Hello everyone! *dodges all the thrown rocks* *is terrible at dodging so ends up being hit by all of them* Alright, I deserved that. *is hit by another rock* Okay, now cut it out!
Yes, it's been three months since my last DR update, but I've been very busy - just not with this story. Anyway, here we go. 6k words of angst, hurt without comfort, and a little bit of setup at the end for the next chapter, "The Dead Sands".
This chapter has been beta-ed by my friend LordHellPhoenix! Check him out if you haven't already. (but don't check him out too much, he has a girlfriend)
Jaune was silent as he met up with his companions at the clothing store they were browsing, looking for adapt clothes – and more importantly spare clothes.
He didn't even comment on the outfits while they tried them out, which was really starting to set off alarm bells in Ruby's head.
As much as he could keep silent, Jaune had a very specific brand of silence, one where he was just too distracted by his surroundings to think of anything to say. Whenever he had something to say he did so, and he never seemed to run out of words when he needed them. But this silence was different.
She'd seen it before and it meant Jaune was thinking about something. But when he didn't tease her when Yang had the embarrassing idea of having her try on a very revealing outfit, she knew something was wrong – he usually pushed aside his thoughts for mockery.
Which meant that whatever it was, it was troubling him.
Beside the fact that anything troubling Jaune was bad news for everyone, she didn't like seeing her friends troubled, and he was her friend.
That was why she, still clad in her old, soaked-and-dried clothed, decided to talk with him, even though he didn't look like he wanted to talk. Sometimes all people needed to start talking was an invitation to do so – if it worked for her, why not try with him?
So she left the other girls to their browsing and walked up to the young Nightmare before sitting down beside him. They were quite the sight – two apparently humans teens, in obvious need of a shower and change of clothes, sitting on a pair of chairs near the changing rooms, probably meant for people waiting for their friends to change.
To say they looked out of place would've been an understatement. Even Terry, who was just sitting on his own a bit further away, waiting for them to decide what to do with him, fitted in more than them.
"Hey," she offered him as she took a seat.
Jaune just grunted in acknowledgement.
At least he'd acknowledged her…
"Something's on your mind?" she asked, trying to pinpoint some sort of sign on his face that would tell her where her help was needed.
"I guess…" he mumbled, looking dully at the floor and obviously not really seeing it.
"Wanna talk about it?" At her offer, he shook his head. "Okay…"
Silence fell between the two. Ruby distracted herself by taking out her Scroll and looking up some weapon maintenance tips and possible upgrades for Crescent Rose. The others would still take so much time she wasn't in a hurry to get an answer out of him – Yang always said she acted like a boy whenever she entered a clothing store, whatever that meant. For her, it meant not taking forever grabbing dozens of clothes and trying on every single one of them before picking just one.
"Ruby?"
She raised her head to look at him, but he still refused to look her in the eyes.
Instead, he opted for staring at the floor as if he might find his answers that way. "How do you solve an impossible situation?"
The young Huntress blinked at the odd question. "Well… you can't, it's kind of what makes an impossible situation, well… impossible."
Jaune shook his head, reformulating his question. "I mean… if you had to do something, something bad, but… I don't know… for reasons you thought right… would you do it?"
Ruby thought about it, but the question was too vague to give a precise answer. "It depends, I guess. On what reasons and what I have to do."
The Nightmare sighed in frustration at her answer and gritted his teeth, but all his will to talk had apparently left him as he stayed silent.
So, she decided to prod. "Why?"
"Nothing," he replied with a grunt, sounding not at all convincing. "Just curious on human logic."
Ruby frowned. What could he have meant by that? "Did you-"
"I said it's nothing!" he snapped at her, finally looking up to meet her eyes, and she flinched at the violent anger in his gaze. "Just drop it!" Still fuming, he turned away, even tenser than before.
This time, she didn't try to pry. His reaction had honestly scared her. Jaune might've been malicious at times, but never downright hostile or violent toward her, or any of them for all that mattered. Even Pyrrha was usually just target of insults instead of actual aggression.
"Shut up. Now it's not the time."
The whisper was soft, and she almost missed it, hadn't it been for the fact she was sitting right next to him.
Just as he glanced at her to see if she'd heard him, she schooled her expression in what she hoped was a good 'distracted' look…
Unfortunately, even though he seemed to buy it, he didn't relax a lot. He kept sneaking looks in her direction, but the angry tension didn't leave his frame as he kept stiffening every time their gazes met.
