Before anything else: a note on my oc Astartes as to avoid too much confusion for you dear readers.
I will not use canon astartes, and even if I do it will be to a limited extent.
I am too much of a noob with the lore to use such characters properly. I deemed it best to not include them as that would force me to 1) conform to 40k lore as well as the RWBY storyline, 2) find a way to cram them into the story and write their characters properly and faithfully.
and 3) by keeping to OCs I get much more freedom when writing the characters as the real deal would probably act a very differently than the ones I've written.
Nothing too special in this chapter. Just some nightmares and some attempts of mystery around them, attempts of an intervention of sorts and me failing at Warhammer40K-lore. Seriously, I had to do a quick edit on one part as I believed Sanguinius and Angron had actually fought each other whereas in reality there had only been speculations on the outcome of such a fight. Yeah, one of the many problems with this fic: I'm not as well versed in the lore as I had hoped myself to be. What a fool I was.
Anyway, enough of me badmouthing myself. Time for chapter 3.
Chapter 3: Night terrors
Team JNPR decided to spend an afternoon in the outskirts of Forever Fall. Jaune had planned to spend his time after class reading in his dorm but there had been too much noise. Apparently Ruby and Weiss were having a disagreement about their teams leadership.
Jaune had considered stepping in but had thought better of it.
He was Ruby's friend more than he was Weiss'. Anything he said in favour of Ruby would be seen as favouritism and if he supported Weiss, Ruby would call him a traitor.
Not that he would support Weiss ever again. Ever since his fangs had showed themselves she had been hating him with barely concealed ire. The renowned fanatical racism of Atlas was strong in that one.
And to think he had considered her pretty. Maybe on the outside. On the inside she was quite horrible.
Jaune thought the girls' quarrel was stupid. The headmaster had appointed Ruby as team leader and the rest of Team RWBY, namely Blake and Yang, did not seem bothered by their current leadership. It was not perfect but it was far from hopeless.
Jaune let out a sigh from the log he was laying on. His team had been practicing and he was tired and sore. He did not quite remember how it had happened.
All he could recall was that he had been trying to spar with Nora - or rather trying not to be turned into a pancake by her hammer.
"Hiiah!" Nora let out and swung at him again and again.
All Jaune could do was dodge as the hammer came from one side then the other. Blocking would have sent him flying.
Then he had seen an opportunity and stepped in. As Nora had swung he stepped in close, just as Magnhild passed by. Not being able to properly parry in such close quarters Nora had found herself on the retreat.
Then his mind had gone blank for a moment. Next thing he knew he felt the blow of Nora's hammer in his side and was headed straight for a boulder.
"Nora!" shouted Ren. "There was no need for that."
"What? He was going for my throat! What was I supposed to do?"
"Jaune wouldn't do that! Jaune, are you okay?"
Pyrrha was looking over her very dazed partner.
"Momy, di y si thu lizens on tha' geeskin?"
The world spun for him and there were stars.
"He will live." stated Ren, familiar with the injuries Nora could cause.
"But we should let him rest for a bit."
Jaune had woken up a bit later, sore all over but okay otherwise. His team told him to sit out the rest of the training.
Nora had asked him what had happened but he could not recall. The last he remembered was Nora's neck.
It had almost been like with Velvet. His felt thirsty despite already having downed a whole bottle of water.
He let his mind wander for a bit and absentmindedly touched his fangs. They itched again. Had it all started with them? No, that would be stupid.
"Something on your mind?" Pyrrha asked.
"Is it about the spar?"
"I suppose."
"You did rather well. Nora did not know what to do for a while. Where did you learn to fight like that?"
Learn? Jaune had never studied at a combat school. He could not tell her that.
"I, uhh, read about it in a book."
A total lie. His parents would have flogged his hide raw if they had ever caught him with such literature.
Pyrrha looked at him suspiciously.
"Jaune, are you…"
'Here it comes.' thought Jaune. 'The question that will seal my fate and get me kicked out off Beacon.'
"... self taught?"
Jaune blinked.
"Pardon?"
"Are you self thought? You seem a bit awkward fighting others but that is probably since you never had sparring partners."
"Uhh, yeah. Couldn't find the time to attend combat school properly. Was always needed around the house."
Jaune let out a small sigh as he had just managed to dodge a figurative bullet.
"It's still amazing that you managed to get into Beacon. The academies don't let in just anyone. It can be quite dangerous. Think you are up for it?"
Jaune swallowed nervously. In truth he wasn't but seeing as he had gotten this far he did not want to stop just yet.
