Fair warning this chapter is dark, I mean super dark like I probably won't get any darker than this. If you've read Tokyo Ghoul You know exactly how bad it'll get. Readers be warned.

Chapter 14: One-Thousand Minus Seven (Tokyo Ghoul)


Parody: Tokyo Ghoul

Appearance: None


Jaune's eyes begun to open slowly, to reveal a large domed shaped room.

Where am I?

Jaune begun to move only to find the act difficult for some reason, when he looked he found out why. He was sat in a chair weilded to the ground, his legs and arms bounded by a series of ebony black chains tying his feet to the legs of the chair and his arms together behind him.

What?

"~Oh goodie your awake! ~" Jaune recognized that voice and his eyes shot up as he looked ahead of himself, standing there facing away from him was a faunus all too familiar.

"Tyrian…"

"Oh hoo! You recognize me! Splendid, no, no, no fantastic! I'm so happy!" The man turned to him a wide toothy smile that sent shivers down his spine. He remembered this psycho alright, he was one of the two responsible for killing professional huntsman throughout the kingdom of Mistral over the years.

"W-where am I?" Tyrian turned to him at the question seeming a bit too eager to answer.

"Why, you're in our little hidey hole just outside of Mistral, in my room to be more precise." Jaune breathed nervously at the man's words.

"B-but how? I was training, how di-" Suddenly the maniac was upon him inches from his face a manic grin plaster as he stared deep into his azure with his maddened gold that begun to shift violet.

"I'm so glad you asked, it was so easy after all! 'Hehe' You proved to be just as interesting as I thought you'd be, Hazel told us about your semblance, how you healed your little snowflake. When he mentioned you, I wanted to go oh so bad, but I'd failed my goddess far too much to act on my own whims. It was then she answered my prayers!"

"She wanted the little Fall's corpse, after all she'd been blessed by our goddess so of course leaving her in the horrid school was utter nonsense. But when Hazel spoke of you, of your gift she gave her oh so loving command!" Tyrian stabbed his finger against Jaune's bare chest it was only then he noticed the stitches.

"What, what did you do to me?" Tyrian shook his head."

"Not me my brother, it was Watts who blessed you."

"Blessed me?" Tyrian grinned.

"Yes, you saw it didn't you? The fallen one's new blessed form, did you not clash blades? Surely you saw her radiance." Jaune sneered as he remembered Cinder, what she'd become, she'd hidden it well but when she pinned him he saw.

"She had a Grimm's arm." He remembered the limb, far too much like the Nuckelavee's, this seemed to be the expected answer as Tyrian smiled joyously.

"Yes oh yes, my brother under our beloved, she ordered it, ordered for you to serve her alongside us." To that Jaune sneered.

"I would never work for her!" Tyrian blinked confusedly.

"How odd, that's what Hazel thought you say." His eyes then narrowed while his smile adopted a far more wicked disposition.

"Which was why she ordered she be put inside you." Jaune paused.

"She?" Tyrian cackled uproariously before he spread out his arms.

"Yes! Oh yes! Though she'd failed her body still held our goddess's blessing! When I found you on my way out with dear Fall I knew it had to be fate! You were worn and ragged with not but a spec of light to your soul as you swung to the false maiden's voice. It was as if destiny itself had led me to you! Watts was so angry though, I was too excited, between retrieving miss Fall and finding you and having my new tail I acted oh so rashly." Tyrian allowed his tail to uncoil from around his waist and in doing so Jaune went wide eyed. After all Ruby had severed his tail when he stung Qrow.

Once it was uncoiled it was revealed in all its dreaded glory, a pitch black tail with boney white chitin but what caught the eye was the yellow glowing stinger at the end.

"Deathstalker…" Tyrian giggled like a child being praised as the limb swung from side to side happily.

"Yes, yes, yes! You see, you understand, this was her blessing unto the undeserving me! I was so excited with it all and lost myself when I finally put my blessing to use! It was supposed to be only the smallest amount, enough to bring you still but breathing. But one sting became two and two became several until I filled you up with my venom." Tyrian glumly shook his head from side to side ashamed.

"Watts was angry, and Hazel disgusted oh my shame, I dreaded her disappointment, but it was then inspiration struck!" Tyrian lanky hand gripped either side of Jaune's face as he looked dead at him their foreheads touching.

"The fall had perished and her oh so precious gift begin to fade; your insides were rendered to sludge and so I thought." Tyrian backed away and rose his arms to the air as if proclaiming a great truth.

"Have the rot removed from you and in its place allow the Fallen's innards to seek refuge from decay!" Jaune went white at his words.

"What?" He looked to his stitches and finally noticed it an itch, no a hunger deep within.

"Watts was skeptical but then he complied when no other way remained. They thought he had failed but I knew better and waited, and waited, and waited! They came close you know, the little rose and her friends seeking you…" He gently stroked Jaune's face.

"But fret not I led them astray from you, coating your sword and shield in your spilled blood from your transcendence and gave it to the grimm to. They thoguht you gone, oh the little Rose wanted so bad to find you, to bury you but the Wizard… my Goddess's nemesis sought nothing but to move forth and in time they did." Jaune shook his head.

"No… your lying." Tyrian looked to him a tinge of sympathy broke through the madness for a moment before it faded to it.

"They did, they left you, the Wizard is not like our goddess, he does not take back what has been broken. He left you, as did they but the young rose took your blade with her." For a moment he wanted to cry but it quickly… faded. He then realized something, he could feel it, his despair, not just in his soul or heart but everywhere. As if it were a mist exuding the faintest pressure, it was then he recalled Port's class and froze.

Grimm can detect negative emotions…

Tyrian smiled pleasantly.

"It's seems you finally understand."

No, no, no…

"Our goddess hesitates to bestow us with such gifts, the toll it takes during implantation is quite taxing on the body, mind and soul alike."

No, No, No!

"But your aura was so vast, and your semblance was all but made to help one survive their form being tolled by such an act." Jaune finally looked to him tears streaming down his right eye, his human eye.

"NO!" However, Tyrian didn't see his azure pupil, he didn't see the tears trailing down his cheek, all he saw was that glorious red glow of his baleful left eye. The sclera once white and milky was now a pitch black and from it deep ebony veins spread out. But at the center of the dark orb was a single glowing red pupil deeper then blood and brighter then flames and from it no tears fell only a deep hunger and hatred.

Tyrian begun to tear up at the sight, at his gaze's majesty, his eye it was like that of his goddesses. Truly he was always meant to have it, Cinder was but an end to a means for this day, he understood that now.

"So, beautiful…" Jaune's gaze filled him with equal parts hunger and terror, his human emotions of panic and confusion were like that of the most succulent emotions drawing his hunger making him near drool. However, his left eyes gaze instilled a pressure, whether it was to himself or his blessing Tyrian didn't know, all he did know was that it demanded his fear.

"When I told Watts that you breathed he demanded I send you to him, but our goddess has other plans. She wishes to meet you, her newest brood." Why he said it he didn't know, but something in him demanded he speak, perhaps it was the same resolve he spoke to Cinder or maybe it was something else entirely.

