Unnatural

Drama / Supernatural

Jaune Arc / Saphron Cotta-Arc /

Jaune always felt out of place in his family as the youngest and only boy in the Arc family. While everyone was strong and healthy he was constantly bed ridden. In and out of the emergency room, with varying lengths of stay in the PICU. He was fragile, weak and babied. It was on his eighth birthday that he found out the truth. His seven sisters... six of them were actually his aunts. One was his mother. On that day everything in his life changed... except for one thing. His dream of being a huntsman.

/==/

Jaune was hacking and coughing. His chest seizing and pain burning through his lungs. He could taste the iron of blood in his mouth; a taste he was intimately familiar with. He didn't have a destination and just kept running, feeling his fragile body starting to break from the strenuous activity. Tripping over something on the uneven woodland trail he crashed face first into the leaf covered ground. His body screamed in protest as he tried to get back to his feet. He made it to his knees before he threw up. Bile, the remains of his birthday cake, mucus, phlegm and blood splattered the ground between his hands as he held himself up. As he struggled to breath his mind replayed the events that lead to his current situation...

"Saphron." Jasmine Arc, matriarch of the Arc clan addressed her oldest. "It's time. You need to tell him the truth."

"I can't do that to him. I can't."

"Do it to him, or admit the truth to yourself?"

"You KNOW what dad did to me! I see it every fucking night! I can still feel him touching me!"

"I do, and that's why the fucking bastard is sitting in a cell for the rest of his life, and IF he ever gets out, he wont be around long enough to be a threat to you girls, or Jaune."

"Then why? Saphron shouted back at her mother. "Jaune's happy, he's better off not knowing how he came to be! Why punish him, punish me for something neither of us wanted or asked for?"

"He's YOUR son Saph! Your son!" Jasmine snapped at her eldest. "It's time you took full responsibility for him! You're nineteen! Time to be what Jaune needs!"

"Yeah I'm nineteen with a eight year old son, given to me by the bastard who FATHERED ME!" Saphron was beyond upset, she was neigh on hysterical, "WHY didn't your stop him! You had to see what he was doing! Why mom? WHY?""

"I did stop him... when I caught on! If you're uncles hadn't been there I would have killed the fucker!"

"Not good enough!" Saphron screamed. "I'm not telling my son that not only is he a bastard, but that his father is a fucking incestuous pedophile! He's so weak already... that'll outright kill him! Is that what you want? For me to stress him out so badly that he dies, and you can ignore your MISTAKE!"

The slap echoed about the small den the pair of women were arguing in. But it was what was heard after that caused both of them to stiffen. A small, sharp, pained intake of breath. They turned and a double set of blue eyes took in the slim, sickly looking form of an eight year old boy, clutching a rather creepy looking redheaded doll in his arms, whose whole world had just been crushed around him. Tears were starting to roll down his cheeks, as his small body started to shake. It was obvious to the two women that he had heard it all.

"Jaune!" the pair shouted as the boy bolted down the hallway.

Jaune continued to gasp, hack, cough and choke. Trying with all the strength of his underdeveloped body to rise and continue running. But it failed him. Falling to his side, he shivered. He was feeling cold now. His body heavy, it was getting harder and harder to breath properly. He wrapped around the one thing that always gave him comfort as his eyes rolled back into his head as his body started to convulse. He never saw the shadow that fell over him, nor felt the slim pale white, black nailed finger that caressed his cheek.

/=/

Jaune woke with a start, memories of fights and arguments fresh in his mind. Taking a few breaths, he attempted to calm his thudding heart. It took him another minute to gather his bearings and understand he was not home, but in his Beacon dorm, Rolling on to his side, he reached out and picked up his scroll from the nightstand. The time showed him that it was just after midnight. He also noticed the three chat notifications, all from Saphron.

"Sorry mom." he whispered as he swiped making the notifications vanish off his screen. Things had been strained between the pair for several years after the fateful reveal, but eventually they were able to bring things into the open between them. Jaune heard the depth of Saphron's abuse at the hands of his father, who had had also been hers. It was still a sore topic, and hard for him to reconcile that he was not only the result of a rape, but also incest. He was a noose around Saphron's neck. A reminder of a time that she never wanted to remember. It was a feeling that seemed to be echoing in his mind about his team.