"I guess in a way, I'm doing something bad now, for the right reasons."
That seemed to get his attention as he looked up and stared at her intensely. "…what do you mean?"
Ruby shrugged. "I mean, yes, we're out to save the world, but doing so will kill all the Nightmares. Even the ones who are innocent."
He scoffed and looked away. "There's no such thing as an innocent Nightmare."
"You haven't done anything bad," Ruby pointed out, and he once again avoided her eyes. "That's why I think you can be a good person even if you're a Nightmare."
"That's just not an option. It's not in our blood. Nightmares can't be good people." He narrowed in his eyes and gritted his teeth. "Me first and foremost."
"I think you're a good person," Ruby said, watching him look away. "Jaune, what-"
"Why do you feel bad about killing Nightmares? The Demons have been killing you humans for centuries. This ritual of yours will get rid of all of them."
She knew he was changing the topic, away from his personal view of himself. "Because killing is wrong. I can understand self-defence and I guess there are some situations you just can't solve peacefully, but while I don't feel sorry for the Grimm, Nightmares are people. Killing all of them, judging them all the same, just feels wrong."
"Killing is wrong…" the Demon boy repeated, his voice almost devoid of emotions. "What if you did it to save someone? Does that make it right?"
Ruby thought about it, and then shook her head. "No. No, nothing can make killing right. But sometimes I guess you don't have a choice. Killing is never right but at times it can be the right thing to do."
The Nightmare growled in frustration and for a second Ruby found herself leaning back as a brief black flare of Dusk filled her with numb coldness. As the opposite of Aura, Dusk usually had that effect on living things. When it was in its solid form, like the body of a Nightmare or Grimm, it didn't bring any problem, like when Aura was kept within the body, but when it flared it could really be uncomfortable.
"How can something be wrong but the right thing to do?!" He sounded like he was trying very hard not to yell, at her or at the world in general she didn't know. "How can something be the right thing to do if you just said killing is never right?!"
"Because killing is morally wrong. That never changes, no matter how evil they are, killing a person is never right," replied Ruby, now very worried. Not just for herself -as much as she considered him a friend, she was wary of Yang too when she got angry, she was just too unpredictable- but because he looked like he was on the verge of a breakdown. She'd never seen him even remotely like this. Even the times he'd snapped at someone about his Nightmarish nature, he was angry, but this was different.
This time the Nightmare was not just angry. He was also confused, extremely so. There was also something else, something she simply couldn't read him well enough to find out, which had to be the core of the problem.
So she continued her explanation. "But sometimes killing can be the best path you can take to solve a problem. If not killing them would result in them killing innocents, then I guess killing them would be the right thing to do. But that doesn't make it okay."
"Why is there not a way to make it okay?!" he burst out, startling her and making her fall off her chair. Their companions all heard the shout and immediately came to check on them. Luckily, there weren't other customers in the shop at the moment, but the clerk and a couple of people outside probably heard him anyway. "What's the point of it being the right thing to do if then it's still not gonna be right?!"
"I-I- I don't-"
"Just shut up!" he snarled at her, Dusk fluctuating once more. Ruby cowered slightly at the death-like feeling it gave her. If she had to imagine how being dead but not going in the Afterlife were to feel like, that would be her example.
As quickly as it had come, it was gone, and the terrifying Nightmare was replaced with a shocked Jaune Arc, eyes wide at what he'd done.
She knew he felt sorry.
She could see it in her eyes.
But she couldn't help flinching when he reached out with a hand, most probably to help her up.
She hated herself for it, especially after seeing how Jaune's face fell even further. Before either of them had time to do anything else, Jaune jumped back when a shotgun bullet whizzed right past his head and embedded itself into the wall, luckily not of the explosive type or the shop owner would have some serious words for them.
Barely a second later, a bullet struck him right in the chest and made him stumble before a wave of blue energy enveloped his legs, freezing him from the waist down in an ice cocoon.
Both of them looked up just in time to see Pyrrha dash forth, literally only clad in panties and a shirt with only one button closed, obviously having just thrown it on quickly for time's sake. The red-haired woman had her sword at the ready and in a second the blade was a hair's breadth away from slicing Jaune's throat.
Behind Pyrrha, Yang, Weiss and Blake all stood, in various states of undress, fortunately all of them had at least managed to keep their modesty. They all had their weapons out, although Weiss and Blake seemed less hostile and more wary, while Yang's red eyes said all that needed to be said, and Pyrrha… well, enough said.