"Never…" Tyrian paused, before looking up his smile gone and in its place a emotionless visage.

"What did you just say?"

"I said no…" Jaune glared up at the faunus.

"I'll never serve her, I'll never be Salem's pawn!" The faunus's emotionless façade begun to chip away and in its place was a anger Jaune hadn't seen before.

"You dare…" Everything was a blur one moment the psycho stood before Jaune the next Jaune felt a stabbing pain in his stomach, when he looked down he saw it. Tyrian's bare hand was buried in his abdomen deep crimson begun to flow out and then the pain set in.

"AHHH!" Jaune yelled out as the faunus shifted his hand inside.

"Heathen! Heathen! Heathen!" He pulled back his arm rage clear and Jaune slumped forward expecting a slow death to begin and yet it didn't. The pain remained but not that of deaths final fading aches but the pain of mending flesh and living nerves. Slowly he saw his flesh shift and close only to be aided by his aura, however he wasn't the only one.

"You heal… I see…" With trembling hands, the scorpion faunus raised his shaking palms to his face.

"I See! I See! I See!" Without warning the assassin's arm shot forward piercing Jaune's flesh and shooting large doses of venom into his systems. Jaune writhed in pain as he felt something dampen within a power he only just learned was present now that it was suppressed.

"I see now… you are not evil, no, no, no… you are merely ignorant, ignorant to our goddesses will, to her ambitions. You are a lost lamb. And I… Am your Shepard." The stinger finished injecting its venom into the Arc and when it left he felt weakened but not pained by it.

"I must teach you her glory… The way I tried to teach so many others, the way she taught me. I must break the nonbeliever within, the traitorous soul and mold your innocence... And I know just the way." Tyrian smiled happily.

"It is the greatest teacher, the one thing that'll never betray you, that'll always remain true." Tyrian took Jaune's hand in his own.

"Yes… the greatest teacher." A crescent moon spread across the faunus's face.

"~Pain~"

'Crack'

"AHHHHH!"


How many days passed he didn't know…

"…Five hundred and seventy three…"

"~Good~"

'Crack'

How many times he had broken him he didn't' know…

"…Five hundred and sixty six…"

"Hehehe, yes, yes ,yes!"

'Crunch'

Sometimes he used his bare hands, other times he used pliers or large pincers, his aura wouldn't aid him, not with the venom running through his veins.

"…Five…Five hundred and sixty…"

"Wrong…" the plyers shut down on his big toe severing it from his body Jaune buckled in his seat writhing and in Response Tyrian laughed his psychotic laugh.

"AHHH!"

"Start Over Again!" Jaune continued to scream in pain but Tyrian wouldn't have it.

"START OVER AGAIN!" He rose the pliers to Jaune's index, as it was the only finger not currently shattered and healing.

"SAY IT!"

"Please!" tears fell from the Arc's eyes.

"Stop…." But his pleas fell on deft ears, thousands of times he had pleaded and thousands of times he had gone ignored. The pliers came down tearing into his flesh and bone alike.

"AHHHH!"

"HOW MANY?"

"ONE THOUSAND!" Jaune fell forward

"…One thousand…" Tyrian looked to the sniveling Arc who tears fell like rain and smiled pleased.

"Correct…Next?" He placed the pliers at the tip of Jaune's pinky that had begun to heal thanks to his Grimm characteristics.

"…Nine hundred… ninety-three…"

"Good." He was slow as he pressed the instrument down only taking Jaune's fingernail, a reward for obeying. Since he had begun his sick lesson Tyrian had Jaune count down from one thousand, each day was different. Sometimes it was by nine or three other times it was as high as sixty-three but usually it was seven. His little joke of it being lucky.

"…Nine hundred and eighty-six…-"

At first he didn't understand why he made him count…

'Crunch'

But now it was so obvious…

"… Nine hundred and seventy-nine…"

It was to keep him from going mad… to cling to his sense of self.

'Crack'

So he could continue his lesson.

"…Nine hundred and 'ugh' S-Seventy two… Uh…" Blood puddled around him, his blood.

He wants me to think while he tortured me, to maintain my conscious why he taught me through pain…

'Crunch, crunch'

"Nine hundred and sixty-five…."

'Snap'

Looking down Jaune saw it in Tyrian's hand his pinky with little care Tyrian tossed it into a bucket filled with dozens of his fingers and toes that the faunus had removed and ever so slowly they would turn to ash. Tyrian looked to Jaune a refreshed smile on his face and leaned forward.

"Come now my brother, just say it, pledge to our goddess."

He wanted to, if only to escape the pain, but…

"..."

He couldn't bring himself to, not when.

Yo Vomit boy…

Dunce…

Fearless Leader!

Comics aren't books…

A tear ran down his face… of regret, or sorrow but most of all, of refusal.

"No…" Tyrian sneered manically as his tail stabbed into Jaune's chest.

"WHY! WHY WON'T YOU LEARN!?" Jaune writhed as the venom ran through his body he screamed as loud as his lungs would allow until his voice gave out and then some more. The venom felt like molten steel running through his veins.

"PLEDGE TO HER!"

"NO!"

"KNEE!"

"NOOO!" Finally, he pulled back his tail surely after he pumped the arc with the most he could without killing him. Jaune spasmed in his seat blood, spit and vile leaving his mouth in equal measures.

Don't give in…Just keep on… eventually he'll slip up…

Eventually, He'll kill me.

"You need to eat…" Jaune froze knowing what was to come.

"No…" fresh crimson dropped to the floor but this time it was from Tyrian, Jaune looked up pleading.

"Please no… I'd, I'd rather starve."

"No, no, no… we can't have that." He stretched his hand out to Jaune in it was a lump of raw red meat.

"And besides, this one's fresh."

"No…"

"She was just wondering nearby so… hehe." He remembered the first time it was feeding time, He'd been presented all his favorites, how the psycho knew he'd rather not consider. All he knew is that when he bit into them a rancid taste shot through his body. His chicken nuggets tasted like spoiled mean left to marinate in bile. Vegetables tasted rotten, meat spoiled, and grains rancid. Tyrian took delight in telling him it was his Grimm side within.

That it could only eat one thing… The only thing Grimm sought out.

Human flesh.

The first time was a finger, the wedding band still on it, Jaune refused over and over again until he shoved it in his mouth. He despised Tyrian for feeding him it, he hated his body for accepting it but what he hated most… was himself. Because that single morsel was the only thing he could down out of all the food presented.

"Come now… eat, eat." He pressed the flesh against Jaune's cheek, the blonde cried and pleaded.

"Please… just let me starve…" Tyrian smiled.

"No, no, no… come now eat… you know you want it." Jaune wanted to cry to any god who'd listen, he wanted to bite his tongue and die, but he'd tried that, it just grew back before he'd bled out. Finally, Tyrian shoved the flesh against his lips and Jaune clenched his teeth in response. Using every ounce of will not to do what his body pleaded, no demanded he do!

