"He is a wound in the Force, more presence than flesh, and in his wake life dies… sacrificing itself to his hunger." - Visas Marr on her Master.

Chapter 18: Nihilus

Everyone stared in shock at the form of Jaune before them, cloaked in flowing darkness, now adorned with his terrifying mask. All around him tourists and unarmed students began to flee the scene, while both the soldiers and droids of Atlas, along with several braver student teams like ABRN stayed.

As the heroes all surrounded Jaune's mysterious new form, further away, an amber eyed, black haired beauty whispered to her disguised ally. "Neo. Get into position, we're accelerating our plans right now."

Neo nodded, and quickly vanished as Cinder pulled out her scroll and began typing. She quickly sent a group text to Adam, Mercury, and Emerald, similarly telling them to move their plans up. Her message sent, Cinder then made herself scarce, joining the groups of fleeing students as she prepared for the next phase of her scheme.

Meanwhile, the present members of teams JNPR, RWBY, and Qrow stood surrounding Jaune.

Timidly, Ruby stepped forward with a single hand raised as she called out to her friend. "Ja… Jaune? Is that you?" she had no idea what was going on, but she couldn't help but feel an intrinsic terror as she stared at the changed form of her friend.

But if Jaune heard her, he showed no outward reaction to her call. Instead, Jaune only extended out his shadowy hand. At first, the shock and terror they had of Jaune was replaced by confusion as Jaune silently stood there with his hand raised for several seconds. A loud crash from behind them stole everyone's attention, causing them to flinch and turn. From the halls of Beacon, an object could be seen hurtling towards them at insane speeds. Several students had to duck out of the way as the object sped past them, and into the hands of Jaune. Those nearby felt their eyes widen a second time, for Jaune was now holding Crocea Mors in his hand.

With the student now armed, the Atlas soldiers and drones surrounding him immediately leveled their Dust rifles. "Do not make a move!" A red trimmed officer shouted out. "Drop the weapon and slowly raise your hands above your head!"

However, Jaune seemed to make no move to drop his sword, and instead only extended his empty off hand forward. Not knowing if this was some kind of attack, the Atlesian officer decided not to take any chances.

"Open fire!" he shouted as both the troopers and drones obeyed, hundreds of Dust rounds now flying for the student.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha called out, not wanting to see what she believed was her friend be gunned down.

But as the hundreds of multi-colored Dust rounds moved to strike their target, everyone was struck by another surprise as they watched every Dust bolt freeze in mid-air before connecting with Jaune. Ruby felt her jaw drop, and it didn't take long for her or for all of her friends to realize what Jaune was doing. Jaune was grabbing every single Dust round with his telekinesis, stopping hundreds if not thousands of bullets that were flying at subsonic speeds.

To their credit, the Atlas soldiers kept their fingers depressed on their triggers, firing round after round until all of their guns clicked empty. When they saw that Jaune was still standing, untouched by their attacks and surrounded by a literal dome of Dust bullets, the officer in charge had the feeling that he may have made a mistake.

No one even breathed as they waited to see what Jaune would do next. Jaune's expression was unreadable behind his mask and hood, obscured by the shadows. His body language didn't betray any aggression either, his stance was robotic, almost soulless.

It was then that Jaune flicked his wrist. In an instant, faster than almost anyone could react, the frozen Dust bolts shot out away from Jaune, flying out in an explosion of ballistics. The soldiers and droids surrounding Jaune were torn apart almost instantaneously, the hundreds of Dust rounds shredding their forms.

Qrow, JNPR, and RWBY were barely able to hit the deck and avoid the explosion, but many of the remaining students and tourists who stayed to watch what was happening, were unable. Screams began to fill the air as dozens of students and bystanders were wounded if not outright killed by the flechettes of Dust.

As Pyrrha slowly pushed herself off the ground, she felt that her face was wet. Touching it, she pulled back her hand and saw it was covered with blood. Quickly checking herself over, she realized it was not her blood, as she was able to dodge the attack, but instead the exploded viscera of a poor Atlas soldier who was standing in front of her. Same as her, various other students and soldiers began to pull themselves up, Ruby's uncle Qrow being the first to do so.