He came to Beacon on a whim. He just wanted to be away from his family. From the smothering. He was the baby, or was. Terra his mom's wife was pregnant with a child they wanted. Not a bastard like him. Setting his scroll down he shifted in his bed, and sat up; setting his bare feet on the floor. He could smell the sweat and soaps his teammates were using. He could hear the rustle of the sheets as they all breathed. Closing his eyes and opening them his vision had sharpened. The dim blurriness of before replaced with a black and white sharpness. Looking down he held out his hands palm up. He could see and feel the razor like claws that his nails had become.

He didn't know anything that had happened after he collapsed in the forest that day almost ten years ago. All he did know was after being comatose for three days he awoke, and miraculously he was healthier than he had ever been. But there had been other changes as well. It was three weeks after the incident that was when he first saw her. It was late, and he was having trouble sleeping. His body was tense and felt off. So he got up and went to the bathroom. He almost cracked his skull on the edge of the tub when she appeared in the mirror.

Completely black doll like eyes without pupils, framed with alabaster skin, and a mane of flowing crimson red hair stared back at him. She smiled at his showing off her mouth full of shark like teeth. He was near panicking when she stepped out of the mirror and cupped the side of his face with her black nailed hand. A moment later Jaune felt a second hand cup the other side of his face. His deep blue eyes centred on her black eyes, being drawn into their endless depth.

"Who are you? What do you want?" he whispered in a fearful voice.

"I'm Annabel, and I want you Jaune." her words comforting and alluring.

It was that night he stopped carting around the creepy doll. Though it never left his room, sitting in an immaculately kept corner on a child sized rocking chair, with a clear view of his entire room. Looking as if it was keeping guard of the young boy.

He smiled at the memory, even as he could feel his mouth was now filled with shark like teeth. He knew he needed to centre himself. It was only under duress and stress did he loose the ability to control the more physical transformations that his merging with Annabel caused.

"I'm hungry, Jaune." came the soft seductive voice only he could hear. He knew if he went into the bathroom and peered into the mirror he would see her. "It's been forever since we've hunted."

Closing his eyes and slowing his breathing, he focused. The changes faded, as if they never existed. There was never any pain when they materialized, it was just as if that was how his body was supposed to be. The fusion with Annabel had cured him. Fixed his weak lungs and frail bones, but for a price. He didn't know what to call her. A spirit? A ghost? A Demon? It'd didn't matter much at this point. It had been basically ten years since the events that changed his life.

Finally feeling back in control, he opened his eyes. Things were back to normal. His vision having returned to what it had always been before the changes. He sighed. When he allowed her to manifest he felt so capable. But he was still learning the full extent of her powers, and to use them without proper control would be dangerous, so he continued to be a burden on his team.

"You are not a burden." came the dark yet sweet voice. "But I am still hungry."

"You didn't need to feed this much before?" Jaune pointed out.

"There were not enough... morsels in Ansel to wet my appetite, beside what grimm there was around Ansel were was more than enough to tide me over until now."

"But?"

"There is so much corruption, perversion, sadism, illicit and immoral want; so close, it is wetting my appetite. I'm becoming famished."

Annabel had warned him about the possibility; before he had run from home, using every cent of his savings to get transcripts to allow him into Beacon. The more negative aspects of the mortal condition that surrounded him, the more she would crave. He had always wanted to be a huntsman. Even when his body was frail and rife with illness. His mother, Saphron had gone nuclear when he announced his attention to attend Beacon, followed by his grandmother Jasmine and all his aunts. He had been fifteen at the time.

Always watched by his family; and unable to actually train aside from studying books he had to sneak in from the library... he was well below even lowest least skilled of the first years. He needed to train harder, and longer. As cute and enchanting as he found Weiss Schnee, she was a distraction. If he wanted to live his dream, he needed to smarten up and buckle down. He wasn't afraid of the work he would need to put in. The supernatural forces that reversed the sickness within him would help him recover from any training he did. What he needed was someone who could show him how to fight properly. Books and videos could only do so much, and so far it was just making him look like the anchor around Pyrrah, Nora and Ren's necks... holding them back from the success they should be achieving.

"Jaune."

"What is it Annabel?"

"You're not holding them back. You're holding yourself back, and I'm hungry."

"How am I? Ah, never mind. Let me get my shoes, there should be some grimm..."

"No."

"No? It's always slated you before."

"I need something more substantial. Grimm are junk food, no substance..."

"You want to go to Vale."

"I need to go to Vale."

"Fine. I know I'm not going to win this. Let me get changed." Jaune sighed, and closing his eyes he let her traits to manifest. Opening his eyes he once again could see perfectly in the darkness. Rising in silence he pulled a small box out from under his bed and went into the bathroom. The discussion in his mind over.

