The screen began to bubble and boil as the familiar silver door rose from it's depths, the thick purple chains corroding and breaking apart as the door opened up and bathed everything in dark purple.
From the tainted light, came a single red eye that glared at the screen before the door slammed shut and everything became static, a crumbling rose symbol appearing every so often as the title began to form.
The Ruinverse: Chapter Four, Poisoned Death.
Xxxxxxx
-Remnant, Sanus, Vale, Beacon Academy, Amphitheater-
Within the domed assembly area, the students of Beacon were busy either watching or participating in spars against each other, to practice their skills and become stronger for the hard future ahead of them.
This included Cardin, who smirked as he had another chance to best Jaune Arc once more, having been a little sour since the last time he fought him, the blonde gave him a very quick win...and he wanted this spar to last a little longer.
As he placed The Executioner on his shoulder in a cocky manner, something caught his eye.
For some odd reason, the blonde wimp seemed to be out of it, staring at nothing in particular and having a strange black rash like blot on his right index finger, seemingly overtaking the nail and knuckle.
'Strange, but no matter.' he thought with a smirk. 'I'm going to clobber him.'
"Begin." Glynda said firmly as Cardin went in for the first strike.
BAM!
Which hit Jaune on the face...but didn't flitch, as if he didn't register the pain at all.
"What the…!?"
"...huh?" he said while seemingly confused about what just happened. "What just happened."
The larger student moved back and tried to hit the blonde again, this time on the knees.
But as that occurred, Jaune realized what was occurring and quickly jumped away from the attack, petrified that he didn't even feel the blow to his face.
"Ah!"
"Hold still!" Cardin yelled while trying to hit him, his team cheering for him as Jaune's team seemed to be a little concerned for him, not that the mace wielding leader cared for as he swung at Jaune's sides.
But as the mace raced towards the boy's left side, he saw to his surprise-
CRUNCH!
Jaune's left hand, now covered in cuts and a few broken bones, held the top most part of The Executioner while not flinching at all before he threw the weapon to the side and jumped on him like a wild animal, trying to bite his face off with his teeth.
"Ah! Hey get off!" Cardin yelled out in confusion and anger as Glynda got him off with her semblance, although the blonde seemed to still be biting the air in a frantic motion.
"Mister Arc!" the professor yelled, getting his attention as he looked very much confused. "I will not have such behavior in this class, do I make myself clear."
"Huh...professor? What just happened?" he asked while finally noticing the now broken hand and cried out in pain. "AHHHH!"
'W-What was with him!?' Cardin thought as Glynda dragged Jaune away. 'He actually tried to BITE me!? Like a faunus!?'
(Some time later)
"Don't worry Jaune." Pyrrha said while she and her team were in the cafeteria as her leader was currently sitting right next to her with a cast on his left hand. "It happens sometimes."
"Nearly biting someone's face off or breaking your hand by holding a mace?" he asked while currently trying to eat some steak, but was having trouble with his knife for some reason. "Come on, this is supposed to be easy."
"Need help?"
"No no, I'm good." he said while still having trouble, although Pyrrha decided to help by using her Polarity on the knife. "...I can do it myself Pyrrha."
She chuckled while noticing Ruby walking towards them. "Hello again."
"Hi, so...can I sit here?"
"Sure!" Nora grinned while Jaune took one quick look at Ruby and hissed at her like an angry cat.
"Hey now! What was that for?" Ruby frowned as Jaune kept on hissing at her, with Ren grumbling and tried to use his semblance on him, which didn't seem to work at all.
'What? He's not calming down….I must be losing my touch.' Ren thought while noticing the rash on Jaune's right index finger...was now bigger and extended towards his palm. 'Wait a second. Do rashes even get bigger? Or did something else affect him, I know he said he was fine after initiation but….what form of poison ivy causes black blots?'
"Hisss!" Jaune hissed while Ruby looked a little hurt before he snapped out of it. "Um...lets ignore that and um...have some lunch." 'What was that about?'
'Ok, that was weird.' Ruby thought while taking a mental note to videotape that behavior, for blackmailing purposes aka cookie heists. 'But nothing as weird as Blake's love for tuna.'
As she sat down, Ruby noticed that the blonde was drooling, which in of itself wasn't too weird, disgusting yes, but nothing that weird...until she saw it trail down his chin and-
Swish….sissle.
Melted the edge of the metal table like it was nothing, making her freeze in shock.
'Ok, that's creepy! Wait, maybe that's his semblance….ew. That's kinda gross.' She thought while holding in her breakfast. 'Not going to mention it! Nope! Nononononono no!'
(Later on)
Yang yawned as she went out of her bedroom, still in her pajamas, to use the bathroom down the hall, even if she couldn't exactly see due to it still being late into the early morning. 'Man, I really need to stop drinking so much before bed.'
As she moved down the hallway, the blonde brawler noticed a strange scratching sound right down the hallway, like an animal trying to wake up its owner to open a door.
'Eh...wait? Did Zwei get stuck in one of the rooms again?' she thought in confusion as her hair seemed to stiffen a little for some reason. 'Not again. After what happened with Coco, he should know better.'
Sceert.
Sceert.
Sceert.
Sceert.
'Better go get him before he gets himself in trouble, and us too.' Yang thought before turning a corner.
Only to see something in the far right corner of the hallway, it's body illuminated faintly by deep red markings along its body, giving the outline of a semi humanoid shadow.
Sceert.
Sceert.