But ultimately, he failed as his thoughts begun to dull to starvation, Tyrian had only fed him small amounts. Jaune body acted against his will and soon he felt it the juices flow through his mouth greeting him with the most succulent, divine flavors. But he took no joy and only wept praying for death and apologizing to the girl who'd died.

It was after Tyrian left, after he consumed that child that she presented herself to him, he could swear he felt it, the warmth of her palm. And for a moment he dared to hope as he looked up expecting emerald eyes to look back at him.

"Pyrrha!" But who he saw instead was the furthest thing from her as what looked back to him was Glowing amber framed by long raven locks.

Cinder…


Beacon… It was always here they would meet… And honestly, he didn't know whether it was a blessing or a curse to see the scene of his fondest memories at the price of her being the sole inhabitant.

"So tell me Jaune." She stood before him sitting comfortably on the fountains edge, the statues that had inspired him so much when he first entered that day he met Ruby. Her presence there made him want to gag. How many times had she shown herself to him.

"What was she like?" Her amber eyes stared into his azure; it was so twisted that his only company at this scene was the one who destroyed it.

"…Shut up." He wouldn't answer her, he wouldn't give her that satisfaction.

"What was your partner to you?" Rage boiled at her mention, as a phantom pressure impressed upon his lips.

I'm sorry…

"…shut up…" She looked intrigued and smiled ever so slightly the sight making him ill.

"Oh? Did I make you recall something bad?" Jaune gritted his teeth.

Jaune…

A tear ran down his cheek and when she saw it her eyes lit up.

"Oh my, it would seem to be the opposite… was it of her?" Jaune bore his glare upon her.

"I said shut up!" He made way to stand but couldn't… after all even here he was bound by Tyrian's dammed chains. Her eyes narrowed when she saw him sit back.

"Why do you accept it? Even here within your mind?" Jaune sneered.

"What good would fabricating freedom in my imagination do me!" She smiled ever so slightly to him.

"Why don't you just accept it… accept my master and pledge to her."

She'd asked him that so many time…

"Never."

And he always refused her, even within his mind he fought. She turned away from him her eyes dimming once more.

"Fool… The powerless can do nothing." She faded into cinders and ash like always when she grew fed up with his stubbornness and he knew that with her absence this scene would vanish and he'd return to that room. He took it all in one final time before he returned to his hell.

He wondered about his friends, he found himself always thinking of such, of if they were alive, if they were happy. And apparently so did Tyrian.

"~Oh Jaune~" His voice brought a shiver of terror through the Arc, it was excited, something that could only mean ill-fated things. Tyrian stepped forward from the door way the widest grin present and a chain in his hands.

"~I have something for you, wanna guess? ~"

"No…" Tyrian's face soured for a moment before returning to his demented glee.

"~We're gonna play a game~" He pulled the chain and when he did two forms fell forward into view, seeing them Jaune's eyes widened as did theirs but the difference was in the reason. The two's gazes looked to him in shock and… joy.

"Jaune-Jaune!"

"Jaune!" But for him, all he felt was despair,

"N-Nora… Ren…" Tyrian's tail surged out stabbing Nora.

"AHHH"

"Nora!" The tailed retracted before piercing Ren.

"AHH!"

"Ren!"

"You know brother I wasn't sure at first it felt like a hunch but then, hehehe, then a month passed by and another and another and oh so many more… And now I'm sure. Your mind is strong, as much as your body and why wouldn't it be. You are her chosen one after all… so of course our previous fun wouldn't enlighten you. But then inspiration struck again when I saw them! Separated from the others." Jaune trembled as he looked to the two.

"~Now It is time to choose Jaune~" Jaune looked up to him.

"What?"

"~Choose one… choose who will die~" Eyes widened as he looked to Tyrian.

"…No…" Tyrian shook his head a playful frown on his face as if reprimanding a child.

"'tsk, tsk, tsk' None of that brother… I won't let you refuse, see I've learned how you love that choice so much." Tyrian's tail retracted from Ren, Jaune watched as they both writhed in pain before him.

"That's why I won't give you the option of refusal." His playful expression died as his face hardened.

"Now choose…" Ren and Nora looked to Jaune, to the leader they thought dead and saw him tremble.

"I… I… can-"

"~If you refuse again I'll kill them both~" Jaune froze as did Ren and Nora, they looked to him and finally begun to notice his condition as they became accustomed to the pain. They saw the blood, bruises and fatigue of his atrophied form, tears begun to fall from their eyes upon beginning to realize his suffering.

"~Oh brother, do hurry up, If you don't answer either then it's the same as refusing~" Tyrian's tail stretched out hovering above Ren

"…stop…please…" Fresh tears begun to form as he spoke through shuddering breaths.

"Please don't make me choose."

"~I can't do that, after all you need to learn you can't refuse our goddess~"

"Don't Tyrian! Stay away from them!"

"There it is! That's what I wanted, that desperation that realization! Now you understand the price for your actions! The price of refusing our goddess!" Jaune looked to the madman pleadingly.

"I'm Begging You!"

"~I'm so sorry brother, but I just can't do that. Now then my patience is near gone~…Choose."

"Me!" Jaune looked up shocked when distraught azure met determined magenta, Tyrian sneered at this before stomping down on the boy's head.

"Shut up!" But Ren ignored it and struggled to look up to him, to look at his leader. He knew what he was asking, what it would mean and what it would do to Jaune. But even so… he had to save her.

"Please Jaune… Save Nora…" The tone carried desperation and fear a sight so rare for him.

"Ren…" Ren struggled to smile at him tears beginning to fall from his eyes.

"Please Jaune, My love and son… save them." The implications struck him with that statement.

no… no, no, No, NO!

"I… I'm sorry…" Ren smiled gratefully and at the same time sorry, Jaune turned to Tyrian ready.

"Please kill…"

"No!" Jaune froze at her cry, Nora roared out.

"Don't you dare! Jaune-Jaune!" Jaune looked to Nora.

"Nora I…" She glared at him.

"No! Please no! Please…Renny! Save him…" He saw her tremble as she looked to him more frail and afraid then he'd ever seen her.

"Please don't take him… Please… If I don't have him… If Renny's not there… I-I can't, I couldn't bare it!" Her eyes pleaded as much if not more than Ren's." When he looked into her eyes he knew, if Ren died it'd be no different than killing her.

"Please…Jaune-Jaune."

"Jaune I beg you…" They both looked to him equally desperate and willing.

"Save him/her and let me die." He could see it in their gaze, the same resolve he held in Haven and Pyrrha had in Beacon, the resolve to die for the ones you loved… the one you love. Which only made the reality of his choice that much more unbearable. Because no matter who he choose, he'd be taking the reason for the other to live. Tyrian seemed to realize this and stepped towards Jaune his mouth a mere inch from his ear.

"Let me ask it this way brother… Which one do you want to save?" Jaune looked to the ground unable to bear it, but Tyrian would have none of it and grabbed him by his hair forcing him to look to them.

"No brother, that's enough time, my patience is through Choose!" Jaune looked to them, his teammates, his friends no…his family. His form begun to tremble as he broke into sobs.

"…I can't do it." Tyrian's grip tightened.

"Hurry." Jaune struggled his teeth gritting.

