Sorry for the delay guys, this chapter was a transition chapter, and boy was it a bitch and a half to write. You see I knew where to start this story and where I want to go, but getting there was hard to write, but I got there and here I am and at least I got like 3k. Thanks for reading, hopefully the next chapter is faster to come out cause I know what I want to do. Bye!
Chapter 5: Going Down
Blake wouldn't consider herself a morning person per se, but spending a majority of her life in the White Fang who had a 'wake up after 7 and you won't get breakfast' attitude gave her a push to become one whether she wanted to or not. Due to this, she was up far earlier than any of her teammates. With a silent groan, she sat up and stretched out her sore muscles. The motion caused her to feel some satisfying pops in her joints as she began to stand up.
Peeking her head outside the tent, she was surprised at the lack of darkness, darkness that should have been surrounding her. Instead the sun was beginning to rise. This confused Blake because her shift for watch should've started in darkness and ended with the sun rising as when she was supposed to tag Nora in. She got a bad feeling in her stomach as she stepped outside of her tent and began looking around, unsure of what was going on. Walking around she noticed a figure with a mop of blonde hair slumped over and staring at the woods.
"Jaune?" The faunus asked, confused as to why he was up and not Ren. He waved her off and continued to stare off into the woods. "What are you doing up Jaune?" She pressed.
"I figured that since I'm the worst fighter, I'd stay up the whole night so you guys would be ready to fight tomorrow." Jaune said quietly, keeping his gaze towards the forest. Blake was surprised, she didn't give Jaune enough credit for how selfless he was, but this was just outright dumb. She could see where his thought process was but it was still flawed, despite his good intentions.
"Jaune that was probably the dumbest thing you could have done, we'll need all 8 people today, and with you almost dying twice yesterday I can't imagine how you're standing right now." Blake said with a grumpy tone at an exhausted Jaune who didn't have the energy to fight with her.
"I know Blake, I'm sorry I shouldn't have done that. How can I make it up to everyone?" He said looking at Blake with his eyes half closed.
"Just go to sleep Jaune I'll take over, then I'll leave you to the others." She said with a smirk, knowing that one of them would give him hell for pulling that.
Nodding, he trudged towards his sleeping quarters and promptly passed out once his head hit the ground. The impact made a resounding thud that Blake heard from her position. She gave a little smile at the tired blonde before focusing on the forest in front of her.
After that that Blake was left with her own thoughts for the next hour until she heard the others begin to wake up. She left her watching position when she smelled Ren's cooking, knowing that any stragglers (besides Jaune) would wake up to the sweet smell of bacon and pancakes. She walked over to said food and began silently eating her share as everyone shambled towards the food clearly exhausted. No one was chit chatting, waiting until they had consumed enough food and were awake enough to properly think. Blake and Jaune were the only morning people in the group.
The group finished up their breakfast and began to fully wake up. After Nora had gotten her fill of pancakes, she suddenly looked around, seeming very confused.
"Where's Jauney?" Blake lips twitched up to form a smirk and she mentally apologized to Jaune before answering.
"He stayed up till 7 and his excuse was 'I'm the worst fighter and you guys will need your strength.' He would still be up if I didn't wake up and make him go to bed. So our fearless leader is currently passed out, and you will not wake him up until he wakes up on his own, Yang."
Said blonde paused as she was halfway to Jaune's tent, probably about to exchange some not so kind words with the poor boy.
"I just wanted to talk to our knight in shining armor, Blakey." Yang said sweetly, but the malicious grin on her face said otherwise.
"I want to knock some sense into him too Yang, don't worry. But lets not forget he almost died 2 days ago and hasn't taken a break. I think he deserves this rest." She finished before walking away to grab her weapon. She had decidedly reached her speaking quota for the day, preferring to observe more than talk. The Mistral champion chose to speak up now that Blake left with her apologies.
"I should've known Jaune would do this, and I should've made sure he didn't do it. Sorry guys." She mumbled. Ren looked up at her apologetically.
"It's not your fault that Jaune stayed up, it was his choice not yours. Pyrrha you don't have to take responsibility for his actions." Pyrrha smiled, he was right of course. The ever quiet Ren was always right whenever he decided to chime in during conversation.
After breakfast they decided to pack up and head to their point of interest. They made sure to contact Ozpin to inform him that they were about to head out there. Before they could leave though, they had to get the knight out of his tent.
