Some semblances are oft crafted by the soul of the person, yet some are shaped by the experiences of their owner. In that case it can be either a blessing or a curse and for one Jaune Arc, when captured by the White Fang, he learns his Discompose certainly seems like the latter.
Pain is Merely a Touch Away.
By
Hibiki
Imagine you could have the rights to RWBY, but for the rest of your life, you would have to clean up every mess or problem created by every Rooster Teeth 'Million Dollars, But..." challenge accepted. Would it be worth it? Not for me.
RWBY is created by Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth.
Note: This story is written without much guide, my open office broke and I've spent all week trying to fix to no avail.
Chapter Seven: The Start of Something Good
(-o0O0o-)
The Nevermore was the last Grimm the group had to deal with that day. Weiss had come up with a plan to force it down to the ground and the eight finished off the thing with sheer firepower and brutality. Thankfully for Jaune, that meant he didn't have to use his Semblance. Given his multiple usage, something he had been fearful of since the bandit's of Anima, he worried about the effects of prolonged usage could detriment the control he struggled with everyday. Everyone in the group was exhausted after fighting the two ancient Grimm, but their luck held until the eight managed arrive back at Beacon, relics in tow.
There was little that could be said for the moments leading up to now other than an awkward silence given the looks that Jaune had been given and the warnings he had issued due to it. Blake and Jaune knew their new friends had questions about his exposed arm and far too orderly to be battle scars upon it, until they broke for treatments and to recouperate until this ceremony the bunch were now in.
"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark." Jaune's expression, thankfully hidden by his newly replaced shirt and mask, was not a happy one at catching the name of the guy who had struck Blake in the Emerald Forest. The holo-screens of the auditorium showed each of their profiles as the boys are lined up for the applauding audience to see as Ozpin continued. Jaune took careful note of Cardin, hand tightening instinctively on the hilt of Crocea Mors. "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team Cardinal, led by... Cardin Winchester!"
The audience gave one more wave of ovation, minus the majority of the group who had witnessed the four's actions earlier that day. Jaune and half of the others were beckoned forwards and the four students walked up to the stage to take their places in front of the headmaster. Their faces filled the screens above them.
"Jaune Arc. Blake Belladonna. Lie Ren. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team Barren. Lead by... Blake Belladonna."
Amid the clapping, Nora laughed and gave Ren a hug while Jaune clapped, muffled as it is with his now replaced gloves. Blake however seems far more shocked than happy. It wasn't much in her nature to be a leader! Naked fear seemed to settle on her face as Jaune led her off the stage and the others of their group walked onto stage. No! Let... Anyone else on her team be leader! It wasn't fair! The girls were going to laugh at her when they heard, already calling her their brother's keeper!
"And finally: Pyrrha Nikos. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao Long. (motions over the four as they stand before him) The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team Siren. Led by... Wiess Schnee!" Weiss seemed both happy and yet stunned as Ruby gave her a huge hug and congrats. Yang and Pyrrha also congratulated her and the crowd once again dutifully applauded the bunch. Blake was still hyperventilating in the corner as Jaune watched Ozpin look first to Ruby's group then peer right at Jaune with a blank expression. Jaune felt Blake's hackles raise from the glance alone.
"...It looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year." Blake resisted the urge to strangle him as the man calmly sipped his coffee.
(-o0O0o-)
"So... Let's get the Goliath in the room out of the way, shall we? Drop your stuff and get comfortable, this will take a bit." Jaune announced as he and Blake led their new teammates into the room supplied by Goodwitch. Ren was stoic as Blake, calmly sitting on the edge of one of the normal beds while Nora bounced on her new bed for the moment, until a set of sharp looks from Ren and Blake respectively had the girl stop, letting her bottom stay planted on the now messy covers. Jaune sighed, pulling off his glasses and very very slowly, slid back his hood showing his blue eyes and blonde hair.