Jaune quickly schooled his expression in a deadpan and looked around, trying to find a distraction or something to use to mock them. He found it almost instantly, in the passed-out body of Terry Diana, the stowaway, laid out on the floor with a massive blush on his face.
He snorted. "Girls, please, keep the NSFW scenes where lil' Terry can't see you."
Weiss's face turned crimson, and Blake too blushed in embarrassment. The two glanced at Pyrrha and Yang and, realizing they had the situation under control, darted back into the changing rooms.
Pyrrha was much less affected, even though a blush had adorned her cheeks as well. "What happened here?"
"It was my fault!" Ruby hurried to speak up. No need to have Jaune get angry at them too, after all. They would take it much worse than she did… especially Pyrrha and Yang. "I kept pestering Jaune about something and he got angry…"
"Ruby…" Yang began, narrowing her eyes.
"It's true!" she exclaimed, hoping with all her might that they would buy it.
Incredibly, it was Pyrrha the one who saved her. She lowered her sword and sighed. "I guess that's an explanation. Nightmares aren't known for their patience," she remarked, glancing at Jaune with a frown.
Jaune's face just screamed 'hypocrite' at her, but he didn't say anything.
Ruby repressed a sigh. At least Yang seemed convinced by Pyrrha's words, and the two went back to the changing rooms.
Daring a glance at Jaune, she bit her lip. She'd tried to approach the topic, but she'd just made it all worse. And even worse she didn't even know what the problem was in the first place! It had obviously something to do with morals, but what? Jaune time and again stated morals didn't concern him, so why start to care now?
She sighed and tried to focus on the positive aspects of the argument. At least the other girls now would try to take a bit less time changing and choosing clothes, their shopping mood ruined. Which meant she would have a shower soon.
Silver linings, she told herself. Silver linings.
/-/
Jaune hated himself at the moment. He hated himself for caring about morals when he shouldn't, and he hated himself for still thinking about a moral dilemma he could not change any longer.
After all, why should he think about it? It was done. In the past. And the past could never be changed, no matter how much one tried.
"Why did you shout at the nice girl?"
Hope had been oddly silent ever since his outburst with Ruby, so it was only natural he would soon be hearing from her again. She was a little girl, even if technically a dead little girl, so it wasn't like he could order her to stay silent and expect her to shut up for long.
"Because I was angry," Jaune murmured in response, now really regretting not being able to communicate telepathically with the girl. Two souls in the same body could use the same senses, perhaps, but did not share mental processes. He thanked Salem for that – he'd rather not start thinking like a little girl half the time. "Because she said something that made me angry."
"But she was trying to help you…"
"Yes, but sometimes people should be left alone, not helped," Jaune sighed, casting his gaze around to check if anyone had heard him. Thankfully Blake was currently showering in the other room, so it was unlikely for any of them to actually hear him, but it was always better safe than sorry.
Kerry, or whatever his name actually was, was watching some TV, but he looked pretty bored. He was also playing around with a coin, flipping it to guess heads or tails. Stupid game in his opinion, but then again it matched the boy, always in his opinion.
Pyrrha, who had been tasked to guard over the two of them due to her being the best trained and also the least likely to cause any trouble as Yang might accidentally give Perry or whatever psychological trauma due to wardrobe accidents, while the others just didn't feel comfortable sleeping in the same room as two boys. Which in his opinion didn't make sense since they had all slept together out in sleeping bags not ten feet one from the other. But again, stupid did match his view of most of the group.
Pyrrha was currently removing her hair from her ponytail, clad in her pyjamas. He really wanted to make a dirty joke about said pyjamas, but he really didn't want Hope in his head to then start repeating it. It would be embarrassing, especially having to explain its meaning to a girl who most likely never even got close to getting The Talk from her caretakers.
"I don't understand. You helped me when I asked."
"That's because you asked," Jaune continued to whisper, trying to pass off his conversation with himself as mere thoughtful mumbling. Not that the other two occupants of the room cared anyway. "I didn't want her help."
"But you needed her help."
"No I didn't." Jaune took a second to avoid snapping at Hope too before he decided to cut the conversation short. "Now I wanna sleep, alright?"
"Awww, I wanted to talk…"
"Well, this body's mine and I'm tired, goodnight," he mumbled, not bothering to wish goodnight to the other two.
