The members of RWBY were just staring at Jaune. But it wasn't him. His eyes were still glowing red and he had black crack-like marks around them. His face had a broken smile as he looked down at himself with his arms out. He started to clench and unclench his hands, "This vessel isn't bad. And so much aura, it's going to take me much longer to completely incorporate it into myself." He spoke in the same voice as the Draco. He then raised his right arm, still coated in Void, and raised an eyebrow, "Hmmm, this has something to do with his Semblance. I need to know what it can fully do."
Yang was the first one to get a grip and take a step closer to him, "What did you do to Jaune?" she hissed.
His red eyes flicked over from his arm to her. He gave her a twisted grin, "Well, its good to know that you're not stupid." He then chuckled, "He's still here. I've just taken his body for my own for a while. I'll be sure to give him back." His grin turned malicious, "After I get everything I need out of him."
Ruby cocked her weapon and glared at him, "Let him go. Now."
"Or what? You'll make me." He chuckled again. "You humans think that you can just force me to do anything. You can't do anything to me now. I'm inside him. So anything you try to do to me will just hurt him and I'll be fine. So feel free and make me."
"How is this even possible?" Weiss said with an angry glare. "Jaune ran you through with his attack."
"He didn't destroy my head, obviously." That just confused them all. "I'll give you a lesson on us Dracos since you are so out of your depth. You see, when a Grimm reaches this level of our evolution, we gain new abilities. The obvious is gaining of blast attack to compliment our beam. But each of us gains a unique ability that no other Grimm possesses." He chuckled. "And mine is Possession, ironically."
Blake just narrowed her eyes, "So, you're just an overgrown Geist then. How underwhelming."
Instead of taking offense, it just laughed, "You wouldn't be too far off. My creation was unusual for my kind and I was a Geist before I became what I am now. But I don't have time for that." He lowered his stance and pulled his right arm back, preparing to attack. "I need to deal with you all and escape."
They all dropped into a defensive stance all knowing what Void could do. But to their confusion, they saw his Void covered arm become enveloped by a purple outline. They knew that only happened when Jaune had to offset Void's destructive nature with his aura. The Grimm looked at the arm in annoyance. "Seems he isn't as easily dominated as I thought. Meddling fool." He hissed angrily.
That's when he rocketed forward at them. Yang took a step to her right for him to miss and Weiss took several steps back. The Grimm slammed the Void fist into the ground, shattering the ground effortlessly. Before they could react, he pulled his arm free and spun to backhand Ruby on his left. She managed to block it with her weapon but she was still send back several feet from the impact.
Before any of them could react, he kept spinning himself until his palm was facing Weiss and red energy started to gather in it quickly. Once it was the size of a softball, he smirked and fire the blast at her. Weiss quickly summoned two Glyphs, one in front of her as a shield and the other underneath her to launch her to the side. The blast shattered the Glyph after a second of resistance and flew into the forest before detonating further.
The four women stared in shock as the Grimm looked down at his Void covered hand with a raised eyebrow. "Haven't been able to create one that powerful before in a vessel. This one is very special." He then clenched his fist and grit his teeth as he focused on creating a Void spike from the back of his wrist, reminiscent of the bone spikes it had in its physical form. It was about twenty inches long and was two inches of at its widest. It then pulled his arm back and pounced towards Blake.
She was able to cross her two blades to catch it and direct it to the side, just missing her cheek. She then put her foot onto his chest and shoved him backwards. As he was off balance, he felt a grip on the back of his cloak and was thrown further away, as he was flying he saw that Yang had been the one to do so. Using the enhanced reflexes of his Void enhanced vessel, he landed in a crouch with little issue and slid back for only a few more feet. He just looked up to them with a smirk, it wasn't afraid. It was excited.
Before he could take off at them again, a series of Dust shots impacted the ground in front of him, creating a smokescreen. Yang lowered her arm and Blake stepped up next to her. Weiss jogged over to them and Ruby appeared next them with the use of her Semblance. "We need a plan. Quick." Yang said out loud.