"Nearly a year and a half ago, I was captured by the White Fang." Ren and Nora's expressions went from stoic and bored respectively to stunned. "The leader of the group I was captured by was either angry of my father's interference in his assassination mission or just humanity in general. I guess, maybe something more that he never really mentioned." Blake had tried to come to grips with why Adam would even begin such a thing, let alone go to the extremes he had on Jaune's person after his visit to Seinna Kahn. Even now, a year later, his reasons seemed rarely palatable to the once optimistic faunas. "But he took all of those things out on..." Jaune's left hand gripped his shaking right at the wrist, trying to calm it.
"You were tortured." Nora's voice was no longer boisterous. It was calm, not sad per say, but there was a tone of something that struck Blake in how the girl had changed. It was hard for Blake to put it into words more the naïve and happy go lucky red head was supplanted with this more jaded personality. It seemed there was far more to her new teammates than she had thought.
"...Yes." Jaune sighed, leaning against the doorjamb that lead into his room. "For three months it went on, until Blake unlocked my Aura and helped me escape." Blake's heart clenched at the omitted truth, knowing the two would probably put it together soon enough but for now, Jaune continued on, not allowing for more interruptions. "My Semblance was unlocked at the same moment my Aura was and to be honest, it's effects are... horrifying."
Even Blake had to agree, no mater how much she could deny it, his ability was the most destructive she had ever seen. Especially since it took longer, making it more cruel and unethical, than Nickolas' and Adams mercifully quick one hit killers. Despite knowing what they did and could do to normal humans. The horrors that Adam and his ilk had brought to Jaune, what had happened to her once brothers and sisters in the Mistral pack of the White Fang made her ill. Jaune was of the same mind... When it came to anyone else he had ever met and affected.
However no matter how horrified he was of causing that much pain, suffering, and death; he could not bring himself to truly feel horrible for causing his tormentors harm. It was due to this fact which made him ill and fear his power more than the power itself ever could, he had admitted to her. That while he couldn't ever feel satisfaction at giving his pain to others, he could not and would not forgive the group that had done what it did to him. That he was worried that deep down he might have felt some sick vindication at making them feel what they did to him.
Blake had to be honest, it was Jaune's one truly dark place. It was the part that made him hesitant, sullen and jaded. The one single blackness on his heart that lessened the caring that brought her to his side all those months ago in their combined prison of Adam's making. That the boy had to become a man who had to accept hard realities and even accept in part the 'Monster' that Adam cursed him on that fateful day Blake unlocked the truth in his heart. The truth SHE had put there. That was what truly made her fear his eventual hatred of her. The part of him that would one day cause his touch to show her what she truly deserved. That she would loose another dear person to their hate. Blake closed her eyes and gave a calming sigh.
No. Jaune was not Adam. She had defended him on this with her mother, and in some ways she wondered if her mother was the one who put that thought in her head. Jaune had accepted her role, demanding it as nothing more than minor in the grand scheme of things, putting her actions that came after more important than anything. A hand gently gripped her shoulder, bringing her to the present. She started, looking up into Jaune's questioning gaze. She gave a breif nod, squeezing the hand in quiet thanks. He rubbed her shoulder a moment more, his smile creeping up the sides of his mask before he returned to his captive audience.
"Anyway, the initial blast of my semblance caused the camp to erupt into panic. Everyone of them felt what they had done to me, the closer they were and less between us, the stronger the effects. Many of them didn't survive the effects. Those that did..." Jaune's eyes closed, his face clenched tight in memory. "If that wasn't bad enough. The confusion, pain and death, the overall negativity that came from my Semblance's effects was like a signal flare." Ren's voice was low, almost cold as he summoned forth an appropriate hate filled curse in human tongue.
"Grimm." Blake nodded and continued wincing as her voice seemed weak and stuttered at first.
"T-the moment we tried to escape them, the outer walls were already being swarmed by Beowolves. Jaune was in no condition to fight, so we didn't pause to see what happened, but I heard a wall defender shout about a Beringel as we fled."
"With Jaune's powers still uncertain we ran to a town, long since abandoned from the looks of it called Kuroyuri. The effect of what happened had finally hit us and our negativity brought a large Grimm we had never seen before. We barely escaped with our lives. After some days we came to a village named Higanbana where we learned the horrible truth.-"Jaune interjected.
