Here it is, what everyone has been waiting for. The thing I had teased for so long yet could never provide. Here's the prologue for a story I am most excited to write.
Jaune's life had gone down very fast, much too fast for someone with any sort of dream for their future. Cardin, the bully who he risked his life to save was not appreciative of what he did. One word to the Vale Council and now they're putting pressure on the school for his expulsion. Not even Ozpin and the staff can help him as news spread about what he had done. The school became split as the staff and anyone that he had become friends with trying their damndest to defend him while everyone else in the school hounded him like the Grimm they were training to fight.
It shook him how they would target not just him but anyone student who tried to defend him, slandering with statements of him blackmailing his friends into this or attempts of harm on his friends. It broke him each time he heard about what had been done to his friends, he couldn't take it anymore. Why should he, a boy who cheated his way into a place that everyone else trained for at least a decade to get in, be the one least harmed while his friends had to spend nights looking over their shoulders in fear of some psycho student with no concept of restraint doing something horrible to them.
Jaune had enough, if he had to leave in order for his friends to be safe then he will do it. He talked with Ozpin, the man had a regretful look on his face the entire time they talked, and Jaune was given a bullhead to leave Beacon. He packed his items and left notes to his friends as he walked to the bullhead. He was careful to not be seen by anyone as the door opened and he walked inside. The engine started with a light hum as the bullhead rose to the sky, Jaune held himself steady as it left Beacon space. He looked out of the window as Beacon grew smaller, and smaller. It was quiet. Before a loud explosion was heard and Jaune could only turn in time to see flames spread through the bulkhead like a wave before another explosion pushed him into the flames and everything went dark.
The soft hum of medical machinery was the first thing Jaune could hear. He tried to move his body, even just open his eyes, yet he could do nothing. All he could hear was the constant hum of machinery that, in all regards, was keeping him alive. All he could do was hope that this wasn't someone out to teach him a 'lesson'. He let out a rasped breath before sleep took over once again.
When Jaune awoke once more he heard voices, albeit heavily distorted. A raspy breath was let loose as he tried once more to open his eyes. This time he was met with success as he found himself on a sort of upright medical table. Straps and braces served to hold him in place as his eyes scanned the first things he had seen in so long.
The voices stopped now, yet he could not see who was in the room with him. He could not see what had happened to him. He still does not know who left him like this. Nor does he know what condition his body is in. Another raspy breath left him as he tried to look down in a thin hope that his body wasn't completely destroyed.
He stopped as he looked down, the braces keeping him in just making it more obvious what his condition was.
His body was not fine.
He was not well.
He had a massive spike of shrapnel in his chest.
And any skin he saw was burnt like jerky.
He tried to scream but nothing came out. His horror growing worse as he took in more of his surrounding. The walls were lined with a litany of bloodied tools. His body was a mangled mess. How could he even see right now if his body was in such a state?
He let his panic take hold before the darkness of unconscious began taking hold. Jaune tried as hard as he could to stay awake, then the voices returned. He could only catch the last of it before his mind grew blank. All he heard was; "Continue on doctor".
Jaune awoke once more to find himself within a dark chamber. He looked around before the doors opened and a man was watching him. "Good, I've been waiting for you to awaken" was all he said before disconnecting the table from the floor.
Jaune could do nothing as the table was rolled out of the chamber. He took in the sights around him, the architecture of black stone being far too thick to let him know just where he was. He let his mind wander as the black halls all blended into a single tunnel. He thought of his team, or team RWBY, and Pyrrha especially. His largest hope was that they were ok, that everyone has left them alone now that he was gone.
He knew it was a foolish idea to think that they were fine, but the hope that they were was a small comfort.
The doctor stopped and rolled him into the room he had awoken in the previous time. Every tool was clean now and there was a cart full of machinery that he did not recognize. The doctor rolled him back to the spot he had been in before and got to work attaching him to the upright table.
"So, any thing you want to say, Ol' Raspy?" the doctor questioned. Jaune took offense to such a name, his breathing was not something to make fun of. "Would you at least thank me for taking all that shrapnel out of your chest" the doctor said.
This got Jaune's attention as he glanced down. To his surprise the spike was gone, his torso now covered by a plate of metal like a piece of armor. "What" he said, the first word he said in brothers' knowns how long. "Yes, though your lungs were beyond saving, so we had something made in place" the doctor explained.
Jaune began to violently cough, the doctor seemingly growing concerned at this. "Best be cautious, any more talking might have you coughing out what's left" he said while adjusting the table to lay flat. Jaune just looked at the man with a growing contempt before the doctor put a breathing mask on his face.
