked up like they are meant to be bunk beds. Not safely or even remotely structurally stable. One of them is held up with rope and the other is held up with a couple of books to keep it there. She looks at him now, despite knowing they need to open this box, she is still very apprehensive about opening it.
Then again...
Who would happily open it up like this?
But they have no other choice. "Be ready, whatever is hiding in this box might try and kill us. And I doubt it is gonna go down without a fight." Jaune warns, keeping Crocea Mors held tight in his quivering hand. The plates of metal in his armour, the straps and screws in the plates as well are clinking as well. He catches his wrist to calm himself down, whatever hides in there will attack them. Pyrrha stands there, exhaling through her lips as she prepares to use her semblance to open it.
She does not want to risk something grabbing her from the box when it opens, so she stands a respective distance away from it in order to open it up. "Okay...are you ready?" Pyrrha asks him, and Jaune nods, pointing his sword at the box and Pyrrha has hers ready as well.
"Three...
Two...
One." Pyrrha finishes, and the black energy surrounds her hand and the box in question. She opens it up, but nothing happens. It is dead silent and nothing rises from it, no voice comes out it. It is completely normal, and she turns and looks at Jaune. He shrugs his shoulders and she cautiously approaches it.
"Pyrrha..." He whispers nervously, not agreeing with this idea to look into the box. It is Vir Nominis Umbra after all, he is cunning and could have trap waiting in there for them. Pyrrha does not listen, and her curiosity draws her nearer and nearer to the silent and open box. Closer and closer, every step seems to echo in the dead silence.
She peers inside of the box, and it is jet black in there for some reason, despite the light shining into it...
There is nothing...
But shadows.
Suddenly a pair of glowing red unnatural eyes open up in the shadows, along with a smirk of jagged glowing red teeth as well. Pyrrha gasps, and suddenly the chest explodes as a huge storm of jet black smoke rises from the box, the shockwave blows the couple off their feet and into the walls. The Bunk Beds are blown from where they stood, shattering into dust and the windows shatter as well, the trees and grass as well turn black and are tormented with flames that stretch across the Academy and Vale for miles.
Pyrrha crawls back with fear from the entity that rises up before her, the smoke forms a face in the mass, and it is the face of Vir Nominis Umbra. But he does not create his body, just the face inside of the swirling tornado of black smoke and shadows. Vir Nominis Umbra creates a deafening roar as he erupts from the chest, slowly approaching Pyrrha on the ground with a glowing red smirk inside the shadows. "You entered my home, and now you are mine." Vir Nominis Umbra snarls as he approaches Pyrrha, the ground peels up and crumbles into dust around it as it gets closer. Jaune cannot get up, rotten undead hands rise up from the ground and clutch onto him.
He screams with fear, writhing around on the ground as the undead hold him there as the monster approaches the girl he loves. "Your memories...soul...life-force...emotion...it is all mine." Vir Nominis Umbra whispers as he approaches her, reaching out to her with many hands that have charred skin and screaming voices are plaguing the hideous form. Like a body made from the many souls of the dead, but they are all still alive somehow.
Pyrrha finds herself backed up against the wall from the monster that stares at her, and it smirks sinisterly at her. "I have seen your nightmares, Pyrrha Nikos. And I understand your strife..." He whispers, stroking her cheek with one of the burning hot hands, making her shudder. He then starts to describe one of her fears to her, and it burns a horrible pain into Jaune's heart. "You feared that the one you loved would never return the same feelings to you...that he would rather accept the love of another that did not deserve him..." He whispers through the many pained dead voices he has collected over the years.
Jaune's eyes widen from what he realises Vir Nominis Umbra is saying, and Pyrrha stares at the apparition as it changes its form once again. The black smoke emerges multiple colours, whites, blondes and blues. And she watches with disbelief as Jaune Arc and Weiss Schnee – appearing as they do now – walking towards her. "Pyrrha!" Jaune desperately screams as the dead hands keep pulling him down into the carpet, it is actually beginning to hurt him now as they force him down, almost compacting him like this.