Sleep came easy to him. Rest, was an entirely different thing.
It was ironic that, as a Nightmare, he even had the ability to have nightmares himself. Or to dream, for all that mattered. Normally, his sleep would be 'haunted' by scenes of violence or scenes taken straight out of horror movies, complete with the creepy music.
This time it was different.
Hope was right in front of him, looking scared. "Jaune? Where are we?"
The Nightmare looked around, bored. It was a semi-familiar scene. The two of them were standing in Ruby's house in Patch where she lived with her mother. It wasn't very far from her father's own cottage, hell it was just a ten minutes drive away.
Only, it was in a state of disarray and destruction he had never seen it in before. The kitchen table had been split in two and the chairs had been thrown around. Deep claw marks marred the walls, and the door had been kicked in.
Outside, the city of Patch was silent, and a stormy night clouded the stars, filling the air with heavy rain and casting the house's rooms into a dingy darkness. The Demon boy tried to turn on the lights, but they didn't even flicker.
He turned to Hope and shrugged. "Ruby's house, but destroyed. Let's take a look around. You wait here, okay?"
"Alone?!" she exclaimed, looking around even more scared.
The boy pursued his lips as he looked a the paper-thin, frail girl. "Yes. Trust me, you probably don't want to see what's in the other rooms."
"D-Don't leave me!" Hope cried, grabbing him by his belt-tied trousers. He sighed and picked her up, noticing just how little she weighted, before setting her down on a chair he straightened. "P-Please, Jaune, please don't leave me!"
There was a creak upstairs, as if someone or something were walking on the floorboards. Hope quietened with terror written all over her face.
Odd how she wanted so much to die when he met her, and now she was scared. Odd, but not too odd. Being ready to die and not being afraid of something out of a horror movie were two very different things.
He scoffed and shook her off. "I'm gonna see what that was – are you sure you wanna come along? It might get even scarier."
"I-I don't w-want to be le- left alone!" she wailed, still clinging to his clothes. "Please, Jaune! Pl-Please!"
He just rolled his eyes. "Fine, but don't come crying when you regret it."
He cautiously walked to the stairs that brought up to the second floor and summoned Désespoir. Hope meekly followed him before she stumbled and almost fell. He caught her with one hand so that the sound of her fall wouldn't alert whatever was upstairs.
With a sigh, he picked up the child in his arms. It would be way faster that way. Besides, it was just a dream – not like he had anything to worry about.
The two of them reached the second floor, and Hope began to whimper and cry when the claw marks on the walls began to be accompanied by sprays of blood, the floor full of puddles of the stuff. He felt slightly unnerved. Usually, by then the dream would've ended – the monster showed up, he killed the monster, and then he woke up.
Ignoring Hope's fear, he followed the blood to what he knew was Ruby's mother's bedroom and peered inside. He wisely chose not to let Hope see Summer's mangled corpse laying on the floor in several pieces, and slowly closed the door.
Then he continued towards Ruby's bedroom.
"Ca-Can we go away?" Hope pleaded him, tearfully.
"No. It's a dream – you can't run from a dream," he told her, keeping his eyes focused on the ajar door. "It's best to just get this over with."
The girl was shaking like a leaf, but she nodded bravely. Or stupidly, in his opinion – bravery wasn't a thing when it came to nightmares.
Pursuing his lips, the Nightmare decided to just get it over with.
He threw open the door of Ruby's bedroom and entered the room with Désespoir at the ready in one hand, and Hope held in the other – not like she weight enough to cause him any problem anyway.
What he saw stopped him dead in his tracks. He felt Hope gasp in fright.
Ruby's headless body laid in a corner, her blood staining walls, floor and furniture, but that wasn't what shocked him – he'd seen her die plenty of times in the past fifteen years, sometimes even wished for her to just die, but never like this.
There was someone standing over her corpse.
Or rather something.
A hair-like mass of bone-white stuff topped its head. Its skin was pitch black, its eyes red. Spiked bone full plate armour engraved with red markings covered it head to toe like a twisted knight's armour, and a pair of black horns crowned its head. Its hands were curved into wicked claws. The torn remains of clothes hanging on the spikes of the armour. A damning smirk adorned its face.
His face.
What could only possibly be described as his Grimm alter-ego turned when he entered the room, and grinned as him, its cheeks ripping apart to reveal ivory-white fangs that glistened in the darkness.
