Wraith
Chapter Seven
Beta: Smithrooks
Cold Light
Beacon, many years ago…
Jaune couldn't help but feel a pang of nervousness as he stepped into the combat hall, the slight thrill of terror that ran up his spine when he saw all the lights in the room. Today would be his first lesson after being released from the infirmary. He'd spent plenty of time with his team… training… and for the most part, they were kind enough not to mention how his scars made him look.
But everyone else?
He knew how people, particularly teenagers, worked. He would no doubt get dozens of people telling him how ugly he was, how his scars disfigured his face and made him look like a freak. Already his team had told him not to smile too much because it made him look ghoulish.
The 'training' he'd gotten from his team was rather… painful. They had dragged him out into a secluded area behind the school and told him to fight them one at a time the best he could; apparently they weren't terribly confident in his combat ability after his rather underwhelming performance during initiation. After losing quite spectacularly in the mock fights, they had spent the rest of the week taking turns in 'teaching' him the basics of dodging and the like.
And there is no greater motivation to dodge than having a massive steel mace slammed into your face over and over again.
The dozens of different coloured lights of his fellow students flickered slightly when Jaune and the rest of WASB entered the room; perhaps it was in shock or surprise, Jaune couldn't really tell anymore - emotions were so terribly hard to understand, and yet so easy to see now.
People muttered and shifted around as Jaune and his team sat down, the different coloured lights each having an awkward feeling about them as Jaune surveyed the room. He knew they were talking about him from the way they shifted away from him and the way that they stared. They all probably thought he wouldn't notice; he'd taken to wearing a bandana around his eyes to help hide the scars and what Cardin called 'creepy pale eyes', but that didn't affect how he saw the world now. He could see everything in every direction for about 100 metres.
"Quiet!" The shining deep purple light in the centre of the room barked. This must be Professor Goodwitch. "The first fight for the day will be between Cardin Winchester of WASB and Russel Thrush of NRVR."
Jaune couldn't help but feel the slight stab of pain in his shoulder when team NRVR was mentioned, that was Pyrrha Nikos' team. She had speared him to a tree; she was partially responsible for all that had happened to him… Headmaster Ozpin had assured Jaune many times over that what had happened was a terrible accident, but Jaune wasn't sure. She had also tried to visit him, but Jaune had steadfastly refused to allow her close where she could finish the job. He never wanted to feel pain like what he had to endure ever again.
The two fighters stood in the arena, the dull silver that Jaune knew to be Cardin stood opposite the pale green aura of Russel. Both souls pulsed gently and seeped into the cold and lifeless metal of their weapons, a brutal mace and what Jaune could only assume were dual daggers of some kind.
"Begin!" the purple form of Goodwitch called.
The two lights clashed brilliantly; the finer aspects of the fight were lost on Jaune, but he could still appreciate the light show.
But Jaune's rising mood soured instantly, two people were making their way over to him in the stands. Judging by the general shape he'd say they were female, gods he hoped it wasn't Pyrrha.
"Jaune?"
The voice was delicate and weak, shaky from crying but still familiar to the blond boy. Ruby. She had such a deep red aura, so similar to the roses his mother used to have in the garden; but she also had two weird, silvery specks mixed with the crimson. Jaune had never seen anything like that before.
"Ruby?" Jaune asked, surprised the girl had remembered him. "What are you-"
Before he knew it he had been engulfed in a hug, Ruby's slight frame wrapping around him and the gentle sound of her tears mixing in with the sounds of the fight going on in the arena. "Oh Jaune, I am so so sorry… your poor face…"
Huh, his father had always told him that girls were more tactful than guys. Ruby just proved that wrong. Gently prying the younger girl off, Jaune did his best to avoid smiling; best not to upset her more with how ugly he now was. "It's okay Ruby, it's not as bad as it looks." A lie, he was blind and ugly now. But she didn't need to hear that. "I can still see. Ozpin taught me how."
The girl sniffed, no doubt her eyes were red and puffy from crying. She was going to say more, but the deep black and gold aura beside her interrupted. "Jaune, I-"
Oh god it was her, the voice that had haunted his nightmares. Pyrrha Nikos. "Back!" Jaune cried, pushing away from the girl and closer to his teammates who watched on. "Stay back!"
She would hurt him again, her spear would drive deeply into his chest this time and kill- "Jaune!" she called out sadly, thoroughly ignoring the people who had turned to see what was causing all the noise. "Jaune, please! I just want to talk to you, to apologise for what happened!"
Apologise? That couldn't be true, she had tried to kill him and she would probably try again. "No!" he hissed, trying to ignore the fear pulsing through his body. "You're just going to hurt me again!"
Her voice grew shaky, like she was on the verge of crying. "Please Jaune, I-"
"Enough!" Goodwitch shouted from the arena, "the winner is Cardin Winchester."
Jaune was grateful for the distraction; he inched further away from his would-be killer.
"In the future Mr Winchester, I would recommend that you telegraph your strikes less; a more skilled opponent wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of that weakness." The slightly duller aura of Cardin nodded, the dull silvery colour of his aura moving out of the arena and towards where the team sat.
"Jaune, please. It was a terrible accident-" Pyrrha tried once more, but this time she was cut off by Cardin as he approached from behind.
"Nikos," he grunted, sweat still trailing down his brow from the fight moments earlier. "Clear out already. He doesn't want to speak to you, not after what you did to him."
The black and gold aura of Pyrrha shifted to stare at Cardin, but before she could say anything Ruby spoke, "Hey, don't speak to her like that! She's just trying to apologise."
Cardin grunted again, "I don't care. As dumb as he is, he is still my teammate. Leave. Now."
Ruby went to say more, but the shining light of Pyrrha extended her hand and stopped the younger girl. "No… it's okay Ruby." Her voice was shaky, weak. Was she crying? Even through the crushing fear he felt a small pulse of guilt; he never wanted to hurt her. "We… we can speak later Jaune."
Without another word she and Ruby left, the light of their souls moving away from Jaune and his teammates to go sit with others that Jaune had never met before.
But Jaune didn't have long to catch his bearings after the ladies left; all too soon he heard his name being called out by Professor Goodwitch. "Mr. Arc!" her voice was like a whip, "You will be fighting Mr. Ren, please make your way to the arena."
Oh god… Lie Ren was one of the guys on Pyrrha's team, had she set things up like this? Was she going to get her teammate to finish the job? There was no way he could beat a guy like him, he'd had almost no combat training beyond what Cardin and the others had shown him…
Shakily, Jaune pushed himself to his feet, but before he could move anywhere he felt the large hand of Cardin clamp down onto his wrist. "Listen, Jauney boy," the armoured man muttered into his ear, "there is no way you can win this." Wow, this was the worst pep talk Jaune had ever heard. "But we don't need you to win, just trick everyone else into thinking you're not a total weakling." The larger boy forced several pointy things into his hands, they felt rough - crystals maybe? "When you get down there just force your aura into your hands and try not to explode."
Fire Dust then. What kind of advice was 'try not to explode'? That was like telling an asthmatic to breathe. But he was trying to help… sort of… "Thanks Cardin," Jaune said, trying his best not to smile - he knew how ugly that made him.
As Jaune made his way into the arena, he tucked all but one of the crystals into his sleeves, gods he hoped he didn't accidentally burst into flames...
All too soon, Jaune found himself standing on the faded colours of the arena tiles, opposite the garish pink-coloured aura of his opponent. Kind of girly now that he thought about it, but hey, who was he to judge?
"Begin!" Goodwitch cried, her deep purple aura standing just outside of the arena.
Jaune instantly saw his opponent move into action, tiny pinpricks of light that Jaune knew to be bullets speeding towards him in rapid succession.
But Jaune had been shot at all week with the training his team had given him, and this was nothing new. The blind boy pushed himself to the side and out of the path of the bullets, but he did nothing to counter - he had only practiced dodging after all.
Ren was quick to use Jaune's hesitation against him, however; the green gunman leapt towards the blind boy with the blades on his guns poised to slice into his chest.
'Seeing' the attack about to smash into him, Jaune did the only thing that came into his head - he followed Cardin's advice and really hoped he didn't just explode. Aura poured into his hand and through the warm fire crystal he held. A fraction of a second later, a massive plume of heat and fire holding trace amounts of his aura shot outwards.
Ren was caught in the fire, only avoiding being instantly immolated thanks to his aura protecting him from the worst of the heat. He was blasted backwards; Jaune couldn't see the expression on his face, but he did hear the grunt of pain as the other boy slammed into the wall on the far side of the arena.
But Jaune's hand was also scorched; the flames licked at his palm and the intense heat burned through the thin layer of protection his aura offered. The blind blonde boy screamed as the fire burnt his hand, and in an effort to spare himself further pain he forced his aura into his hand again.
But he'd made a deadly mistake. His aura poured into the Dust crystal still in his hand as well as the ones he'd hidden in his sleeve. Another, much larger, plume of fire erupted outwards and the arena seemed to burn far easier than the stone tiles should have allowed.
Jaune screamed, but he also heard a scream that was not his own. On the far side of the arena Ren burned just as hotly as Jaune did, the Dust-fuelled fires eating away at anything they could reach.
