Wraith

Chapter Three

Beta: Smithrooks

I am a Slave

Beacon, many years ago…

Jaune yawned and stretched comfortably within his sleeping bag. His fluffy bunny onesie contorted comfortably around his body, the light blue fabric gracing his skin with its wonderful softness.

All around him, other teenagers were getting up and beginning to prepare themselves for the trials of the day ahead. On the far side of the room, Jaune could see Ruby yawning cutely as she too began to pull herself out of bed, her dark red hair ruffled and messy from the night's rest she had gotten.

Jaune stood, his back making an oh-so-relieving popping sound that soothed his nerves. Some things never change, after all, and why should they? Things were good as they were.

Ignoring the jealous looks people were sending him and his cosy onesie, Jaune made his way to the bathroom so he could change into his hoodie and armour. There were already a bunch of guys in there and they all looked rather… disgruntled by the earliness of the hour. But that didn't stop Jaune! He had made a friend yesterday, so he was going to make another today!

Sliding up close to a thin-looking boy that had an interesting-looking green mohawk, Jaune casually began to speak. "Hey there," the blonde boy said conversationally. "So… excited for initiation?"

The boy turned to look at him; his eyes were slightly glazed, and he was obviously not fully awake yet. "Um… yeah… initiation. Really looking forward to that, gonna kill me some Grimm…"

Grimm? That was worrying. Jaune had no training, he had just stolen the sword from home and run off to Beacon. Why on Remnant would they get them to fight Grimm so soon? Weren't they here to learn how to fight Grimm? Like… before they actually had to fight them…

"Y-yeah, gonna get some Grimm…" Jaune replied weakly. Oh gods, he was totally screwed…

The thin green-haired boy ambled away before Jaune could say anything else, no doubt in search of the nearest source of caffeine. Jaune continued putting on his hoodie and armour, all the while feeling crushing despair; he had never even seen a Grimm before, how the hell was he meant to fight one?

No! He cried out in his mind, banishing the negative thoughts. Today is going to be great, I just know it!

With a new spring in his step, Jaune set out towards where he hoped the cafeteria was. With his trusty nose as a guide, Jaune followed the heavenly smell of coffee and pancakes until he came upon a large room with rows of tables, and about a hundred prospective students. Again using his trusty nose, Jaune found himself marching towards where the food was served.

Before Jaune knew it, he was seated at an empty table wolfing down a bowl of his favourite cereal: Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes. Nothing could beat a strong, healthy breakfast of the flaky goodness of Pumpkin Pete.

Or so his mother told him anyway.

All too soon his bowl was empty, and with that came the depressing realisation that it was now time to get up and actually prepare for initiation.

Jaune idly deposited his bowl in the appropriate place as he made his way towards the locker bay, where he had stored his stolen sword yesterday. He didn't exactly recall the number of the locker he had used, but that was okay because he had thought ahead. After a few moments of rummaging around in his pockets, the blonde boy managed retrieve a small piece of paper.

Elation and excitement soon became confusion and despair when he read out his locker number.

636?! He cried out mentally, surely I would remember having to count so high! Oh, this is just my luck…

Jaune spent a few minutes searching for his locker, but the effort was quickly proven moot when he caught no sign of the elusive locker.

But that was okay; his attention was suddenly captured by something that seemed far, far more important to his teenage mind.

An absolutely gorgeous white haired girl, who was standing and talking to a rather tall-looking redhead. He couldn't quite see all of the beautiful girl's face, but what he did see left him mesmerized. Who knew such beauty existed in the world?

Without even realising it, Jaune made his way over to the girl and started speaking. "Hey there, Snow Angel," he greeted, in what was no doubt the most suave voice imaginable. "The name's Jaune Arc; it's short, sweet and ladies love it."

The girl turned to face him, icy blue eyes regarding him with what he could only assume was adoration. Damn, his opening move was good. He'd have to thank his father for the advice he gave him.

"What did you just call me?" she demanded in a tone that honestly surprised him; where was the amusement? "My name is Weiss Schnee, you would do well to remember your betters."

Betters? Oh! She was one of those aggressive types. "Well, Snow Angel," the Arc started, forgoing the use of her name in favour of the cute nickname he had thought up. "I hear that teams are going to be decided soon. I was thinking that you and me would make a good one."

Ice blue eyes narrowed dangerously, but Jaune didn't care. His flirtations must be working! Soon he would have a girlfriend! "You… you dare?" she hissed slowly. "I am Weiss Schnee, I will not be spoken to like that! You should feel lucky that I am even allowing you to speak to me! Now begone! Pester me no more!"

Oh, she wanted to play at that game, did she? To pretend that she wasn't interested, well he could play at that too!

