Yang eyed the stranger wearily. She was doing strange things, which wasn't that strange considering she was a stranger, but they were off-putting and worrying. What if she started doing strange things to her? To Jaune?
The thought made her eyes narrow and the arm she had wrapped around Jaune tighten ever so slightly. She did not wish to accidentally damage him with her strength, however there was no denying the protective urge she felt whenever she saw the stranger get too close to them.
Plus her body was practically a furnace compared to him, meaning he would be kept warm in the damp, dark cave whilst they were trapped there. The stranger was clearly stranger than Yang first thought, as she could see in the dark just as good as she could. At first Yang had wondered as to whether she was another dragon, but her scent was too wrong. It lacked the smoke and charred smell that stuck to the scent of dragon's like a second skin.
'I could've sworn I smelled another dragon before that storm hit.' Yang thought to herself, frowning as she thought. 'Was I just imagining it?'
Her thoughts were broken when the stranger turned around and glared at her suddenly.
"What are you doing you idiot!" The stranger snapped, stomping over to them. Yang stood up to meet her, standing in front of the unconscious Jaune defensively, making the stranger falter for a moment before she gave her a strange look. "Are you a faunus?"
"A what?" Yang asked, frown on her face growing when the stranger frowned back before she shook her head.
"Nevermind, look Jaune is burning up. The poison is giving him a fever. If you don't back off a little and take off his armour like I asked, he's going to burn up and might suffer brain damage. Can you please take off some of his clothes whilst I try and find some god damn herbs?"
Yang gritted her teeth and met the stranger's glare. On the one hand, undressing Jaune had significant appeal to her. On the other, turning her back to the strange woman who said weird things and taking off Jaune's protection did not appeal to her. Neither did backing down to the strange woman claiming to be Jaune's friend but had been side by side with Ruby earlier.
"Fine. But stay away." Yang compromised, and the stranger rolled her eyes.
"If I find the cure to the poison, how am I supposed to give him it if I have to stay away from him?" The stranger retorted. Yang blinked and thought for a moment, before realising the stranger had told her her name earlier. Black. Blake. One of the two.
"Give it to me and I'll give it to him." Yang replied and Black or Blake raised a brow.
"Do you know how to administer the cure?"
Yang refused to show any weakness, but the doubt must have shown in her eyes because Black or Blake suddenly looked a lot more smug than they had been moments ago. It wasn't her fault she didn't really know what administer meant exactly!
"Black or Blake?"
"Huh?" Black or Blake asked, cocking her head and a confused look on her face. "What was that?"
"Your name. What is your name?"
"Oh for! It's Blake!" Blake protested, before face-palming and shaking her head in her hand before turning away and stomping off. "Just take some of Jaune's clothes off."
Yang turned around to do so, trying her best not to seem too eager as she did so. She waited for a few moments until she heard the girl wander further away behind her, and she relaxed slightly, though she made sure to send a few glances towards the girl every now and then to make it clear she was keeping an eye on her. Settled down in front of the worryingly pale Jaune, she tore off the bulky metal plates of armour Jaune wore and revealed a sweaty-stained, blood-stained, torn shirt that allowed her to see the smooth, pale flesh that rested underneath.
Any lust she felt was instantly wiped in the face of his wounds that revealed themselves as she took off the tattered rag that had been a shirt. Mottled bruises lined his sides and back, a harsh contrast to his marble skin. Stained blood stuck to his chest and dark, vine-like veins stretched across his neck and chest from the wound on his armpit, struck by the Inquisitor before the man's change of heart.
Yang frowned and tore off a few strips of Jaune's shirt, using the cleaner parts as bandages to slow the trickle of blood flowing from the wound. Then she sighed and leaned back, anger simmering in her chest at her own helplessness. She hated the fact she couldn't help him, could only watch as he shivered and weak moans of pain burst from his mouth every now and then.
It was beyond infuriating, and when she could not take just sitting there anymore she reached forward and gently grabbed his hand in hers.
She breathed in and out. She had healed him before. She had driven off Ruby's foul, harmful magic. Maybe she could do the same with whatever the Inquisitor had inflicted upon him?
She felt the innate energy, the fire of her soul, build up inside her as she called upon it. Directing it to her hands, she felt her palms warm up and emit a faint glow.
