Salem was currently overseeing an experiment performed by Arthur Watts. "My Lady Salem, this new solution will convert a human into a new form of grimm derived from the dormant grimm dragon. In tests it is shown that any adult, male or female, body cannot accept the altercations and survive. Children, however, are the prime candidates, their bodys are still growing and will integrate the genetic rewrite immediately, if the child can survive the attack that is. We have conducted over 49 tests but any surviving child evenly tears themselves apart for lack of willpower to overpower the grimm's desires." Watts pulled out a briefcase and opened it to reveal a miniature grimm dragon surrounded with a mass of tentacles with needle-like tips. "This is my perfected creation, If this does not produce results then we shall scrap the project. I believe I have a specimen, a young boy by the name of Jaune arc, he has an undying will to please his sisters, if he does not live for himself, he will live for them."
Salem smirked, "How cute, very well. Send out the animal, best not keep our dear Jaune waiting." Salem walked off, Watts waved a small cloth in front of the dragon's nose, the cloth held Jaune's sent, the dragon rose and went off flying, if it didn't return the experiment would be deemed a failure.
Qrow was investigating an odd string of child and adult deaths for Ozpin, each of the victims had several puncture wounds in various different places on their bodys, but there was also some form of black liquid that Qrow couldn't identify. He was flying to the location of the latest death when a black blur shot past before him, Qrow gave chase but whatever it was, it was fast.
Jaune (5 years old) was in the woods exploring with his sisters Saphron (9 years old), Sam (7 years old), and his newest sister Lily (4 years old), Saphron and Sam were in front of him but Lily clung to the back of Jaune's shirt. You see Lily is a fox faunas that the Arc family adopted when she was 2, Jaune settled into the older brother roll like a natural, bonding with Lily far more than any of the other Arc, that's not to say the others didn't bond with her, but any time Lily was seen Jaune would be next to her.
"Jaune, keep up! I found a small lake when I went into the woods earlier and I want to show you." It was his sister Sam, calling to speed them up. "Coming!" Jaune replied. Jaune turned to Lily, her face was basically in his spine. "You ok, Lily?" Jaune asked in a soft tone, he felt the girl nod into his back. Jaune smiled and started to pet her head in between her fox ears, her tail started to sway back and forth. Jaune was about to take his hand off when he felt a blip in the air, his protective instincts kicked in and he wrapped his arms around Lily tight. Lily's eyes went wide with confusion, "Jaune, what are you do-" she was cut off by something landing behind Jaune at such speed and force it created a shock wave that sent them both flying. Jaune flew back first into a tree, causing it to sprinter slightly. His sisters came back to find Jaune with Lily still in his arms, facing a grimm. "Jaune!" they called out in sync. Jaune saw something black speeding toward him, he threw Lily to where the voices came from, Saphron and Sam stopped their running to catch Lily.
A black tendril embedded itself into Jaune's right shoulder before he could react. He cried out in pain to see another tendril moving for his other shoulder, he moved his hands and caught it before it could reach him, holding it a few inches from him with all his might. Another tendril drove itself into his stomach, the pain caused him to loosen his grip slightly allowing the tendril to move forward a little. His sisters were running to help him but they were hit back by a black tentacle, it didn't pierce any of them but it sent them back into some trees. Jaune saw the trees splinter, "NO!" he was flooded with rage and strength, this thing hurt his sisters and for that it had to die. He gritted his teeth and forced the tendril in his hands back a bit, he was gaining a little ground but was stopped when something pierced the upper thigh of his right leg and shins of his left leg. His grip was still strong but that wasn't the problem, the same tentacle that hit his sisters was now aimed straight for his forehead. It was inching forward, as if to taunt him. Before it could make contact it was sliced by a scythe, the rest of the tendrils followed, the creature screeched in pain before it was abruptly cut off.
Jaune dropped to his hands and knees as the pain caught up with him, from his piercing flowed a black, gel like, liquid. He's canine teeth sharpened into fangs, white 2 horns about the size of his middle finger sprouted from his forehead, a long, finger thick, black tail ran the entire length of his spine, and final, pitch black polygonal wings with golden veins running through out sprouted from his back, growing to be 3 times his size.
