AN: HOLY 50 FOLLOWS IN LESS THAN 2 DAYS BATMAN! Thank you so much to everyone who faved, followed, and reviewed this story. Chapter 1 took 3 weeks of writing a little bit on and off. The positive reception I received motivated me to write a lot more in one sitting, getting this one done a lot quicker. Enjoy!
"HEADS UUUUUUP!" shouted the girl in red as she plummeted towards the four.
The group scattered as she pulled out a metallic object from under her cloak. It shifted into the form of a great scythe with an attached chamber where dust bullets were clearly meant to be fired. And fire it did, the recoil of each blast slowing her descent until she was close enough to harmlessly land with a roll.
Jaune swallowed his jealousy at her handling of a large fall that normally just guaranteed the blonde another death in order to focus on the enemy she brought with her. The large corvid had opted to slow its own descent with a flap of its wings. At least, Jaune thought that was the intention.
Instead, a pair of gigantic feathers stabbed themselves into the ground, clearly meant to impale someone despite missing. With the Grimm flapping its wings several times, Jaune knew thost were just the first of many.
"Take cover!" He shouted as he pulled out his shield and held it above his head. Pyrrha copied his motion while the other three moved two the two who could fend off the onslaught of feathers.
"What should we do?" Pyrrha asked as the two strained to keep their shields up, "we can't take this thing until it gets closer."
"We passed by a cave earlier, if we can't kill it we should avoid it until it gets tired and leaves. Ren! Could you use that semblance on all of us?"
The boy in green looked to the blonde and nodded, not that the knight could see him do it very clearly since turning his own head would likely mean death. Suddenly everything around the undead started to look dull and a sense of calm apathy overpowered any emotions the blonde was feeling. At the same time, Jaune saw the feathers start to rain down in more scattered directions, as if the large bird knew they were there but not their specific spot to focus on.
The five dashed to the cave as Ren's semblance began to wear off, not a single feather landed near any of them.
"We should be safe for now." Pyrrha said, turning to, the hooded girl, Ruby, she questioned the girl on how she managed to hitch a ride on a Nevermore.
As the younger girl explained herself, Jaune tuned her out and decided to really check if they were safe. A quick activation of the Dark Hand shouldn't get the attention of any Grimm in the cave if he only had it long enough to check.
"... but hey, when I was up there I saw some ruins! And Weiss was there so they must be where we're supposed to go-"
"Good, we're going there now." Jaune interrupted as he deactivated Dark Hand. He was stupid, it was close enough to feel it no matter how briefly Jaune used his Darkwraith technique.
"But the Nevermore!" Someone cut in, Jaune didn't care who because there wasn't enough time.
"We either take our chances and run or guarantee our deaths in here!" He said, activating his Pyromancy Flame to show the group why they needed to go.
He didn't need to look over his shoulder to know they saw the massive scorpion, their shocked faces said enough.
"Go!" He yelled, snapping them out of their shock and convincing them to run. Jaune turned around and drew his sword and shield, intending to buy the group a but of time before he retreated too.
The Grimm thrusted it's stinger at him, but a well times party cancelled that out. Jaune attempted to riposte the thing, but his own thrust bounced off its bone mask with a shrill clang.
"Jaune!" The undead heard Pyrrha cry from the exit. Regretting that he couldn't do anything right now, he ran back to catch up to the others. With such a narrow exit, the creature was surely trapped in the cave and wouldn't be able to follow them.
It so he thought, which he really shouldn't have considering one of its pincers slammed into the wall above and shattered the exit to be big enough to fit the Grimm, and knock over a dazed Jaune who was standing under the wall at the time. The creature walked over the knight, and in a surprising show of intelligence, stabbed its tail to the roof of the cave above him. The last thing Jaune saw was more rubble crashing down on him as his body was crushed.
When Blake saw Yang, she thought the girl was like the sun. Bright, warm, and a little too eager to burn stuff. She wanted to say she ended up with a great partner, but her quickness to anger was something uncomfortably familiar, not to mention the semblance on top of that. If Yang was someone willing to express her desire for justice as a reason to be a huntress, Blake would loathe how she could never escape… him. Thankfully she wore her selfishness on her sleeve instead of under some delusions of grandeur.
The cat faunus could not say the same for the girl they met when they reached the ruins in the center of the woods. Weiss Schnee was everything that her and her old White Fang comrades imagined her to be. Spoiled, selfish, self-righteous, and completely uncaring of her attitude to people she saw as beneath her. The girl had apparently come to the ruins alone, looking for a "proper partner," which thus far meant "not Yang's little sister" as her only parameter specified. Blake imagined she had a lot of other standards no one in the school would meet.