It was too hot, everything burned. Jaune screamed in agony and anger over his apparent failure as the fires ate away at him.
But then an instant later the fires died, the deep purple aura of Professor Goodwitch utterly smothering them with her power. "Enough! The winner is Jaune Arc!"
What!? That couldn't be right! He had nearly burnt himself to a crisp, he couldn't have won that… no way…
"Team NRVR, collect Mr. Ren and take him to the infirmary for treatment." Jaune slumped to the ground, he was exhausted. Just how much aura had he poured into that? "Mr. Arc, in the future I suggest you keep far better control of whatever Dust you use - you did nearly as much damage to yourself as you did to Mr. Ren."
Holy crap he had actually won, it wasn't just a dream. He had actually beaten a trainee hunter in a fight! Granted, he had roasted himself in the process… but it was still a major sign that he was getting stronger!
Without even realising that he had been moving, Jaune found himself back in his seat with his team above the arena.
"Holy shit dude," Cardin laughed as Jaune sat down. "You set like the entire arena on fire down there, why didn't you say you were good with Dust?"
Good with Dust? What was Cardin talking about, that was the first time Jaune had ever used Dust in its raw form. "What do you mean Cardin?" he asked, his voice slightly croaky from all the smoke, "That was the first time I've ever used Dust."
His entire team turned to stare at him, their auras flickering in surprise at his statement. "No way could that have been your first time man," Sky said as his blue aura flickered slightly, "most people just explode or set themselves on fire the first time, not make massive plumes of fire like you did."
Jaune shook his head; that really was his first time. "Come on guys, really! I'd never so much as touched a Dust crystal before now."
"You're not lying," Cardin said in amazement, "that really was your first time."
"Yeah… and?" Jaune asked, not really knowing what they were getting at. Did he do something wrong?
"Dude," Dove said excitedly, "that means you must be pretty talented with Dust - meaning you don't need to spend years learning how to use that musty old sword of yours, you can just spend a couple weeks learning how to become a badass Dust-mage."
Abandon Crocea Mors? He couldn't do that could he? He'd stolen the sword just to come to this school, taken it during the night as he snuck out. Maybe this way he could send it back to his father? Maybe that would help ease some of the anger that the older man was no doubt feeling right about now.
But Crocea Mors had been the family weapon for years… passed down alongside Atra Mors for as long as the Arc family existed. And after the death of Tim Arc and the loss of Atra Mors during the Great War, Crocea Mors had become the primary family blade. His father had used it, his grandfather used it, his great grandfather had used it… would it really be right for him to choose a different weapon? Mastering the blade would no doubt take years of hard work and practice to even become proficient - but if Dove was right, and it would only take a few weeks to get good with Dust… he could fulfil his dream of becoming the best hunter in the world much faster.
But what kind of Arc would he be if he didn't use Crocea Mors? Would he actually be able to master the sword at all anymore? While aura did grant him his sight back, the finer points of things were forever lost on him - small details that made the difference between an expert and an absolute master. But Dust… if it was all like what he'd done in the arena, then it was basically just a matter of pointing his arms in the right direction and maintaining control.
Yeah… he'd seen some of the things Dust could do, hell, he'd just felt some of things a few small crystals could do! He could become the strongest hunter ever in no time!
"Yeah," Jaune said at last, starting to like the idea. "I think I'm gonna do that."
He'd hold onto Crocea Mors for a little longer, just until he was powerful enough with Dust that he felt like he didn't need a shield to hide behind. Then he would personally return the sword to his father - let the older man see how strong he'd become. Strong enough that he didn't need the Arc family legacy to support him.
He would be the best…
Forever Fall, present day…
The heavily armoured forms of the alternate team RWBY stepped into the clearing cautiously, absolutely ready to destroy the creature that they were searching for.
After their defeat in Vale, they'd been forced to wait until they regained their strength - something that was sadly becoming all too easy for the once proud huntresses. Normally it would be a good thing to be back at full capacity, but the issue laid in the fact that their maximum was gradually lowering. Weiss had another small fraction of her aura stolen for good, thus making the time it took her to recharge her aura smaller - because there was less to recharge.
All four of them had been fed on at some point, never enough to kill them or stop them from fighting. But they'd all lost parts of their souls to the monster they'd once known; semblances were weaker, lights duller… Ruby had the most aura left out of all of them, sitting somewhere around two thirds of her original capacity. Yang had the lowest, so low that she could hardly use her semblance anymore - she just couldn't take the physical punishment required to power it.
But that didn't mean they didn't fight. That monster had taken so much from them, but he had taken so much more from others. None of them would ever be able to forget what he'd done to Dorme, and later what he'd done to Beacon…
But that was in the past. They could still stop it from becoming the future of this place. This foreign world would never need to suffer what they had suffered.