"It's a challenge but I want to try."
"I'm sure you will do fine."
"Thanks. It means a lot."
It really did, he was not used to such words of encouragement, at all.
As they headed back they came across another team, CRDL.
"Hey, what's up?" Jaune asked, trying to make conversation only to get knocked down.
Out of the way, fangs." someone of them barked.
"Man, what an A-hole." Nora muttered.
"I agree." said Jaune and dusted himself off. He glared daggers at Cardin's back. Dust it would feel great to bash the bastard's skull open. Jaune's teeth were almost throbbing.
"Anyone else want to get a drink before we turn in for the night?" he asked, letting his anger dissipate.
He was too tired to care. His teeth were almost throbbing.
He had nightmares again that night. This time he was in a different place.
He was fighting someone - no, he was fighting something.
It was big - no, huge. It wielded what looked like a huge whip. It fought with such ferocity that it almost appeared mindless. As Jaune fought for his life he couldn't help but loathe the 'thing'.
They clashed again and again. Jaune dodged, parried and countered. With this foe he did not bother with feints, it was too angry to care for such things.
Weapons clashed, grinding against one another, sparks flying. Then Jaune saw the thing's face, pure hatred and rage made flesh. It was terrifying to behold but he did not back away. Fear would lead to doubt, doubt would lead to hesitation and hesitation would lead to death.
The battle carried on until Jaune thought his legs had been put through a wood-chipper. The hulking monster had broken his legs.
Then the thing turned its attention to others who were coming to aid him.
The dream began to fade as he felt his shattered bones radiate pain as he got back up again. For he was not done with the hellish thing for what it had done to his sons.
Before he could reach the thing he felt a pain in his shoulder - but the thing had not struck him there.
Jaune opened his eyes. He was back in his dorm at Beacon on the floor. He had just fallen out of his bed.
He rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Despite the dark of the night it might as well have been day for him. He looked at his teammates.
At least they hadn't been woken up him this time.
He freed himself from the sheets and made for the bathroom. His teeth were aching again, drinking something sometimes helped. He didn't bother turning on any lights, wishing for his teammates to have a good night's sleep for once.
After a few mouthfuls of water Jaune prodded his teeth. He had accepted that they were there but they still worried him.
Where had they come from? Why did he have them? In his half woken state he could almost hear a voice. It felt so familiar.
'Remember' it said.
"Remember what?" asked Jaune into the night.
There was no answer.
He could still remember the dream, the fight. Playfully he tried to mimic what he remembered, wielding his toothbrush instead of a sword. It was silly. He needed actual skills, not make-believe from some dream.
He got back to bed. There was still some time for him to get some shuteye. But while he did fall asleep again the nightmares continued.
"You look like death warmed up." said Ren as Jaune hoisted himself out of bed. His teammates had let him snooze for a while.
Turned out Jaune had woken some of them a few times during the night after all.
"Don't I always? And sorry for waking you. If you want I could probably find another place to sleep. At least until the nightmares pass."
"No need for that. I'm sure it will pass. You might want to hurry up. We do have classes today."
Jaune nodded and went for a shower. Jaune always went last out of the team. he insisted on taking ice cold showers in order to wake up in the morning. He had to as otherwise his sleep-depraved brain would just fall asleep again.
Out of the goodness of his heart he had let the rest of his team help themselves to what would have been his hot water. Beacon ransomed hot water to the dorms according to how many lived in them.
the rest of team JNPR were grateful for Jaune's kindness. Especially since they knew what a hassle Team RWBY had with their hot water. There had been fire alarms going off when Yang had tried to heat up some water in a bucket with fire dust in it.
As the team left for breakfast Ren looked around the dorm a final time. He did not want to forget anything. It was usually not a problem but with the teams collective sleeping problem he had caught himself almost forgetting something at times.
Ren saw Jaune's scroll on the table. He got an idea.
"Go on ahead guys. I Just remembered something."
Ren was a very patient man. His time with Nora had given him the patience of a saint but he did have his limits.
It had been several nights now, several nights of Jaune screaming bloody murder and waking them up in the night. It was shipping away at Ren's normally calm demeanour. This night it had been especially bad as Jaune had twisted and turned like he had been fighting for his life.
Jaune did not seem able to do anything about it, nor did he know why he was having these dreams. Ren however thought there might just be someone who might know.
Picking up his friend's scroll he looked up a number. It did not take long since Jaune didn't have many contacts.
Seriously, did his parents not let him out to socialize? It would explain his social awkwardness.
Ren pressed a button and waited for an answer.