Ruby quickly took out her scroll to check Jaune's aura level. Her eyes widened, "This isn't good. He has very little aura left in him. If we try to fight him, we may just end up really hurting him or worse."
"At least that thing can't use Void very well." Blake chimed in as she loaded an ice Dust clip into Gambol Shroud. "It took him a lot of concentration to just form that spike. Lets try to immobilize him for now."
"I think that's all we'll be able to do for now." Weiss said in resignation as she spun her chamber to her ice Dust while Ruby did the same as Blake and loaded an ice clip of her own. Weiss eyes locked onto Yang's, "You be careful. You've used your Semblance so your aura is very low. So no crazy antics, got it?"
Yang would've joked but considering the circumstances she just reluctantly nodded, "Alright, alright. I'll try."
Before they could continue, the Grimm possessed Jaune erupted from the smoke towards them with his arm with the spike pulled back. Yang immediately charged forwards. She sidestepped the spike so it would just miss her. She then closed the distance to grapple him. Her right arm went around his stomach as she spun around so her chest was against his back then wrapped her left arm around his throat. It was then she realized his Void hand had already been charging another of its energy attacks.
Her eyes widened but before she could shout, it fired the blast at her team. The sphere of crimson red energy flew towards them like a bullet. Weiss quickly used a Glyph to launch her to the right as Ruby grabbed Blake and flew them both away in a cloud of red and black rose petals. The blast impacted the ground and created a crater, sending the debris flying everywhere. Ruby and Blake were fine considering they're very close to being incorporeal forms but Weiss wasn't so lucky. Several large chunks of rock and dirt collided with her spine sending her to the ground and doing a number on her aura.
"Weiss!" Yang shouted and was unprepared for what was next. In her moment of distraction, Grimm-possessed Jaune bent forward slightly before he kicked off the ground as hard as he could. That forced him off the ground and pushed her off balance and onto the ground. The impact on her back and all of Jaune's weight on her chest made the air leave her lungs temporarily. Her grip loosened and it managed to break free.
She felt his weight shift off her and she felt a hand pushed down on her chest. She opened her eyes to see the glowing red of the Draco stare at her. Jaune's face cracked into a malicious smirk before he pulled his arm back before trying to plunge it into her face. She quickly grabbed his forearm with both of her hands and pushed against it. She could usually overpower Jaune but his Void infused aura pushed his strength just below her's and with him in a more advantageous position, she didn't know if she could do this. Especially with her trying to reclaim her breath after having it knocked out of her.
Before they could find out, a familiar gunshot was heard and he was impacted on his right shoulder. The force pushed him off Yang and back a step or two with his shoulder covered in ice. His eyes snapped over to see Ruby with her sniper out and she fired another shot that covered his other shoulder in ice. He was forced to take another step backwards.
The possessed Jaune started to bat the Dust rounds away with his Void spike, shattering the ice before it could reach him. That's when several different but more frequent gunshots were heard and started to impact his legs, coating them in ice as well. He looked to the side to see Blake running towards him and firing. He started to bring his other hand up to try to create another blast but as he did, a chunk of ice knocked his hand to the side stopping him. He looked to see that Weiss was the cause of this.
Another of Ruby's rounds impacted his stomach and froze the area around it. That was when Blake managed to get behind him. She jumped onto his back, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his chest: one going under his arm and the other going over his shoulder before locking hands over his chest. Before he could try to throw her off, she used her Semblance to leave an ice Shadow on his back, restraining him even more.
They kept firing and soon his entire body was stuck in a giant chunk of ice, only leaving his head free. Jaune tried to struggle against it but he had absolutely no leverage to break free. They all started to walk closer to him. "I think we got him." Blake said out loud with Gambol Shroud still in its kusarigama form, ready to fire if need be.
"So what's our next move?" Yang asked as she looked him over before turning to Ruby.