Pyrrha – however – cannot take her eyes off what Vir Nominis Umbra has created before her. Weiss stares at her with what appears to be disgusted blue eyes, walking with her dress loosely on. "He never needed you...you were just something for Jaune to clutch to..." Weiss says with a snarl as she approaches, and Pyrrha's eyes widen with horror from what she sees. She is fighting the idea of this being real, but it looks so real at the same time.
"Pyrrha! Kill it!" Jaune yells, then one of them grabs him by the throat, choking him where he cannot move.
The idea of Jaune walks towards Pyrrha with Weiss beside him, a smirk on his face. "Look at yourself...you think you are something special? You're nothing more than a special little girl with a few tricks...but you are nothing compared to the Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company." The Jaune Apparition states as it approaches her on the ground, bringing a tear to her eye.
"You even told Jaune that he needed help – when he could have learned on his own." The Weiss Apparition tells her, Jaune cannot scream for her any more as the hands have squeezed so hard on his throat that he cannot even utter words anymore. He just stares at Pyrrha desperately.
"Why would I waste my time with you? You...are absolutely nothing...compared to how beautiful she is...how perfect she is." The Jaune Apparition states, turning to look at her. Pyrrha clenches her hand into a fist slowly with anger, seeing them rip their clothes from their bodies, their lips touching as Jaune lifts Weiss into his arms, stroking her leg with his hand as he kisses her. Their sighs of pleasure fill the room, and Pyrrha slowly begins to stand up, pulling Milo and Akuou into her hands. Jaune pushes his hand through Weiss' white hair as he kisses her, kissing down her neck and into her sternum.
Jaune is nearly about to pass out as the undead hands start to suffocate him.
Pyrrha glares at the couple who embrace each other before her...but she is actually glaring past then...and to the red eyes and teeth that watch her with a smirk. "Nice try." Pyrrha snarls, using her polarity as she launches the javelin into the hallucination formed before them. Milo stabs straight through the images of naked Jaune and Weiss, their bodies burst into smoke and the spearhead punctures Vir Nominis Umbra's chest.
The impact takes him off the ground and pins him into the wall. The black smoke evaporates, and the arms shatter around Jaune. The bones snap and crumble into dust and the skin peels away around him, Jaune finally gasps for air, sitting upright. And Pyrrha sprints right to his side, helping him back up, whilst Umbra remains pinned to the wall, unfazed by it. Pyrrha glares at him as she holds him in her arms and he chuckles cunningly, slowly vanishing into smoke and leaving them.
The door opens behind them...and the water is gone...
But that was not the door that they were hoping for.
Pyrrha caresses Jaune's cheeks, seeing there are some bruises here and there from the dead hands that were holding onto him like that. She is so worried, checking for any cuts on him that could be bleeding. "Are you okay?" Pyrrha asks him desperately, and he just wraps his arms around her, hugging her tightly. She gasps with an unexpected yelp from how sudden the embrace was, then she hugs him back, stroking his blonde hair. They eventually break the hug and look into one another's eyes.
"How did – did you know?" Jaune asks her nervously.
"Know what?" She inquires back.
"That he was lying?" Jaune asks, but she shakes her head.
"It wasn't a lie...that was a fear of mine..." She admits to him, stepping away from him and looking down at the floor, gently kicking her foot back and forth.
"Me and Weiss?" Jaune questions, then she looks at him again.
"Of losing you..." She admits, and then he realises what she means. That was only a form of losing Jaune to her eyes, but that fear still exists now, just not that form since the feelings he had for Weiss are gone. Maybe not forgotten, since nobody forgets a crush you had, but he does not have them for her anymore. Jaune holds her hands and he smiles, lifting her lowered head with his thumb at the chin.
"I'm not going anywhere." He promises with a smile. He wraps his arm around her and kisses her on the head affectionately. They both begin to get moving again, leaving the room, then Pyrrha makes a cheeky comment.
"Well, it wasn't just that that made it easy to figure out he was messing with me." Pyrrha states.
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Weiss would never let you kiss her."
Jaune chokes from a laugh that sneaks up on him from her statement then, and he follows her.
Blake
Blake sits by the covered up body of Sienna Khan, blood still stains the steps where she fell from where Vir Nominis Umbra killed her. She has seen the footage with widened and horrified eyes, confused and terrified of what to do next. The whole world just saw footage of her murdering the High Leader of the White Fang. Her black hair blows in the breeze, and the only person she knows that believes her is Winter, since she was with her when this happened.