With deliberate slowness, the monster raised its right claw, showing him Ruby's decapitated head, eyes wide in terror and a now forever silent call for help still stretching her lips.
The creature's cruel smirk widened. His claws flexed, cracking the skull. Ruby's head crumpled into a bloody mess, spraying the monster with her blood.
"Hello, Jaune."
Hope began to scream.
Jaune shot awake, gasping as the screams continued in his head. Hope's horrified and terrified voice echoed in his ears as the girl cried out in abject fear and horror at the gruesome scene she'd just witnessed.
Jaune tried to tune her out. That dream had been different. It felt way too real. Nothing like the nightmares he was used to having. Grimm he could handle, but that thing… what was that?! Some kind of monstrous version of himself?
He knew it was himself, he could recognize his own features even when they were distorted and Grimmified. It had been like looking into a mirror. A scary, Grimm, twisted dark mirror.
Dark Mirror…
Not a bad way to name that monstrosity. He didn't want to humanize it by giving it an actual name. A title would do.
Whatever that was, it had been created by his subconscious like all nightmares and dreams – but why did his subconscious give him such an abomination as nightmare? It didn't even attack him or do anything, really. It just killed Summer and Ruby, and greeted him.
He shivered. Dark Mirror's voice had been just as cruel as his appearance, and he didn't fancy having to fight that thing the next time he fell asleep. Despite knowing he couldn't be actually harmed, or at least hoping he couldn't, the monster had been simply disturbing. Especially its apparent sentience.
Hope's screams filled his ears again, and he gritted his teeth. "Would you calm down?! It was just a dream!" he hissed under his breath, trying to contain his anger.
Hope continued to cry. "I-I w-want Mommy and Daddy! I'm scared! I wanna go home with Mommy and Daddy!"
Growling softly as to not wake Pyrrha, Jaune tried to pinpoint Hope's soul in his own and enveloped it in his own Dusk before trying to make it pulse with energy in what he hoped was a soothing rhythm. He had no idea if it'd work or not, but he couldn't exactly start soothing her out loud, he didn't want to deal with her screams any longer, and he had no desire to stay up for hours trying to calm her down in whispers.
Slowly, her screams subsided and became sobs.
"Are you okay now?"
"No…"
That was to be expected, honestly. Jaune sighed and passed a hand through his hair. "How can I help?" He couldn't exactly get warm milk or anything, but the sooner she calmed down, the sooner he could return to sleep. Even though even his normal dreams would probably have her crying again.
"C-Can you release me?"
"What?"
"M-My soul… c-can you release me?"
Jaune frowned. "I have no idea how flashy it is. You'll have to bear it a little while longer."
"But I wanna see Mommy and Daddy…" He could basically hear the tears in her eyes.
He bit his lip. He felt a dull ache in his ribcage, probably due to his still racing heart. He looked around to see Pyrrha and Derry or whatever his name was both soundly asleep in their beds. Or at least they looked asleep, Pyrrha would probably wake up if he were to breathe too hard in her direction.
Still, if he made it quick, perhaps he could manage.
With a sigh, he whispered to Hope his agreement. "Fine. I'll try. But I make no promises, and I'm gonna interrupt the process if it turns out to be too long and would risk waking up the others."
"Thank you Jaune…"
Her voice now was a far cry from the cheerful thanks he'd received after having taken her soul in the first place. Perhaps now she regretted her decision, after finding out haunting a Nightmare isn't all sparkles and rainbows. It's totally not sparkles and rainbows, in any way. Unless one counted the sparkles seen in freshly spilled blood under the moonlight.
He sighed again and concentrated on her soul, a tiny spark of sealed Aura inside the stormy sea of his Dusk. He felt her inside him and took hold of that spark with invisible, intangible hands.
Then he pushed.
He pushed her away, out of his body and out of his Dusk. The spark inched closer and closer to his skin, which began to shine brighter and brighter. He pulled the blankets over himself to try and conceal it as much as he could.
Finally, with one mighty push and a flash of light, he couldn't feel Hope's soul in his Dusk any longer.
For an instant, he thought he felt gentle, cool fingers caressing his cheeks before a pair of soft lips pressed against his right cheek, leaving a cold sensation lingering behind.
Then nothing.
In an instant, Jaune was alone. For some reason, the dull ache in his chest rose to the point tears came to his eyes and he worried about it being a heart attack. Then the pain subsided, and as usual, nothing remained behind.