He turned to the red-haired girl that had been silent up until now, idly noting her intense green eyes before he began speaking. "And what about you? Would you like to be on Team Jaune? I'm sure I could find an available spot for you…?"

The girl looked visibly startled for a moment, as if she were surprised that he didn't mention her name. She opened her mouth to speak, but was soon cut off when Snow Angel barked sharply, "Do you have any idea who you're speaking to?"

Jaune glanced at the other girl; she smiled and waved. "Nope, no idea. Should I?"

Weiss waved her hands in apparent aggravation, although Jaune had no idea what could have caused it. "That's Pyrrha Nikos!" she yelled, as if that explained everything.

Should Jaune know that is? He supposed she did look vaguely familiar, but nothing notable came to mind. "I'm sorry, who?"

"She won the Mistral regional tournament four times in a row, a new record!"

Nope, nothing. His lack of understanding must have shown on his face, because Weiss continued, her arms waving and face growing slightly red. "She graduated the top of her class at Sanctum!"

"Sanctum… nope, never heard of it," he replied with what he hoped was a smooth grin on his face. "Good for her, I suppose?"

Weiss' voice reached a new volume, making a few sets of eyes from around the room turn to look at them. "She's on the cover of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!"

"That's you?!" Jaune cried his surprise and joy; his sisters would be so jealous of him if they knew about this. But elation soon turned to crushing despair; someone like her wouldn't want to be on a team with him… "I suppose you wouldn't want to be on my team then…"

But a soothing voice stopped him, "Actually Jaune, I think you would make a great leader!"

Jaune blushed a deep crimson, "Oh, stop it!" he exclaimed with a smile, not wanting her to stop.

"Yes," Weiss agreed, "stop that. Don't encourage him, Pyrrha."

Jaune turned to Weiss once more, his blue eyes alight, "Well, Snow Angel, the spots on Team Jaune are filling up quickly. Best to get in now before it's all taken up!"

Weiss just sighed, her brow creasing as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Pyrrha, if you would?"

Before Jaune knew what was happening, he found himself speared to a locker on the far side of the room.

An upwards glance showed that a red and bronze spear was the culprit, also revealing the number of the locker he was currently speared to: 636.

Weiss and Pyrrha casually walked past where Jaune hung suspended to the metal locker; Jaune soon tumbled to the ground when Pyrrha effortlessly plucked the spear out. "Sorry!" she said, with a kind smile on her face.

Jaune couldn't help but grin. Today was turning out great.


Vale, present day...

Vale was in chaos. Helpless civilians lay withered on the ground as the black-robed man walked through the city. As he drew near, bodies became shrivelled husks devoid of life, but the beast didn't care; he just laughed.

This was the sight that greeted the Vale military and hunter squadrons when they confronted the pale man in the city square.

Bullheads hovered overhead and hunter teams surged into the open area; all had their weapons pointing at the man below. "Submit yourself to us!" one particularly bold hunter demanded as he stepped closer to the robed man.

Sickly yellow eyes focused on the hunter, a cheshire grin splitting across a pale face. "HAHA! I am hungry! And I won't return to the Ravens! NEVER!"

The hunter fell to his knees, an unseen force sucking away his aura. He cried out weakly for help, but none came; in a few short moments he passed out, and slowly began withering away until he was no more.

The Lord of Hunger laughed harder, deep amusement splitting his face. His arms spread out wide as the unseeing yellow eyes focused on the glowing energies of the assembled forces sent to stop him.

But just moments before he made his move, a new Bullhead swooped in. Four heavily armoured figures leapt out of the craft, and landed on the paved ground with a thump. But the robed man just cackled with laughter upon the sight of his greatest friends. "It's true!" he shouted as he waved his hands around. "This place, this WORLD is real! All itty bitty little morsels for me…!"

One of the armoured beings stepped forward, her crimson scythe held ready in her hands. "No, Jaune! You will no longer contaminate the world of Remnant; make peace with your maker, you shall be seeing him soon!"

Black haze seemed to spread around the legs of the beast, and he slowly rose into the air, seemingly held aloft by the darkness that surrounded him. "Jaune?" he questioned, "JAUNE? No! I am Nihilus!"

The sky seemed to split apart, what had previously been a clear and sunny day becoming cloudy and storm-ridden in moments, as rain and lightning pelted downwards to the assembled forces of Vale below. The Bullheads which had been so diligently hovering overhead with their weapons trained on the criminal shook and crashed over the city, their occupants dying a painful death.

The four armoured hunters of team RWBY scattered to avoid the lightning that smashed into the ground. The Lord of Hunger, or Nihilus, whatever he called himself, floated far above them in the air, his twisted laughter seeping into their bones and chilling their souls. But they were undeterred; even as they scattered, they fired their weapons at the robed beast.