"What in the…?" She heard the stranger murmur, and Yang reluctantly seeped away part of her energy in order to defend herself in case the stranger attacked. Then she focused on her work.
"It'll be okay Jaune." Yang swore, hoping he could hear her. "I'll protect you. Heal you. I always will."
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Fear. It had only been a few days since he'd last been there, but the knowledge he now had courtesy of…of…someone combined with the instinctual malice of the place made his latest escapade there all the more worse.
The abyss.
As if awakened by name, it roiled around him, curling and writhing and encircling. It lashed out suddenly, making him yell out in fear before something protected him, a white, glowing light that made the dark tendril lurch back. He watched it curiously, unsure of what to make of the response.
"Attack!"
The war cry startled him, making him turn. The movement made him dizzy, and the sudden flash of light and colour sparking from the abyss made his head hurt.
He could see shapes. Men. Soldiers. They were attacking somewhere, Atlesian flags flying and a familiar figure leading them.
"Klein?" Jaune asked, and for a moment he swore he saw his mentor stumble and look right at him, as if he saw him, only for Klein to shake his head and charge onwards, leading by example like he had always taught.
The images shifted. Two figures on a hill. One bathed in crimson, blood red and another surrounded by the all too familiar aura of the abyss.
"Are you certain?"
"Of course I'm certain. I put my best men on the job."
"That man fought off a dozen men not too long ago. Don't underestimate him."
"I haven't, I told you, my best men are on it. Worst comes to worst I'll deal with him."
The figure cloaked in the abyss only hummed in response, and the two fell silent as the sound of bloodshed and slaughter echoed around them.
"What the…?" Jaune murmured, crying out in pain as something struck him from behind.
The abyss roiled and writhed victoriously, and an army of dark, shadowy tendrils lurched towards him all at once. The white light emerged once more, but for every tendril it managed to deflect another managed to strike him, opening gaping wounds that oozed white light from his body.
Then he suddenly felt something blast into him like a ton of rocks and the abyss parted. A frustrated roar echoed around him, making his body shake in fear at the sheer bestial, inhumanity of it. Then he was caught in a storm, snow and ice and cold wind blustering around him, spinning him around and around until he was dizzy and his eyes fluttered.
A flickering light burst through the white hell engulfing him, and the storm parted in an instant. Snow melted, ice dissolved into water that evaporated into steam and the cold winds only fuelled the storm further, until he was wrapped around in a cocoon of writhing flame.
"It'll be okay, Jaune." A voice echoed, warm and comforting and calm. His head hurt at the sound of it, and it was annoyingly familiar.
"I'll protect you."
A face flashed before his eyes. It was terrified and scared, with tear tracks lining it and falling down onto his face. He tried to speak, tried to understand what was going on, but the words caught on his throat and with urging panic he realised he was choking on his own blood.
"I'll heal you."
A sword flashed before his eyes. It was old, powerful. It called out to him, summoned him, urged him to step forward and take it.
"I always will."
Yang!
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"Yang!" Jaune moaned weakly, body lurching suddenly. "Help! Hurts!"
"Jaune!" Yang cried, opening her eyes and immediately losing her tenuous grip on her fire. Her eyes widened as she realised what happened and she cried out with dawning horror at her mistake. "No! Come back damnit!"
It did not. Her fire betrayed her. It was tired, drained, and weak. Unless she wanted to commit what little reserves of energy she had left into trying to re-open the connection she'd felt to Jaune, then she would be forced to rely on the strange stranger Blake's herbs to heal him.
Yang cast a frantic look at the stranger, who had approached over with a curious look on their face.
"What did you just do?" The girl asked curiously, eyes darting from Yang's hands to her face. "What are you?"
"I'm Yang." She snapped, feeling annoyed at the interruption. She needed to decide, to choose.
Who knew what would happen to Jaune if she didn't help him? But would happen to them afterwards if this Blake girl decided to betray them and she lacked the strength to fight?
"Find your herbs." Yang ordered, palms glowing once more, though the light was faint as it was only the last dregs of her reserved energy she could use. "I will do what I can to help him."
Only when the stranger wandered off into a darker part of the cave did Yang close her eyes and focus.
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The flame was washed away suddenly, and the storm surged around him. An evil cackle verberated through his body, and dark tendrils pierced through the raging storm and wrapped around his ankles, dragging him away from the whirling snow and cold.