Pyrrha then looked back at Jaune. No… at Nihilus. She knew that this was Nihilus she was looking at, not her leader. Because only Nihlus could look this… apathetic to the death and destruction he just wrought. Before Pyrrha could think of her next move however, Nihilus moved again.

As Nihilus brought his hands to his chest, Pyrrha's fighter instincts immediately screamed one thing to her, Nihilus was charging up an attack.

"Move!" Pyrrha heard someone yell out. She wasn't sure who, but from the sounds of it was someone older, probably Qrow.

Pyrrha didn't take the time to think about what was happening. She stood and began sprinting away. Hesitation in combat meant death, and when someone yelled, "Run!" you ran.

It was then that Pyrrha heard the scream. It was more than a vocal scream, though it was sonically loud as well. It was a scream that tore into her very soul, like she was hit by a wave of pure anger and hatred. The scream knocked her off her feet with a wave of force, but also tore into her mind, ripping apart her mental defenses.

Pyrrha was stunned for several seconds, until she felt a hand pull her up. Looking as to who it was, she recognized the person as Arslan, leader of team ABRN. Arslan was shouting something at Pyrrha, but the champion could barely make it out. Arlsan then pointed towards Nihilus, and when Pyrrha turned her head, her face fell, as she saw Nihilus standing over even more corpses, students and soldiers having their bodies torn apart by the Force Scream.

At this point, almost everyone who had not planned on fighting was already dead or had hightailed it out of the area. From her peripherals, Pyrrha saw Qrow step forward, wiping blood from his nose with his weapon drawn.

"Kids, either call your weapons down or get the Hell out." Qrow spoke, his voice hard as he stared Nihilus down.

The members of team RWB, NPR, and ABRN shared glances with one other, before quickly calling down their weapons using their rocket lockers. Strangely enough, Nihilus seemed willing to wait for them to call their weapons and arm themselves. Pyrrha didn't know if that was Jaune inside fighting against Nihilus, or if Nihilus was so confident in his victory that he was willing to give up the advantage. He didn't even move as the students and huntsman encircled Nihilus, surrounding him.

Despite their numbers, Qrow had no doubt that they did not have the advantage. He had hunted enough monstrous Grimm to know that you never have the advantage against something that can kill you in an instant. He also knew that as the senior huntsman here, he had to take the lead.

And so Qrow attacked first, jumping at Nihilus with a leaping slash, hoping his speed could catch him off guard. But Nihilus would not be caught unawares by such a simple strategy. Parrying the blow, Nihilus spun and struck Qrow with a backhanded slap, knocking him back.

Qrow stumbled but quickly regained his balance, twirling Harbinger as he mecha-shifted it from sword to its war scythe configuration. Qrow then began a series of rapid thrusts at Nihilus, hoping to overwhelm him. But every strike was parried by the Dark Lord with next to little effort.

Knocking one of Qrow's attacks to the side, Nihilus cut the distance, almost appearing right in front of the reaper, Crocea Mors aimed right for his throat. The attack was too fast for even Qrow to dodge, and with the sheer power that Nihilus was using, it would more than easily kill the huntsman. Qrow twisted and pulled back as hard as he could to try and avoid the killing stroke.

Just as the strike was about to land, Nihilus took a half step forward to regain the distance Qrow was putting between them. When he did however, Nihilus stepped on a chunk of viscera that he seemed to have not noticed, causing him to slightly slip. The misstep gave Qrow just enough distance to turn the death blow into a glancing cut that hit his upper arm, unable to break through his Aura.

Nihilus froze for a brief second as Qrow retreated, confused as to how he didn't foresee the slip with his Force Senses. Glancing at Qrow, he quickly came to a conclusion. His powers, or Semblance, the strange manifestation of the Force that allowed each person on Remnant a unique ability, must have somehow interfered. Before he could consider this anymore, a voice called out.