Neither of them were there...
Winter stands in the huge room, looking at Blake with grief for her. This must be soul-destroying...she ran from her friends when Adam and the White Fang showed up to destroy Beacon. Now what is she going to do when this happened, her hands shake with distress of this moment. Winter sighs, uncrossing her arms and walking towards her. "Blake..." Winter softly speaks, crouching down beside Blake, looking at the young woman.
"I...I don't..." Blake stammers, unable to find the words to describe how she is feeling. Everything that has happened, Salem and her allies have just managed to turn everybody against the Huntsmen and their academies in the span of half an hour...or Vir Nominis Umbra has. Winter grabs Blake by her shoulders and turns her round so then she faces her.
"Blake! Snap out of it!" Winter demands, going Military-Mode on her. "The situation has gone F.U.B.R real fast, we need to get back to Beacon." Winter explains to her, but Blake is still shocked from all of this.
How is that even possible?
It was me...but I was not even in the building when that happened...I was just about to walk in when that all went down...
What do we do?
Blake shakes her head, her cat ears are flopped over as she looks at Winter with concerned amber eyes. Winter stands up, and eventually Blake does the same, wiping a tear from her eye and sniffling as she picks up Gambol Shroud. "The others back home...do you think they will even believe us?" Blake mutters fearfully with her soft-spoken voice.
Winter will not lie, that footage was extremely convincing. "Just...let me explain the situation to them. I know that Qrow will listen to me." Winter tells her, and Blake respects her decision to speak with her in relation to the situation. And that situation is really bad as well. They have only one choice and that is to hope that they will not just shoot Blake on site. However she is one of their closest friends, and Sun's boyfriend...so they should at least question her before deciding on the judgement.
Blake nods her head, and Winter turns to the table that Sienna Khan had all those documents and maps splayed out. The ones that she showed to Vir Nominis Umbra...it is truly surprising that he did not just destroy them.
Perhaps it would take the fun away from all of this chaos he has started.
Winter walks towards them, and Blake timidly follows Weiss' older sister. "What are you doing?" Blake inquires, and Winter begins to read over the documents. She pushes some of the maps aside, many that have White Fang Settlements still occupied by the Albain Loyalists...not like it matters anymore. The White Fang is back to the way it used to be...all the work and the sacrifices made by the Belladonnas has been for nothing all thanks to Umbra's deceiving act.
Winter reads some of them, and she gasps when she sees the information. "Menagerie has stopped reporting in..." Winter speaks out, looking at Blake.
"What? When?" Blake questions.
"Nearly a month ago...a couple of weeks without any transmissions is understandable. Could have been a malfunction or nothing to report...but a month?" Winter questions suspiciously.
"With the amount of repairs made to the Island...there would have been updates either way." Blake states.
"Precisely..." Winter softly agrees.
They both look at each other with worried eyes, they've no idea of what this information could mean. Menagerie could have been attacked by the Albain Loyalists long before this whole event had even happened. Umbra has got them on a leash at the moment, so this could be another step in his plan.
It's something at least...
"We need to take this and bring it to Beacon...this must be important. We need to go to Menagerie and figure out what is happening down there." Winter explains, rolling up the documents and throwing them to Blake. She catches them and watches as Winter walks past her.
"How do you propose we leave Mistral?" Blake asks.
"Our ship will most likely have been secured by now, we need to find a Smuggler. Luckily I know where to find some, in the lower reaches of Mistral. Take this cloak." Winter says, throwing a black cloak from one of the dead White Fang to her, and Blake catches it in her grasp, then looks up at Winter as she walks away from her towards the exit.
"B-But the people...they think I'm a traitor! They'll attack us!" Blake calls, but Winter smiles as she turns round with her swords in her hands.
"Let them try..."
Pyrrha
They both start moving quickly down the corridors again, because they are not about to risk making the same mistake they made last time. They both jog down the paths and they move as quickly as they can. Their footfalls echo down the halls that stretch, bend and turn around them, trying to guess which one of these doors will be the right one to open. The caws of the Lord of the Wood pursue them as they are followed.
