Hello.
I do apologize for this not getting updated. It just never one any of my polls. In fact, this story is part of the reason I decided to focus only on wrapping up the current arcs of each current story instead of getting new ones going.
RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum.
Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate belongs to Kouta Hirano.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
Current ages
Winter-17
Weiss-2
Qrow-25
Chapter 5: Rent Collection
If Winter had to describe the past 2 and a half months, it would be with one word.
Chaos.
Even the weeks it took to make arrangements for the SDC and Hellsing during her training trip were hectic. So many people to contact, most of them outside of Atlas. It was a lot, especially considering it was the first thing she was doing after taking over. Ironic.
It didn't help that quite a few parties still tried to change her mind, including Ironwood and the council itself. The former for the same reasons he tried to convince Winter to stay, and the latter because the SDC still held political power in Atlas. Some members only got their position because of Jacques, and now that was being threatened with his scandal. And so they tried to get Winter's ear to convince her to endorse them. She turned them down obviously.
Finally, she got things in order and was able to leave. After kissing Weiss goodbye, she set off, resolved to not return until she was stronger, her only companion being her weapon and Jaune who remained inside her own shadow.
When they left, she gave him specific orders that, for the duration of the trip, he was to focus on making her stronger rather than protecting her as he normally would. Even adding that he was not to save her unless he was absolutely certain she would die without his assistance. With that, the most brutal period of her life had begun.
To be fair, he didn't make her walk across the icy continent and permitted her to use air travel to go to the continent of Mistral. But the moment they landed he directed her towards the wilds, not even stopping to rest as the city of Argus where they landed. From then on it was one thing after another. Sometimes he would give direct instructions on how to survive the wilderness, how to observe the land and determine what passed through. Other times he would be quiet and just watch as she fought Grimm after Grimm. Sometimes he was out watching from a distance, other times he would watch from her shadow. Only when she was really struggling with a certain Grimm did he do anything, only to give verbal hints that she had to figure out for herself. If she couldn't figure it out, he would save her, only to literally throw her into another fight with no rest or worse mock her all night with his snide commentary.
The human enemies were a different story. On the one hand, Jaune did not provide any hint at all though he still followed the orders of saving her at the last second. And that involved eating the criminals. Even when she did not need his help, he would finish them off, regardless of whether or not she was going to end their lives. Back when she first awakened him she was more concerned with survival and didn't mind him devouring the mercenary. But now she found herself disgusted with his actions yet forced to accept it. The first few times she could not stop herself from throwing up, but it didn't take too long before she only felt discomfort. Looking back, it was surprising that there were enough bandits for that to happen so quickly. She even considered her Hellsing heritage to be a factor. She didn't know much about it but considering those ancestors were the ones to bind someone like Jaune, they had to have had an unimaginable amount of courage.
Which made things more unsettling with Jaune not being with her at this moment. It wasn't just that she could not see him while he was hiding, he was actually not there. Not even in the shadows of the woods as she sat by her campfire.
And it wasn't a sudden thing either. He told her that he would be absent for a short amount of time, and it was surprising. Not just the fact that he would do something like that, but also that it was not a request at all. He did say that she was in an area where his help would not be needed, but still…
"I suppose I should enjoy this small bit of privacy while I can." She sighed at last, mentally boosting herself, cancelling out the bit of negative energy that would have started attracting Grimm to her location. "Still," she mused outloud. "where could he possibly be and what business could be so important that he acts like this?"
Meanwhile…
Deep in the Grimmlands, as mass of land where Grimm thrived and the land itself seemed to be a creature of Grimm, stood a castle. Not just any castle, but a grand black castle, one that fit the land perfectly despite being a human construct. Despite its size, the number of inhabitants could be counted on two fingers.
One was a gangly faunus with black hair, a scorpion tail, and an ever-present look of insane glee on his face. This was Tyrian Callows, serial killer extraordinaire.
The other was a strange mix of human and Grimm. She had the body of an adult woman, her yet skin and hair as white as bone making her blood red eyes and the veins stand out even more. Salem, ruler of the Grimm.
As she sat at the head of the grand table in the main room of the castle, Tyrian rubbed his hands and bowed eagerly. His precious goddess only ever called for him like this for serious matters. Matters that needed his certain…touch.
"Tyrian," she spoke, putting a smile on the Faunus's face. "We have guests coming."
"Rest assured I will personally take care of them." He replied, already planning how to destroy the heretic who would dare defile the goddess's territory.
"You will do nothing." She declared, her words cutting his line of thought and striking his soul.
"But-but-"
"If you attack him, I won't interfere and save you." She stated coldly, her expression remaining one of absolute seriousness. Having rarely seen her be like this, Tyrian forced himself to become silent, mind racing. Was Ozpin himself on his way? Regardless of what she said, Tyrian vowed he would not let anyone dare even touch his beloved goddess much less threaten here.
