A/N: Just wanna let you guys know, just because I posted this chapter, doesn't mean the poll is closed. I'm still very much wanted to hear EVERYONE'S opinions on what they want to see before the end of Snake. Oh, and this chapter was literally 98% done when I posted the poll, so please don't think I'm just ignoring you guy's opinions. I'll try to work on getting in the stuff you guys want to see next chapter.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter, and always, remember to leave a review at the end to help us all out on this adventure called literature.


Snake
Chapter 9: Bare-Hand Hunter

"Pyrrha!" Ruby yelled out as the shock of it all finally wore off, and she ran towards the edge of the roof. When she got there, she saw the red haired huntress' bloody corpse all the way down on the street, a puddle of blood forming around her. She fell to her knees and just started sobbing as she seen someone who only minutes earlier was alive and breathing.

Jaune looked at her for a moment, before turning his attention to everyone else. They all had their weapons at the ready, eyeing him as if waiting for him to make a move. "Ruby?" Jaune called out to her because of curiosity as he looked back at her. Almost in the same moment she heard Jaune call her name, she stopped sobbing, and slowly got up. "Ruby?" Jaune called out again, even more curious now that she was simply standing with her back to him. Ruby slowly turned around as Crescent Rose unfolded, tears staining her face.

"I'll kill you!" Ruby yelled as she ran at him, Crescent Rose ready to cut him in half. Whenever Ruby fought, despite fighting Grimm, she lacked the will to kill. Killing a Grimm was different then fighting a person for her. Grimm were just mindless monsters. Right now, the ferocity she bore hid any indication of this. She wasn't fighting to protect. For the first time, Ruby was fighting to kill, and to kill alone.

As Crescent Rose's blade was about to cut away at Jaune, he pulled his shield out from beneath his cloak and blocked. Jaune was still forced back a bit though, the force of her strike on par with that of Ozpin's.

"You aren't human!" She yelled, "You're a monster!" Ruby pulled back and started a barrage of strikes at him, each one sending Jaune back further and further as he blocked them.

"I know", Jaune said steadily. He didn't know what was going on, but he felt a growing pit in his stomach, and he became more disgusted with himself by the minute.

Behind him, a barrage of bullets were fired at him. Through a combination of using his aura to heal and block, they did little to affect him. Realizing this, Blake rushed forward, using her after images to have three swords cut at once. Jaune jumped, using Crescent Rose to gain some height. Once he had gotten away from Blake and Ruby though, Yang rocketed at him, completely engulfed in a fiery red aura, red eyes of anger the devil would cringe at staring at him. Punching him in the face, Jaune shot at the ground headfirst, the cement cracking and chipping as he skidded a few feet. As Jaune went to get up, Weiss froze him in place. Jaune focused hi aura into his frozen arms and legs and broke out of the ice and rolling to the side milliseconds before Nora would've crushed him with Magnhild.

"What is going on?" Jaune asked himself. He couldn't focus. Feeling of regret and self-hatred kept clouding his mind. It had all started when he killed Pyrrha.

While he was catching his breath, Jaune felt a blade tear through his tendons. Looking over his shoulder as best as he could without being able to move his arms and legs, he saw Ren with his Stormflowers, each blade on them red with blood. Approaching from behind Ren, Ruby walked over to Jaune, and stomped one foot onto his back. She then swung Crescent Rose around, placing the blade directly in front of Jaune's face.

"You're going to pay for everything you've done, to everyone in Vale, to Pyrrha!" Ruby said as she got ready to pull back on Crescent Rose.

"I have nothing to pay for." Jaune said, his temper rising, "But go ahead, try to kill me and have your precious revenge! Try to kill God!" As Ruby pulled Crescent Rose towards Jaune's neck, he tilted his head down and caught the blade in his teeth. Taking the chance, Jaune used his now healed tendons to roll, knocking Ruby off of him.

Apparently what he had said pissed everyone off even more, as he barely dodged a rocketing punch by Yang by rolling forward. Getting close to Weiss this way, Jaune charged up his fist with aura, and broke Weiss' leg almost too easily. It snapped like a wood board, going limp, as Weiss fell with a cry of pain. Before he could capitalize on this though, Nora slammed into him with Magnhild, sending him straight into the side of a neighboring building.

Silence filled the air for a moment as Nora pulled Magnhild back into position to swing.

Without warning, a flash of red-orange aura roared from the hole in the building, blowing cement and brick is all directions, forcing everyone to cover their eyes. Jaune slowly walked out of the section of building he had destroyed with his aura, scowling as he held a hand to his shoulder. "That. Hurt." Jaune snarled as he took his hand from his wound. He rocketed forward, almost too fast to see, at Nora, sword drawn back, prepared to split her skull open. Ren jumped in front of Nora.