"No! Please!"

If I pick one… It would be no different than killing them myself!

Her face ran through his mind, how his weakness had killed her!

"Please Tyrian…" the grip tightened.

"Pick one… pick one, Pick One, Pick One! PICK ONE!" Tyrian let go of his hair and gripped the top of his head burying his fingers in the skin of Jaune's skull drawing blood.

"Hurry Up & Choose!"

"I Can't!" Tyrian's eyes flash violet.

"Ten…"

"Please!"

"Nine..." Ren looked up to Jaune.

"Please Jaune! Kill Me! Please!"

"Eight…" Nora pleaded to her leader.

"Jaune-Jaune Please! Save Renny! Save My Reason To Live!"

"Seven…" Looking to them he knew the answer and said it, it was so obvious now.

"Me… kill me..." Both teammates went wide eyed as he said the words a smile on his face.

"Please Tyrian choose me."

"Jaune-Jaune…"

"Jaune…" He smiled to them as he readied himself.

"Six…"

What?!

He look to his side to See Tyrian look to him shaking his head,

"No, the girl or the boy… not you." Jaune Looked to him not able to comprehend his words.

"You can't mean that…" Tyrian's response was a single word.

"Five…"

"No! Me, Kill Me!"

"Four..."

"Tyrian! I already said it! Kill me!"

"Jaune-Jaune Please!"

"Three."

"You Bastard! Kill Me! Let them Go!"

"Jaune save her!"

"Two." Tyrian let go of Jaune's head and made his way to Ren and Nora.

"Stop! Tyrian Stop!"

"One." His tail lifted, and it was then Jaune remembered why he had suffered so much, why Tyrian was doing this.

"I'll Pledge to Her!" Tyrian paused, that was all Jaune needed to make up his mind.

"I'll kneel, I'll give myself to her completely just like you wanted!" The faunus tremble in what he could only perceive in joy.

"So please… Spare them, if you do… I-I'll becomes hers." The faunus looked back to him eyes filled with tears of sorrow.

"I'm so glad to hear those words brother…" Ren and Nora looked to Jaune who despite himself smiled in tears of relief that he'd-.

"But I know you don't mean them…" Jaune paused before looking up to Tyrian.

"I do, I Do! So Please!" Tyrian shook his head sadly.

"No you don't… because if you did you'd tell me to kill them both as she wishes for." Jaune froze.

"No…" Tyrian frowned.

"See… You can't say it, even now they bind you to their dammed Wizard…"

"Tyrian stop!" His tail readied.

"I Said I'd Pledge Myself To Her!"

"…Zero…"

"NOOO!" His tail shot down into Ren who writhed and screamed. Jaune roared fighting against the restraints.

"STTOOOPPPP!" However, his cries didn't bother the assassin in the slightest as he looked down to the spasming boy.

"This is because you refused her till now."

"I'll kneel, Tyrian I'll Kneel So Please Stop!" Nora screamed a shriek that broke the soul to hear.

"Tyrian Stop!" ren's buckling form begun to slow until it was mere twitches just before the light faded from his eyes he looked to Jaune one last time a faint smile on his face.

"Thank you…" Until finally he stopped.

"NOOOOO!" Jaune roared struggling in his seat the Chains long since having shattered his wrist and now tearing flesh as he fought against them bone beginning to show. Nora just stared at her partner a unreadable expression present.

"Renny?... Hey." She looked to his unmoving form and finally fear begun to set in.

"Ren…" Jaune cried and hearing it seemed to make the reality hit her.

"REENNN!" She struggled towards him despite the paralysis, while Jaune cried out his brother in all but bloods name. Until Tyrian moved towards Nora, Jaune's eyes shot up at him.

"What are you doing?!" Tyrian's tail raised above the girl's form.

"No… No!"

"I told you… the boy or the girl…" Nora finally reached her partner pressing her tear ridden face against him.

"Renny… I'm sorry…" The faunus's tail hovered over her and she looked to it, no longer afraid, after all why should she be. Without him here what was the point in living?

"STOP!"

"You chose neither, so I'll take both." The stinger fell puncturing her chest.

"NOOOO!" Nora didn't whimper, or cry, nor did she struggle, all she did was look to her weeping team leader.

"Jaune…Jaune…" He looked to her with eyes near the edge of falling to an abyss.

"I… I…" Whatever she wanted to say never left her mouth as it was the life left her eyes and her words ceased, and when it did Jaune went silent his mind unable to hold up and he passed out. Tyrian looked to the two corpses and smiled.

"~Now he'll listen, what's more, he has two special treats~" Tyrian grabbed the two bodies dragging them away.


"So how do you feel?" She stood over him, her gaze soft but condescending, as much as the moment he met her for the first time in Haven.

"Come now, will you just ignore me?"

"…Leave me be…" She smiled.

"Leave you?... Now Jaune, we both know you don't wish for that." Jaune glared up at her his hate clear to this false world of memories.

"I despise you!" She smiled.

"Do you now?"

"For what you did!"

"What those incompetent fools allowed to happen…"

"For the innocence you killed!"

"There are always innocents who suffer in this world…"

"For Her!"

"Her?... heheh, are you so frightened of her memory you can't bear to speak her name, or perhaps you've forgotten it."

"For Pyrrha!" She looked to him unaffected.

"The girl who died a fool's death?" Jaune writhed in his seat roaring every profanity his anger peaked his despair engulfed by the endless rage. Yet he couldn't escape his seat.

"Shut up! Don't You dare speak ill of her! Not you monster! Grimm! False Maiden!" She watched him her expression non-changing.

"Say what you will but that will not change that I am here… only me and do you know why?" Jaune gritted his teeth as he let the foul words seethe forth.

"Because you're a part of her now." Cinder however merely chuckled at that.

"A part of you… No, you are no longer Jaune Arc of team JNPR just as I am no longer Cinder Fall the one who toppled Vale… You are merely a boy who lets those he cherishes die because of his weakness." His glare vanished as his expression became on of shock but not denial and she took the opportunity. She stroked his face.

"You are weak… As I was…" He saw it, a girl left alone in the cruel world to suffer many injustices and see countless atrocities.

"I was not always this, there was a time I sought hope…" He looked to her and saw it in her gaze the faintest hint of empathy.

"Nobody believed in you… nobody even bothered to try did they." Jaune looked to her as around them the scene shifted to reveal Yang in a bed looking out the window but, in the reflection, her cold gaze was seen.

"We're not the same… Blake didn't abandon me because I was useless like you…" Next it showed Weiss arguing with a man he'd later know as Jacques Schnee.

"Please father! My partner needs me! She has nobody else! Nobody who could aid her…"

Cinder looked to the displays.

"But this wasn't the first of it was it?" She ignored his trembles as the scenes shifted to show a young panting child looking up to the man before him.

"Please, please father. I'll try harder so please give me a chance." The man shook his head.

"Son… there's no shame in not raising Crocea Mors, I fought so you wouldn't have to so please leave the protecting to Jean." The boy teared up but shook his head violently and stepped forward.