/=/

She was shaking in fear as the pair of dog faunus closed the distance with her. She had run, her filthy bare feet sore from impacts with pavement and concrete. She knew she should have stayed hidden, waited for morning, but she was just so hungry. The couple had approached her when she was digging through a dumpster behind a dive of a restaurant. They offered to buy her a meal, and at first she wanted to accept it, but then she saw the look in their eyes. So she ran, and made a wrong turn. Now trapped she watched as the couple closed on her.

"She is pretty for a street rat... we'll have to wash her though before we have our fun."

"Don't we always... I bet once we get her revved up, she be more than happy to entertain us, what do you think Ivy?"

"She is a rabbit faunus, so of..."her words were strangled off causing her partner to stop his approach on the terror stricken preteen girl before him. He started to turn around, and was greeted by a wet squelch, and then a sight from a horror movie.

"Ivy?" his heart stilled, as he saw his girlfriend of several years twitching, her shirt slit open exposing her naked breasts... and something dark latched on to her. It looked like whomever had crept up on them was groping his woman, but something deep inside, something primal told him that wasn't the case. Ivy's eyes were wide with absolute fear, her mouth open in a soundless screams.

In the shadows of the alley, squeezing herself into a corner surrounded by refuse, the young rabbit faunus watched as one of her two would be assailants slid to the ground limp, like a puppet with its strings cut. The hooded figure then moved, becoming like smoke and passing through the other one like he didn't exist. She squeezed her eyes shut at the wet sounds that suddenly filled the trash cluttered alley. Just as she sealed her eyes shut she saw it attack.

/=/

Cameron knew better to question the feminine but obvious male figure that walked through the front doors and into the lobby of the rundown hotel he owned. In his arms a passed out street urchin. He knew every time he showed up a body would soon be found. He shivered knowing that the figure that answered to the name Anna was killing, but he also knew as soon as the investigation started the victim would be revealed as a predator of some type, most often of children.

"Usual?" he asked in as steady a voice as he could manage. Even if this had happened before, it still was unnerving looking into Anna's completely black eyes.

"Yes, please."

"All right, I'll wake the missus. We'll get her cleaned up, fed, and then get social services involved." Cameron knew what to expect next. A handful of lien chips dropped on the front desk, all taken from whomever Anna had... dealt with.

"Thank you." Anna replied as he pulled his hood back, revealing the what Camera would call a beautiful almost angelic face framed with crimson and blond hair, if he didn't know the truth. "Have there been any issues around here?"

"Nothing."

"That's good to hear. If something does..."

"I'll message you." Cameron paused, cleared his throat and decided to just go for it. "Why? Why do you do this?"

"I made a promise. Innocence should be protected. Too much is lost in this world. Too much is cruelly ripped away." Anna replied as she set the young girl down carefully on the lobby couch. He knew she would soon be looked after by Cameron's wife Joy.

"You can't save everyone, you do understand that?"

"I can save those that I can."

/=/

Saphron Cotta-Arc was worried. Jaune her son, her first born wasn't speaking with her, or at least he wasn't answering her texts. She knew she had pushed when he announced his dream. Her heart had nearly crushed itself when it sank in,what he wanted to do. As much as she hated the man for what he did, she couldn't help but want to protect Jaune. He was hers, the one good thing that came out of that terrible and scarring time. Even after he ran away, he still messaged her every few days, letting her know he was safe. Saphron also knew her boy wasn't alone. She shivered remembering that meeting. The day Annabel had manifested to her. The entity had been drawn to their collective pain, and offered an agreement to the young mother and her son; only after making it clear she was already part of Jaune.

"When!" Saphron shouted at the very feminine looking version of her son standing before her, clad in an ankle length nightshirt; standing in the centre of the darkened hallway.

"The day he found our his true parentage. The day you found him near death on that forest trail. The same day that your heart broken and you truly accepted that he was yours." Saphron shivered, as her own deep blue eyes were drawn to the black pools of that formed Annabel's. "I have grown fond of Jaune, after all these years of watching him. I want to help him, and I will protect him."

"You've suffered so," the voice was soft, caring and seductive. The figure approached and gently caressed the teen mother's cheek with black coloured nails. "Let me help you both. I saved your child. Fixed his tortured body... bless our union and I can grant your deepest desire. I can make HIM pay for all the pain he has caused you both."