"My semblance is always working. A single touch to anyone other than Blake is letting them feel the pain of my days with the White Fang. The longer the touch, the more of it they feel. I couldn't reel in my powers under cloth like I can now, so when a waitress touched my shoulder she screamed. I fell back into someone else, and in the chaos, I let out a blast of my semblance's aura attack. The entire inn was affected. Twelve people out of sixteen people died by self mutilation or heart attacks induced from stress, the remaining four were forced to be sedated and sent to a hospital in Mistral. After that the two of us refused to have another incident, we stuck to the wilds, staying out of people's paths trying to get to Sanus and my family while working on my Aura control. The only company we had for nearly two months was a day or so with a huntsman who was passing though. Didn't stay long, only warned of Bandits that he had been scouting. Sure enough even though we had tried to go around we ran right into a camp full of them." Jaune sighed, running his hand through his hair. Blake continued.
"I was captured, they knew I was wanted by the White Fang and could get a bounty by turning me in, dead or alive. Their leader wore a Grimm mask so I wondered if she was some unknown part of the Fang, but it didn't matter they were going to... do things, then kill me." Blake took Jaune's hand, forcing him to look at her. "Something my partner wouldn't allow. It's my fault I forced him... I forced you to do what you did because I was careless." He took her hand. Shaking his head before looking to their two teammates.
"I consciously used my powers for the first... and last time. Only the leader and a handful of her subordinates escaped through some portal she made, the rest. The rest are dead." Jaune sighed, shaking his head. "I killed them all."
Ren and Nora listened to the rest of the Jaune's story, and nodded their conformation about how to handle being around him. They didn't seem to be put off but soon Jaune had little time to worry. Ozpin was summoning him to his office. Alone. It did little to ease Blake's mood at all. But Jaune asked her to call the Arc sisters on his behalf, hoping the familiar faces would cheer her up.
(-o0O0o-)
The elevator beeped a soft chime, allowing the heavily cloaked man entry into the many twirling gears and deep sounding clockwork that moved above and below the ceiling and floor. Standing behind his desk, looking out at Vale's sunset framing him, the headmaster seemed very unapproachable, like a wizard in some old fairy tail or movie he had read or watched when he was a kid. However, he wasn't that kid anymore. The man before him wasn't some magical wizard who could turn him into a fish or squirrel for a lesson. Jaune was a guy, barely a man in his own eyes, who needed help. Help only the man standing in the window could give.
"Professor, you wanted to talk to me?" Ozpin turned and motioned for Jaune to sit in the offered chairs opposite of his own. The two sat.
"Mr. Arc. Thank you for coming. Now, tell me. What do you know about Aura?"
"Aura is the manifestation of our soul. That everyone has it, even animals. I think Blake mentioned reading once that someone thought plants too but they only tried it on broccoli. No one could tell if it worked." Ozpin gave a rare smirk at the mention of Blake's reading.
"Yes I think I remember the theory in a journal a few years back, an interesting Atlesian scientist by the name of Polendena. His ideas, theoretical and often lambasted for their lack of substantial physical evidence, are in some ways why I brought you here today. It is this man's belief that souls bear our burdens, and in doing so they shield our hearts from harm, a so called autistic field in psychological means. Most huntsmen only use our Aura as shields or in power sources for our semblances and weapons. But why are semblances, often unique to the individual with few exceptions, always different?" Jaune idly thought that if he had never met this man, he would still know him as a teacher with this passive aggressive lesson styled speech.
"When Blake mentioned she had unlocked my Aura she explained it as the act of baring your soul outward as a force. I then would guess it means one's soul's true desire in physical form?"
"Perhaps. But not always. In some cases its the act of living through events that shades our semblances. Take one man I know very well, his semblance is a force of manipulating possible outcomes in a negative fashion. While he can tweak this power to his use, his is truly uncontrollable. It will effect the world he interacts with. He and twin sister were born with their aura unlocked, using their mother's death to prove they could be powerful even in birth."