"Please, I'll try harder! I-I want to be like you and grandpa! I want to be a hero!" But his please fell on deft ears.

"If I trained you, you'd only brake…" He looked to his son.

"You are not like me, nor like your grandfather, nor his father… I'm sorry." Cinder looked to the scene.

"But even so you ignored him and went to Beacon… and it was there you met her right?" Locks of scarlet and Emerald eyes.

"Actually, Jaune, I think you'd make a great leader!" His voice hitched in his throat.

"Jaune, you know if you ever need help, you can just ask." A tear fell down but for the first time in so long it was one birth through a fondness instead of despair.

"Jaune, everybody needs a little push from time to time. It doesn't make you any different from the rest of us. You made it to Beacon! That speaks volumes of what you're capable of!" Lips trembled at her words.

"I want you to know that I'm proud of you. I've never met someone so determined to better themselves. You've grown so much since we started training." Jaune fell forward tears falling as even now, after so long those memories were still so powerful, Cinder looked to him.

"But in the end your weakness killed her didn't it?" Before he could comprehend her words the scene shifted to that of them standing before the tower. Of the woman who killed their headmaster ascending and the Colossal Wyvern-like Grimm circling around the tower. Jaune looked to the scene his face shifting from his previous joyful tears to utter fear.

"No…"

"No... no, Pyrrha, you can't. You saw how powerful she is! Pyrrha, I won't let you do-" He saw himself argue and deny her foolish choice as she stared towards what they both knew would be her demise.

"Please…. Cinder… Stop." She looked to him somberly and slowly shook her head.

"I won't because you still choose to be weak." The blonde's words were cut off when she silenced him in the one way he'd never thought she would, a kiss. So unexpected but comforting but just as he fell into its bliss.

"Stop…"

"I'm sorry." She pushed him into the locker, she saved him… He begged and pleaded to her all the while taking in the features of his partner, his friend and possibly maybe more… finally she turned her gaze from the panel and then to him. Emerald met azure in his eyes was desperate anxiety and in hers a wordless farewell. She then took a single step back and he knew… he had failed.

"You were weak till her last breath." The scene shifted but it was no longer recognizable to him as it was not his. He now stood over his partner among the crumbling tower.

"It's unfortunate you were promised a power that was never truly yours." He felt her pride at the victory but also her relief. She kneels down and lifted Pyrrha's chin, staring into her eyes as she spoke the next lines.

"But take comfort in knowing that I will use it in ways you could never have imagined."

"Stop…" Pyrrha looked up to her even till her final moment she never once pleaded nor showed fear.

"Do you believe in destiny?"

"Stop, stop, stop, stop!"

"Yes."

"Stop!" But it wouldn't, and he saw as the arrow impaled her, as his partner, his teammate, his friend was gasping for air as her pieced chest emitted a red heat.

"NOOOO!" He saw her struggle, Her, Pyrrha, the strongest among them and for what! For him! A hand stretched out to her, settling on Pyrrha's head just over her circlet. He felt as the newly completed Maiden's power's flashed. Seeing her cease all movement her gasp no longer sounded, her body beginning to glow orange and then without warning she scattered into embers. For a moment she held unto her circlet, but then let it fall to the ground.

Jaune merely looked on as his greatest regret increased as now he saw what she'd been reduced to, what she'd suffered. The vision faded and all that remained were Cinder and him, in the room once more.

"Why did you show me this…" Cinder remained silent, but he wouldn't allow that!

"Why!"

"Because I wanted to show you your weakness from then and show you that even now nothing has changed." Jaune froze.

"Your weakness killed her correct? Because in the end she died for you… If you had stayed, perhaps they could've come in time. But that's not what happened is it." Jaune struggled for words but they eluded him.

"And even now your weakness has not just cost you your partner but your teammates as well."

Stop…

"You could've saved one."

"By killing the other!"

"Yes." That single word snapped him from his anger.

"All you needed was to be strong enough to do so, to cast aside one for the other. but once again you remained weak, you choose the easy way, her way… but even then, you failed."

"Stop it…"

"What do you think her final words to you were, the loud idiot who saw her love dead before her?"

"Shut up."

"Do you think she wanted to tell you not to hate yourself…"

"Cinder… stop." Cinder smiled.

"Or…" she leaned in her breath in his ear.

"Do you think she wanted to proclaim her hate to the man who let them die too." With those words she vanished, just as another form revealed itself. Jaune looked up to it and shocked to see the figure standing there, the man was colossal tower even above Yatsuhashi by an entire foot. His form was wide and powerful with thick scarred arms, Jaune should've feared this man but after all he'd suffered. All he did was sneer at him.

"Rainart." The man regarded him and Jaune could see it, the sympathy in his gaze, even now he wasn't okay with what Jaune had suffered and honestly for someone whose conscious still was there to stand against him, it terrified Jaune. Finally, he spoke through his gravelly voice.

"Jaune Arc, you should pledge your loyalty." Jaune glared at him.

"I'd rather die!" Hazel didn't flinch at his roar instead nodding once.

"You will." Jaune froze for only a moment before looking to him.

"What did you say?"

"You will die, Salem has ordered it, If you do not submit even after this then we are to kill you." the man then reluctantly stepped forward placing something on Jaune's lap, two cut of meat.

"Tyrian said for you to eat." Jaune spotted the guilt in his gaze and he knew what laid in his lap… who. A tear fell unto their remains and Hazel expression returned to it ever stoic nature.

"You should accept." Jaune looked up disbelieving of his words, for him to think he'd ever after all Tyrian did.

"I'd rat-"

"Those girls are in Mistral…" Jaune words failed him as he ceased his rant.

"They trailed Tyrian… he was too sloppy in his mission, too many clues, they are seeking the dead boy and girl. Soon they will reach here and when they do..." Jaune struggled to speak, to ask.

"You'll kill them?" Hazel didn't flinch and nodded, and Jaune starred in disbelief but Hazel continued.

"However Salem's agreed that should you kneel to her we'll flee." Jaune looked to him hope evident for the first time in so long.

"You mean that."

"I don't lie." Hazel then turned but gave his final piece.

"There isn't long… an hour at most and then you will answer us." Hazel paused for only a moment.

"No matter what you pick in the end, be determined to see it through." He then vanished from the Arc's sight.


Once more the two of them were there in Beacon Jaune looking down to the earth while Cinder looked over him uncaringly.

"So will you submit now…" He didn't answer her, because she already knew the answer.

"Even now you refuse to choose?" Cinder kneeled just before Jaune.

"If you side with her, they'll live this time but surely will die another day but if you refuse they will be attacked and all you will have is the fact that you didn't submit to her." Finally he looked to her his eyes dull.

"I won't betray them…"

"So you'll let them be ambushed, if you betray them you'll live."

"I-I…" Jaune tensed and Cinder frowned.

"Didn't you learn earlier how trying to ignore the choices will merely end in doubling your despair… weren't those two's deaths enough?"

"Shut up…"

"All you do is wallow in your own despair, you can't even decide what to do and allow yourself to be bound."

"Stop"

"They died for nothing…" Finally, the Arc roared.