"Checkmate!" he heard Ruby's high pitched voice yell out as she opened fire with Crescent Rose.

As Nihilus deflected the sniper shots, Weiss and Blake both nodded, the Atlesian switching to lighting Dust and summoning a time glyph that would increase Blake's speed and agility. Her physical ability now enhanced, Blake charged forward with Gambol Shroud in sword form.

At her flanks, the two best melee fighters in the group Pyrrha and Arslan followed. Blake attacked with a flurry of slashes at Nihilus' face, while Pyrrha attacked his unarmed side, and Arslan went for the backs of Nihilus' legs.

Against a normal opponent, this would've been far too many attacks for any one person to handle. But Nihilus was far from a normal opponent. Deflecting Blake with his sword, he rapidly riposted, knocking the faunus back. Simultaneously, his off hand shot out, catching Pyrrha by the throat before she could strike. Through brute strength alone, Nihilus then dragged Pyrrha through the air and slammed her into Arslan behind him, literally beating the Mistralian with Jaune's former partner.

Their attack nullified, Nihilus then charged up the Force around him, summoning a storm of Force Drain lightning that slammed into all three huntresses. The young women all screamed as they felt their Aura's drain from Nihilus' attack. When they began to stumble back, trying to get away from Nihilus, the others opened fire as the Dark Lord was now open.

Flexing his control over the Force, Nihilus created a barrier that blocked all of their attacks, before extending his off hand at the retreating students. Nihilus grabbed onto the closest woman, which unluckily for her, was Arslan.

Reaching out with the Force, Nihilus gripped onto Arslan by the throat, lifting her into the air while choking the life out of her. Telekinetically bringing her closer. Nihilus brought Crocea Mors down on her, easily shattering her weakened Aura and slicing into her flesh. The cut ripped through her chest, leaving a massive gash on her front that began to spew blood. Nihilus ignored the cries of the girl's teammates as he then inglouriously flung her off of Beacon's cliff.

Ruby's face fell as she watched one of their allies probably die. She may not have considered Arslan a friend, but she was a fellow student and honorable opponent in their first match.

Gritting her teeth, Ruby loaded another magazine into Crescent Rose and shouted out, "Ice Flower!" Ruby then turned to Ren and Nora who were similarly shocked at Arslan's apparent demise and shouted to them. "Ren, Nora! Flower power!" The Renora duo turned to her in confusion when she barked at them again. "That's a team move of yours right? Time to use it! We need to slow him down!"

Ruby's orders seemed to shock them out of their stupor as they moved to attack. As Weiss finished creating the ice glyph around Ruby's sniper, turning all of her shots into ice shots, Ruby opened fire at Nihilus, primarily aiming for his feet to try and freeze them. Meanwhile Nora began bombarding Nihilus with grenades, hoping to distract while Ren ran towards him, charging his Aura in his palms for a paralyzing strike.

But even with the cloud of pink smoke that began to envelop the area, Nihilus did not require sight to sense the attacks coming. Rather than deflecting the ice shots with Crocea Mors, which would've frozen his arm, Nihilus caught two Dust rounds with the Force, and redirected them, flinging them right at Ren and Nora. The two students did not expect the sudden reversal, and weren't fast enough to dodge the sniper shots that encased both their torsos in ice.

Before Nihilus could follow up, Qrow attacked again, this time supported by the two Haven students Nadir and Reese, angrily seeking to avenge their leader. While Qrow engaged in melee, Nadir rode on the back of Reese's hoverboard, taking what potshots at the Dark Lord he could.

Deflecting what would've been a headshot, Nihilus then effortlessly flowed into a block as he parried Qrow's sword strike. With a quick extension of his off hand, Nihilus pushed Qrow back with the Force, throwing him off balance. Nihilus stepped forward to strike Qrow down, but for some reason happened to trip on a rock that he didn't seem to notice.