Yang was infinitely preferable to the Schnee. Upon seeing Blake tense up near the white-haired girl, Yang casually strode past the heiress trying to explain herself, only briefly having her eyes turn red at the mention of Ruby Rose before she blinked and they returned to their original lilac, and said "guess this is the place, think we just take one and call it our relic?"
The Schnee answered for Blake "That's easy to assume, considering there's half as many of these as there are students this year it's clear that-"
"How 'bout a pony?" Yang asked her partner while holding up a golden knight. Blake smirked, ready to roll her eyes and respond when she saw the rich girl also holding a knight piece. Looking to the ruins again, she saw the pattern of two of each type of chess piece and color. There were a few with only one, but they sat next to an empty pillar to show someone else had taken one already. Was this how partners would become teams? If so: the last thing the closeted faunus was a Schnee close enough to be in a position to discover that.
"Actually, I think we should take this one," Blake picked up a golden rook, one which still had it's matching piece remaining, "that okay with you?"
"Yeah, whatever." The blonde casually answered as she put the knight back down, "let's head back then."
Blake nodded, pocketing the relic and joining her partner in heading off in the direction they came from, ignoring the offended heiress. Overall, not too bad for the first step in Blake's road to redemption, only a few Grimm encounters and all ones Blake and Yang could handle on their own, trivial when working together. If nothing else the fiery brawler and her made a good team.
Which suddenly needed to be put to the test, thanks to a giant Deathstalker charging out of the foliage and right at the two.
They both leapt to different sides as it charged past them. Though it quickly spotted and turned around to strike back at them. It didn't get the chance though, as it suddenly found its back half encased in ice.
"Leave it to you to attract a Giant Deathstalker." The Schnee stated as she walked past Blake to approach a group of four who emerged after the massive Grimm.
"It wasn't me! I was trying to hide from a- YANG!" The girl cut herself off as she rammed into her older sister, who caught and returned the hug from the girl in red.
"Yang," The girl said, "I was abandoned by my partner then a giant Nevermore was following me so I ran into everyone and we his in a cave then a giant Deathstalker showed up and killed Jaune."
"Hey, look Ren! I'm queen of the castle~ I'm queen of the castle~" sang a girl in a white top and pink skirt to a dark haired boy in green, somehow having gone to the ruins to pick up the golden rook and come back in barely a second. No one seemed to pay any attention to that except Blake.
"I don't think he's dead," that human celebrity, Pyrrha Nikos, said, "I saw some ashes fly out from under the rocks, and last time I saw ashes where he should have died he was alright."
"And if we take care of that…" the champion gestured to the Deathstalker, which Blake saw had already cracked the ice in it's struggle to escape, "we should be able to get him out of that cave."
It seemed logical to the cat faunus, although one thing that the younger redhead said suddenly crossed Blake's mind, "Wait did you say you were also being chased by a giant Nevermore?"
The answer to that question came in the form of several giant feathers almost impaling them.
Jaune awoke to complete darkness, but not the claustrophobia of being trapped under rubble. Using his Pyromancy Flame to light the area up, he saw something familiar. Stone pillars surrounded him within a wide, circular room. At the center, in a small and shallow hole, was a half buried sword. The blade was spiraled and rusted like every sword a bonfire was lit from.
It wasn't lit, but it was unmistakably a bonfire. Jaune reached a rotting hand out to try to light it. But it showed no reaction, like any bonfire without humanity to kindle or a fire keeper to watch over it. Just his luck that the only one he could use on Remnant as far as he knew was useless.
With that out of the way, Jaune turned to his second priority, he was out of humanity. Having given up almost all of it to the Fair Lady before going to the Kiln of the First Flame, Jaune was under the impression he wouldn't need to worry about hollowing before confronting Gwyn. It was true, but that humanity he kept to maintain his human form was always the first to go when he died. Jaune sighed in frustration and sat at the unlit bonfire as he rubbed his decayed hands along his empty eye sockets. What was he going to do. Even the people of Lordran, who knew what the effects of the Darksign were would be frightened by his hollowed appearance. What would the people of Remnant, who likely had no knowledge of undeath, do?
He laid his left hand to the ground only to notice something peculiar, the ground was soft. After standing and walking around a bit, he noticed that the whole area except where he say was soft. There must be something where he spawned after death.
Using his sword and shield as a sort-of makeshift shovel, Jaune dug around the hardened spot until he felt soft dirt under it. It was a box.
Jaune removed the box and brushed dirt and dust off of it in order to find an opening. It was perfectly rectangular, so not a Mimic, which kept his mind at peace when he found a latch and opened the backpack-sized crate, only to find nothing but even further darkness. Even a the Pyromancy Flame's light did not reveal anything in there.