"I said shut up!" Cinder however merely smirked at his rage.

"Why should I fear a boy too weak to be free even within the vestiges of his own mind?" Her words stopped him.

"Choosing nothing won't solve anything, your aware of that aren't you?" Jaune wanted to rage, he wanted to roar in anger, but he knew she was right.

"What should I have done then?" He glared up.

"Should I have just killed one of my teammates! My family!"

"Yes…" Her word stopped him in his tracks.

"Because if you had done so one would've lived. After all you had offered your life first so why not theirs?" Jaune looked down unable to speak.

"If I'd only been stronger… Like Pyrrha." This seemed to draw Cinder's attention.

"Her, strong? What foolishness." Jaune looked up to Cinder newly enraged but she didn't flinch.

"She was the strongest person I knew!"

"She was a weak-minded fool…" Jaune raged against his chains.

"Take that back! She was the strongest person I knew."

"Then why did she die?"

"Because of you!" Cinder shook her head.

"No, because she took in a power that should've never been hers, because she hid from you her fears and anxiety. Because much like you she couldn't decide which she valued more her freedom or destiny and waited till fate decided for her." Cinder reached out to him cupping his cheek.

"If she had trusted you or abandoned you she'd be alive a maiden equal to me but instead she feared the choice and died for it." Jaune didn't retort or curse her name instead he merely looked into her amber eyes. How long had his mind been unraveling for her words to sound to sane.

"And in the end even though she knew fighting me would be pointless she did so anyways, and for what, she didn't stop me it was that child's eyes. She died for nothing, she abandoned you for nothing."

"Pyrrha didn't abandon me."

"Oh, then where was she when we clashed, when I had you on the floor."

"You killed her!" Cinder chuckled at that and shook her head.

"No Jaune, she killed herself, she could've escaped with you, I was focused on the CCT, the Wyvern, my powers and Salem's plan. She was not the priority, she could've left with you fought against me beside you, stopped Tyrian from taking you. But no, she chose to die for what she believed to be a pyrrhic death when in reality it was a pointless one." He trembled, he wanted her to be lying but he knew she wasn't, after all she had no reason to she was a part of him now. And so, knowing the truth of her words Jaune cried, he cried the question he had despaired over so long.

"Why… Pyrrha, why… Why did you send me away?" His tears fell upon the pristine floors before the statue, Cinders hand stroked his cheek, gently almost lovingly.

"Because like you she'd rather herself die…" Jaune looked to her.

"In the end weren't you trying to be just like her, dying for your teammates so they could escape?"

"I-I."

"But what happened because of that choice? They both died, because you couldn't choose just like she couldn't. And in the end, you failed both, you saw what happened because she lacked the resolve to choose. If she'd only taken the power she could've opposed me, if she'd said no, she'd needeth fight against me. But instead she chose to do nothing, not even trust you enough to tell." He could feel a heat light in his soul… a primal emotion… hate.

"Cinder… please, stop."

"Not much of a partner really." Jaune clenched his fist tight enough to draw blood.

"I said stop." Cinder however didn't acknowledge his words.

"If she actually loved you, if she believed in that potential she spoke so fondly of, then she would've said no to the power and chosen you over it." He hated her voice, her tone so why couldn't he shut his mind to her venomous words.

"Please stop… it."

"Be truthful Jaune, you wanted her to have chosen you over Ozpin's last command. To have abandoned Vale, you hate her for sending you away and facing me alone." Jaune shook his head vehemently.

"No, You're wrong." Jaune cried his tears hurting so much more than the torture, then the pain as his heart could endure no longer and he spoke his feelings.

"Pyrrha…I-I wish… I wish you were still here… I hate this, I hate being alone… seeing Ren and Nora… Ruby and Weiss, Blake and Yang complain when they have each other…I miss you… Why, why didn't you live for us… for me? You Had A Choice! Why Did You Stop Me! I Would've Gone With You! You Couldn't Even Just Let Me Die Beside You!" His anger and sorrow coalesced as he finally spoke his truest emotions those he had hidden even from himself. The most twisted and deprived emotion within that would draw Grimm from any distance.

"Why Didn't You Choose Us! …Choose me…" Cinder eyes finally looked upon him truly, acknowledging his question, his truest thought and the despair it carried. For she could see it now, the goal Tyrian had sought so long.

"Even if it meant forsaking Vale?"

"If She'd Be Here Now!"

"Even if it meant more people would be hurt?"

"If That's What It Would've Taken To Save Her!"

"Even if it meant letting Innocence die?"

"NO MATTER THE COST!" Suddenly and without warning the ashen beauty wrapped her hands around him, a softness never seen in her gaze, but that he was all too familiar with coming from ones of emerald.

"Good Boy…" Her tone was so reminiscent of Pyrrha's so filled with pride and acknowledgement and yet there was a difference.

"You finally understand, don't you? The lesson she'd failed to learn, that at times in order to protect something precious you must be willing to cast aside another… To take power and crush any who'd covent what you cherish." It wasn't of what she saw he could be… but what he was becoming.

"Her actions didn't make her kind they made her weak, she lacked the resolve, the determination to turn her back on them all and focus on who really mattered, her friends, her team… you." And she was right, he was becoming something new, not what Pyrrha claimed he would and maybe not even what he sought to be. But something more...

"But now, now you're not weak like she was, you have the power, all you need is to cast aside your weakness… and give me control. Or?" She pulled back her arms still around him but her gaze above looking down upon him glowing like molten gold. She was the most beautiful and yet hideous being he'd ever seen in that moment. She looked to him and spoke her words like silk but sharp as any blade.

"Will you die to Tyrian, to Salem?" She was so close to their goal.

"No… I won't." Around the Arc his once White pure light radiated forth but begun to dim in shades and grey, before tinges of a black miasma emerged.

"They'd kill your friends you know… Hazel may have meant it, but Tyrian was certainly given the opposite orders." The white was mere specs now shallowed by the abyssal black.

"I won't let that happen…" A crack appeared on the statue as did the scent of scorched earth.

"'heheheh' Good, otherwise your first friend from Beacon and her team might've had to endure a hell like yours by Tyrian." The skies began to dim and the faint cries of innocents, the roars of Grimm and the laughter of the White Fang emerged.

"Anyone who tries to hurt them I will give no mercy…Not to the Grimm, Salem or even Ozpin…" Cinder smiled she'd done it, he'd pledge himself, not her Salem like Tyrian desired, nor to Ozpin like all the other fools… but to her.

"Do you truly think you have the strength to live to those words Arc?" The world around them crumbled away from the peaceful scene he had always reminisced on, of Beacon pristine and bright like its name. What remained was reality, the crumbling academy and the dying and dead.

"Yes…" The last specs of light died, devoured by the black of his new soul. Cinder forehead pressed against his own her gaze hopeful and confident.

"So… will you be giving control?" But he wouldn't play by her rules, by the rules of one who'd already lost not once but twice. And finally, even if only in his mind Jaune broke the chains, he gripped her shoulders tackling her down on the once lush green grass that'd now been burnt black.