Sparks flew constantly from the collision of Jaune's sword and the blades on Ren's Stormflowers he had crossed to catch the blade. The ground cratered under Ren as he fell to one knee. "This power…it's insane…" He growled. His muscles felt like they were tearing themselves apart as they strained themselves, pushing beyond their natural limit. Before Ren lost all the strength he could muster, Blake rushed in, using her after images to force Jaune back away from him. Ren's arms dropped, limp, as he took deep breaths.

"Are you alright Ren?!" Nora asked as she stepped in front of Ren, ready to hit Jaune the second he came within swinging distance.

"I'm fi-", Ren said as he tried to lift his arms, but any movement at all made him clench his teeth and winch in pain. "Don't worry, it shouldn't take too long for me to be alright, I just need to let my aura heal me for a second." He said. Nora was still worried though, and stood guard over him as Jaune was kept busy blocking Blake and her after-images.

While Blake distracted Jaune, Yang got behind him and aimed a punch at his spine. Jaune seen this coming though, and using his speed, moved out of the way of both Blake, who was swinging Gamble Shroud at him, and Yang, who was mid-punch. Yang had too much momentum, and couldn't stop herself from hitting Blake, the air expelled from her lungs, knocking her back and hitting her head on the ground.

Making use of the distraction Blake and Yang provided for him, Jaune made his way over to Weiss. She swung at him with Myrtenaster, but Jaune swept it away from her with a slash of his sword, spinning in the air until it pierced straight into the floor behind him.

"Good-bye Snow Angel", Jaune chuckled, raising his blade above his head.

"No!" Ruby yelled out, running towards Jaune and Weiss as fast as she could. Weiss closed her eyes. She didn't want the last thing she saw to be the instrument of her demise. She waited, just waited, for the pain of her chest being cut open and her heart being pierced, but nothing happened.

"Could death be that quick, that you don't even notice it?" Weiss questioned, before she opened her eyes. Towering next to her still stood Jaune, poised to kill, but he was trembling. Looking at his face revealed concentration, anger, and sadness.

[10 Years Ago]

"I said kill them!" The voice on the intercom yelled. Jack, still only seven years old, was put into a bare concrete room, and ordered to kill the two people, a man and a woman, that sat in the middle of it, tied and beaten. A couple feet away from them sat an ordinary knife. Jaune didn't know anything about these people. The only thing he could gather from them was that the man had a symbol on his front shirt pocket that looked like a snowflake. "Kill them, or you will feel true pain!" The voice roared. Jack refused to move.

That changed when he felt the pain.

Every inch of his body was hit with indescribable pain. The closest Jack could get to accurately describing it was that it felt like his flesh was being ripped off all at once, and that the bloody, exposed muscle was being stabbed in every single fiber with a fiery knife. He yelled out in pain as he collapsed to the ground.

It wasn't long before the pain stopped, but every second felt like an hour of torture to him, and it was maddening, maddening beyond simple comprehension. The whole time there appeared to be no end in sight for this, an eternal Hell transcending fire and brimstone, and Jack thought at one point that his only escape from it would be death.

"Kill them!" The voice again ordered Jack.

Jack slowly walked towards the captives, and towards the knife. When he stood directly in front of the knife, Jack just looked down at it.

"Pick up the knife", the voice told him. Jack hesitantly bent down, and slowly inched his hand towards the knife. "Good", it said as Jack bent back up, the handle in his grip, "Now, kill them, but save the one with the snowflake on his pocket for last."

Jack didn't want to do this, but he didn't know if he could keep his sanity if he had to suffer like that again. He walked up to the man, and pulled back the knife.

Jack threw it down behind him, and went to help untie the people he was supposed to kill. His hand didn't even make it to the rope before the pain started. Jack fell to the ground, yelling, and that didn't change for a whole ten minutes. When finally Jack's screaming stopped, he was gone. The thing that had replaced him got up smiling as he looked at the knife, eyed it like some sort of toy. He reached out, gripping the handle firmly as he turned and grinned at the male captive.

That day, Weiss lost a mother and an uncle, as Jack was covered in their blood, his psychotic laughter ringing echoing around the room.

The next moment however, Jack collapsed to his knees in horror and his actions.

[Present Time]

"No…Damn it! No more! I won't hurt them too!" Jaune rasped, seemingly argued with himself. While he seemingly refused to take action, Ruby ran into him, knocking him away from Weiss with a drop kick.

"Sat away from Weiss you monster!" Ruby yelled, pointing the barrel of Crescent Rose at Jaune.

"Ruby!" Weiss called, "I think Jaune's trying to stop himself." She groaned and winced as pain shot up the length of her injured leg.