His world lurched and his stomach heaved as he was tossed back and forth between the strong, struggling winds and the incessant tugging of the dark tendril that could only have come from the abyss. Fear roared through him, and his head hurt with an increasing pressure that only grew with each passing moment.
A soft bed, a small figure curled in it, white hair strewn across a silken pillow…
A desolate landscape, one filled with death and decay, jagged rocks jutting from the earth.,.
Names. Voices. Memories. They all merged and thundered through his mind all at once and left him dazed, confused and filled with an undeniable pain.
"A new ward is coming to Nördliche Burg, a son of a major Valean Lord."
"What is his name? Does father want to marry me off to him?"
"No little one, not yet at least. His name is Jaune Arc."
Flashes. A younger Klein, less greys in his hair. A child-like Weiss, looking up to the man who raised them both with a concerned look.
"They have broken through our defences, the followers of the false idols approach Your Eternalness."
"I see. Ready the Acolytes for a last stand Crimson. Fight well, and I will ensure the Callows bloodline will be etched into the fabric of the universe."
"As my Goddess commands."
Red. Blood. A world lit aflame. Two armies of colossal proportions, a rout, a defeat. So much blood, so much death, so much loss. A generation wasted.
"H-Hi, um, Your M-Majesty. I'm Jaune, Jaune Arc."
"Weiss Schnee. You may refer to me as Princess or Your Majesty."
"Of course Princess, though i-if I'm being honest you look more like an angel than a Princess."
Warmth. Comfort. A young Jaune before a young Weiss, one blurting out words out of fear for the girl who could have him executed and the other utterly befuddled by the others apparent weirdness.
"I should've known it would be you four they'd send. Rose, Xiao-Long, Belladonna and Schnee. What happened to your dear old travelling compatriots?"
"They're busy finishing off your cult witch. Today's the day you finally end."
"No. Today is the day a new age is ushered in for Remnant, one in which the Brother Gods aren't even memories and a benign, eternal Queen guides Humanity to greatness."
A duel. A battle. A defeat. Imprisonment. An end of an era. The dawn of a new one.
Faces flashed before him. His eyes bled under the strain of what he was witnessing, blood poured from his ears and nose and his body screamed as he was torn apart by the sheer power of the clash between the storm and the abyss.
Then a searing flame slammed into him and everything fell silent.
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Yang panted, sweaty and smelly but happy. Jaune was okay. He was safe. The dark veins had receded and the wounds on his body were healing under…
Yang blinked. Then she blinked again.
Jaune was glowing. He was surrounded by a glowing, shimmering white light and before her very eyes, the myriad of bruises and cuts on his body began to heal, not even leaving scars or any other blemishes to indicate they were there in the first place.
She stared at Jaune. Then at her hands.
Blake had wondered what she was. Now Yang couldn't help but wonder just what Jaune was.
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Weiss awoke with a start, covered in sweat and feeling exhausted.
Breathing hard, she stumbled over to her desk and poured herself a drink from the jug of wine that had become a fixture in her room over the past few tiring weeks. With shaking hands that spilled more out of the cup than out of it, she put it down and gulped down what she had managed to pour in one swift gulp.
The abyss. She'd been there. It wasn't a dream, the feelings she had felt during her first journey there were the same, and her power had flocked to her like a loyal dog excited to see its owner return home.
But why had Jaune been there? Why had the abyss attacked him, and why had he glowed?
She poured herself another full cup. She doubted even a priest would be able to divine the meaning behind the weird, inexplicable dream.
But at least she knew she could reconnect with her power. All she needed to do now was find out how to control it, how to undo the damage she'd unleashed.
Weiss sighed and pushed away the jug of wine. She had a feeling that come the morning, she was going to need every ounce of her strength if she was to survive the day and manage to connect with her magic as well.
"Be safe Jaune." Weiss whispered, hoping that he could hear somehow. Then she crawled back under her covers and forced herself to sleep.
A/N: Sorry for the shortish chapter, I haven't been able to write as much because of work. I have a performance coming up in the near future so I'm doing my best to put in more hours so it'll go better. Unfortunately, that means I just can't write as much as I used to. Sorry to the people who like this fic but I'll be doing my best in future to do more, just not if it means impacting my work life.