Pyrrha runs forward, opening one of the doors to a room, but the door slams shut behind her extremely hard, splitting her up from Jaune. "No!" Jaune yells, slamming into the wooden door, bouncing off it from the impact. He slides across the carpet from the recoil from the impact, pressing his hand to his head. Pyrrha's eyes widen after realising what has happened, and she turns to the door, gasping with terror. She slams her hands against it, despite knowing that she cannot open it, she still tries.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha screams with terror, staring at the metal hinges and she scowls at them, activating her semblance on them to rip them off. But nothing happens, her semblance cannot harm them, and she will only weaken her aura if she does that. She exhales with shock, stepping away from the door.
Guess I have to do this myself...
She turns around, staring at where she is...and she is filled with confusion. It is the hallway still, and she walks away from the door, still on her own. The caws of the Crows are not in here though, so that must mean that this room is shown as a hallway. Then she hears the calls of his voice down the corridor not far from where she is walking. "Pyrrha..." Jaune weakly calls from somewhere.
Pyrrha gasps with relief, following the echoes of his voice, following them round the corner to find his location. "Pyrrha..." He repeats weakly, but when she turns the corner...there is nobody there. She looks around more and more, making sure she has not messed up where she is. She closes her eyes, trying to use her connection to Jaune to find him. She searches her memories, despite some of them still remaining forgotten...she attempts to find him through one of them.
"Come on...where are you, Jaune?" Pyrrha whispers softly as she searches her mind for him.
"Pyrrha..." Jaune's voice speaks before her and she gasps, opening her eyes.
Vir Nominis Umbra stare straight into her eyes with a smirk when they open, and she gasps. Umbra slams his hand into her chest plate which throws her across the corridor, and she crashes across the floor, hitting the wall. She groans, shaking it off and she looks around, heart still beating hard and fast...
But Vir Nominis Umbra has vanished yet again, all she can hear is the faint chuckles of him around her.
She pushes her hand against her knee, standing back up and pulling her weapons back into her grasp with her polarity. She raises her shield, walking carefully across the corridor, turning a corner, and her eyes widen.
Jaune is sat by the wall, head rested against the door that he has found. "Pyrrha..." He calls again, sounding tired of doing it for so long. Her heart flutters and she walks over to him.
"Jaune..." She sighs with relief...but he never looks at her. He cannot hear her for some reason, and she stammers, reaching towards him slowly with her hand. Her fingers approach his shoulder to get his attention, but black smoke erupts from his body, vapour leaves the room as it travels far away from where he was sat. Only whispery howls remain that beckon her name and she steps back, and turns around to see Vir Nominis Umbra stood behind her with his hands held close together.
Pyrrha snarls and she raises her weapons. "Why are you doing this to us? We have done nothing wrong!" Pyrrha screams with anger and distress, the blade of Milo is held right up to his face. If he were a person this would be an astounding threat to make, but he is not afraid of her, or her threats. He looks at the blade and then at her with a smirk on his face.
"No...you've not done anything wrong...but I do not hunt those who do bad things." Vir Nominis Umbra states, he leans forward with a smirk.
"I hunt those who challenge my beliefs." He states, vanishing in a puff of smoke, leaving Pyrrha with more questions than answers.
"What beliefs?" She calls, walking around, silence fell for quite some time as she walked through the monotonous hallways over and over again.
"Every soul can be controlled...but you and Jaune Arc...something else binds you together. Something more than love, I could not control you without the force of a Demonic Entity to bind itself to you." Vir Nominis Umbra explains, giving her a chill when he says that.
"Why do you want to control me?" Pyrrha hisses, walking cautiously in the corridors.
"You and I made a pact – I put an investment into you, I guess you could say – I granted you incredible gifts and skills in your life, made you unbelievably beautiful and gave you the greatest gift of all. Humbleness in heart despite your strengths." Vir Nominis Umbra explains. "If an Investor placed a claim on something, they would want to get their money's worth out of the deal."
"Sure...so what is it you want from me? To control me?" She questions.
"I enjoy making use out of others, spares me the hassle. I intend to use you as a weapon, or a – hmm, how should I put it – a proxy." He tells her. "Like the Spectre and Neopolitan for example, even the Knights of Grimm in fact, come to think of it."
The Soothsayer's Proxies...
