Wraith

Chapter Five

Beta: Smithrooks

Tender Remains

Outskirts of Vale, present day…

The Lord of Hunger sat crouched over the slowly fading construct made from the stolen aura of the Schnee girl, the icy image of Cinder dying as he ran out of the aura he needed to sustain it.

He had broken into an apartment building in the run-down slums of the city; the original owners had been promptly drained of all their aura, and were now little more than withered husks dirtying the already stained floor.

His cries of sadness and outrage rang throughout the entire building, but no one dared speak out against him. The aura construct was dying, and there was nothing he could do. He had only managed to steal the barest sliver of aura from the Schnee girl before he had been interrupted - and thus the construct was fading away as he burnt the last dregs of the soul he had stolen.

But it wasn't fair! He needed the silence; they both wouldn't stop talking. Why wouldn't they stop talking?

The icy image of the dead woman finally faded into nothing, and the voices came back full force. The scream of rage and despair that escaped the pale mouth of Nihilus was utterly consuming, but all those that heard him were too busy running away or calling the authorities to care.

He had lingered for far too long, the empty dark place around him growing cold and unforgiving even as his sightless sickly yellow eyes darted around in anger. He needed to move, he needed to leave… he needed to feed.

He was so hungry, oh so hungry.

It hurt so bad… why did it hurt? Hunger… hunger… why did it have to hurt? WHY WERE THEY TALKING SO LOUD? But they were dead, dead people don't talk… his mother always told him that the dead were silent as the night and lived in the shadowlands, so why were they talking to him?

Rage and despair warred within him, but the darkness around him didn't abate. Distantly, he could see the colourful lights of the delicious souls. They ran from him… but what good was it to run? Their pretty little lights would be his soon enough. They belonged to him! Their power was rightfully his! She said so! She kept telling him that they were his for the taking, but the other disagreed; she wanted quiet, she wanted to be alone again.

Didn't she know? You can't ever be alone. They were always there: the voices, the golden lights…

But not just the lights, the hollows were coming. All his rage and despair was bleeding into others, the pretty little lights stained by his anger and fear; now, the hollows were coming. The howls and jeers of the empty spaces were moving closer.

He was so afraid. Why were the hollows coming? He was so afraid…


The Emerald Forest, many years ago…

The spear wound had scabbed over pretty quickly, and the pain had dulled somewhat. But it still hurt terribly; the feeling of having all of his newfound power seeping through his shoulder left the rest of his body feeling cold and alone.

The boy, Cardin, had hauled Jaune to his feet and practically ordered him to start marching northwards. But Jaune hadn't particularly minded, he was just glad he had someone strong and capable around to help him.

Someone to protect him.

For the life of him, he couldn't work out why that Pyrrha girl had attacked him. Had he offended her that badly when he didn't know who she was? She had been so nice…

Sure, he may have been a little rude when he was flirting with Weiss, but it had been unintentional and no sane person would impale someone for bad manners right? They came here to learn to be hunters, not to hurt people! What had he done to deserve this?

A branch whipped past and slapped him on his wounded shoulder; Jaune couldn't suppress the cry of pain that slipped past his lips. Cardin barely even spared him a glance though, just a small scowl and the silent order to keep moving.

Somehow, Jaune was getting the impression that Cardin didn't like him all that much. Although considering his current track record at getting his new classmates to like him, Jaune was feeling pretty good about how Cardin was treating him - especially given that Cardin had yet to spear him to a tree.

Although the large mace that Cardin had sitting on his back made Jaune doubt that the other boy would spear him to a tree; instead, he would probably turn him into a red smear that stained the grass.

Such lovely, positive thoughts. Who would have guessed that being impaled would have that effect on people?

Although Jaune did have to admit that the pain from the spear certainly had put a new perspective on pain. All those paper cuts and little scrapes he had as a kid? He had whined and moaned liked he was dying, but now? Yeah, they might as well have been a gentle tickle compared to the feeling of a friggin spear going through his shoulder, and then having all his weight rest on the extremely sharp blade.

Who knows, maybe he could write a book on it one day. He'd call it: The first time a girl nailed me… to a tree.

Yeah… that had a nice ring to it. He only hoped that he would never have to write a sequel, he really didn't want to be impaled again.

The trees began to part as Cardin led the duo into a clearing, the clean and unsoiled grass vibrantly green to the eye. But the pain in Jaune's shoulder was just too great; he couldn't appreciate the deep greens when he felt blood seep down his shoulder.

"Hurry up Jauney," Cardin called as he moved forwards, a thin veneer of friendliness covering the mild disdain that Jaune knew was there. "It looks like we're the first ones here, but we won't be waiting around to find out."