/-/
"Why the hell is Shorty coming with us?"
Jaune's annoyed voice cut through the air, not at all helping the irritation she felt due to the heat. The fact he was also right only made her even more annoyed.
Weiss Schnee was not a patient person on the best of days, and today was definitely nowhere close to her best day.
For one, she felt quite embarrassed by her current outfit, which was way more revealing than she'd like to help deal with the scorching sun of Menagerie. The heat itself was a solid reason for her anger all by itself.
And then there was Terry Diana, the Faunus boy currently trying to keep up with them.
"Jaune, I already told you, I tried to make him change his mind but I can't decide for him," Blake explained wearily, sighing at the Nightmare's incessant complaints. "Eventually, it's safer for him to travel with us rather than try to follow us by himself."
"We're going into the most dangerous place in Menagerie and he'd be 'safe' with us?" Jaune snorted sarcastically. He rubbed his chest with a grimace. Blake idly noted he'd been doing that all morning, for some reason. "Couldn't we just drop him off to someone, tied up and gagged?"
"Of course not!" Weiss felt like she had to intervene before the Nightmare's suggestions became more violent and scared the boy – despite fully agreeing with Jaune on his presence with them.
"Why not leave him to the police chief or whatever?" the Nightmare continued, undeterred.
"Because Mrs Tasso was busy with a case of child disappearance reported yesterday that she had to take care of," Blake sighed, shaking her head. "Besides, I don't think we need her telling us about the Dead Sands to know they're the most dangerous place in Menagerie."
Jaune averted his eyes, and immediately everyone looked at him. He bristled defensively. "Hey, why is it that as soon as crimes are mentioned, you all look at me?! It could've been Nikos for all you knew!"
Pyrrha stared flatly at him before shaking her head, not even deigning him of an answer.
"Regardless of what actually happened, Terry would've just followed us – like he actually did," Blake continued, and Weiss had the strong urge to actually agree with one of Jaune's ideas, and tie the now nodding boy up before leaving him at someone's doorstep.
It was true. They had left him at the inn they had been staying at, but he had followed them, all the while gushing on and on about how cool they all were. He seemed to idolize even Jaune. Hell, especially Jaune.
"I can prove myself useful!" exclaimed Terry, puffing his chest out proudly. "Trust me! I won't be a burden at all!"
Jaune groaned in disgust at him, which only made the boy look at him in even more awe. Weiss supposed it was because the boy admired the goth-dark-edgy mix that seemed to make up Jaune's personality, rather than taking pleasure in being insulted.
Of course, some people were into it, but she honestly did not want to think about that.
"It's safer for him to stay close to us, if he really doesn't want to go back to Menagerie," continued Blake.
"As much as it pains me to say this, I think Jaune is right," Pyrrha spoke up, casting Terry an apologetic glance. "I'm sorry, Terry, but the Dead Sands are classified as S-Rank in dangerousness. I do not think it's safe for you to be anywhere close to them."
"But I got you guys with me!" the boy protested.
Behind him, Jaune silently mocked him by pretending to be repeating his words in falsetto. Weiss pursued her lips while Ruby unwillingly let a small giggle slip.
"C'mon Pyrrha, he'll be safe with us," Yang rolled her eyes. "I'm more than enough to protect him, all together it's just overkill."
Weiss glared imperiously down (or rather up) at the blonde brawler. Calling her overconfident would be an understatement. Weiss was aware of her own shortcomings, well some of them at least, for example her arrogance. She knew she sometimes let her pride go to her head, and that her ego could use to be a little smaller, but she also knew it was nowhere near Yang's.
To put it simply, it had been a miracle the girl hadn't tried to fight the Titan-Class sea Grimm all by herself back on the ship.
"Oh, whatever, if he dies don't say I didn't warn you." Jaune pretended to gag when Terry cheered. "But keep him away from me, he's annoying."
"Hey!"
"I meant it."
"Well, you are too," Blake finally snapped, glaring at him. "In fact, you've complained more than he's spoken so far. Maybe we should leave you tied up somewhere?"
'In your BDSM fantasies?' Weiss thought snarkily before blushing at her own vulgarity. She shook her head to clear her mind. The heat was getting to her.
Jaune stuck his tongue out at her. "It's so damn hot, and this clothes aren't really helping…"
As he spoke, he pinched his dark pants as if they were something truly disgusting, to which Weiss would've agreed. Their new clothes really were indecent.