Pyrrha looks around to find where the Soothsayer is speaking from, despite him being all around her. "Well you won't – I am loyal to Jaune to the end..." Pyrrha tells him, and the Soothsayer laughs evilly from around her. His laugh sets her on edge, whenever he laughs that usually means that something cruel is about to happen.
"Loyalty?" He questions with a scoff. "Would you like to see what loyalty brings you? What his loyalty to you will bring him?"
Pyrrha walks around and she gasps from what she sees, seeing Jaune in the corner...something is very wrong with him. His black hoodie is moth eaten and his face and body is covered in grime and cuts. He has grown a thick grey beard and long white hair, wrinkles contort his face. His hands are shaking as if he has Parkinson's Disease, staring at her with a snapped Crocea Mors at his feet. "Pyrrha?" The Old Man Jaune weakly whispers, staring at her with nearly blinded eyes, shrouded with milky whiteness.
Pyrrha's eyes widen with horror, tears well up in her lids, slowly approaching him with anxiety, reaching out to him. "Jaune?" She whispers with fear for his safety, crouching down beside him.
"You left me alone here...let Cinder Fall kill you...how could you do that to me?" Jaune whimpers with tears in his eyes, and she immediately realises what this is based around. Her death, the sacrifice she made to try and stop Cinder when Beacon fell six years ago. Pyrrha crouches down beside him, touching his hand, feeling the cold wrinkly skin that has formed where she once remembered the warm soft ones of the man she loves. Her voice trembles fearfully, despite knowing that this is Vir Nominis Umbra's idea – his ideas usually become true. But some do not at the same time, and that is what terrifies her...she does not know if this is a warning of the future or just him messing with her head.
"What happened?" She asks him with her extremely nervous voice, then Jaune suddenly strikes his head against the wall he is leant against.
"You promised you would always be there for me, Pyrrha! You lied to me again!" He cries, hitting his head against the wall over and over again like some deranged animal she has found in the middle of the woods. Seeing Jaune acting that way breaks her heart, and all she wants to do is hug him and make him happy again.
"I didn't – I'm sorry...I never wanted it to happen that way." Pyrrha sniffles with tears in her eyes. Pyrrha yelps, due to Old Man Jaune's aback action as he lunges towards her, missing but she falls onto her back, crawling back from him fearfully. "Jaune? What are you doing?" Pyrrha nervously questions, crawling away from him slowly, and he pulls his old decrepit body across the carpet to reach her, struggling to breathe, and he stares at her with glassy eyes.
"I've been so alone without you...they come for me every day...every night..." Jaune whimpers with agony in his voice, bringing more pain to Pyrrha with every word that he utters. "Sharp claws, voices...burning me every night..." He sobs with true torment in his pained voice. Pyrrha's love is so strong for Jaune, that despite the fact that he lunged for her, she still approaches him...desperate to help him. She slowly but gently reaches over to his hand to try and comfort him.
"Jaune?" She whispers, but he suddenly screams at her.
"How could you betray me?" Jaune screams with rage and anguish, standing back up, and Pyrrha crawls backwards, and back to her feet, backing away from him as he storms towards her. Jaune slams his hands against his chest as he screams words that burn right into Pyrrha's heart and memory. "How could you do that to me?" Jaune screams, his voice echoes endlessly before he vanishes into a cloud of black smoke when he gets close to her. Pyrrha looks away, tears still stream from her eyes as she looks away, closing them as she flinches. When her Emerald Eyes open...Old Man Jaune is gone.
But Vir Nominis Umbra is not done with her yet, he still has more cruel games tucked up his sleeve for her. "Your loyalty to him got you killed, you were so desperate to save him by sacrificing your own life...that you did not think of the consequences that would come for your beloved." Vir Nominis Umbra states, his voice echoing around her as he speaks, almost sounds like he is speaking to her from behind. Like he is over her shoulder, but whenever she turns around to find him, he is not even there. She is on her own in this place, staggering around.
"I was destined to do it! If giving my life saves the people I care about then I will do it!" Pyrrha yells, her selflessness is inspiring, but Vir Nominis Umbra can see through it.