He pulled the tendrils remains from his right shoulder, he looked up and saw a man walking toward him with a sword in hand, and a blank look on his face. "My sisters… are they alright." Jaune said. The man stopped in his tracks with a surprised look. "You're still here…" He said with disbelief. "ARE THEY ALRIGHT!" Jaune shouted. "Yes…" the man replied. Hearing she was safe, Jaune passed out from pain, his tail coiling around his right leg and his wings folding into his back.
"Jaune!" his sisters ruched to his side. Saphron pulled him into her lap, cradling his head, Sam was tugging on his arm, begging for him to wake up, and sweet little Lily buried herself into his chest, "Big brother… please… pet me again…" her voice was quiet, tears flowing into his shirt.
Sam was starting to have a mental breakdown, "Oh gods… if I didn't… it's my fault... If we didn't leave home…" she trailed off. "It wasn't your fault, this thing was hunting him." It was the man from before, his sword was on his back, tucking a flask back into his coat. "Hunting him? Why" asked Saphron. The man didn't answer the question, instead asking 1 of his own, "Does he have his aura unlocked?" Saphron shook her head. The man said something under his breath before speaking again, "Alright, we need to have your father unlock his aura, that way he can survive." Saphron turned to Lily, "Lily, I know you don't want to but I need you to let go of Jaune so we can help him." Saphron started to pet her head, exactly like Jaune did but Lily knew it was different. Sam grabbed around Lily's waist and pulled her off, much to her dismay. Qrow lifted Jaune and put him over his shoulder, "Lead the way." Saphron rose from the floor, wiped off any tears she had, nodded to Qrow, and set off running.
Saphron bust through the door of the Arc household, followed by Qrow, then Lily and Sam. "Dad!" Saphron called out several times, a man appeared from a set of stairs, his eyes went wide when he saw Jaune over Qrow's shoulder. He rushed to his side and took his son from the man's shoulder. "What happened!" he screamed out, looking at his son's face, making sure he was still breathing.
"I'll explain later, first you need to unlock his aura, let it close up the puncture wounds." Qrow said, taking out his flask.
He didn't ask questions. He started the incantation as a woman came into the room, holding a pair of twins in her arms. She rushed and knelt down next to her husband, panic and shock in her eyes, "What happened?", her gaze focused on the rise and fall of Jaune's chest. "I'll tell you everything I know, however, the rest of your children have just seen their brother being attacked." Qrow said, taking a swig from his flask. The woman looked at Qrow before looking at her children, Lily was crying into Sam's chest, Sam's whole body was shaking, with her nose buried in Lily's hair, and Saphron was behind Sam, her arms around both of them, holding them tight. The woman got up and ushered the rest of her children out of the room.
When she came back Jaune was shrouded with white aura, extending all the way into his wings and tail, however, the aura around said wings and tail was gray with the colors bleeding into each other. Her husband was seated on a couch with Jaune's head in his lap, across from him was Qrow, the woman moved to join her husband. "My name is Qrow Branwen, I'm a huntsman working directly under Headmaster Ozpin."
Jaune woke up to the sight of a very familiar ceiling, but it was dark and soft breathing and snores filled the room. He blinked a couple times and felt an odd pressure to his right. He tried to sit up but felt something tugging on his back. He looked down to see a pair of fox ears, Lily was clutching to his side for dear life. He looked behind her to see her laying on something black. He felt 2 hands on his left arm, 2 hands on his left leg, and 2 hands on his right leg. Sam had 1 hand on his shoulder and 1 hand intertwined with his, Saffron had both her hands resting on Jaune's left shin, and his mother had her hands on Jaune's knee and lower thigh. Jaune tilted his head forward to get a better look around the room, in the corner was his father resting on a chair. Jaune turned his head to see a mirror and his world stopped, everything seemed to fade out.