For Jaune, quite simply, it was a pair of dark blue trousers and some kind of extra-light open jacket of the same colour that showed his lean built, almost as if its only purpose was to lead the eye to his torso instead of covering any of it. Even his dark blue cloak didn't help since he let it trail behind him instead of curling it around himself, though given the heat she couldn't blame him. For some reason, he had several odd, twisted symbols similar to tattoos painted on his body, but even she could not read those kinds of runes, and she was fairly knowledgeable about runes.
For Weiss, she felt it was even worse. Thanks to Aura, sunburn wouldn't harm her until it actually began to be hot enough to boil her skin, so her clothes were made to keep her as exposed as possible, just like the majority of the clothes sold in Menagerie. That meant she was wearing a white top that ended well above her bellybutton, with a cleavage window she barely filled out, which she was admittedly a tad ashamed of, especially considering that Ruby had a bigger bust than her, and she was two years younger. Paired with the top were a pair of very short blue shorts that didn't even reach halfway down her toned thighs. She was pretty sure she'd been ogled by just about every boy and girl in the entire town. A light blue cloak helped her keep the Sun from beating down on her skull.
Blake had a similar getup for the top half of her outfit, only with a black top instead. Her pants were long, however, and just as black, which made no sense given the heat. However, she seemed used to it, so maybe that was why she wasn't dying inside. Her cloak was black, but she kept the hood down, undaunted by the Sun.
Ruby's top was even flimsier, a V-cut that looked like intertwined rose stems, and was obviously red. Her shorts were as short as Weiss's. At least she had the decency of feeling slightly embarrassed by her indecent outfit, and kept her bright red cloak tightly wrapped around herself, only opening it to let some cooler air in for a few seconds.
Yang, on the other hand, had no qualms about showing the world as much skin as she could without breaking the law for indecency. Her top was a sport's bra and nothing else, leaving most of her skin exposed. Weiss could swear it didn't even cover the undersides of her breasts, though maybe that hadn't been intentional. Her jeans shorts were so skimpy she could've probably gone with underwear and the amount of skin exposed wouldn't have changed. She also replaced her knee-high boots with some leather shoes. After much protesting, Yang had eventually accepted to bring a yellow cloak that she kept in her bag, just in case there was a sandstorm and she needed to cover her mouth or something.
Pyrrha was the only one who hadn't changed clothes, aside from shedding her armour. As much as Weiss didn't want to admit it, her usual attire was extremely skimpy. At least twice as revealing as Yang's usual combat outfit. Without her graves to cover her legs, the warrior looked a lot more like a supermodel with that kind of clothes. She had graciously agreed to wear a cloak not too different from Ruby's in colour.
Terry quite simply kept his jeans and white shirt, saying he didn't need to change and that he was fine with the Sun. If it actually worked for him, good for him.
"Blake, is that…?"
Weiss looked up from the ground of the steep hill the gang had been climbing and gazed at the rest of the group. Ruby had stopped at the top of the hill and was pointing at something before her. Blake lengthened her stride, as did the rest of the group, to catch up with the speedster, though Terry had to break into a short run to keep up with their longer legs.
Well, to be honest, Weiss too had to walk a tad faster given she was so short.
As soon as the gang reached the top, Weiss halted, shocked by the landscape before her.
White.
White for as far as the eye could see. The glare of the Sun reflected on the sand was so blinding her eyes hurt, but she couldn't look away. The soft curves of the sand dunes were barely visible against the background of ivory desert. It looked like a giant desert of salt, the analogies further strengthened by the complete lack of life. As far as the sand extended, there was nothing. No plants, or cacti, nor animals of any kind. She couldn't see any vulture flying over it to look for corpses either. In fact, she couldn't hear anything coming from the desert itself – sure, there were sounds all around her, but before her, it was all silent.
"Yes, Ruby, that's where we're going…" Beside her, Blake grimaced. "Welcome to the Dead Sands."
Yes, welcome... Hehehe...
Now, I know a few wanted to keep Hope in the story for longer - but keep in mind Jaune's a Nightmare and they're gonna be fighting monsters. Not example something I normally wish for little girls to see, even in the world of Remnant.
Furthermore, as a character Hope Speranza wouldn't have added much to the plot.
But don't worry, the story's not gonna become dull just because Hope's gone.
Now introducing Dark Mirror! Bet you liked Hope more than him. Oh well.
Until next time,
Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh
