Ch. 1: Wedding Bells and a Walk in the Park.
"You may now kiss the bride". Those words were spoken, and two women engaged in a loving kiss and an embrace. Saphron Arc and Terra Cotta, now Saphron and Terra Cotta-Arc, were now wed.
That had been over an hour ago. The wedding ceremony was now long over, and even the reception was winding itself down, and Jaune Arc found himself incredibly bored. Jaune was not a fan of weddings. Don't get him wrong, he loved his sister Saphron, and Terra had already been considered a part of the family for a while now, But Jaune didn't like all the extravagance, and standing around idly for the better part of a day was not something a typical 14 year-old boy would enjoy. What's more, Saphron had decided to hold the ceremony in her fiance's hometown of Argus, which meant that he had endured an excruciating 7 hour bullhead flight from Vale just to get here. Unfortunately he had to apologize profusely to the flight attendant after he had succumbed to his family's curse and puked all over the tray in front of him. All that led to him standing around mindlessly in the middle of the park his sister had decided to hold the wedding at.
"Jaune, I'm bored." a teenage girl's voice called out to him from behind. It was his younger sister, Clair, who seemed to be sharing his thoughts, although more vocally than he would have at his own sister's wedding. She was wearing a rented dress, and like the rest of his sisters, she had the blonde hair that their family was known for. Clair was the nearest to him in terms of age of his seven sisters, being younger than him by a year. In terms of interpersonal relations, Clair was also the one he was the closest to, ever since they were babies. When they were young, they shared a bunk bed and toys, and even took baths together. Now that they were older, they often spent weeknights reading and discussing the latest issue of the X-Ray and Vav comic, and playing Super Smash Fighter well into the night. Lately they had been helping each other with homework, and despite her being one grade lower, he always seemed to be the one to need help( Stupid algebra, numbers were not supposed to be given names!). Although he would never admit it to Clair, he had known for a while that his younger sister was smarter than him.
He put down his glass of punch and turned to face his sister. "So am I sis, not much to do here" he exclaimed tiredly. The two had long since eaten their fill of cake and food. Right now people around him were passing the time with small talk and drinks. However he and his sister were not exactly socialites, quite the opposite in fact, and neither could utilize the natural social lubricant of alcohol to loosen them up.
"Hey, want to ditch this party and do some exploring?" Clair suggested.
"Explore what? There doesn't seem to be many points of interest around here." They were in a large clearing in a park, so unless you were interested in grass and trees there wasn't much around to look at. There was a playground nearby, but the two of them had long since grown out of that sort of thing.
"I read in a travel pamphlet on the flight here that there are old Atlassian ruins in the woods over there, let's go take a look, maybe we can find some souvenirs." She grabbed my arm and started dragging me towards a trailhead at the edge of the clearing.
"I don't know about this Clair, I don't want to get in trouble with Mom and Dad."
"Don't be a scaredy cat Jaune."
"Fine." I begrudgingly accepted her offer and she let go of me as we started down the dirt trail.
As it turned out she was right, and after a 20 minute walk came across a large stone structure that once was an Atlassian watchtower. The old building was made of stone and wood, and was probably quite grandiose a long time ago, but now is decrepit and falling apart. He was no expert in ruins or anything like that, but given the state of the tower it must have been built at least a couple hundred years ago. Why such a tower was located here in the middle of the woods was beyond him. Well, Clair was the one who knew about it in the first place, so might as well ask her.
"Hey Sis, why is there an Atlasian tower here in Mistral?"
"Well, Atlas had long since kept a garrison in Mistral, both as a measure of goodwill and as a way to extend their military reach. In the case Argus is attacked by Grimm or by a 3rd party, Atlas helps out, so no one in the Mistralian government is going to complain. In exchange, Atlas gets some land and a section of the harbor to use for their military." As usual, Clair knew much more about this type of thing than I did.
"Yeah, but why is this Atlasian watchtower here, in the middle of the woods specifically?"
"Well, the pamphlet I read didn't say, but I am guessing it is that the threat posed by Grimm to Argus is primarily coming from the sea nowadays, so Atlas must have moved all their forces to the harbor and abandoned their inland facilities. They probably leave the Grimm around here to to the local hunters and the Sanctum Academy students"
"Makes sense I guess." The mention of Sanctum Academy stung as it reminded him of my own failures and lost opportunities. He had always wanted to be a huntsman from a young age. It was a bit cheesy, but when he heard about the stories of his ancestors who fought in the Great War, and read about comic book heroes like the Huntsman, he couldn't help but want to go on his own heroic journey himself. He had begged his parents to let him attend Signal academy in Patch, but to no avail. His parents were supportive, but unfortunately it was out of their hands. Their family simply could not afford to pay the steep tuition costs needed to send Jaune to a combat school. His Dad did make good money as a famous huntsman, but unfortunately the financial burden of raising eight kids meant the family was nearly broke. The fact that Saphron had to take out a loan to cover the costs of today's events, didn't help either. His last shot at paying for combat school had been scholarships, but unfortunately Jaune's middle school grades were just too low to qualify for any. It sucked, but he had to give up his dreams of being a hero, as the most training he would ever get was a few practice spars with his dad.
Looking at the tower, its door, a hulking thing made out of wood, was in especially poor condition and full of rot. Clair walked up to it and pushed on it trying to open it, but it didn't budge despite there being no visible lock.
"Dammit, I wanted to check out the inside." Seems like Clair had been picking up some foul language recently. While Jaune didn't really mind it personally, he was afraid if Mom caught her saying something like that, she would assume that him, being her older brother, had "poisoned her mind" and get blamed. Of course Clair was 13 and nearing 14, only a little younger than him, so she was perfectly capable of learning foul language on her own. Also, Jaune knew that she had some special "Adult" reading material stashed under her bed where she thought nobody would find it, she certainly wasn't free of vices. That excuse wouldn't save him from Mom's wrath though.
"Clair! Watch your language! You know Mom doesn't like us saying stuff like that".
"Well Mom isn't here right now is she?" True, but he was more worried about it becoming a habit more than anything.
"Clair, let me look at that door." Clair moved to the side so He could try opening the door himself. He gave it a hard push but found as it Clair did that it would not open. It must have been barred shut from the inside. Fortunately, there was a hole in the door just big enough for his arm to fit through from where the wood had rotted away. Putting his hand through the hole, Jaune managed to find the piece of wood that was being used as a crude lock and lifted it out of place, and he heard it clatter to the ground inside. Pulling his arm out of the area of missing wood, he gave the door an experimental nudge, and sure enough the door swung open revealing the dark and dusty interior of the building.
"Thanks bro." she offered.
He took the rare moment of victory over his sister for a little bit of self-congratulation.
"Of course you can always count on your big bro for stuff like this."
"Don't get too full of yourself 'big bro'." Oh well, you win some, you lose some.
After a moment he walked inside to look. The room was empty with the exception of an old wooden barrel that interestingly seemed to have an antique looking short sword inside that was whose grip extended outside the opening of the barrel.
He went to grab the handle when he was interrupted by a loud sound.
"Jaune, Gr-GRIMM!" He heard Clair shout in a voice leaking terror and fear that he had never heard from her before and hope to never hear again.
He ran to the doorway and saw it: A terrifying beast as big as a horse, covered with inky black fur and terrifying claws and spikes of an ivory appearance. Most terrifying of all was the bone-white mask on its face that hid its true appearance. It seemed to have noticed us, and turned to face may not have had any real combat training but he knew enough to know that it was a Beowolf, one of the most common types of Grimm. It was common knowledge that Beowolves were supposed to be one of the weakest forms of Grimm, but that thing looked anything but weak.
He froze in fear for just a moment. What was a Beast of Grimm doing here? He had thought this area was supposed to be kept free of them by the local huntsman and combat school? Jaune pondered those questions only for a moment before the adrenaline kicked in.
Grabbing Clair from the doorway, she screamed as he shoved her inside practically throwing her across the room and she stumbled nearly falling face first. Normally doing something like that wouldn't end well for him, but he didn't have time to care at the moment.
He ran inside as well to join his sister and slammed the door closed. Thinking of the state of the door when they first encountered it, he grabbed the wooden board laying on the ground from where it had dropped and barred the door shut. No sooner than when he had done he heard a horrible snarl and something heavy slammed against the door. Thankfully the rotting door held, but given its state it didn't seem like it would hold out very long.
"Jaune, I'm scared." His sister was trembling and crying in fear. He wouldn't let it end like this. Only a few weeks before his father had told him on his 14th birthday, that "As the soon to be man of the house", it was his job to protect his mother and sisters. Perhaps a bit misogynistic, but he took his duty in stride. There was no way he was going to fail in that role. He couldn't let his baby sister and closest friend come to harm.
He heard another crash at the door. It wouldn't hold for very much longer.
Racking his brains for ideas, he remembered that they were only a short distance away from help.
"Clair, use your scroll and call the emergency number to call for help." She nodded and retrieved her scroll from her pocket with shaking, tears streaming from her face. The banging at the door grew louder
Remembering the old sword at the corner of the room he grabbed its handle and pulled it out of the barrel it was lying in. The sword was old, but at least seemed to be somewhat sharp and mostly free of rust. He gave it a few experimental swings and found it satisfactory. While Jaune never had formal combat training, he had had some practice in the form of spars with his dad using his family's ancestral sword, Crocea Mors. Of course he was beaten badly in every spar, but at the very least he learned the basics of swordsmanship.
Finally with one last crash the door gave way, the hinges shattering causing the door to fall forward. The Beowolf stuck its bony snout through the now wrecked doorway, giving a few experimental sniffs.
Seeing his opportunity, Jaune steadied his trembling hands and charged the beast, his sword coming down in an overhead slash upon the creature's head. Dammit, the slash had been ineffective, as the sword had bounced off the faceplate leaving only a shallow mark. He jumped back, to get himself out of range of the creature's claws, and evaluate the situation. He was standing in the center of the room, with his sister sheltering under the collapsed stairwell, while the Beowolf stood at the entrance.
Suddenly the creature pounced, and Jauned leaped to get out of the way, narrowly avoiding the creature's razor claws. He was alive for now, but the small room didn't give him enough space to maneuver and he was backed against the wall. He wouldn't be able to pull the same trick twice. He needed some sort of protection. Armour would be ideal, but he had only a rented tux to protect himself.
Taking another step back, he nearly stumbled upon an object laying on the floor. It was a circular piece of wood, the lid to the barrel that his newly acquired weapon had previously been resting in. Conveniently it had a grip on the top that would make it a perfect makeshift shield. He grabbed it, and no sooner than after he had done that then the beast leaped towards him yet again. Bracing himself, the creature's claw fell upon the shield, scratching it but leaving Jaune otherwise unharmed.
Jaune utilized the moment to counterattack, his sword striking against the fur on its side, making a deep cut. The Beowolf stumbled and jumped backwards giving Jaune a moment of respite. A good hit, but he knew he would need to do something more substantial to finish the beast off. Thinking for a moment, he quickly came up with a plan to plant the killing blow.
The Beowolf's powerful legs curled, before coming undone, sending the beast towards Jaune for a third time. But this time he had a plan. As the creature hurtled towards him, he crouched and brought his shield over his head. Jaune felt the overwhelming force of Beowolf's front legs crashing against his shield, leaving its belly wide open directly in front of him. Using every ounce of strength he had, he forced the sword straight into the creature's stomach, sinking the blade into its body all the way up to the hilt. He felt the Grimm spasm through the sword, before falling limp. Then, almost as if by magic, the Beowolf disintegrated into a swirl of black particles, leaving nothing behind.
Suddenly a wave of soreness and fatigue overwhelmed and he fell to his knees, dropping his sword and makeshift shield on the cobblestone below. He had done it. He killed the Beowolf and saved Clair, without receiving even a single scratch in turn.
"Jaune!" his sister yelled as emerged from her previous hiding place and ran towards him, crashing into him and joining him on the floor.
"I was so scared, but you were so awesome, Jaune!" the moisture under her eyes forgotten, she hugged him, wrapping her arms around him tightly.
"Yeah I guess I was, wasn't I?" He didn't let it show, but he had been just as scared as she was, only staying calm through the copious amount of adrenaline that was now draining from him. He gave his sister another moment before brushing her arms off him and standing up.
Realizing how late it was by the sight of the sun setting outside, he realized they needed to get back to the wedding grounds. Patting Clair on the shoulder, he let her know of his intent.
"Come on Clair, we need to head back before mom gets angry." She nodded and stood up, brushing the dust off her dress and the cobwebs out of her hair.
Looking down, he glanced at the sword and shield that had been used in his life or death fight. The sword was still in good condition, with no signs that it had been used in a fight. The makeshift shield/barrel lid was another story, the wood having long gashes in its surface. He shuddered to think that if he hadn't had that shield then that would've been him. Well at least they would make good souvenirs. Picking the pair of items up, he started heading for the doorway, motioning for his sister to follow.
The two started on the path back in silence although he noticed Clair was standing closer to him than normal, her shoulders nearly brushing against his back on occasion. Well her clinginess was understandable given the circumstances.
When they were about halfway back to the park, they heard the bushes moving around him. From the brush emerged a huge creature with surprisingly little noise. It was a Grimm, of a massive size, although he didn't recognize its species. Where the Beowolf had been only the size of a small cow or large wolf, this creature was the size of a pickup truck. It hadn't noticed the two of them yet though. He grabbed Clair's arm and the two of them started backing away as quietly as they could.
"It's an Ursa." She whispered in his ear. The name made sense given its bear-like morphology. They continued, slowly making their way to a curve in the path that would hide them from the Ursa. Just as it looked like they would make it to safety, a crack from a fallen branch sounded eerily loudly from beneath Clair's feet and the beast's great head turned, its eyes now clearly affixed on them.
"CLAIR! Run, go get help!" He shouted at her and pushed her along the path. He needed to get her away to safety.