"You make it sound like you were being Selfless, but you weren't. You let yourself become hooked to the idea I gave you, I did not force it on you. In fact, you were the one that came to me to learn of your future. I told you, and you made sure your life would follow that path...no matter what happened with the people around you." Vir Nominis Umbra explains, but Pyrrha shakes her head, closing her eyes.
"No, you're wrong." Pyrrha denies.
"Deny the truth if you must – but that does not make it false." Umbra says.
"I am not selfish! I would rather them survive instead of me surviving and people I care about die along the way!" Pyrrha argues, her arms tensed up as she searches for the source of that voice.
"You still do not see the irony in the words you say, do you?" He questions, and she looks around more and more. "Ever heard of the phrase – run and live to fight another day?" He asks her, and she stops searching for the voice and continues to walk through the halls to find where the exit point could be. It might be here, but she has not found it yet. "There is no dishonour in that." He states.
"If I ran..." But before she can finish, Umbra finishes it for her.
"Cinder would have won – and you died...for what? She still beat you, destroyed Beacon and Qrow Branwen took the Relic long before you decided to fight her. You died for nothing, the only thing it wrought was the grief of the one you held dearest." He states.
"Stop it!" Pyrrha screams in anger and distress, then Umbra sighs with frustration...at the fact she is not listening to his words.
"Fine then – how about I give you a taste of how Jaune Arc felt when you abandoned him." He states, and she turns around when she feels a cold feeling and a terrible stench. She gasps with horror from what is laid on the ground...
A cold decayed corpse of a man, clothes ripped apart and stained blood covers the walls. His skin has rotted away, peeled off in places which shows the crunched bones underneath. His skull fractured in places...and on the hooded is a faded Bunny Face of Pumpkin Pete's. Crocea Mors snapped in two before his feet, and Pyrrha gasps with horror when she sees the dead body of Jaune before her. "No!" Pyrrha wails with horror, tears pour out from her eyes, and she collapses to her knees in front of his corpse.
She has not even noticed the scrawls on the walls...
No Destiny
No Destiny
No Destiny
Over and over again, the same words whispered into her mind by the Onyx Phantom when it had control over her. She can even hear the words now.
You are no one...
You are a soldier
Jaune does not love you
They are all enemies
Kill your enemies
Love nothing
Feel nothing
Think nothing
You have no destiny
No destiny
No destiny
It looks like he has scraped these words into the walls with his nails before he died, left alone to suffer for the rest of his life. Pyrrha suppresses the uncontrollable urge to vomit from the horror of what is before her, coughing with tears. "Jaune..." She sobs, snorting and sniffling constantly with distress, staring at what remains of his body.
"This...is what you wrought to him..." Vir Nominis Umbra states.
Pyrrha does not even hear his words, she only cries unbelievably hard at the horrific image before her. Her greatest fear, is losing Jaune, and this is the ultimate form of losing him that she fears. Seeing him dead...because of her own mistakes that she made. But as she mourns him, a soft and warm hand touches her shoulder.
"Pyrrha?" Jaune speaks, and she gasps, turning around to see Jaune stood there, she must have left the room at some point because he is there. She turns and looks back where the corpse and the scrawls were...but they have all vanished as soon as she saw them now. She turns back to Jaune...seeing him alive and she springs back up to her feet, wrapping her arms around him. She sobs into his shoulder with happiness, then she looks into his eyes, bringing her lips to his after closing her eyes. She pushes her fingers through his blonde hair, feeling the warmth of his lips on hers, kissing him longingly.
They break the kiss and look back into each other's eyes...and she sighs with pure relief. He then presses his head to hers. "It's Umbra, he's messing with our heads, come on!" Jaune tells her, and he takes point again, and she follows him. Pyrrha looks back, and feels a chill down her spine when she spots Vir Nominis Umbra stood where he created the hallucination of dead Jaune before her. He smirks and as she blinks he vanishes.
They both turn a corner and their eyes widen with shock and awe of what stands there. The crows are sat on the carpet, cawing every now and then with their crystal beaks snapping shut every time. They all set their glowing red eyes on them, and stood amongst them, is the Lord of the Wood. He just about fits inside of the hallway, his antlers scrape the paint off the ceiling as he turns round slowly, staring straight at them with his glowing red coals in his head.
"We haven't got the room to fight him..." Jaune tells her.