The reaper thought for a second, "We'll have to watch him until the professors and other teams show up. Once that happens we may be able to incapacitate him long enough to bring him to Professor Ozpin. He may be the only one that can help us with this."
"I think you're right on that." Weiss said thinking this over. "The Professor would probably know what to do and if not, he does have his abilities."
With that said and done, they looked back over to Jaune. He now had his head hanging and his eyes closed. A brief thought of him tiring himself out crossed their minds. But that was when they noticed his eyes where clamped shut and his jaw clenched in determination. That was when the ice around his right arm shattered and went everywhere.
They now saw that the Void that covered his arm had now expanded and was now an ovoid that completely covered his forearm from his elbow down. With his arm free, he quickly smashed the ovoid into his chest, shattering it and sending deep cracks stretching across his arm and down to his legs. Before any of them could bring up their weapons, his whole body tensed up and with a grunt of exertion, he managed to shatter the ice around him. With his freedom returned, he jumped backwards as far as he could.
He landed twenty feet back in a three-point landing, his right arm off to the side as the Void ovoid slowly started to shrink back to covering his arm with the spike once again. He looked down to his left and saw Jaune's remaining APS on the ground. He grinned evilly as he moved his left hand to grab it and stood tall with the Void back to how it was before he was frozen. "Now, let's get serious." Was all he said as he rocketed forwards again.
He landed in front of Yang and she immediately tried to punch him. He managed to duck to the side and grabbed her outstretched arm with his Void one. He flipped her over himself, trying to slam her into the ground. But after all her close quarter combats, she managed to land on her feet. As she turned to look at him, he slammed his foot into her chest as he let go of her arm. That sent her skidding across the ground.
As she stopped, the possessed Jaune was already in front of her, swinging his sword at her from the left. She managed to bring up her gauntlets so the blades scrapped off of them and not her. But that left her open for him to jam his Void spike into her stomach. The impact was enough to lift her off the ground and she released a shocked and painful gasp. He smirk and finished his swing, throwing her a dozen feet away and her aura shattered, leaving her in a heap on the ground.
Yang tried to get back up, her body barely being held up by her shaking arms and legs. The Draco just skulked up to her with that grin still on his face. When he was right beside her, he flipped his sword into a reverse grip, ready to run her through. As he raised his left arm above his head to do so, he felt his arm stop completely, like something was wrapped around it. The Draco looked at the offending limb and growled, "Stay out of this."
That was when the ribbon of Blake's weapon wrapped around his stomach and with a yank, he was pulled away from Yang. As he was pulled through the air, he looked over his shoulder to see both Blake and Ruby preparing for him. He grinned again and as his feet scraped against the ground, he leapt towards them with both his weapons ready.
Both saw this and fired more of their ice rounds at him. He started to parry them with the APS and with every shot, it became more and more covered with ice. When the sword was more ice than metal, he saw Weiss running up to help assist her teammates. He pulled his arm back and threw it with all his enhanced strength. It flew past the red and black members of RWBY and directly towards the white member.
Her eyes widened and she held Myrtenaster in front of her as some sort of defense. The frozen sword smashed into her rapier, shattering the ice but still making her skid back across the ground. By some miracle or luck, the sword bounced off her's and was spinning through the air, back towards him. He jumped and caught it before coming down on the two Huntresses-in-training below him. The two saw this happen before they turned back, just in time to defend themselves. Blake blocked the Void spike, yet again, by crossing her blades. While Ruby caught the blade on the snaith of Crescent Rose.
The Draco was using all of Jaune's strength to try to break their defenses and the two women were doing everything they could to try to stop him. That was when a Glyph appeared below him. He looked over to see that Weiss had impaled her blade into the ground to create it and he could see the Glyph itself was slowly releasing mist. Realizing instantly what their plan was, he decided he wouldn't let them try the same thing twice.