Nihilus quickly recovered, but that moment of weakness was enough of an opening for Nadir to hit him in the back with a Dust round, and for Qrow to advance and attack as well. Nihilus stumbled forward as the shot hit him in the back allowing Qrow to perform a sword slash at his head. Before Nihilus could parry it, Qrow's sword then changed form, shifting into its scythe form. Qrow then twisted his weapon and smashed Nihilus' knee with the butt of his scythe. The attack forced Nihilus down as Qrow spun with his momentum, following up with a horizontal slash across Nihilus' torso with his scythe.

The attack struck true as Harbinger bit through the Sith Lord's shadowy form, but leaving only a shallow cut that didn't break through Jaune's Aura. Nihilus growled in annoyance. Qrow's powers, while not obviously powerful enough to stop Nihilus, was influential enough that it turned the huntsman into more of a problem than he had any right to be.

Taking this annoyance and turning it into anger, lightning began to crackle between Nihilus' fingers. Both Qrow's and the students' eyes widened as a storm of lightning burst from Nihlus' hands, flying for all three of them. Qrow was fast enough to put Harbinger between him and the lightning, absorbing the attack, but neither Nadir nor Reese were skilled or experienced enough to do something similar. The two Haven students took the full brunt of Force Lightning, screaming as the Dark Side coursed through them, blasting them off the hoverboard and onto the ground in a smoking heap.

Nihilus stepped to finish off the students, when he noticed his feet were being encased in ice. Glancing down, he saw one of Weiss' trademark glyphs beneath him. He looked back up and saw the heiress, rapier stabbed in the ground, breathing heavily as she forgoed buffing her team and went to attacking him directly. Nihilus then felt danger coming from behind, sensing Ruby going in for a desperate melee attack with Crescent Rose.

Without even sparing her a glance, Nihilus reached out with the Force and grabbed onto Ruby mid-leap. Ruby froze in mid-air, confused as to what was happening, before Nihilus then slammed her into the ground. Simultaneously, Nihlus threw Crocea Mors right for Weiss, his sword becoming a flying buzzsaw aiming to tear her in half.

Weiss' eyes widened as she pulled Myrtenaster out of the ground, ending her ice effect on Nihilus, and used her rapier to deflect Crocea Mors. However the sheer physical force and momentum of the attack alone was enough to knock the light heiress backwards and off her feet.

Meanwhile Ruby slowly tried to pick herself up as blood poured out of her nose. The stinging pain and amount of blood flowing told her it was broken. As she struggled however, a boot hit her face as Nihilus kicked her back. Dazed, Ruby was helpless as Nihilus moved to finish her, until a scream took his attention.

Bolin, the last member standing of team ABRN, charged at Nihilus, swinging his bo-staff in a wild rage. It was a pathetic attack that even pre-Dark Side Jaune could've deflected. Nihilus parried the attack and easily riposted, forcing Bolin back. Nihilus then glanced at Ruby, who could still only watch what was happening in disoriented terror as Nihilus then used the Force to yank Crescent Rose out of her hands.

The weakened Ruby tried to hold onto her weapon, but was unable to. She could only watch in dismay as Nihilus levitated Crescent Rose in front of himself, and as he clenched a fist, crushed the sniper-scythe into a bowling ball sized heap of red and black scrap metal. Before she could even process what just happened, Nihilus then flung the improvised cannonball right for Bolin.

Ruby's head twisted to follow her former weapon, and to her horror, she watched as Crescent Rose went through Bolin's head, instantly killing the boy. Bolin's entire head was gone, completely erased by the hunk of metal that flew through him, only to be replaced by a fountain of blood that shot out from his torso, coating everyone nearby. It was at that moment Ruby felt the fear take over her, any hope she stubbornly clung onto evaporating. One of her best friends just destroyed her weapon, and used it to kill another student. Now here she was, weaponless in a battle against a complete monster.