Pyrrha, Yang, and Nora were all trying to figure out who would carry him, when Ren took matters into his own hands and walked into the tent. He heaved Jaune onto his shoulder in an attempt to try and help his only guy friend out and give him a couple more minutes of sleep. The girls would have for sure woken him up with the debate they were having.
He ducked out of the tent and gestured towards Jaune's armor, sword, and shield before walking over towards Ruby to ask where they were going that day.
"Well, I mean I think we'll go down this path," she pointed in the direction of said path before continuing, "Which will take us right into the heart of the Grimmfestation as I like to call it. From there we can decide what to do, and if we head off now we'll arrive in about 2 hours. Alright?" Ren just answered with a nod and got ready to head off.
Eventually they set off towards their destination. They were about 10 minutes out when the group had begun to get antsy. An unnatural silence surrounded them as they marched. Weiss snapped, annoyance clear on her face.
"Just wake the dunce up so we can end this damn quiet!" None of them were too surprised at the Heiresses outburst because she tended to do that when she's annoyed.
Ren's only answer was shaking Jaune, who was still cast over his shoulder, until he awoke with a start. He realized where he was and then began yelling about how he always ended up being carried. Ren quickly slid him off of his shoulder.
"Where are we?" Jaune asked, realizing he had no idea where he was. He was answered with silence as everyone of the group stared at him, only causing him to be more confused. That is, until he remembered what he did last night. He suddenly felt a wave of fear as Yang walked towards him. She pointed a finger in his face.
"What's you're middle name Arc?" She demanded.
Caught completely by surprise, Jaune sputtered out something that sounded vaguely like Micheal.
"Well Jaune Micheal Arc, I'm gonna kick your ass into next week when we get back for that hero bullshit you pulled back there. You're part of this 8 person family which means we all help each other. Not one person holds all the weight until they crack, got it?" Jaune began to answer before Yang stopped him by adding "And don't even try to tell me you're worth less than us. We're all worth the same amount. We're equals. That's what being part of a team is about."
Jaune just opted to nod at this point, looking down at his feet and feeling ashamed. He knew that he messed up. Seeing how Jaune reacted Nora decided to swoop in by saying cheerily.
"Don't worry Jauney she said she'll pummel you after the mission so at least you have a couple more hours to live!" Nora piped up cheerfully.
"Gee thanks Nora, you always know exactly what to say to cheer me up." Jaune said, sarcasm dripping from his words. Nora, being usual herself, didn't quite pick up on the sarcasm and gave Jaune a thumbs up. Jaune sighed before changing the conversation quickly.
"Where is the spot we're going to anyway, guys?"
"I'm glad you asked Jaune because as of right now, we are right next to the two mile radius Ozpin told us about that the grim were all in." Ruby responded before dramatically moving the brush out of the way to show an empty clearing sparse of any Grimm. "Darn it," She exclaimed, "That was supposed to be cool, and there should've been a ton of Grimm. But this… this is really weird. I mean this is where he said they were, but... nothing's here." She sounded genuinely confused. "I'm gonna call Ozpin for a pickup, lets look around to try and get an idea on what's happening."
Ruby said as she started getting out her scroll and stepping into the clearing, the confusion evident on her face.
Everyone fanned out across the clearing and started looking around for any signs of what had happened. Suddenly, after looking closely at the ground, Blake called out.
"I can see tracks everywhere that indicates that this place was packed with Grimm. Ruby would you mind checking the perimeter to see if there's a defined exit point where the Grimm left?" Ruby just nodded since she was currently talking to Ozpin. She used her semblance to dart off around the perimeter.
5 minutes passed and the team began to grow frustrated as there was nothing but Grimm tracks in the clearing. Everyone was slowly getting impatient in their fruitless efforts to yield results, but Yang was the only one to show it.
"Where the hell is Ruby I want out of here, this whole thing is just super weird!"
As if on cue 5 people came out of the brush behind them. Ruby was being held at the throat with a purple bruise that was rapidly fading from the right side of her face. Her captor was Adam Taurus. Behind him was Cinder, followed by Mercury and Emerald close behind her.
Jaune looked at his friends, his team was worried but fine nonetheless. WBY was not doing so well. Blake and Weiss both seemed to be glaring at the guy in the mask while Jaune could feel the heat starting to come off of Yang's body that with the murderous looks she was giving the group. Yang was about to say something when Ruby gasped out with a sudden breath.