He quickly pulled his arms back from his opponents. Without the resistance Ruby and Blake were fighting against, they stumbled forward. The Draco quickly grabbed the fronts of their shirts and pulled them down to the ground while he used them as a springboard to free himself from the Glyph, since the boots his vessel were wearing were already starting to freeze. Blake and Ruby were both half sprawled on the ground and were quickly freezing to it now, Weiss' Glyph was now at full power and was creating ice much quicker.
Weiss saw this happen and quickly pulled her blade free to cancel out the Glyph. However it was a little too late since Blake and Ruby were half frozen on the ground. As she did that, the possessed blond landed behind her, grin still in place. She turned in shock but he just swung his right arm and caught her in the spine with the entire length of his spike. Spit flew from her mouth with a pained groan as her aura took a heavy hit. She flew over her teammates as they cried, "Weiss!", before she landed ten or so feet from them on her stomach.
After a few seconds, she tried to get up but felt a boot settled into the small of her back, pushing her to the ground painfully. Then a second boot kicked her weapon from her hand. The action pushing Jaune's full weight into her back causing her to cry out in pain. "Now, now. Just stay there and I may make this as painless as possible."
She looked over her shoulder and saw the possessed Jaune grinning down at her before his head slowly turned to her teammates who were still frozen to the ground. He raised his Void arm and started to channel crimson energy into it. But it was taking much longer than before. He was going to be sure those two wouldn't make it by using his beam variant. Silver and amber eyes widened in fear and they started to struggle more. Weiss started to do the same, desperate to do anything to save them.
The grin just grew on Jaune's face. The Draco just savoring the slew of negative emotions coming from the trio. Although the grin slipped when his arm started to shake sporadically. It then slowly but surely started to move to his right and away from its targets. The Draco growled and used all of its will to try to bring it back. It was a literal battle of wills, Jaune's and the Draco's. "Stop fighting and obey!" the Draco snapped.
As the Draco was struggling to get its new body under control, Jaune's voice started to slip through his own lips, "I won't… Let you… Hurt them…"
In the struggle, neither entity realized someone was closing in on them until the fist impacted their shared face. Yang screamed, "Not today!" as she did. The two went flying and the beam fired on reflex. The beam smashed into the ground only five feet away from Blake before it tore up the ground behind them in an arc before the arm went into the air. The beam cut through several trees before flying harmlessly into the air.
Jaune's body landed only ten feet or so from them and his APS fell from his hand, sliding a few feet away. Yang was taking deep breaths and stood between him and her team, "Weiss, get Blake and Ruby out of that ice." Weiss quickly nodded and ran over to them as she picked up her weapon.
Jaune's body started to glow with a faint outline of dark purple before he slowly got back to his feet and Yang quickly dropped into her boxer stance again. She was out of aura but she wouldn't let this thing get to her teammates. She heard a weak but happy chuckle come from him, "Thanks for that, Yang. I really needed that."
Yang froze but stayed on guard, "Jaune, is that really you?"
He was finally back on his feet and looked at her. The markings around his eyes were still there but his eyes were the borderline black they usually were when he used Void. He gave her a small smile, "Yeah, it's me, Sun Fire." Yang smiled brightly before Jaune grew serious, "But not for long. Your punch gave me the chance to take back control but it's literally taking everything I have to hold it back right now." He said through gritted teeth.
Yang nodded, "Okay, what to you need me to do?" Their eyes met and he just stared at her with an intensity she had rarely seen. Her eyes widened as it all clicked. "No. No, Jaune, I can't."
"You have to." He told her simply. "I can't hold it much longer. This is your only chance or we'll all die."
"No." She said in finality. "We can find another way. We can make this right."
"And how would you do that? Yang we are almost out of time before that thing gets control again. We have no other options." Jaune told her with a deathly serious tone.
Yang's hands were shaking as her eyes started to tear up, "This… This isn't how this is supposed to go, Jaune. It isn't fair."