Sceert.
The figure's hands, slightly exposed by its own bioluminescent markings, were revealed to be hooked and covered in a layer of hardened white 'molt'.
Yang paled as she saw the creature scratching the doorway with its nails, feeling helpless due to not having either her team or Ember Celica on her person. 'What...the...fuck is that thing!? A Grimm? No, it's too human like? Gah! If only I could punch it right now...but what if this...thing is faster than me? I need to move back before it sees me.'
As the blonde girl moved slowly backwards, away from the 'thing', she felt like a little child right now, terrified and ill experienced in dealing with the unknown.
Creak.
The creature stopped scratching the door as Yang cursed at herself for stepping on a wooden floorboard and slowly turned in her direction, its glowing red eyes piercing the girl's very soul like a harpoon.
'Shit shit shit!' she thought before bolting for it back to her room, the creature running after her, its arms and legs moving in an unnatural spider-like motion. 'SHIT!'
It ran faster and faster down the darkened hallways, it's bioluminescent body turning the walls a shade of red as Yang grabbed the door handle and ran into her room and locked it.
BAM!
SCEERT!
SCEERT!
Just as the unknown creature tackled the door with full force and scratched at the door for a few moments before going silent.
"Ah….ah...oh gods..." Yang muttered while turning around and saw her team...still asleep. "Oh come on!" 'How could they have slept through that!?'
"Zzzzz." Ruby snored while hugging her pillow tightly.
She sighed before opening the door slightly and saw that the creature was gone...yet she closed the door and locked it just to be on the safe side. '...maybe it was a night terror?'
(Two months later)
Ruby hummed to herself while looking a little...worried for some reason as she headed to JNPR's room to check on Jaune.
The reason? Jaune hasn't been showing up to class in over a month, and lately...his health seemed to be deteriorating.
Thick black blots across his body, hair falling out prematurely, flaking skin, unexplained cuts, and splitting headaches began to take over his life while oddly his memory began to slip.
At first it was simple bouts of forgetfulness but over time, he forgot how to use a blade, what his favorite comics were, how to use proper grammar and then finally, just yesterday, he lost the ability to speak. For his team, it was a devastating blow, especially when he began to show signs of heightened aggression and resistance to pain.
But with Jaune not showing up to class, it felt like something was wrong and against their better judgement, the team asked Ruby to look for him and possibly bring him to class before Doctor Oobleck started asking questions.
'I hope he's ok?' she thought before turning a corner and moved towards JNPR's front door, pulling out a Scroll and using the temporary access password, given by Ren, to unlock the door.
Creak.
Only to find a darkened room that smells like rotting eggs and mold, making the silver eyed girl gag in disgust.
"Ew." she peeked her head in while using her Scroll as a light source. "Jaune? Are you here?"
Silence.
"Jaune?" she called out while walking inside, only to notice a pile of ripped fabric on the floor, drenched in a thick black slime. 'EW! What was he doing!? Wait...maybe it's mold, no then why is his clothes ripped?'
Sceert.
Ruby's hair stood on end as she began to hear a faint scratching sound right near the far right bedside. "Jaune?"
As the light moved in that direction...something became visible to the now petrified girl.
There, hunched on the bed like a upright arachnid was a tall obsidian clad hairless humanoid with ten red eyes cluttered on the sides of the white mask-like face, thick white mandibles, eight insect like legs jutting out from the spine and propelling itself up by hard white bone like points at each end, thick jagged plates fused to his arms, small human like legs, neck, spine and upper torso, large curved pincers, five bone like points on the human like toes that fused near the middle into a single downwards pointing limb, a large scorpion tail jutting from the tail bone and curled around his body with a glowing gold stinger at the tip, wearing nothing at all but torn blue jeans, and had thick red markings coverings its entire body and illuminating the very room itself, staring at Ruby like a hungry predator as its tail looked ready to strike.
"Hiiiiiiisssssssssss."
The huntress gasped in terror as she dropped her Scroll, causing it to lunge towards her in response. "AHHHHH-"
CRUNCH!
SWISH!
CRACK!
Xxxxxxx
Name/Designation Title: Death Hunter (Poisoned Death Jaune Arc- PDJARWBY)
Age: 17
Affiliation: Mega Evil.
Dimension: - 1000561239- 00 PDJARWBY
Abilities: Large aura pool, high durability, enhanced strength, speed, stamina and damage resistance, decreased intelligence, damage resistant armor plating/exoskeleton, heightened base insticural abilities, sharped pincer like nails, prehensile stinger, enhanced vision, durable mandibles, deadly infectious venom, adaptability, semi regenerative abilities.
Semblance(s): Aura Amp.
Bio: In this timeline, during initiation, Jaune and Pyrrha would run away from the Alpha Death Stalker as in canon, but unlike canon, Jaune would be stung by the Grimm and infected by it's toxins, which combined with his fledgling Aura Amp semblance, reacted negatively and began to replace Jaune's cells with Death Stalker cells at an alarming rate. Over time, the only son of Arc would lose more and more of his humanity as the Grimm's traits and base instincts overtook him, with mixed results. From there, he transformed into a feral hybrid of the two species whose bite was infectious to all forms of life, turning them into the same creature, dubbed by the survivors of the Beacon outbreak as Death Hunters. Due to the rapid spread of the Death Hunter infection, Vale began to crumble as the other Kingdoms mounted a defense against them, hoping to end the threat before it went out of control….and underestimated their infection in the process.