"Sorry guys, they ambushed me and took me by surprise." Jaune now started moving towards Yang who was shaking with rage at this point. He didn't want her to do anything that could get Ruby hurt so he wrapped his arms around her stomach and ignored the heat radiating from her. He asked the group a question to play for time.
"What are you doing here?"
Cinder smiled before responding. "Just luring the strongest Hunters and Huntresses here with the help of my special dress." She said calmly showing off the black and white dress, then added "If I pump my aura into this dust infused dress I can attract the attention of the Grimm and bring them in, acting like a beacon for them."
Jaune pondered what she had just said. No one had ever documented being able to do that before, but it sounded like something that could be done. He accepted what she said as the truth but wanted to test her anyway.
"Can you prove it?" Jaune asked
"I will, once you guys drop your weapons because I feel like little red here wouldn't appreciate what'll happen to her if you don't." She responded coolly while smirking at Yang.
"Alright guys lets just set our weapons down," Jaune started, "Yang if you could just collapse your gauntlets." He tapped her wrists, hoping she would comply since the plan he had working in his head needed Yang to not do anything yet to jeopardize Ruby. He needed Ruby out of that guy's hands in order for his master plan to play out right.
After a few seconds Yang conceded and collapsed her gauntlets while the others set down their weapons. They all put their full trust into the knight.
Cinder smiled maliciously as she began to channel her aura into the dress. After a pause Jaune saw some Beowolves burst into the clearing. They looked ready to attack until Cinder pierced them with her shards, ending their lives as their bodies started dissolving.
Holy shit this bitch is powerful, Jaune thought to himself before he asked another question.
"Why are you doing this?" Cinder laughed at the blonde before answering.
"You'd just loooove for me to tell you that, huh?"
"I'd like to know why my murderer killed me before she actually does it, so yeah." Jaune said, his bluntness surprising his friends.
He looked into Cinder's eyes before continuing. "You don't really want to kill Ruby do you? You want me, Jaune Arc, the only male Arc capable of using Crocea Mors or as some call it Yellow Death. Since every Male Arc is destined to fight in wars and turn the tides against the dark side ." Jaune said with no emotion in his voice, shocking his teammates and even Cinder until she regained her composure.
"You're right Jaune, so we can do this two ways. Either you come with us willingly and Ruby doesn't get hurt or, we use force to kill you and your friends."
Jaune released Yang seeing as she had cooled down and was more interested in the conversation that was happening in front of her. She looked at Jaune in awe. He moved to walk up to Adam, trying to mask his fear by holding his head high as he crossed over to where Ruby was being held. The fear he was trying to push down was evident in his voice.
"Willingly it is, I suppose." His mind was racing as he watched Adam carefully. He let go of Ruby and she promptly darted away as fast as she could. Jaune stood perfectly still in front of Adam, who looked over to smile at Cinder before speaking again.
"Any last words."
"Actually yes," He said turning to his friends before continuing, "I'm sorry about how this went down, but you're the greatest friends I ever had." He looked like he was down, but he raised his head with an unreadable look on his face.
"NOW!"
He screamed, shocking his friends into action before reeling back his right fist and adding his aura into it. He hit Adam with a punch so hard it could've rivaled Yang's.
Adam was knocked back into the three others. However, He wasn't dazed for long as Adam quickly shot Wilt out of Blush, sending it straight through Jaune's lower back and causing him to topple over in pain. The knight grit his teeth and ripped the sword out of his body with a scream. He nearly collapsed in pain, but he knew he needed to keep going if he wanted to win. He willed his armor to form around him and to his surprise, it actually did. He decided to use Wilt and his sword currently enveloped in electricity, and with that Jaune stood up evaluating the battle in front of him.
Blake and Weiss immediately rushed Adam, who only had his gun Blush to try and defend himself from the girls who had begun to land some hits on him. That was, until Emerald rushed to his aid, pushing the girls back so he could recover and get ready for battle.
Their fight was turning into a 3v2 because Yang had joined the girls and began to focus her strengths on Emerald. Ruby and Pyrrha seemed to be attacking Cinder with Ruby providing ranged support while the champion got in close to try and hurt the powerful huntress. Their attempts were to no avail as Cinder seemed to be countering or launching shards that cut into Pyrrha. These made her unable to touch the fiery huntress.
Ren and Nora were engaging Mercury, who seemed to be having trouble against the duo. Ren was shooting off Stormflower to keep Mercury at bay while Nora tried to get a hit to connect. Mercury, however, was far too good at spacing himself for the hammer strikes to ever actually touch him.