He nodded slightly, "I know. I know." He said tiredly as he started to undo his chest plate. It fell to the ground with a clatter. "It shouldn't be you. But it needs to be." His own eyes started to tear up, "Please, Yang. I don't want to hurt you, any of you."
Yang just stared at him for a few more seconds before she shakily reached over her shoulder and drew Kakiri. She felt the blade would be less painful than her shotguns. She was preparing for her swing as he gave her a sad smile, "Thank you. Don't think about it as hurting me. You're saving me."
Yang gave a weak nod before taking a deep breath to try to steady herself. She gave a cry as she charged towards him, blade aimed at his heart. He closed his eyes and tried to relax as much as he could, waiting for the inevitable to happen. A tear slid down his face as he heard Yang's footfalls stop and he prepared for the familiar pain of being run through. But the pain never came.
He opened his eyes again to see that Yang had stopped short and the point of her blade was just an inch away from his chest. The sword and her arm were shaking. He looked up to see her whole body shaking and tears running down her cheeks, "I-I can't… I c-can't do i-it." She said in a broken tone. Jaune's eyes widened in fear before he gripped his head with a shout of pain. "Jaune!" Yang shouted as she lowered her arm and reached out for him.
That was when his left hand shot out and gripped her by her throat. She gave a choked cry and dropped her sword to try to claw at the hand crushing her throat. She was slowly lifted off her feet and when she looked into Jaune's eyes, they were the glowing red of the Draco once again. A smirk stretched across his face again, "Too bad. That was your only chance." He positioned the Void spike to be ready to go through her heart.
Ruby, Blake and Weiss were just staring on in shock. They had to do something, anything. Blake and Weiss were desperately trying to figure something out to save their friend and boyfriend. Meanwhile, Ruby just stared on in horror. She was about to see her sister die. She was going to lose another person she loves and she could do nothing about it. She was shaking as tears slowly fell from her eyes. The fear of losing someone mixed with her desire to save Yang and Jaune, awoken something ancient inside of her. With an ear-piercing scream of "NO!", her silver eyes started to shine before a bright light was released from them.
The silver light engulfed Weiss and Blake before continuing to rush on. The Draco's eyes widened in shock and primal fear as the light overtook it. The light died down a few seconds later with Ruby falling to the ground unconscious. At the same time, Yang was dropped to her knees and started to cough like crazy, trying to get as much air as possible back into her lungs. Meanwhile, Jaune was gripping his head in pain while shouting at the top of his lungs, his own voice overlapping with the Draco's.
He fell to his knees and nearly doubled over, grunting and snarling. The Void slowly started to fade away as his aura started to seep back into his body. Until finally, he threw his arms to the sides and his head went back as Jaune's voice shouted and the Grimm essence started to erupt from his shoulder, the same one he was stabbed in by the Draco. The essence erupted in a steady stream before flying away a good forty to forty-five feet and lingering in a huge cloud.
Jaune's arms went limp as his head kept looking up at the sky. Yang slowly crawled over to him before gently taking his hands, "Jaune, are you okay? Please, say something."
He gently returned the pressure as his head lowered and he looked into her eyes. His back to their usual blue and just stared at her in shock, "Y-yeah. I'm back. But how?"
Before they could think further about that, they heard a familiar roar. They quickly snapped over to see that the Grimm essence reformed back into the Draco, how it looked originally, although most of the damage it received was still present. Smoke was still slowly coming off of it, showing how bad a shape it was in. "I've had enough! To hell with you all!" With that, it opened its maw and started to charge its deep crimson energy beam.
Jaune and Yang stared on in shock. Before Jaune's body acted on its own, quickly standing up and between the Grimm and the four women behind him. His Semblance activated and his eyes shifted to red. He pulled his hands back to his sides with his fingers curved in. Flames ignited in his palms and with a shout, he threw his arms forward and released a stream of fire towards the Creature of Darkness.