They both turn, and they see there is a door that opens to their left. Their eyes widen, and there is the Exit Point inside. Cracked shards of matter float around the wall that looks like it has been blown open. They both stare at the Lord of the Wood as it slowly walks towards them, pointing its huge sharp finger at them, and the crows all fly towards them, cawing endlessly. They both sprint into the room to get to the Exit Point.
Jaune gets there, but he looks over his shoulder at Pyrrha and his eyes widen.
The Lord of the Wood grabs her by the hair, and she screams. "Jaune!" She wails.
"No!" Jaune screams back, vanishing into the Exit Point...
Pyrrha watches with horror as the Exit Point collapses before her, vanishing, and then the entire domain around her begins to collapse as well, forming a whole new realm. The Leshen holds her still by the hair, waiting for something. Then it releases her, still stood there like a Sentry waiting for its orders.
Pyrrha lands on her hands and knees, still shocked from what has happened.
Then she sees his boots stepping towards her, stopping right before her face. She slowly looks up and sees Vir Nominis Umbra stood in front of her with a smile. He crouches down, looking into her eyes with that sinister smirk on his face. "What's wrong, Pyrrha? Now you and I get to have some alone time." He states with a smile, and she gasps with fear, then he vanishes again. She turns and the Lord of the Wood is gone as well.
She is stuck somewhere that does look kind of familiar.
It is their Dormitory back in Beacon, but there is ice everywhere. It is freezing in there, and time appears to be frozen in place. She does not realise it...but this is the place that Oscar saw, when Time took him and showed him this place. It is not the Charred Forest, more like a paused image from the future of Remnant.
Also known as...
The Shivering Dominion.
Pyrrha squeezes her arms around her knees fearfully, closing her eyes as she rocks back and forth. "Not alone..." Pyrrha whimpers.
"Please...not alone..."
Jaune
Jaune crashes down onto the snow covered ground with a grunt, ice splashes up against his face as he lands there. He groans, rolling onto his back, and he realises again that Pyrrha is not with him. They have been split up in his game...
Then he hears the crows caw before him, and he looks up. Seeing Vir Nominis Umbra approaching him, Jaune grits his teeth with rage and grips onto Crocea Mors, slashing the blade across his torso. But nothing happens, his body merely flickers like a hologram, he just smirks. "Where is she?" Jaune yells with rage, and Vir Nominis Umbra chuckles, walking around the area.
"Do you know where we are?" He asks him, not answering the question Jaune yelled.
"Answer me!" Jaune roars.
"She is far from you now...but you must find her...now answer my question." He states, staring directly into his blue eyes. Jaune examines his location, and he does begin to recognise it. It looks different, due to the amount of snow and the icicles hanging from the trees. But the sap is still there, just frozen over. The leaves would be red, but are white from the snow and ice.
"Forever Fall..." Jaune realises.
"Indeed." Vir Nominis Umbra confirms, walking back to him. "Welcome to the next stage. I have constructed many different layers you must get through to find the one that you love. But remember that here, time moves slower in a dream than it does in reality. It could take you years to leave this section...or...you could concede and I will let you leave." He explains, hands held together.
"You mean leave Pyrrha? Never." He snarls.
"Maybe...we shall see. Find the Exit Points, some might have threats, others might not. Who knows how many points there are until you find Pyrrha...I guess..." He says, vanishing.
Then he hears him finish his statement.
"This is a Test of Love..."
Author Note - Will Jaune's love for Pyrrha be enough, and how strong is his love for her?
Find out in the next chapter! Sorry this one took a while to come out, was being a bit annoying...aaaaand work has been fun as well (not) so I struggled to find time to write this. But I hope you all liked how this one turned out!
What did you think of some of the fears that Pyrrha has? The next chapter will focus more on Jaune's fears as you can tell, but it shows how much she loves Jaune when he is in all her fears. And the one with Jaune and Weiss was cool to write, because poor Pyrrha must have hated Weiss for a while because of how Jaune fell for her. And Blake and Winter are gonna have to find a smuggler to escape Mistral without getting mobbed, which will be cool to write as well.
What did you think of this chapter?
Please leave a review to let me know what you thought!
Stay tuned for the next chapter - The Test of Love
- Matt