That's when they heard the doors to the castle itself open. No knock or thud, just the sound of them swinging wide open without any sort of struggle. It wasn't long before the sound of footsteps could be heard heading for this very room. Yet, despite the casually normal pace pace, they seemed to be getting closer abnormally fast. Tyrian could not help but get into position ready to strike when needed, yet Salem did not even glance at him. Her attention remained on the room's door.
Soon they swung wide open, and no one was pushing it. In fact, the man that walked in had his hands inside the pockets of his red coat, a grin wider than even Tyrians.
"Honey~ I'm home!" He called out cheerily.
"How dare you address my mistress like that!" Tyrian cried out on pure instinct. In fact, he was about to lunge forward.
"Final warning Tyrian." Salem spoke, interrupting him. "I won't stop you from getting destroyed." Her words made the man turn towards her and bow deeply.
"You concern honors my Lady Salem." He replies with complete devotion yet disappointment in his voice. And Jaune watched this with an amused expression on his face.
"I see your pets these days are harder to control." He taunted. "Just make sure they don't ruin the carpets. I'd hate having to get rid of my first and only tennant."
"What are you-!"
"The castle is his Tyrian." Salem interjected before the scorpion faunus could say anything. "Or to be more precise, this is part of his castle." Her words shocked Tyrian.
"Surely this is a joke my goddess?" He pleaded. "Someone like you should never need to use some else's property. You can easily create a castle of your own!"
"She could." Jaune interrupted. "But it would take quite a long time and not be as good." He grinned mockingly. "My dear castle here has certain…properties that she could not quite do on her own."
As if to prove a point, the doors closed behind him all on their own, and a table slid over, the bottle of wine that sat atop pouring itself into a glass which Jaune picked up and drank in one go.
"Why else do you think that body snatching wizard didn't just destroy this place in the past?" He added mockingly.
"I know why you're here." Salem spoke up at last while standing up from her chair.
"Sounds like you're prepared." Jaune smirked. "And here I was thinking you had assumed I would never return." He said while starting to move towards her.
"I would rather you were awake more often." She replies, turning around and moving towards the balcony. "Not only does it bother Ozpin greatly, but it increases the chance of him slipping up and becoming your prey at last." A sight escaped her lips as she stepped out onto the balcony. "Perhaps that would be enough to draw out the Brothers."
"I'm in no rush." Jaune shrugs. The fun of making them squirm ends the moment I force them to this mortal plain and make them pay for their crimes."
He now stood next to her, overlooking the black fields covered with pools of dark tar like liquid. Each one was in a state of constant action, the surfaces always rocking back and forth as Grimm being spawned clawed their way up and out onto land.
"It's here." Salem gestured towards the sight before them. "All for you."
"Excellent." Jaune grinned. "Then its time to collect."
He walked forward, standing at the very tip of the balcony overlooking the dark unholy scene. He stood still for a moment, the only movement of his body being his hair blowing in the wind. Then, his eyes glowed red and everything became still. Everything. The air itself, and even the pools of Grimm down below.
He raised his hands and opened his mouth.
The tar from the pools rose out of the ground, collecting together, combining into a large wave of liquid darkness that rose higher and higher. Before long it was taller than the castle itself. It then came down towards the balcony with enough force to capsize an entire ship. Yet no one on the balcony even blinked at this sight.
As the wave came closer and closer, Jaune opened his mouth, and drank. He drank the essence of darkness itself. Not a single drop escaped his lips and he consumed gallon after gallon after gallon.
It seemed to take forever, yet was over in an instant. The pools below were drained, now devoid of even the dark life that spawned and thrived there, the pits slowly starting to fill back up. Yet it would be years before they were full enough to spawn more Grimm much less those of great strength.
"Well," Jaune burped, the smug grin still on his face. "Consider your rent taken care of. I'll even consider some of this as a bit of advance payment for a few decades."
"Much appreciated." Salem replied with a slight bow. However, Jaune did not miss the way she looked over the depleted fields of Grimm pools. She was definitely holding back some feelings.
"Remember," Jaune spoke up, interrupting her train of thought. "So long as you don't get in the way of me or my master, I'll leave you alone." He then grinned wider than before, showing off more teeth than possible in any living creature, all sharper than swords.
"But if become my enemy, I will feast on your immortal soul and trap it in a hell of my own making."
Okay.
I'm kind of burned out on this story. The inspiration I initially had when I came up with it had died down. The direction of RWBY itself lately does not help. There's just not really enough motivation behind this story that it almost feels like I'm trying to force things out when writing this particular story. I have ideas for how this story could go, but getting things to go into the Hellsing Ultimate path would take extra steps. Not to mention the lore of Remnant is messing things up for me, especially with Ozpin and Salem and their backstories clashing with the backstory I created for this version of Jaune.
Which is why I'm putting this story on Hiatus. Then again, considering how long it's been since it updated does it really matter? Either way, this won't be on the polls again until I feel I can actually continue writing this.
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