Before Ruby could drop completely into despair however, the sounds of reinforcements came with a literal trumpet's blare. Ruby watched as Nihilus was buffeted back by visible sound waves as Flynt Coal of team FNKI arrived along with his team, the entirety of team BRNZ, and an adult huntress that Ruby had never seen before.

As the reinforcements arrived, they surrounded Nihilus while also aiding the beleaguered students currently in the fight, helping Weiss, Nora, and Ren help. Meanwhile, the other fighters who had taken some damage but were not out, namely Qrow, Pyrrha, and Blake joined them in encircling Nihilus once more.

Despite being surrounded by even more warriors, Nihilus seemed almost nonchalant about the situation, his spectre-like body showing no obvious signs of distress. In fact, to everyone's surprise, Nihilus seemed to turn away from them and look up to the sky above Vale. Nihilus then extended his hand away from any students, and to the airspace he was gazing at.

Knowing of his telekinesis, Qrow immediately looked for whatever Nihilus was grabbing on to. And to Qrow's horror, there was only one thing in view that Nihilus could be pulling. Above Vale's skyline, General Ironwood's flagship airship began to list, straining as it descended out of the sky. Qrow could tell that the ship was trying to fight against the sudden pull, engines blasting at full charge to try and break out of whatever was forcing it to move against its will, the metal hull of the ship straining under the pressure. Soon enough, the airship's starboard entire engine burst into flames as it overloaded itself trying to break loose. The airship was now falling out of the sky, on a path right for Beacon.

Several other students also looked up to the sky in shock and awe. Qrow couldn't help but almost laugh at the absurdity of the situation. That son of a bitch was throwing an airship at them.

Soon enough, experience and training replaced stupefying astonishment as Qrow yelled out to everyone once more, "SCATTER!"

Immediately everyone began turning and sprinting all saw what was coming and wanted to be as far away from ground zero as possible. Qrow didn't even have time to look after his niece as he moved as fast as he could. As he dashed forward, a cry of pain caught the Qrow's attention. To his right Qrow saw a civilian, one of the waitresses from the fairgrounds, having hidden since the start of the battle, fall to the ground after slipping on a bit of viscera.

Qrow's eyes widened. While he'd never know for sure, he couldn't help but feel that his Semblance had a hand in causing her to fall. Not for the first time in his life, did Qrow curse not having any control over his Semblance. He could just leave her and keep moving, but Qrow knew he couldn't live with himself if he left her to die when it was his fault she was in that situation in the first place. It would be the same as killing her himself.

And so, Qrow pivoted and moved for her. He could get her out. At least that's what he told himself. When he got to her, Qrow grabbed the waitress's hand and moved to run. Unfortunately, the very moment he reached her, the Atlesian airship collided with Beacon's courtyard. The resulting Dust explosion enveloped the entire area in a shockwave of smoke and heat.

Qrow, knowing running was no longer an option, instead dove down and wrapped his arms around the waitress, hoping his Aura could take the blow for the both of them. Just as he did, the impact of the explosion hit him, and then all he saw was blackness.

Pyrrha groaned as she awakened. Everything hurt, and for the second time today her ears rang with a high pitched buzz. Lamenting the loss of that frequency range, Pyrrha pushed herself up as she surveyed the situation around her. The sky was now dark, and the last thing Pyrrha remembered was the orange sky of evening. That meant she was unconscious for at least a few minutes, hopefully no more than that. Looking around, all she saw was devastation, chunks of Beacon were smashed apart by the explosion. Meanwhile trees, grass, and various stalls were all burning, providing some light for her.

To her side, Pyrrha heard a high pitched groan of pain. Turning, she saw the form of Ruby beside her, similarly worse for wear. Bending over, Pyrrha gently awoke the reaper.

"Ruby." She said as she shook her awake. "Ruby, get up we have to move."

Slowly, Ruby's eyes blinked open, obviously confused and disoriented. "Pyrrha?" she moaned, accepting the taller redhead's hand as she pulled her up.

"Yes Ruby. We have to find the othe-" Pyrrha's planning was cut off by a terrifying roar behind her.