But this time it seems like they were too late. As the four armoured girls stepped into the clearing, they were greeted with the sight of six prone bodies lying on the ground. Ruby quickly moved forwards to the nearest body, ready to assist if she could-
Oh god…
She rolled the unconscious form of Lie Ren onto his back and stared at him in horror. Quickly her eyes darted to each of the other prone bodies in turn, each being marked off in her mind. Her own team was here… the alternate version anyway. But where were the other two members of team NRVR? Ren and Nora were here, but Russel and Pyrrha were missing.
Team NRVR… they used to be close, but then they all… he did it. He was responsible for their deaths; and he would pay for it, even if it was the last thing she did.
But to see the faces of her dead friends… even if it was two of them… it was hard. They looked nearly exactly how she remembered them: Ren was a little shorter and he hadn't gotten that scar on his cheek yet, and even unconscious Nora looked vibrant - a life and energy that had been lacking in the years leading up to her death.
"Oh god, is that us?" The armoured Yang questioned as she drew up beside Ruby.
"Yeah, and it looks like Nihilus got here before we did," Blake commented, "they're lucky to be alive, why didn't he kill them? He'd know it was the other version of us."
"Pyrrha is missing," Weiss observed, "maybe that's why he spared them? You all remember how he and Pyrrha used to be…"
"But then where's Russel?" Ruby asked, "they never got along, not after that thing in Forever Fall."
"Remember what Ozpin said Ruby," Weiss chided lightly, "the teams turned out differently here, Russel probably never became Pyrrha's partner."
"But then who did? Our team seems the same, so it couldn't have been a massive shift," Blake remarked.
A groan stopped the conversation dead in its tracks; ever so slowly, the young hunters were beginning to wake up.
"What… what happened?" the younger Ruby asked in a complete daze.
The older Ruby stared at her younger self. This… this was going to be weird. "Hey there, take it slow," she said calmly, "first time exposure is the worst, but you'll feel better in a few minutes when your aura starts to come back."
"Aura…? Aura!" the younger one suddenly shouted, "That guy! He was here! He… did something…"
The armoured form of Yang nodded, "Yeah, we're the team responsible for bringing him in. Do you know what happened to your missing friends? Or where he went?"
The younger Ruby stared at the four armoured hunters before her dumbly for a moment, before her eyes darted around the clearing. "Oh no! He must have kidnapped Pyrrha and Jaune!"
Although it went unseen to the unarmoured hunters, the alternate team RWBY felt their jaws open in shock. Did she just say that he'd taken Pyrrha and Jaune? The Jaune? The blind guy that stole people's souls?
That's… there was no way he could be on a team with Ren, Nora and Pyrrha could he? That would leave him in prime position to strike the moment his semblance manifested! He could take them all out in a single moment!
But where was he? The evil bastard was probably off cavorting with his other self at this very moment… they needed to speak to Ozpin, see if he could find the Arc boy and help arrange the execution.
It was the safest way after all.
A/N
Now before you all get up in arms about Jaune beating Ren, please think about it. Jaune didn't show any amazing skill or anything, no superpowers or magic abilities. No, he set himself on fire then made himself explode. Ren was just unlucky because he was caught in the blasts and thus his aura was drained. Using the same methods Jaune did I could kill anyone on the planet - and myself in the process. Jaune was just lucky he had aura to protect him.
That aside, what did you all think of Jaune's reaction to Pyrrha? I'd say it's pretty natural, I'd be scared of someone if they impaled me. And what did you guys think of Jaune's decision to use Dust instead of Crocea Mors as his primary weapon? Not something done very often in the RWBY fandom I think, but it will be interesting to explore.
And what did you all think of how the alternate version of RWBY reacted to Jaune being on a team with their friends? Kind of escalated quickly, but I suppose there is no gradual way to escalate to an execution is there?
Let's see the reviews:
Toddem Mach:
Thanks for reviewing.
Whatever effect Nihilus had on the other Jaune was bound to come up eventually, Jaune just got lucky it involved him staying alive. As for what happened to Russel Thrush, well the main difference is that Jaune and Russel swapped places - meaning that Russel is now Pyrrha's partner.
blaiseingfire:
Thanks for reviewing.
Ha, glad I could help.
Smithrooks:
Thanks for reviewing.
Jaune is set for quite the journey, but he will grow from it. As for Nihilus' and Pyrrha… they have a long and complicated history ahead of them, the best and the worst times to experience.
Thank you all for reading, and please remember to leave a review! Seriously, do leave a review; reviews are what inspire me to write more!