"How?" Ruby asked. She eyed Jaune as he got to his feet, Crescent Rose still pointed at him.

"He hesitated", Yang said as she got right next to Ruby, reloading Ember Celica as she talked. "We had the chance to get rid of Weiss, but he just stood there and trembled."

"If those experiments were really as terrible as he made them out to be, we can't tell how it's affected him." Black said getting next to Yang, her ribbon now being used to help stop bleeding on the back of her head from earlier.

"He was arguing with himself", Weiss said as Ren and Nora got to the right of her.

"New Moon has only been around a few months. Add that to Jaune arguing to himself and it's not farfetched to say that New Moon is a dark personality Jaune has been trying to keep at bay." Ren said, his arms better, but still injured.

"Ren, grab Weiss and take her down to the hospital. After she is taken care of, I want you to get Ozpin as soon as possible. I know your arms are hurt, and probably won't stand a repeat of what happened earlier." Ruby ordered. Ren nodded, before immediately bending down and picking up Weiss bridal style, careful not to hurt her injured leg any further. Ren couldn't help but wince thought as he lifted her up.

"You all better be able to sign my cast once this is over…" Weiss said worried, but still a bit too prideful to admit it.

"Don't worry, I won't let anyone else die tonight." Ruby told her, smiling as a determine look filled her eyes. Ren hurried away to the stairway.

"They'll be alright", Ren told Weiss once they were out of earshot of the others, "I have faith in them."

[Beacon]

"Ugh…" Ozpin moaned as he came too. As his vision cleared, he saw the unmistakable green hair of Bartholomew.

"Don't move", he said, "I just finished sewing and dressing your wound. Move too much and you'll just open it back up."

"I'm grateful Bartholomew, but-", Ozpin was cut off.

"You can't stay here and rest. You've got work to go." Bartholomew finished for him, before pushing his glasses back up on his face. "I've already prepared a dust-plane", he said as he helped Ozpin up, putting his arm around his shoulder, "I know you probably won't listen to me, but when we get to the hospital, I want you to stay and get treated. I'll find and help the students in danger."

Neither one of them were prepared for the site the hospital had given them. As they hurried down the street, they saw the red and blue flashing lights of police cars lined up at the entrance. Police officers were directing people to go into the hospital through a side entrance, to leave the main entrance clear so that they could work. Ozpin and Bartholomew passed by just as they were zipping up the body bag.

"Who…who are you putting in the bag?" Ozpin asked, stopping for a moment. He almost didn't want to hear the name, because then at least he could argue it wasn't one of the two teams who were staying in Vale City.

"Pyrrha Nikos, Professor Ozpin", The police chief said from behind, "And right now, your students are fighting for their lives up there." He pointed at the roof over Ozpin's shoulder. "I suggest you hurry."

"Bartholomew, I want you to get up there now! Distract New Moon as long as you can." Ozpin ordered, taking his arm away from him. He simply nodded before vanishing.

"Where did he go?" The police chief as Ozpin, following him as he ran to the hospital side door.

"Bartholomew is the fastest teacher Bacon has ever had in its history." Ozpin said hurrying through the door, "He's the bare-hand hunter."

[Hospital Roof]

"You have to fight this Jaune", Yang called out to Jaune. He was still struggling to keep control, and was losing.

"Fight what?" Yang heard from behind. Turning around, it was revealed to the group that behind them Bartholomew was standing right on the edge of the roof, his tie blowing in the wind as his hands sat in his pockets. The full moon of the night reflected itself off his glasses.

"It seems like Jaune has a split personality, New Moon being one half, and the Jaune we know being the other." Blake explained. Jaune suddenly stopped trembling.

"I won't let any of you stop me in my quest to cleanse this world." Jaune said as he began to walk towards them.

"Excuse me students," Bartholomew said as he walked between the students towards Jaune, "but this is a teacher assignment." Jaune charged at the teacher, trying to skewer him. Oobleck dodged to the right, before delivering a quick strike to Jaune's elbow, making it go limp. "You'll find, Mr. Arc, that even with your speed, I'm faster." He pushed his glasses up on his face, glaring at Jaune. With his fingers still against the bridge of nose, he seemingly teleported behind Jaune, a few split-second signs of movement lagging behind. Jaune's eyes grew wide as Bartholomew made contact.


A/N: So yeah, the mystery character was Bartholomew Oobleck. He's my favorite RWBY character. I thought to myself, "If he moves that fast just simply walking, how fast would he be running?" Anyway, I hope you guys liked the chapter. Don't forget to leave a review below, they always help keep me going and keep me motivated so I can kick out chapters like this sooner.