"So there are others out there with uncontrolled Semblances."
"His is one of many with what I would like to call, passive state semblances, the kind of powers that alter a way or form of a person due to the fact the semblances are always on. Another man I know, but sadly and regretfully failed to help, cannot register physical pain, your antithesis I presume. Another a woman who is not a faunas, but can only breath in water after unlocking her Aura. There are as many types of active and passive state Semblances as there are people in the world, Mr. Arc. Your powers, however, are an interesting mixture of both."
"Active state, sir?" Jaune was barely following along, trying to wrap his brain around the information he was being given.
"A semblance that, much like Aura, has to be activated through a trigger. Be it Shadow, like your partners, Speed like Ms. Rose, Glyphs in the Schnee Family line, or returning damage taken like Ms. Xiao-Long, your father... and Adam Taurus." Ozpin watched as Jaune's expression grew dark, his right hand trembling. "It's not wrong to fear."
"I don't fear him."
"I never said it was a person you fear. It is your power, because you do not understand it."
"I understand it just fine, SIR." Jaune bit through clenched teeth. "I was tortured and beaten until I was ready to die. Had Blake not saved me I had days at best. I give that which I was given, just the same as my father just in a different way."
"A commendable act on her part. Though I wonder why Ms. Belladonna waited as long as she did? Did she really even want to help you at first? Why after months of disfigurements and trauma?" Jaune snapped, leaping to his feet in protest.
"She waited because Adam Taurus is a monster in our skin, just like me! He may not have cut her, he may not of done more than hit her, but he tortured her mentally. Just as bad or not worse than me. I only had months, she had years with him, hoping he would snap back but feared him all the same. He only showed his truest colors because he had made a new one in his place. One I proved the moment my Aura was unlocked! A monster I could see reflected in her eyes for days after I did those things to the White Fang! The Inn at Higanbana! The Bandits! Even my own mother." Jaune's anger faded into despondence. "She's only here to keep me from becoming another Adam."
"I think Ms. Belladonna is the only one who can answer that." Ozpin watched as the younger man's mood changed again, and he began pacing, the gears overhead keeping time with his hurried pace.
"I am a Monster! My semblance is torture! Pain only a mere a touch away!" Ozpin merely let the boy rage before sitting down his mug, pulling back his sleeve to expose bare skin and held it aloft towards the raging lad.
"Then go ahead, Mr. Arc. Take your glove off and touch me. Prove to me you are this monster you claim you are." Jaune stopped pacing, stopped everything staring at the exposed skin with something akin to true agony.
"I refuse. I will not use this on someone on purpose, no mater how much they push me. Not for my sake. Never again." Jaune's legs gave out as the rush of emotion left him exhausted and he slumped into the guest chairs by the desk, his face in his hands.
"That is why you are not a monster, Mr. Arc." The man didn't seem to take any comfort in the words.
"I should have let the Fang kill me. If I had known what would happen to so many people because of this... I should have died. But I WAS scared! I didn't want to die! I didn't want to leave Blake alone, trapped in Adam's grasp! I wanted to see my family again, to be with them! But! ...I-I never asked for this... I n-never wanted to hurt people... to k-kill people... I never asked for this."
"Those who are burdened by things like these, never do." Ozpin turned away. "Don't worry, Mr. Arc... Jaune. It is in accepting these burdens that one takes the first steps. The steps that will help you understand what you truly have." Ozpin took a sip of his drink, eyes fading into the vast horizons of his mind. "After all, they are steps I have taken more times than any other man, woman, and child alive. Yet I sense in you a strength I wish I had, so I believe in time we can help you." Jaune rose his head to look at the man before him, wondering just if the professor could be trusted. Ozpin remained looking out at the sunset.
"Knowing is the most important step Jaune. Not about why, but knowing. Understanding the dark and light, the two sides that make us up and lets our choices decide how to use our knowledge, to create or destroy. I know in this Discompose as you call it, has both good and bad, but it is how you CHOOSE to accept to use this gift in either will define you. Like your father, I have a very good feeling you will do what is right."