Jaune didn't really know what to say to that, so instead he just nodded.

Cardin had been good to him so far. Sure he may have been a little rough here and there, but Jaune had no doubt that they would turn out to be great friends.

They reached the broken stone temple a few short moments later. Cardin busied himself with picking a relic, while Jaune tried stem the small trickle of blood that leaked out of his mostly scabbed over wound.

"Here," the larger boy announced, "I have one." Held aloft in his large hands was a black chess piece that Jaune didn't really recognise.

"Great job…" the blonde boy wheezed, the terrible ache in his shoulder making everything else seem insignificant.

Before Cardin could say anything else, a howl broke through the clearing and three average-looking Beowolves began a mad dash towards the two teens; no doubt they were attracted to the smell of blood coming from Jaune's shoulder.

Jaune gulped while Cardin scoffed, the larger boy drawing his mace from his shoulder and grinning in challenge towards the feral beasts. Jaune weakly drew Crocea Mors from his hip with his good hand, though he was unable to deploy his shield due to the shoulder wound.

The lupine creatures drew ever closer; their howls of hunger and animalistic rage made Jaune wish he had stuck to being a farmer or something.

When they came within about ten metres Cardin leapt at the beasts with an impressive war cry, his mace slamming downwards with explosive force that crushed the skull of the first Grimm.

But the beasts weren't really interested in Cardin, the smell of blood had stained their senses and they were set on Jaune. As the first Beowolf came within range, Jaune swung his sword out at hard as he possibly could, hoping to any god that would listen that the beast would be sheared in half by the ancient blade.

But apparently the gods had abandoned him; his strike fell short, and the beast crashed into his body with more than enough force to knock him over. Even as Cardin dealt with the other remaining Grimm, the Beowolf atop Jaune snarled and tore away at flesh with its claws and teeth. Jaune tried to call out for help, but all that came out was a piercing cry of agony as the claws of the beast raked across his face and its sharp teeth dug into his shoulder.

His face felt as if it had been torn to shreds, pain unlike anything he had ever felt burning through his mind with a fury that seemed to wash away everything else. The seemingly endless pain suddenly lessened when the beast was smashed aside with a single stroke of Cardin's mace.

Jaune didn't see his rescuer, his vision clouded red with blood pouring from the huge slash wounds across his face. Darkness seeped into the edges of the scarlet, but even then Jaune tried to retain his awareness.

He heard words… things were getting fuzzy… was someone talking to him? There was a blurry dark mass above him, sounds and images that he could hardly understand…

"...Jaune! … awake! …"

There were other things, more dark shapes around him… was this was death felt like? So much pain… wasn't death meant to be peaceful?

"What happened?" one of the blobs questioned, the voice seemed so distant… "... do this?"

He felt like he was being moved, but he had no control over it. Large hands pressed against his back as someone carried him. "... Grimm … aura …"

The darkness drew him in… he felt like he was drifting away, like it would be so much easier to just let go and have a quick sleep…

Yes, a sleep… just a quick nap, and he'd be right as rain afterwards.

Just a quick little sleep…

Darkness consumed his vision, and he knew no more.


Beacon infirmary, many years ago…

The world exploded into agony in a red-hot mess of pain, agony that was centered in three jagged streaks across his face and burning pain in his left shoulder.

Someone screamed nearby, and the world slowly came into better focus. Sharp white lights shone from above, and Jaune could hear someone saying his name. A blurry figure stood over him and he could see its mouth move, but the sounds came out disjointed and wrong.

He was in so much pain; his face felt like it was on fire, and his shoulder felt like it had been speared again. "W-where am I?" he forced out, his voice little more than a harsh whisper.

The world seemed to shake as a hand gently seemed to lift his head and press a glass of cool water to his lips. Until that moment he hadn't realised just how thirsty he was; his throat burned and ached terribly, but that was still nothing compared to the other things that pained him.

"Can you hear me, Mr. Arc?"

The voice came out much clearer this time, the words less slurred and Jaune was actually able to understand what was said. But his eyes still ached horribly, and his vision was fuzzy and indistinct. "Who are you?" Jaune questioned weakly, pain wracking his body.

The blur seemed to shift slightly, its body repositioning itself. "I am professor Ozpin, Mr. Arc. Do you remember me?

Ozpin… the headmaster of the school, the greatest hunter alive, how could Jaune forget? "Wh-what happened? I hurt…"

"You were gravely wounded during initiation, first by accident during your landing and later by Grimm attracted to the smell of your blood." The blurred form of the headmaster shifted, though Jaune could hardly tell because his eyes just refused to work properly.