Jaune was very happy to be an Arc, they had a great legacy of huntsmen, strong families, and most importantly, in Jaune's opinion, bright blue eyes. Jaune always loved their families blue eyes, when Lily was first adopted her eyes were more of a gray color but over time it shifted into the beautiful blue that Jaune had always loved, Lily loved it too, to her it was like a sign that she was an Arc.
In the mirror was a different pair of eyes. It was like his eyes were sliced diagonally perfectly going through his pupil. His left iris had the normal beautiful, bright, blue on the top half of his eye, but the bottom was the piercing grimm red color, his right eye had red on top and blue on the bottom. He didn't know how long he stared into his own eyes, it was like there was literally nothing else, not body nor soul, just the clash of colors. He didn't know what to feel, sad, pissed, horrified, depressed, angry, terrified, and in the end he settled for numb.
He didn't know how long it was but he eventually felt something wet on his right. Lily apparently woke up and started crying into her big brother's side. It hurt more than seeing his eyes, he always absolutely hated it when he saw his sisters' tears. Jaune slowly pulled his arm from Sam's hands and placed it on Lily's head. When Lily felt the contact she let out a small gasp, her tears momentarily stopped. Jaune started to pet in between her ears, she pulled herself closer to him and wrapped her fox tail around his right leg, the same leg that his tail was wrapped around, letting her tears start flowing again. "What are you laying on?" Jaune asked, still petting her.
Lily looked up at Jaune with a teary eyed smile, "Your wings, they're super soft and warm." she said, letting out a sigh and pressed herself farther into his wings.
Jaune smiled back, "We should probably wake the others… right?" Lily nodded but buried herself back into Jaune's side. "Are you going to let go?" Jaune asked. Lily shook her head and clung to him tighter. Jaune let out a sigh and sat up, he turned to Sam who had a small amount of drool hanging from the corner of her mouth. Jaune took his hand from Lily's head and moved it to hover over Sam's forehead, he took his middle finger and thumb and delivered a quick flick to Sam's head.
Sam jolted up and started to rub her forehead. She looked around trying to find the source of who flicked her, eventually her eyes met Jaune's. "Jaune?" she said in disbelief. Jaune didn't talk, instead giving her his usual goofy grin. "Jaune!" she tackled him back into the bed, hugging him in the process. The volume woke the others in the room and soon they were all crowding around him, and holding him as tight as possible.
After a lot of hugging and happy tears, Qrow came into the room. "You still in there kid?" he asked. The family separated so Qrow could get a better look at Jaune, his eyes shocked him but Qrow didn't show it. Jaune's father gave his mother a look, basically saying, 'were going to talk'. His mother nodded, she turned to the girls saying, "Ok girls, I'm sure Jaune's hungry so what do you say we make him something to eat." The girls nodded, gave Jaune 1 last hug and left the room with their mother.
"Thank you." Jaune said, after the door closed. Jaune started to flex his wings, admiring them in the process, and uncoiled his tail from his leg. He got out of his bed with a yawn and began to stretch with a few satisfying cracks. "Jaune, I think you should sit back down, there's something me and Qrow need to talk to you about.. It was his father, holding back a few tears, Jaune had never seen his father cry, unless it was when his sisters were born, so seeing him like this was frightening. Jaune's tail absentmindedly wrapped around his arm as he sat back down.
"I'm going to guess the wings and tail aren't free?" Jaune said, a half-assed joke to try and calm his nerves. Qrow and his father shared a look before turning back to Jaune. "The thing that attacked you in the forest injected you with a serum that made you a new form of grimm." Said Qrow, "There's been multiple kids that's been through the same thing but you are the only 1 that's been themselves afterwards, long story short, we have no clue what you are or what you can do." he finished. Jaune was shocked, he pulled his arms into his chest and sat there for a bit, His father moved over and rubbed his back. Qrow was about to leave and give the boy time when he spoke…
Cliffhanger. HAHAHA. I'm evil, I know. The next chapter is gonna shake things up so I'd love to hear any guesses on how things will play out. This will be fun… maybe.
Thank you all for reading and I do hope you enjoyed,
Th3TexRex