The flames slammed into its chest but the beast didn't stop charging its attack. Either it was ignoring the pain or the flames were doing nothing. This was bad, he was burning through the last of his aura quickly. He had barely an eighth of his maximum and he was running out of time.
Yang was just staring at Jaune's back as he was releasing a near hellish flame upon the Grimm but to no avail. Her fists clenched the dirt below her as she started to shake, 'This can't be it. We've just risked everything to get him back. Hell, we just got him back in our lives after so long. I can't let him die. Let us all die. I can't, I won't be the little girl that needs saving. Not again.' Yang thought to herself.
With that thought of desperation, she felt something stir inside of her. Something foreign. Time almost slowed down and she started to fixate on it. It felt like aura but it didn't feel like her own. It made her feel a sense of security and warmth which was peculiar all things considered. As she felt this unique energy stir, she also felt like there was another source of this energy nearby, just outside her senses. And in that moment, she felt the energy reach out to the other source.
Jaune was still struggling with trying to kill the Grimm with his flames. As his aura was still weakening, he felt it stir unusually. He caught this in the back of his mind and felt it slowly trying to reach out to something nearby. Something behind him. He looked over his shoulder at Yang and felt the very unnatural feeling of his aura inside her. At that moment, the aura inside him connected to the aura inside Yang and both gasped.
At that moment, Jaune felt the aura in Yang surge into him and revitalizing him just a bit. In the same token, Yang felt some of that energy leave her but something else surge into her. Not aura. But something many times more powerful.
Yang's eyes turned red without the use of her semblance and red glowing flames surrounded her right eye. And as if to mirror that, Jaune's own left eye erupted in the same glowing flames. As the energy surged through Yang, she looked down and her hands erupted into fire. Not questioning this in the slightest, Yang stood up and beside her boyfriend. Throwing her fists forwards and releasing her own stream of fire. The second stream hit the Grimm and a roar of pain erupted from its jaws, slowing down the energy beam's formation.
Jaune looked over to her in confusion and Yang looked at him in return. Their red and glowing eyes stared into each other before they nodded. They both turned back to the Grimm, pulling their hands back before thrusting them forward again with shouts from both.
The two streams fused together into one stream three times the size they were doing individually. The massive stream collided with the Draco, causing it to stop forming its attack and throw its head into the air as it roared out in unrestrained pain. It was soon consumed with fire with it now looking like a massive bonfire. As more and more fire washed over it, they saw its body start to break apart and even turn to smoke.
As most of its body was smoke now, Jaune threw his hands above his head, making the flames already on it to erupt skyward in a tower of fire. In that moment, Yang pulled her hands down and cutting off her stream of fire. Once he saw that, he started to move his hands in circular motions, turning the tower into a tornado of fire. Weiss and Blake just stared in awe at the elemental display and being reminded how powerful Jaune could be when push came to shove.
After a minute or so of this, Jaune lowered his arms and the flames slowly died down. The ground where the Draco just stood was nothing more than scorched earth and every one still conscious knew that the Draco was dead. For good this time.
Jaune and Yang both gave sighs of relief. They turned to each other with small grins. After a second of so, the flames around their respective eyes extinguished. Their eyes faded back to lilac and blue before they rolled back into the heads. They then collapsed to the ground, unconscious and spent.
Weiss and Blake looked from the blonde couple to their unconscious leader beside them. They then looked at each other and just looked at each other in shock. Weiss was the one to ask the question, "What the hell just happened?"
A/N- And here it is! Sorry for the long wait and the cliffhanger I left it on. I'll be the first to admit it, I can be a real asshole. I hope this makes up for it. Had this chapter planned out way back in TES and it was a pain to write. Don't ask me why though because i have no clue why. And you probably all have questions after this chapter. Don't worry, those will be answered in the next chapter.
Now for those of you that don't know, I have a poll on my profile to see what story you all would want me to write next. So, feel free to head over and leave your votes. It'll be up for another couple of weeks so you still have time. With all that said I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you all in the next update!