"Never, it'd be foolish to give my soul over to you after all you've done…" She looked up to him as he spoke, surely not have expecting to be refused but strangely she didn't mind. Because when she looked into his sole scarlet eye, it shone so cruelly, so beautifully as if it'd ensnare all her hate, regret and sorrows and direct them to those who opposed him.

"I would never give a pawn of hers like you control…" No longer was there anger or hate for her in his tone, only a mere calm and directness. As if speaking to the tool used to kill the one he loved which only now did she realize she was. But with that realization she understood, like any tool now that it was in his grasp instead of his attackers he'd use her for his own means.

"And what if your power turns out to be wrong in the end? To not be enough?" The scene of the Fallen paradise that was Beacon became so much more vivid.

"That won't happen…" A vision of the Grimm tearing flesh from bone.

"Because I'm not wrong…" Of the White Fang long dreamed Genocide coming to fruition with the City of Vale.

"What's wrong is this blood stain world." Around him was the Fall of Vale the event that gave the world the cruel reminder of how futile their struggle truly was. But too him it was merely showing that in the end they were merely to weak… a mistake he'd never let repeat itself. And understanding that Cinder smiled.

"That'd do Arc…" Jaune leaned down his mouth trembling as he prepared himself, to forsake the weak him… To cast aside the boy who couldn't save anyone.

… To become powerful is to take from others, their hopes, their knowledge, their strength and even their lives…

He opened his mouth and struck, his teeth tearing into her form. The blood and flesh that scattered burnt away into Cinders.

Take it all, devour them whole and leave nothing behind but which you love…

He swallowed it, the faint and molten embers of her remaining soul, and as those dregs were taken in by his being the black abyss around him faintly glowed of flames. Then of his and hers pink, of the two he let die, of the two he devoured.

He looked to them and then looked for it within, a he would've cried if he'd found it before but now, now it only served to fuel him forward. To lose nobody else and within his palm her scarlet light so reminiscent of her hair ignited and melded with him.

Jaune…

Whether it was Ren, Nora or Pyrrha who called to him in that moment he'd never know all he did know was that the tear that ran down his cheek would be the last. Because Hazel wouldn't cry, Tyrian couldn't cry nor could Cinder and he was sure Salem did not as well…

Monster's did not cry…

And so with that last tear Jaune arc died and what remained was the monster who devoured his purpose. But what kind of monster was he? HE remembered the stories his mother told him as a child, the hero's were always humans but the monster were never the same. Dragons, Trolls and Goblins and so many more… but then he remembered the scariest one, it was once a man whose spirit had twisted and now sought to devour… Yes, that was the kind of monster he was. He would devour others and take from them. He looked past the burning Vale and as the world of his mind crumbled his eyes meet hers the monster Cinder pledge to.

"I am a Ghoul"

And it was there the Queen of Grimm met the One-Eyed King and like Tyrian had hope for he made his pledge to her.

"And I will take from you all you have."

But not the one he'd hoped for, and as each syllable left his mouth his hair turned as white as snow. The world crumbled and once more Jaune remained in the white room.

"Jaune…" A figure stepped towards him, their voice sad, sad that they knew what they requested would not be answered as hoped. Jaune didn't look to him, he didn't need to, he knew who it was and why he was here. Tyrian stood before him solemn and downtrodden, as he looked to Jaune pleadingly.

"Please, my brother give yourself to our goddess." Jaune's answer was the same as always.

"No…" Tyrian looked to the boy distraught and fell to his knees, he trembled and then shook before he begun to chant.

"Why, why, why,,, I failed my goddess… Unless." Throughout the room a small almost inaudible chuckle begun, before it grew louder and louder, abruptly Tyrian leaned back in burst of laughter.

"I see! I see, I see, I SEE!" His tail shot out seeming to grow at his will.

"It all makes sense now! Why'd she'd receive our goddess's blessing but fail to bring the maiden, because I was meant to! But I couldn't take it, because I could not endure the surgery! But you!" Tyrian looked to Jaune a madness in his eyes.

"You could endure it… and now the maiden sleeps within alongside our goddess's blessing!" Tyrian begun to make his way on his feet while his excited stare never left the Arc boy.

"It was too assimilated with Cinder, bound to her soul, but not yours! I could take it! I will take it!" A small trail of drool begun to fall from the fanatic's mouth.

"It's been telling me you know?" Tyrian's tail begun to writhe.

"To eat you… I thought we could only eat humans but now… Now I think I understand better. If I eat you, I'll become what our goddess needs!" Tyrian bared his teeth in a feral smile as he leaned down, his tail shot out stabbing Jaune's shoulder.

"My brother it is all because of you! I will take it from you, as you did from her and become what our goddess need! I will devour you and savor every bite!" Tyrian jaws opened as he anticipated the feeling of teeth tearing through flesh, of the warmth of the boy's blood and of his goddess's praise when she saw him again.

But that was not what happened, as instead a pain shot through Tyrian's tail for but a moment, as if the smallest bit of it had been taken. Before he could react to it the sound of chains rattling, and snapping filled the air and where Jaune once sat was now merely an empty seat. Tyrian felt a pressure on his throat choking him and reached for it before noticing a foot was against his lower back pushing the chains against his throat.

"Your confused about who is the predator here."

'Crunch'

The foot lowered sweeping his legs before the chain pulled wrapping around his neck and tossing him aside, however Tyrian's reflexes were fast, and he righted himself skidding to a stop. It was then he realized something, he couldn't sense him, ever since he'd received his blessing he'd been able to detect the emotions of mankind but now, now the blonde was invisible to him. However soon his other senses picked him up and Tyrian looked up to him confused.

The boy who walked to him was gray and devoid of color… wiping the only color from his mouth a bright crimson.

"You taste foul…" It was then he felt it a slight pain on his head, reaching for his temple he pulled back his hand to see his palm coated scarlet. He looked to the blonde confused.

"Y-you…?" However, the Arc merely looked back as if he'd done nothing wrong.

"I bit, and I must say, you taste foul… like rotten meat. But still I was able to down your flesh without throwing up… which means." Jaune looked to Tyrian his eye bright scarlet.

"I can take from you…so." His aura erupted black.

"I'll take everything!" Tyrian sneered despite his instinct screaming to run.

"You… eat me! Hahahaha!" Tyrian abruptly shot forward rage evident in his gaze.

"I'll kill you!" Jaune however just stood still at the faunus's approach.

"You'll try…" Jaune's black miasma shifted as it did he pondered what would be the best Grimm to manifest as his limb and what came to mind was the very one who killed Leonardo himself. From his back four long tendrils emerged and shot forward towards Tyrian their barbed ends ready and willing to rip into him. The faunus maneuvered through the easy telegraphed strikes closing in just before Jaune and impaling him with his stinger again.

"Now you die!"

"Really now… this is supposed to kill me?" From his body a deep black emerged as he triggered his semblance dedicating all his aura to but the sole purpose to extinguishing the venom's effect. Before Tyrian could realize it Jaune's tendril pierced his form, Tyrian roared in pain while Jaune merely looked on to him.