"I don't..."

"Seal my pact with Jaune. Bless it with a mother's kiss, and I will follow his desire. A desire to protect... by hunting the predators of the most innocent. Diseased corruptions like you father." Annabel smiled wickedly as she watched a flash of murderous rage appear in Saphron's eyes. "I can even make a special example of that parasite if you wish."

"I do, but he's in Vale, there is no..."

"Give Jaune a mother's kiss. Bless and accept out pact. I will find a way to give you your vengeance."

"Why though? You've already said..."

"It will make us stronger. Fuse us as one, so there will be no battle for control. Our wills will merge, my strength will flow into him, as his compassion will flow into me. We will share his body and mind equally... instead of me consuming them." Annabel could see indecision in Saphron's eyes. So she played her final card. "I have him already, so you can either protect him, or watch as I twist and consume him. With out his will, and compassion... everyone will be come prey."

"I agree." Saphron choked out.

"Then I accept." Annabel responded as she grabbed Saphron pulling head head down and in a blink kissed her full on the lips. Her teeth drawing blood from Saphron's and her own lips. Slowly she drew back making sure their mixed blood coated Saphron's lips. "Kiss him as his mother. Embrace your child. Seal the deal. Protect him and make those who are like you father pay."

Saphron straightened herself as Annabel's influence faded away leaving Jaune as he normally was standing before her. Slowly she lowered herself to one knee, and reached out. She reached out and pulled him into her chest, wrapping him in the first real hug she had ever given him. Softly she brushed her blood coated lips against his forehead. She whispered into his ear, and he began to sob. His arms reaching out around her as far as they could go.

Saphron blinked her eyes pushing the memory of that day back. She looked at her scroll again as she stood before the bedroom window, basking in the light of a shattered moon. She lifted her eyes from her scroll to gaze at the form of her slumbering pregnant wife. Turning from the peace that was her wife, back to the worry that was the unanswered messages on her scroll. Biting her lip, she decided to send one more message. Hoping this one would get her a response. Her thumbs tapped out the words using the on screen keyboard.

(Jaune... I need you to slow down. You and Annabel are going to draw too much attention. That's five in two months, unless there are others that haven't been reported. I almost lost you once, I was lucky Annabel stepped in to bring you back to me. I AM not going to lose you a second time. Slow down. Please. I Love You.)

With that sent. She closed the chat program, collapsed her scroll and moved to return to bed. As she climbed in a snuggled up to her wife. She still had doubts, but the years since the agreement was made had worn them almost completely away. No all she worried about was Jaune running into something or someone, that even with Annabel at his side; he wouldn't be able overcome.

/=/

It was 4am and Blake was terrified. She had gotten up, her sleep troubled by memories of her time with the White Fang. She had decided to take a walk through the silent corridors of Beacon only to run into a shadowed figure. One that reminded her of a more feminine looking Jaune Arc... which was only the tip of the iceberg. Her slightly enhanced senses picked up on the unnaturalness of the figure, and instantly she was put into a fight of flight response. She chose flight, but in the shadowed hallways there was no real way to get away. No matter which direction she took off in; whomever the figure was would easily be able to follow her. It was no like being in the bush, or the streets.

"Blake?" the voice was soft, and reminded her of JNPR's goofy leader, but she was too afraid to answer. "Why are you up so early? Is something wrong?"

She started to take a step backwards, getting ready to turn on her heels and just bolt. Hoping deep inside she was fast enough to get away from whomever this was speaking in the voice of her sister teams leader. She never got the chance. Black nailed fingers closed about her throat, and forced her back first to the wall. She was trapped.

"You have the scent of shattered innocence on you..."Amber eyes started in the black pools that sat where the figures eyes should have been.

/==/

Sorry for the long absence. I am working on "Monster" and "Secrets (Revamp). I hope to have a chapter out for "Secrets (Revamp) before mid week, and if I can get my act together one for 'Monster" by the weekend.

RL has been interesting... I'm trying to find work, and balance out things... plus the drive to write/create has been lack lustre these last few weeks. This is something I had written awhile ago, I just did a few tweaks and felt I should post something to let you know I am still here, and soldiering on.

Slightly shorter than my other posts. 5k words is hard to keep up each time, so I'm goign to try and see how recemptive 3k to 4k chapters are. Some still might be more. This just gives me a guideline as to what I hope is acceptable. Anyway... I'm still around... hope you enjoy.

As always comments, critiques, and suggestions are more than welcome.