"M-my eyes…" the blonde boy trailed off, hoping desperately that he wasn't going to be stuck like this forever.

He heard the aged man sigh deeply, but still his form was blurry and indistinct. "Yes Mr. Arc, when the Beowolf mauled you it did quite a bit of damage to your face, including your eyes. I am sorry."

Jaune whimpered. So this was it then? He could never be a hunter? The one thing in life that he had truly wished for was now robbed from him. What was the point in living? He was worthless…

"Do you still wish to be a huntsman, Mr. Arc?"

The voice rang hollow in his ears; what a silly question to ask. There were no blind hunters, or semi-blind as the case may be; there were just dead ones. "What's the point?" the young Arc asked softly, wishing for nothing more than an end right now.

The headmaster seemed to shift, his voice becoming grave, yet hopeful at the same time. "There is a way. Your eyes will never heal, but your aura can see for you if I teach you the way."

Aura can see for him? He didn't even know what aura was, just a thing that Cardin had given him… but it could allow him to see? How was that possible? He wanted to be a hunter more than anything else in the world, but to be near blind…

Whatever the headmaster was offering was his only choice, it seemed. "Please..." Jaune only said the one word, all his desperation pouring into it even as his voice cracked.

"The path before you will be long and difficult Mr. Arc, but if you persist and try your hardest then I am positive that you will become a powerful hunter like your forefathers."

Like his forefathers… he could still be a hunter, still be a powerful hero… a mighty warrior… yes, he would do it, whatever it took he would do it. "Please..." He repeated, fully intending to become the best of the best.

"I warn you Mr. Arc, once I teach you this it will become a study that will last you a lifetime. There is no turning back."

Jaune didn't care. The aged man before him was offering a way to be whole once more. "Please."

Ozpin sighed slightly, but at the same time he seemed to be elated at the choice Jaune had made. "Very well Mr. Arc, I will teach you. Now, can you feel your aura…?"

What were those words…? The words Cardin had used… the feeling of power… the ancient feeling that seemed to rattle his very core… For it is in our passing that we achieve immortality, by our example we become a symbol of power for others to follow. Masterful in skill, supreme in power, I release your soul. By my hand I give thee this power.

Jaune Arc glowed.

A/N

So… Jaune is practically blind right after initiation; and horribly scarred too. But doesn't that raise some interesting questions? He doesn't have any facial scars in the present, granted he is also completely insane in the present so… well, you'll see. But that does explain, at least partially, why the sickly yellow eyes of Nihilus have been described as 'unseeing' since the first chapter.

What do you guys think Nihilus meant when he thought that the 'hollows' were coming? What is a hollow? The answer to that should be pretty obvious to anyone who's been reading carefully enough, that and why he calls them hollows.

That aside let's take a look at reviews:

SonicFanFlame:

Thanks for reviewing.

Yes, it's on the news - just another thing to add to Ozpin's long list of fuckups.

And yeah lot's of battles with himself, but who with? Cinder is a pretty obvious guess but there is more to it than that. Also, no Jaune x Cinder. Nope, not at all.

Smithrooks:

Thanks for reviewing.

An interesting thing to note is that there are actually only two voices in his head. You guessed correctly that Cinder was one of them, but the other isn't Pyrrha. And it's not just that he hears the voices, you may have noticed that he sometimes turns and speaks to empty space - that is because he can 'see' the two that speak to him.
And yeah, I know it was meant for comedy originally, but Pyrrha did take a horrible risk by throwing her spear at Jaune. seriously... throwing a razor sharp spear at someone while they are moving incredibly fast and the target is something behind their neck. Brilliant plan.

Yes, in my personal headcanon (and for all my stories...) the phrase used to unlock a person's aura can affect them later, but it end result will generally be pretty similar. It's like having different people training Jaune to fight; Ruby would teach him to rely on speed rather than strength, Yang would teach that powering through enemy attacks was the way to go, Blake would teach dodging and evasive tactics rather than outright brutality and Weiss would teach precision and patience. All different methods of doing the same thing - fighting - that have generally similar results, even if they travel a different route to get there.

Tobi14:

Thanks for reviewing.

Trust me, dying isn't on Nihilus' list of priorities. He has too much to do first.

Toddem Mach:

Thanks for reviewing.

Ha, double shit indeed.

All it took was one little change… the wonders of the butterfly effect at work.


Thanks for reading, and please remember that reviews really help inspire me to write! more reviews = longer/better chapters! So leave a review!