"Hello, Jaune?" answered a woman worriedly.
"How are you?"
"I'm sorry but I'm just borrowing your son's scroll for the moment. I'm Lie Ren, his-"
"Teammate." Mrs. Arc cut him of.
"I recognize your name from the papers. Has something happened? Is Jaune okay?"
"Nothing has happened but I felt like I had to ask you some questions."
"About what? I'm sure Jaune would answer any question you would have."
"That's just it. He doesn't seem to have answers to them."
"Does it have anything to do with him questioning his parentage?" asked Mrs. Arc with concern.
"I wouldn't know." said Ren apologetically and with sympathy.
Apparently Nora's little suggestion had done more harm than Jaune had let on.
Ren decided to start from the beginning, from the start of Beacon. He left out the bit about Jaune's fangs. That was an issue for another day he believed. And it would only cause the woman even more distress. The matter would be dealt with, just not now.
"So what I want to ask is, do you know why Jaune is having these nightmares?"
It got quiet for a while.
"I'm sorry Ren but I don't know. he rarely had night terrors as a child. the few he did have I could probably count on my fingers."
"I see, thanks anyway."
"No, thank you, Lie Ren, for looking out for my boy. it is good to see he has made such a good friend. Now don't let me keep you, you must have classes to attend to."
"Thank you, and have a good day."
He terminated the call and made sure to copy Mrs. Arc's number to his scroll and sent her a message so that she could contact him if she remembered something.
So Jaune's mom didn't know either, or maybe she knew more than she let off. anyway it would fall to Lie Ren to do something. And he happened to know of one method.
He fished out a notebook from a drawer and wrote a title on it.
'What a nice young man.' Livia thought as she put down her scroll. she was happy for her boy. He had gotten in to the school we wanted and even made friends.
But the nightmare were troubling and so was his sudden questioning about his parentage.
Oh dust, what was she supposed to say to make him believe her?
But right now, that didn't matter. It was the dreams that mattered.
Ren had stated that they were starting to affect Jaune's performance. Livia thought back to what she had said about counting all of Jaune's nightmares on her fingers.
Turned out she had too few fingers for that after all.
She tried to go through all the ones she could remember.
There had been that one time last year, and the one a year before that.
Come to think about it, Jaune had had those two nightmares on almost the exact time of year. And about three years ago there had been another nightmare, but a few days from the time of year as the next one. and if she was right they had been really bad nightmares.
Livia frowned. Was she remembering all this correctly?
"Desmine, could you be a dear and fetch my old diaries from the attic? They are in a big shoe box."
Livia had always kept a diary ever since she had had her first girl, Virdine. she had hoped that by writing down how the girls upbringing went, she could do even better with the next ones. The habit had remained even when Jaune had been born and she had written down everything from his first tooth to when he had gotten his vaccines.
She put on a pot of tea and settled down in a chair. She had some reading to do.
After grimm class with professor Port Ren pulled Jaune aside for a moment and gave him the empty notebook. Jaune took it, confused. On the front it said 'Dream Journal'. Ren explained that he had had it with Jaune's nightmares.
"You have been talking, shouting, screaming, and twisting in your sleep since you started to attend Beacon. If you don't deal with it soon it will start to really affect the rest of us."
In truth it already had. There were bags forming under Ren's eyes.
"Uh, are you sure this will this help me?"
"It worked for me when I was having troubles. The idea is that you write down what you can immediately as you wake up. Even if it is just gibberish."
"What? Gibberish?"
"Yeah, I can hardly understand half of the stuff you say in your sleep, so it's gibberish. Anyway, once there is enough stuff in your journal you can use it to understand and face whatever ails you."
"Thanks Ren, you are a real friend."
"You are welcome."
"If you don't mind me asking, how do you know of this method?"
"It was something that happened when I was younger. I would prefer not to talk about it. Maybe in the future perhaps. And don't bother asking Nora about it either."
"Oh, okay. Thanks anyway."
"Just make sure you actually write in it."
"I will. Arc's promise. I will try to jot down what I remember now."
Jaune walked off to their room. By the looks of things, Ren guessed Jaune was planning on calling it in early today - again.
Jaune did keep his word about the notebook. He penned what he could remember before he went to bed. The notebook was left on the teams desk, blank page ready and a pen ready for use.
If Ren believed this could help him then he would try it. He was falling behind, more than he had been before, and it was all due to the dreams. It had to stop.
Before sleep took him completely he got up and penned another line.
"I am my father's son and always will be. I am the angel of his pure wrath."
Jaune did not know why he had written that but it seemed fitting.