Immediately both she and Ruby turned, and to their horror, a massive Ursa was making its way through the destroyed fairgrounds. Not only that, they saw packs of Beowolves prowl the territory, while White Fang grunts also patrolled the school grounds, gunning down anyone they saw.

Pyrrha and Ruby both crouched low, hoping to avoid detection. Apparently, a lot more than they thought had happened while they were unconscious. Scanning the destroyed school grounds, Pyrrha also looked for any sign of Nihilus, and luckily he appeared nowhere in site.

Another crack of a Dust rifle followed by the scream of a civilian caused the two huntress-in-training to hide even further.

"Pyrrha, what do we do?" Ruby asked, fear and uncertainty gripping her voice.

Pyrrha's gut reaction was to say it was going to be ok, and then come up with a plan. But when she couldn't come up with anything, she just shook her head and said, "I don't know Ruby. I don't know."

A/N, 1/2/21: Hey look at that, a new chapter ahead of schedule. Being on break allowed me more time to do some writing, and so the fated Battle of Beacon began a bit earlier than I expected.

Review Responses:

BrutusPrimus: Thanks!

Mr ChubbySnorlax619: Thanks! And is an interesting idea.

Xealchim: Hey to each their own. I hope you find another story that you like more. But as for a warning like that, I feel like that is just a massive spoiler for my own story? Why would I want to do that?

Shadowwolf of Phantasms: Thanks! And there are lots of events that if they were done differently, that could've prevented Jaune from falling.

Greer123: Thanks! Hmm for Jaune's sisters, idk about that. I could see a few being huntresses, but since there was never a canon story for that I more or less left it alone. His motivation for wanting to be a hero stemmed more from stories about his ancestor and wanting to prove himself to his parents.

SilverArrow123: That he did indeed

Axel100: Plot holes? In my fic? It's more likely than you think. Since it won't pertain to the rest of the plot of this fic, I think it's safe for me to say that my idea of having the terentatek being of Remnant was that the Brother of Darkness experimented with many ideas of Dark Side creatures before eventually making the grimm, the terentatek being one of them.

X3runner: That's fair.

SWoP: Maybe, maybe not.

SupremeDarkTrooper: I suppose that's the part where we'll just have to agree to disagree then. In my opinion the Dark Side does enhance a person's personality and nature, but I think it changes it as well. Things that a person would normally consider cruel or terrible don't seem that bad once the Dark Side is thrown in.

I think the idea that the Dark Side limits or downplays or destroys a person's "good" traits is inherently changing their nature, because a person's nature is not black or white. You're not a "good" person or a "bad" person. There's nuance in everyone that is derived from their nature. And by getting rid of the "good" parts of someone's nature, they are in effect, changed.

Cyricist001: Maybe, maybe not, but I enjoyed the exposition.

General McGuyver: Thanks!

Slim A Lou Prime: Why do you think I specifically chose to put this back story chapter here?

Sir Deadpool: That is an idea. I would be surprised if there weren't any fics like that already. And while a fic like that would be fun, I probably wouldn't write it. After I finish JALoH, I have other stories outside of Remnant and Star Wars that I want to write.

Nexus4123: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. Yeah I did a very deep dive into Wookieepedia in preparation for this fic, and tried to make sure as much of it was consistent and tied together throughout. And yes… I totally had that idea foreshadowed with the strongboxes in the first chapter. Nope, not a lucky coincidence there lol. As for the rest, some interesting speculation.

UnlawfulGentleman: I'm glad you liked the chapter! It was a fun chapter to write to go into the background more. And yeah I agree that if it's more of a fusion fic, an effort should be made by authors to try and reconcile powers of the different franchises together. At least an attempt. And yeah, fuck Disney for getting rid of most of the Legends stuff. You have some good directors like Dave Finiloni who have been adding in more and more Legends stuff in his shows like the Mandalorian, but still, it's literal decades of work just thrown out.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the holidays, continue to stay safe, and I'll see you in the next one!.