Mercury suddenly decided that he didn't want to be on the defensive and dodged one of Nora's strikes before rushing towards an off guard Ren.
He wasn't ready to block completely and Mercury had kicked him dead center in the chest. Ren however did have enough time to use his aura to block most of the damage, but he was still knocked back several feet.
Nora started swinging with no thoughts of her own safety. The only thing on her mind was how to crush this man who had hurt her Renny. Any attempts at making planned attacks were abandoned as she started by swinging as hard as she could. Despite her efforts her attacks were only met with air.
After a particularly poorly timed swing, she too got kicked backwards. This time Emerald was behind her as she feel since she had seen this fight going down and decided to help by catching Nora with her Scythe. This made deep gashes up and down her back which started bleeding profusely as soon as Nora hit the ground. The only thing that stopped her from ending Nora's life was Jaune leaping in stood protectively over Nora blocking her scythe's from connecting.
He shoulder bashed Emerald, knocking her away and then turned towards Mercury who was about to take advantage of Jaune fighting her. Mercury was mid kick when Jaune blocked with his sword and stabbed Mercury with Adam's blade in the gut, leaving him there with the sword embedded in him.
Jaune knew they weren't going to win the fight, Yang was having a hard time against Emerald as it was and Adam was actually hurting Blake and Weiss despite it being two against was slowly wearing down the redheads she was fighting.
He was thinking of a way out of it when their escort Bullhead arrived, firing rounds at Cinder who was forced to back off from Pyrrha. Jaune decided to call out to his friends.
"Lets get out of here while we can!" Jaune put Nora on his shoulder and helped pull Ren to his feet. He started towards the ship, not needing to be told twice. The rest of the group staggered their opponents long enough for them to start running towards their escort. Ruby used her sniper rifle to hold back the group they were just fighting.
Once everyone reached the bullhead Ruby clipped it to her back and sprinted out of there. She reached the Bullhead as it began to take off and managed to jump and grab the still lowered platform as it began to fly away.
Ruby tried to pull herself up but couldn't gather the strength, even with Yang rushing over to help her. When Yang reached her she herself almost fell over because the Bullhead was being assaulted by a white fang Bullhead above. Inside was Cinder and the rest of her group who continued hitting their Bullhead with a barrage of bullets and shards (courtesy of Cinder) causing their escape vehicle to shake and bounce around.
Jaune knew they were in trouble, with Nora out of commission they needed to get out of here. But first Ruby needed to get on board, so the knight took charge.
"Weiss we need some defensive glyphs and Pyrrha we need suppressing fire so we can get Ruby in the airship. Don't you dare stop, we need to get Nora medical attention as soon as possible . And Ren," Jaune made eye contact with his friend "Make sure Nora makes it out of here." Jaune didn't stay to see his friend's response. Instead he rushed over to Ruby, Yang, and Blake who were having trouble keeping their balance and helping Ruby up at the same time.
The blonde brawler was holding onto her right arm and the Faunus was holding onto her other, frantically attempting to pull her up. Just when they got her up the ship was hit and lurched to the side knocking all three off the side. The only thing keeping them from fall was Jaune, who had dove forward halfway off the ledge to grab Blake's leg. This left the three girls dangling off the side.
"I can't pull you guys up!" The blonde yelled frantically, he tried to pull them up against but was unable to lift all three girls. Surprisingly, it was Blake who responded.
"Then let go Jaune. We'll try to survive until rescue can come." Jaune turned his head to Ren and yelled to him.
"Tell the pilot to get a little lower!" Ren nodded and told the pilot who quickly descended so they were just above tree level. Then he turned back to the girls and said."If I can't pull you up then I'll come with you." And before they could respond Jaune pushed himself over the edge, holding tight onto Blake's leg as he felt the limbs of the trees begin to slap and slow his fall. He opened his eyes one last time seeing the sun flash in his vision before his consciousness left him.
And that's that hate to leave you on a sort of cliffhanger but it felt like the right place to leave it, next chapter they wake up in the forest. Don't worry Mercury is very much alive Jaune wouldn't kill him unless he had too. I'm doing aura a little different from the show, the way I want aura to work is you need to be good at controlling aura to absorb hits and not get cut up or worse.
Don't be afraid to leave a review it really motivates me to write. Thanks for reading!