The undead was not shocked, or disappointed. This was too recognizable. He reached in, wanting to confirm his suspicions, and pulled out a simple longsword.
It wasn't just any sword, however, this looked just like the Sunlight Straight Sword. An uncanny replica of the blade Solaire used during his entire journey, and Jaune used at the very end of his.
The knight's suspicions were confirmed when he pulled out a Crest Shield just like the one he took after Sir Oscar hollowed.
This was his bottomless box, the equipment he used in his fight with Gwyn was at the very top. How was it here? Was this unlit bonfire the remains of the First Flame? Was he really back in Lordran?
Jaune silently prayed to whichever gods remained that he wasn't. The relief of getting his stuff back was not worth returning to that hell. Jaune was uncertain if he'd completely hollow if he exited where he was only to see the Firelink Altar. The Lord of Cinder… Ex-Lord of Cinder, he refused to believe he had that connection anymore, decided that he should not waste time here anyway.
He undressed and put his clothes in the box to change into the Elite Knight's Armor, but kept Crocea Mors out rather than the two Astoran arms. He appreciated he had something to be recognized as Jaune Arc and not the Chosen Undead to wield. He did equip his old master Logan's Catalyst and the Sunlight Talisman, however, partly so he could use sorceries and miracles and partly to remember the two who helped him on his journey even if both eventually went mad and attacked him.
Decked out in his old equipment, with his former family's heirloom attached to his belt, no one would tell he looked hollow but if he was in Remnant then anyone he knew would recognize him.
The boy noticed that there were some loose stones and bricks that could be used as steps leading to the top of the ruins. With no sign of an entrance to this cylindrical room here at the bottom, the blonde sighed, he had a lot of climbing to do.
Before getting to that though, one more idea stopped the undead in his tracks. He turned around, grabbed the coiled bonfire sword, and put it in his bottomless box, which he could will to shrink enough to fit in one of the pouches in his belt. He would have to test out his theory about it later. For now: climbing.
Weiss mourned her fate. After all her effort to make her way through the Emerald Forest alone, she still ended up stuck with the child as her partner. A rude little girl who clung to her older sister when the going went tough. Whatever Professor Ozpin saw in her to have him let her into the academy early was not worth it in the eyes of Weiss Schnee.
But it could be worse, at least the child had the decent idea to run off to a more wide open space before engaging the two large Grimm. More than she could say about that scrawny blonde boy who was probably dead. Why Pyrrha Nikos insisted on him staying her partner was a mystery to Weiss.
The seven of them were forced to be split up by the Grimm. The four who were strangers to Weiss were locked in combat with the Deathstalker until Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long had worked together using the surprisingly durable ribbon on Belladonna's weapon to immobilize it. Lie Ren then severed its stinger from the tail and Nora Valkyrie used her weapon to turn it into a nail to slam through its exoskeleton and kill it.
Meanwhile, on the other side of a destroyed bridge, Weiss food herself struggling to hit the Nevermore alongside Ruby Rose and Pyrrha Nikos, all three of them having to dodge an onslaught of sharpened feathers on occasion.
Too lost in her thoughts, Weiss almost didn't notice that the Grimm was swooping down to her, she didn't have time to dodge but thankfully didn't need to. A blue arrow rapidly passed between them, causing the Nevermore to change course in reaction.
Turning to the source of that attack, Weiss saw someone wearing a full suit of armor, a damaged blue cloth outlined by gold was over the chest plate and tailed down to their legs, on one arm was a metal gauntlet holding up a white and gold shield with the hilt of a sword coming from the top, in the leather gauntlet covered hand on the other side was a wooden staff which had some residual blue energy at its tip.
"Who are y-" her question was cut off by a loud shout echoing from under the helmet "SHIELD!"
Thinking quick, Weiss summoned a Glyph above her head which blocked some incoming feathers, the knight did the same with the shield on his arm, opting to attach the staff to his hip and pull a white cloth with a sun symbol attached to the center to replace it.
When the feathers stopped, Weiss looked up to see the Nevermore was circling around the group, likely to take a break then catch them by surprise later.
"Jaune?" Pyrrha, who had approached Weiss and the mystery knight, asked the latter.
"Yes Pyrrha?" He responded, confirming he was the same scrawny idiot she occasionally saw before initiation.
"Why are you wearing a full suit of armor?" It was Weiss who asked, seeing as Pyrrha was at a loss for words at the sight of the blonde.
"I found it in the cave," There was an awkward pause, one which lasted too long for a group engaging in combat with a large Grimm, though enough time was given for the child to rush towards the three, "Does it... look good on me?"