"Was this all you could do?" Jaune reached forward attempting to grab him only for the faunus to expertly evade his grasp and leaped behind him. Sweeping the boy's legs, he kicked hard sending Jaune flying but before he could hit the ground he leaped into the air above Jaune his feet on Jaune's shoulder's while he grabbed his wrist. With but a push of his legs he could shatter the boy's arms, his tail launched out for his head.

"I got you now!" However, Jaune didn't seem to agree as he focused and the chains around his feet gained a black hue and he spun his body forward ignoring his shoulder dislocating, muscle tearing and ripping apart. Having spun nearly a full circle his feet were above Tyrian's head and he didn't hesitate to perform a double axe kick sending the faunus plummeting to the ground. Falling to his feet Jaune looked to Tyrian almost disappointedly.

"After all you did to me, you thought that'd be enough…" Tyrian looked up from his crater anger clear as he looked to Jaune.

"How!? To avoid my detection and then to move like that, it shouldn't be possible for you!" Jaune stepped forward.

"It's your fault Tyrian… You're the one who fed me them, and it turns out a bit remained when I was forced to eat..."

"You can't mean…"

"Cinder's Grimm was meant to take the Maiden Powers, to take the soul merged with it. Is it really so hard to believe that the dregs of the soul of those I eat remains?" Tyrian looked to Jaune and felt his instincts scream for him to run, but he refused them. He could not run, he had to eat Jaune and he'd succeed or die trying.

"AHHH!" From his back not just the stinger but a pair of claws emerged, Tyrian fell on all four while a his eyes glowed red and a mask begun to form over his face like a Grimm. He growled angrily before leaping forward at Jaune once more his new claws ready. He struck forward with his claw only for Jaune to parry the blow with one of the tendrils before punching forward Tyrian did the same and their fist collided.

Tyrian's tail surged forth at Jaune. Jaune's remaining three tendril shot out as well running the limb through. Tyrian smiled as his other claw grabbed Jaune. Despite the force he applied he found he couldn't bisect the boy and with a roar he swung the blonde as hard as he could into the wall. The spot he hit exploded in a grand force as the entire structure shook from it all while Tyrian laughed.

"You carried dust on you… bad choice." Tyrian froze before noticing one of his pockets had been cut open its contents gone. When he looked back he saw the boy in his hand was a yellow vile and without hesitation he crushed it ignoring the glass cutting into his flesh. Soon lightening begun to manifest around the Arc however Jaune didn't look pained as the coiling energy bore into his flesh, no he looked reinvigorated.

"That was a nice try…" He then smiled, however it conveyed anything but goodwill how Tyrian knew was simple he'd made that same manic grin everyday he'd seen Jaune.

"Now it's my turn." Jaune launched forward at Tyrian his form shifting between grey and his normal hue making Tyrian's Grimm sense disorient him. Jaune appeared right before the man and in response Tyrian struck forward only for Jaune swerve left. He punched the faunus in the face sending him flying back, however he wasn't done yet and rose his hand.

The spot where Tyrian was sent flying begun to glow a black hue and without warning the Rebar within the wall's reinforced concrete shot out. Tyrian felt the steel spear run him through but still willed himself out of it and flung forward even as blood leaked forth. If not for his aura the blow would've killed him.

Jaune leaped forward towards the man and Tyrian took the chance to attack the boy while he was suspended in the air. Jaune however wasn't so predictable as he struck a tendril in the ceiling of the structure and swung left of the stinger. His three remaining tendrils rushed forward once more impaling the offending limb before parting in opposite direction ripping the stinger apart.

Tyrian roared in pain and while he did one of the tendrils swept his legs and he fell to the ground. Jaune landed behind the man his smile fading as a cold stare enveloped his sight. He stretched out his hand and a bright light took Tyrian's body healing him Tyrian visibly calmed.

"T-Thank you my bro-" A tendril rushed forward into Tyrian's back eliciting a scream from the man, it would seem he misunderstood why Jaune healed him.

"One thousand minus seven?" Tyrian went wide eyed.

"Wha- AGHHHH!" He screamed as the second tendril buried deep into his shoulder.

"Wrong… now say it…What is one thousand minus seven?" Tyrian begun tremble unable to understand the tables had turned which costed him dearly as a Third tendril broke the flesh of his left thigh.

"Hurry up Tyrian, we both know you know the answer… You've heard it plenty enough."

"'Sob' N-Nine hundred and, and ninety-three…" Jaune could hear his sniffling, his tears hit the ground, but he felt nothing from it, no joy, closure nor pride from it. However, he wouldn't stop, a tendril stuck into his right arm's bicep severing the muscle from flesh.

"Ahhh!"

"Good, now next what's Nine-Hundred Ninety-three minus seven."

"…Nine hundred eighty-six." Jaune nodded as his tendril wrapped around Tyrian's left pinky.

'Snap'

"Next."

"Nine-hundred Seventy-nine."

'Snap'

"N-Nine-hundred… Ah! And Seventy-two!"

'snap'

"Nine-hundred and Sixty-five!" again and again Jaune inflicted the same pain he had endured so long, but where he pleaded and begged Tyrian merely cried out. Jaune knew though, Tyrian understood that no matter what he said it would continue which it would.

"Eight-hundred and sixty!"

"You brought this on yourself."

"Seven-hundred and thirty-four."

"I should torture you till your mind collapse, it the very least you deserve for Ren and Nora…"

"Six-hundred and fifteen…"

"But Craterface and her team are in danger… So, I don't have much time, even now I can sense it the Relic. I'm sure every Grimm can too."

"Four-hundred and ninety-six…"

"That's why when your done counting it'll end."

"'sob' Three-hundred and Seventy-seven…"

"You can't complain after all… you were gonna eat me."

"Two-hundred… Two hundred and Forty-Four…"

"I should thank you Tyrian… after all you're the reason I can save them now."

"One-hundred and thirty-two…" Tyrian looked to Jaune and saw it, behind the boy was gone replaced by something more and at the same time something less.

"It's about time now Tyrian…"

"Ninety…"

"Time I take from you…"

"S-Sixty-two…" Jaune flipped the man over, after all this would be his final punishment as lenient as it was.

"Fifty-five..." The tendril launched out impaling his legs and arms pinning him to the floor.

"Forty-eight…" He'd watch himself being devoured...

"Forty-one." However, as Tyrian watched the man consume him, tear flesh from bone he didn't feel what Jaune expected. Not despair or sorrow or at least not for the reason he thought.

"Thirty-four…"

Beautiful…

To Tyrian he didn't see a monster but instead a perfect being like his mistress, something far beyond himself.

"Twenty-seven…" He could feel it, his mind fading.

"…Twenty…"

It's like looking at a king… yes…my king.

"…Thirteen…" Tyrian's eyes looked into the sole baleful red eye that looked back at him.

"…six." Slowly he reached out as his life flickered.

"M-my king… my one-eyed…" But the hand fell never to rise again and Jaune continued to feed till all that remained was a bloodied mess. Jaune stood up and as he swallowed the remaining flesh streaks of purple appeared within the abyss. He then focused on the Relic and left the building he'd suffered in so long, his personal hell.