The dust rounds just washed off the beast, the power granted by the Fall Maiden sustaining him and feeding his madness. "I exist through my need, to self-oblige!" he screamed over the howling winds, his voice carrying throughout Vale, "She is something in me, that I despise! She won't stop! She won't silence! I WILL BE FREE!"

Finally, he was blasted out of the sky when a colossal glowing white knight summoned by Weiss slammed into him with all the force of a tank. But he only laughed as concrete shattered when he hit the ground, his sickly yellow eyes narrowing on the aura construct like a starving man seeing food.

Too late, Weiss realised her mistake. The pale hands of Nihilus closed around the blade of the knight as it swung at him, and her previously inaccessible aura began to drain away.

The armoured figure of Weiss began to collapse in shock as her aura was permanently removed from her body, but she was extremely lucky because in less than a second, Ruby came to her rescue and slammed her scythe into Jaune with all the force she could muster.

The white-haired beast was thrown backwards and away from the towering white knight, which dissolved the moment he let go.

Blake was at Weiss' side as the Schnee girl struggled to stay awake. The Faunus girl quickly checked her fallen teammates' aura levels, and tried to stabilize her while Yang and Ruby faced off against the monster.

"You'll pay for that!" Yang screamed in fury as she glared from underneath her helmet, longing to dash forwards and smash his face, but knowing that it would end poorly without a proper plan.

"Just a single drop…" Nihilus said slowly, a grin in place. "All I need is a single drop, and I understand… I UNDERSTAND!"

A spinning white Schnee glyph appeared on the ground before Jaune, his grin only slightly strained as he used up the aura stolen from Weiss.

The girls paled upon seeing the glyph; it was a summoning circle. What manner of beast would he set upon Vale now?

A thin, dainty hand emerged from the spinning glyph. Soon, the hand was followed by the form of a woman that had long ago been a raven haired beauty with amber eyes, but was now little more than a slave to the whims of the man that had killed her.

"Kill them," Nihilus whispered, "Let them burn."

The construct didn't say anything; it just fed off the power of its creator as burning, red-hot flames spewed forth from its mouth and hands.

RWBY shared a glance. That was…

"Cinder," the black-cloaked lord whispered, sickly yellow eyes focusing solely on his own creation. "Burn them all…"

A/N

Words don't quite describe how much I hate writing Jaune the way I did for the first half of this chapter. I can't stand guys that act like him, the air headed idiots are just wastes of space in my mind. It was a great struggle to just to get that out, I try to only write characters that I can understand or empathise with. Jaune is not such a character. He is just weak in every sense of the word.

Okay, mini rant over.

Moving on to the far more entertaining things to write, let's talk about what happened in the second half of the chapter. Jaune is an obscenely overpowered villain, if that wasn't clear before then I hope it is now. He has all the powers of the Fall Maiden as well as a much looser temperament than Cinder ever did.

About the name Nihilus… well that came about for two reasons. The first being the inspiration of his character being Darth Nihilus from KOTOR2 and the second being a rather blatant hint to his mentality. Nihilism is defined as "The doctrine that nothing actually exists or that existence or values are meaningless." Jaune follows this pretty closely, he doesn't really understand the concept of others very well. Everything is about him; his desires, his pains, he no longer understands that the world exists outside of himself… well himself and his own insanity anyway.

In regards to him summoning Cinder… Winter only really explained the summoning as calling forth a past foe. It was never limited to just Grimm, and Cinder certainly counts as a past foe…

All that aside let's look at the reviews:

Smithrooks:

Thanks for reviewing.

Yeah he wants power from the very beginning, but obviously the reasoning behind this desire starts out being much more altruistic than later. The reasons behind it aren't really shown yet, but at this point a safe guess on your part would be to assume it's based off his desire to help people.

He is ridiculously overpowered, almost to the point that he is practically the anti hunter. Cinder did indeed make a grave mistake, she likely did know how dangerous he was but assumed that she herself was beyond the reach of his semblance due to her having roughly half of the Fall Maiden powers. Like Weiss said last chapter, "No male was meant to hold that strength." not no male can hold that strength. She 'died' for her mistake.

Nik41:

Thanks for reviewing.

Thanks! I will.

Tobi14:

Thanks for reviewing.

His semblance only allows him to absorb the aura of others, but since the aura of others have their own semblances… well, there's not much he can't do given the right… tools.

He can absorb aura from trees and stuff, but it will be shown later that plants and other small animals are only a pittance compared to a person.

And it should be noted that he is already using his semblance at its maximum range, he can't extend it any further without the aid of another semblance that would allow such a thing.


Thanks for reading and please remember to leave a review!