"Yes, but our Aura protects us better than some steel armor, you'll just be slowing yourself down." Pyrrha answered, letting the idiot down lightly. It looked awful: the steel needed to be polished and the cloth needed to be resown, Weiss could tell there was supposed to be some gold symbol in the center but she couldn't tell what that symbol was since there was more chainmail under it visible than gold.
"Oh... I knew that." The young man said with the confidence of someone who obviously didn't. He not-so silently muttered to himself about Titans and not steel or something while the three people the huntress in training was forced to call her peers awkwardly stood there.
"Whatever. I don't care. We need to kill that," Weiss gestured to the Nevermore, which was still circling the four of them, "any ideas for how to take care of it?"
The knight nodded, "Yes actually: I can damage one of its wings and knock it out of the sky if I can get it facing to the side of me. If it survives the fall the four of us can easily kill it," the then pointed his shield at a nearby cliff, "I need you three to get it's attention from up there while I prepare the attack. When I have the right angle I'll hit it."
The three girls nodded, Weiss used her glyphs as platforms for the three of them to quickly get to the top. Weiss had no time to question why she was going with a plan that relied on that idiot being able to strike down a Nevermore from far away. She instead used some of the ice dust in Myrtenaster's chamber to open fire on the bird Grimm, Ruby and Pyrrha had both of their weapons in gun form to do the same. It was only a few minutes before Weiss felt it.
A large spear that appeared to be made of orange lightning bolts flew in a straight line and collided with the Nevermore. Reacting without a thought to why, Weiss used a gravity glyph on the ground beneath the three girls, which allowed the three girls to not be thrown back by the force of the strike.
When the light cleared, the Grimm had almost completely faded to the black dust to show it had been killed. The heiress, shocked by such a display of power, looked down to the one it came from to see the knight standing there, rubbing the back of his helm with his leather covered right hand.
"Sorry!" He shouted upon seeing the girl in white staring down at him, "I overdid that a bit."
At such a show, Weiss scowled. She almost forgot that this person was a complete imbecile. He would make a surprisingly capable ally, but only a fool would declare him leader of whichever team he ended up on.
"Blake Belladonna, Lie Ren, Yang Xiao Long, and Nora Valkyrie. You four have returned with the white rook. Meaning you will be team BRYN (Brine) led by Blake Belladonna." The audience cheered as the two people Jaune briefly worked with in the woods got assigned to a team with two girls he didn't recognize. One of them was apparently Ruby's sister though, so chances are he would be better acquainted with this team later.
And Jaune had officially decided he would be. Grimm were monsters of the Abyss. His Dark Hand reacting to them like such proved it. While normally dreading this, the blonde was at least able to collect some Humanity using his dark hand on a few Beowulfs on the way back. He only needed a bonfire now and he would be able to reverse his hollowing.
The knight linked the First Flame to keep the dark away, so creatures of darkness wandering the world showed that he failed to a certain extent, but not completely. Huntsmen fought the Grimm so a huntsman Jaune would be, or he'd go hollow trying. Not that that'd be soon considering his Lightning Spear Miracle was somehow strengthened. If he didn't know any better, the blonde was almost certain he used the Sunlight Spear exclusive to the god that served as Lord of Cinder before Jaune had.
The knight's thoughts were cut off by the sound of his name being called by the headmaster, "Jaune Arc, Weiss Schnee, Pyrrha Nikos, and Ruby Rose," the four of them walked up to the stage as Ozpin announced them, "you four have brought back the white knight piece," at least, Pyrrha had. Jaune was grateful to her even if there was a certain irony in him being associated with knights without his input, "Therefore, you will be team JSPR (Jasper) led by Jaune Arc! I look forward to how all of you will do in the next four years." As Ozpin ended his assignment of everyone's teams, Jaune ignored the glare he got from his white haired teammate, mainly because of what the white haired man told him with the microphone off.
"Before heading to your dorm, Mister Arc, I would appreciate it if you could meet me in my office for some storytelling."
Aaaaaaaaaand scene! Chapter is a little shorter this time because I just wanted to get the Emerald Forest out of the way, and also because I realized the next scenes I could write would make for a long chapter 3 anyway. What does Ozpin think of Jaune? How will Weiss react with someone other than Ruby as her leader? Will Jaune's undead nature be exposed? Find out next chapter!
Thanks again to everyone who faved, followed, and reviewed. Seeing as I got a fair amount of attention with this story, I think I'll be needing a beta reader. Feel free to DM me or my alt JorentyIII if you're interested. In addition, if you're a fan of toku stuff like Kamen Rider, Power Rangers, and monsters like Godzilla check out my friend Bahamut0's story Toku Town.
Have a good one everyone!