A/N: Sorry this took so long. Lots of work to do, just to make rent XP Hope y'all enjoy. :)
Beta: Prince of Austria
When Jaune went too far and tried to resurrect his grandfather, he didn't remember everything that happened. Sometimes, he had nightmares of eyes, and a mouth. He always remembered the crooked form of the monster that he had created, something straight from the horror movies that he would never watch.
For some reason, he dreamed of the moments before his life was drastically changed.
He remembered white, a door, and a shadowy figure that stared of him curiously, a shark's smile cracked across its face. He remembered it wanting a price, and he remembered offering anything, everything to the being.
He was young and naive back then.
He opened his eyes to the white room again, finding himself in front of the large door, the shadowy figure lounging next to it, its fingers tracing the patterns on the door idly, before it noticed that Jaune was awake. A smile appeared on the thing's face, sending shivers down Jaune's spine.
"I didn't realize that I would be seeing you again, child." The creature purred, leaping up onto its feet, its steps making no noise as it got closer and closer to Jaune. "Most people would be too terrified to even think of coming back here. But..." Its shadowy head turned, bringing attention to something else in the room. "I suppose when you get desperate, you will go to any lengths, won't you?" Jaune turned to see what the thing was referring to, finding Blake lying prone of the ground.
"Blake!" Jaune sped over like a rocket, checking her pulse and making sure that she was alright.
"She's fine." Jaune started at how close the words sounded, turning to find the shadow eerily close to him, eyes trained on Jaune's fallen friend. "For now at least."
"For now?" Jaune asked, brow crinkling. "What does that mean?" The shadow didn't move for a good few seconds, before it turned, the depthless eyes staring straight through Jaune.
"It means that she doesn't have much longer to live, really." The shadow murmured, a long finger tapping Blake's forehead. Jaune was quick to bat its hand away, but found nothing but air as the thing retracted its limb faster than the alchemist was able to process.
"Why? Why doesn't she have long to live?" Jaune asked, looking carefully at the girl. Blake looked fine. She was a little pale, but she had all of her body parts, she wasn't bleeding from anywhere, and while her breathing was a little shallow, it was still there. "She looks fine to me." Jaune said adamantly, glaring at the shadow hovering in front of him.
"Because you're in denial." For something so ethereal, it projected emotions quite clearly, Jaune feeling the disdain that it carried in its voice. "You look at her and think she's fine because she looks fine. For someone so rooted in logical thinking and science, you don't use it all that much when you need to, do you?" Again the thing tapped Blake, Jaune not stopping him this time, instead taking that time to watch Blake wince, a shuddering breath escaping her. "Think about it for a second. Do you think she's fine?"
Jaune kneeled there, mind whirring, chaos reigning. What had happened moments before? Cinder decided to try and stop them from disrupting the circle by... disrupting it herself. In a much more violent way. He remembered the circle glowing, and not thinking about much but saving Blake and himself. He wrapped the both of them in ballistic gel but...
An explosion like that wasn't going to be stopped with a layer of gel, no matter how thick it was.
Suddenly Jaune's sight of Blake changed. He could see the numerous bruises sported around her body. The unnatural angle that she seemed to be resting. How every breath she released was pained.
"Internal problems," Jaune whispered to himself, drawing back as the dhadow threw up its arms, releasing a sigh.
"Finally he gets it." The thing said, shaking its head.
Jaune ignored the creature standing beside him, gingerly touching Blake, trying to figure out how to fix the girl. The boy stopped what he was doing pretty quickly when he realized that he was only hurting her every time he touched her.
"She doesn't look all that far off." The shadow craned its neck to look past Jaune, stroking its chin. "From death, that is." Its callous remarks were starting to get on Jaune's nerve, which was shown when the blond whirled around to face the creature, snarling at it.
"What are you doing here?" Jaune bit out, hands closed into fists. "What do you want? To poke at the fact that someone's dying? Well congratulations," Jaune rolled his eyes, throwing his hands outwards. "You've succeeded. Happy?"
"Happy?" The creature tilted its head, thinking seriously about the question. "That's a question that is hard to answer. Happy can mean a lot of things. Contentment. The feeling of joy. A state of being that is better than sadness." The shadow looked at its hands in a certain curious wonder. "I can't be sure I'm feeling what I've described, or what I haven't. It's hard for me to understand it sometimes."
"You're not making any sense." Jaune shook his head, taking a step forwards, only to find the creature behind him, taller, more exaggerated than before.
"Maybe not. But maybe I was never meant to be understood from the beginning." The shadow paused speaking, looking at Blake's still form. Before Jaune could breathe out, the creature was on top of Blake, its claws wrapped around her neck.
"No!" Jaune yelled, diving at the thing, trying to knock it aside. All he found was thing air though, as he slipped past, the form dissipating and reforming, still on top of the faunus. Jaune's teeth clattered around his skull as his head hit the ground, sending waves of pain through him.
"A valiant attempt. A vain one, but a valiant one nonetheless." The creature didn't even turn around, continuing to squeeze the life out of Blake.
"Stop," Jaune gasped out, shakily getting back on his knees. "Please, stop."
"Stop?" The shadow turned around completely, standing up off of Blake. "I can't stop it Jaune. After all, I'm not the one killing her."
Jaune found himself engulfed in shadows for a second, before vision was returned to him. And he found himself on top of Blake, his hands wrapped around her throat. Jaune looked on in horror as he saw his hands start to squeeze, The girl thrashing weakly against his grip.
"You are."
Blake stopped moving, stopped breathing, stopped doing... anything, Jaune muttering to himself all the while, panic continuing to pound through his chest.
"No no no no no no," Jaune didn't have enough concentration to say anything else, only focusing on trying to pry his own hands off of her neck. His head was pounding, his heart was going into overdrive... Jaune turned to look at the shadow, fury written across his face. "STOP THIS!" The boy howled, anger tearing his throat apart. The being that stood in front of him didn't move, only watching him panic.
"I cannot stop this." The thing said calmly, looking at Jaune struggling. "Only you can."
"How do I—how do I do that?" Jaune gasped, sweat obscuring his vision as it dripped down his forehead. He was focused on keeping his own fingers at bay, but could still feel the creeping of darkness wrapping around him when the shadow enveloped him, engulfing him, freezing him.
"The way you've always done things, Jaune." The creature whispered, a razor sharp grin on its face.
"Sacrifice."
Jaune squeezed his eyes shut, the word echoing in his mind.
"What kind of sacrifice?"
Fingers caressed him, sin filling him. "What are you willing to offer?" Jaune's concentration slipped momentarily, fingers tightening around Blake's neck again, causing her to gape like a fish out of water.
"Anything." Jaune whispered, head falling. "Just save her. Please."
There was a resounding echo in the white space, Jaune opening his eyes to find himself standing a distance away from Blake, who was facing him as well. The cat faunus smiled at Jaune.
"Then we have an agreement." Blake said calmly, nodding. "Thank you."
"Thank—?" Jaune started, before something punched him in the chest, knocking him clean out.