He started feeling drowsy once again before the man loomed over him. "Glad we could have a talk, now let's get to work" was all he said before Jaune lost conscious.
For all Jaune knew he could be in hell. He now awoke every day and was always sent to the same thing. He would wake up, the doctor would take him to the medical chamber, he would be put under, and maybe he would wake up a little bit later. He isn't even sure why he wasn't suffering from dehydration or hunger. Though the less time spent thinking about his physical form, the better.
What had once been a burnt yet living body was now turning into a machine. Every morning he could feel less of himself. What was once phantom pains of his damaged limbs was now the slow scraping of metal as his every thought forced movement from his new prison. The only thing that reminded him that he was once human was the rasping breath that left his body at a delayed pace.
So here he was now, the table in the medical chamber was flat and the doctor was working hard to 'fix' him. Now was the time for a sort of injection, a syringe full of a black substance to be precise. The numb sting as the needle pierced the remaining flesh sealed within his body. All Jaune could do was glare at him as the syringe drained into his body.
Once the doctor was done he turned away and walked to the wall. Jaune didn't see what he grabbed, but he knew it was going to be painful. When the doctor turned back he had a mask in one hand. Its design unnerved Jaune; the sharp angles were aggresive, the crevices within the face showed only blankness, and it seemed far to small for his face.
The doctor noticed Jaune looking at the mask and smiled. "You like this, it's going to be your new face" he said calmly. Jaune's blood ran cold as he was powerless to stop the doctor's approach. The tools hummed to life once more as the doctor placed the mask on his face and got to work.
The pain Jaune experienced for the several hours the doctor worked was the worst he would ever feel.
This was his life now, countless hours of surgery and modification has turned him into something absolutely inhuman. The needles which pierced his skin daily had turned what was left of his flesh infested by pitch growths and blood red infections. His body was now sealed within a prison of metal, a machine of combat which would be tested against anything they desired.
The worst part of it all was the doctor's boss, a queen of sorts. All he had ever seen was her piercing red eyes within the darkness of the chamber. That was all he need to know she was something else, something of unprecedented power and age.
Now he stood on two artificial legs, slender and curved much like an insect yet firm and flexible. His body stuck in a bow to the queen, unable to so much as lift his head to look at her. She smiled at him, her face lit up like a child with a new two. She gestured with her hands for him to rise and his body followed.
"Now Now, the good doctor has done an amazing job fixing you, I believe a thank you is in order" She said, her smile turning sickly. Jaune just glared at her with his sapphire eyes through the mask. "I expected this, but you should listen" she spoke, talking to him as though he was a dog. "When the doctor rescued him from the wreckage of the crash, he found evidence that the engines had been set to blow not long after take off" This set Jaune off.
Was she lying?
Had Ozpin set him up?
Had some student discovered the plan?
The words that left the Queen's mouth began echoing through his skull. Jaune tried with all his might to clutch his head, a thin hope that he may have some freedom. The witch continued; "Seems Ozpin was working with the council to get rid of you". The echoing just grew worse.
Jaune managed to force his metallic arms to clutch his head. A raspy, mechanic groan left him as the Witch continued. "All it took was waiting for the right time to strike, then he pulled you right into a trap that would wipe you away from his record".
The echoing was beyond painful as he began thrashing about. Every word, every syllable, a perpetual spike of pain to his mind. Red began to pool into the blue of his eyes yet all he could do was try to hold off the pain. Jaune tried to resist what was driving into his very being yet he was powerless against the constant echos of her every word.
Then he stopped.
It all stopped hurting.
The scraping of metal against stone was the only noise in the room as he pulled himself up. His once sapphire eyes were now a blood red as he stared into the queen's own. The flesh beneath metal stopped struggling against what was inevitable. He rose to his full height, easily taller than the queen herself, and bowed of his own accord.
"Excellent, now what Is your name?" the queen, his queen, asked him. The machine stood up and spoke; "I have none, my name is what you shall give me" he spoke in a sharp mechanical voice. "Then arise Grievous, my hatred made manifest in metal skin" she said.
The newly christened Grievous stood up once more, prepared to follow his queen to her every command. "Now, for your first assignment" his queen spoke. He was excited for the terror he would unleash on all who apposed his queen.
Now, after almost a year of procrastination I have written what was voted on so long ago. This story will be much darker at times due to how I plan on writing this, this prologue is a definite example, but just so you know not every chapter will be as dark as this.
Also, I'm not leaving The Immortal Wanderer, I've already invested to much into it. Just know that I'm self-improving by working on more than one story a year. Hope you all have a good day.