"I'm not leaving you Jaune!" Damn her stubbornness! It's not like she could help hi fight this monster, without a weapon nor training all she could do was flee. There was no where to hide here.
"I'll be fine Clair, just run, I can keep this thing at bay for a while, go get dad!" That was a lie. Jaune had no idea if he could keep the Ursa at bay for any particular length of time, much less kill it. He gave her a false smile as one last attempt at encouragement, which seemed to work. "Promise me you'll be okay Jaune." She demanded.
"I'll be fine Sis, I promise, just go." She accepted my words and reluctantly turned back and began running down the path towards the park.
His faux smile transformed into a grimace as he turned to face the beast and took in the task at hand. Against something so large and powerful, Jaune had few options. He decided to go with his previous strategy that he had used to kill the Beowolf; In other words, get the Ursa to attack me, then use the shield to get access to its belly and inflict the killing blow.
Unfortunately it seemed this one was more interested in Clair, as it ignored him and turned towards the direction Clair ran off in and it looked like it would start running after her.
He had to get it to focus on him. "Hey you smelly bear!" he yelled. It turned its head to face him "Come back here so I can shove this sword up your butt!" Not exactly the most heroic one liner, but the Ursa's attention was now solely fully focused on him.
Time to follow the plan. He braced his shield as the beast predictably started to charge towards him. He crouched and raised and angled the shield to catch the incoming strike. The blow arrived … And tore through the already weakened shield, turning it into naught but splinters and leaving him holding on to the just remains of the handle. A paw in motion caught his shoulder, and a horrific pain forced him to drop even the handle and knocked him to the ground.
The Ursa stood directly over him now, getting ready to inflict the final blow. He rolled out from underneath the beast's legs just before a dinner-plate sized paw slammed into the soil where his head had laid just a moment before. Jumping back to his feet, brought his sword hand to his shoulder to assess the damage.
That wasn't good. The claw marks were deep and made it about an inch into his shoulder, nearly hitting bone. The pain was nearly unbearable, but he managed to keep himself focused by clenching his teeth and tightening his swordhand around the hilt of his blade. And none too soon, because the bear-like creature dropped low before engaging in a charge straight for him. Without a shield, his only option was to dodge. He leapt to the side to hide behind an ancient oak tree.
The mighty tree swayed, and it almost seemed as if it had survived, until a sudden cracking sound rang out and the tree fell over with a great thump.
Good news is, the tree didn't land on him. Bad news was that the tree now blocked his escape path. The tree along with the surrounding bushes formed a wall, trapping him with the Ursa. He had no shield now, so he would have to use his sword to parry the next blow.
The Ursa pawed the ground, before starting another charge. Jaune braced himself as well as he could, raising his sword in front of him as well as he could with his one good arm to parry the oncoming beast. The Ursa arrived, and with a swipe from its right claw easily knocked the sword out of hand. After that everything happened too quickly for him to react.
Claws caught him across his chest inflicting wounds deep enough to lacerate his internal organs and fangs buried themselves to the bone into his remaining good shoulder. With the wounds came a blinding pain, and he collapsed back-first onto the ground.
This was it. He had done everything he could to fight that creature but hadn't even gotten in one blow. The Ursa loomed over him.
"Sorry sis, it looks like I can't keep my word. I guess I'm just a failure as a brother." He whispered to no one in particular. He closed his eyes, waiting for the final blow. One, five then ten seconds later and he was still not crushed into paste. He opened his eyes and saw something unexpected through his blurry vision. Above him, the Ursa was fading into nothing, its head having been cleanly separated from its body. Behind it a small cloaked figure stood, armed with what looked like scythe of some sort.
Had Clair managed to get help? Well it didn't matter at this point. He could barely breathe, his lungs taking a massive effort to cycle with fresh air. and he had no feeling in any of his arms or legs. He was sure his wounds were fatal.
As his vision completely faded away, he heard shouts of his name and the sounds of shoes hitting the dirt around him. Was this the end of Jaune Arc? Dying before accomplishing even a single thing of note? What a waste of a as even his hearing started to fade, he couldn't help but smile. His little sister was safe. He wasn't a complete failure.
"For it is through heroism that we gain immortality" Someone spoke above him.
Then he heard nothing at all.
A/N: Hello, welcome to my first and probably last story here. I am mainly writing this out of sheer boredom, and have no expectations of completing it, despite having a rough plan of the timeline for this story up to and including Beacon initiation. Hope people aren't too angry at me for adding an OC(Clair) as one of Jaune's sisters, but I do have greater plans for her to be integrated into the main RWBY story. I didn't realize it until after writing it, but this chapter resembles Yang and Ruby's first encounter with Grimm somewhat. Feel free to leave a review with any criticism you might have so that I may improve as a writer.