(-o0O0o-)
Next Chapter: The First Steps
AN:
It's a small world after all~! It's a small world after all~! It's a small world after all~!
It's a small small world!
Yeah I kept expecting someone to mention the fact bandits were mentioned a few times from Anima and ask if it was the Branwen tribe. Oh well. I had some trouble with my Open Office this week. everything in red then nothing at all, heaven forbid my grammar is off because I don't think that has EVER worked. Haha... fake laugh hiding real pain. ;_; R&R, hope you enjoyed it, hopefully see you next weekend with more.
REVIEWS:
Kreceir:Agreed, though Neptune's weaknesses were a nice funny flip. We needed more from Sun one way or another. Everything about him screams the same thing. It's annoying because he's so 2-D it's more frustrating than boring.
X3runner: Thank you for your continued interest in my story. I'm not saying all 'cults' are like this but rarely does one as 'special' as Adam is here see the negatives more than what is negatively affecting 'him'. What people or things are doing things to 'them', take Blake for example. The similarities between RL terrorists and this WF are suppose to be there. I don't know how some of these people get members, but they do. Don't expect Vales WF drive to work as well, but also don't expect it to be a barren. Some folks are sheep. In this case literally.
I have felt, basically by re-watching the series again that Pyrrha's social skills are barely above cannon Jaune and Ruby's. Her talking in previous chapters was really just her trying to get him to look her way to get him as a partner. She doesn't have all the variables though, and in some ways this Pyrrha is probably happy she didn't end up with Jaune, to which Jaune noticed and was saddened by.
Yang is Yang, she's the mom that never got to be a daughter really. She took care of Ruby, and maybe even Tai after Summer passed on. She's outgoing and adventurous because that's what she really wants to be after years of being mama bear. Goldilocks' story was all about a person looking for that perfect fit for them. Very opposite of Yang's true feelings. But something tells me, given Volume 5, Yang is the mom of the group. Blake might end up with her version of the Arcs at food times in this story given how often SYRN and BARN will be around each other.
Goodwitch is another interesting character. Not just because I have a things for Blonde Green eye'd women. She has little brought to her but what we gather she honestly wants the best for the children even if her classes are a bit harsh. She'd rather be a taskmistress than a funeral director.
Eramis8: I went kinda cop-out with the Nevermore, basically saying Weiss had a plan. Oh look she's the leader of SYRN because of it. Yay~.
Tobi14: Once again thanks for the interest in this story. I was saying the train attack mentioned in the previous chapter WAS the one from the Black trailer. He's hit others since, all of them escalating in violence and brutality due to Discompose doing what the name intended.
Very true, the men following Adam are people either like Ilia or the die hard... because they refuse to let some human's semblance kill them. But it would make them have a definite issue that could be caught.
Young Grimm from the side story about them don't have much in the way of thinking. They are creatures of Grimm, the face of hatred. They don't think about plans. But older ones, ones that have had time to dwell apparently DO begin to think, even if it's only ways to kill humans and destroy humanity. Eventually the older Grimm in my opinion in this story know who and what they follow, adapt and keep doing what they are intended to do.
Jaune might have lost some of that hatred here, but Blake is going to be full of Piss and vinegar next chapter.
TheDelta724: Agreed about BS. See even the shortening of it proves it. Adam DUNG!
Pyrrha will find her place in SYRN eventually, after you wouldn't believe it but Pyrrha is my favorite character in RWBY. And yes Adam is meant to be scary. He will be my villain of this story arc should I move beyond the Beacon arc with this story.
Omaiwamoe: Not much on the romance, but some people getting on the same page and more exposition.
Guesto: K
EiNyx: Cardin will be a point here, but only because of what he is. Jaune like a few other fics I've seen here take the transcripts out of the equation because it is a good point but not functional in liue of Nickolas training him here, or actual training. Sun IS coming. We'll get there.
Also K.
SentinalSlice: Cardin will be a point, but so will normal Grimm... eventually. For a story about girls fighting monsters the first season was devoid of a lot of monsters. As for the sparring Glynda will have an answer for you next chapter or so.