Wraith

Chapter Nine

Beta: Smithrooks

The Way I Used to Be

Dorme, present day…

Jaune could admit that he'd done some epically stupid things during his life, like going to Beacon with almost no prior training for example, but this had to take the cake.

When the fight between Nihilus and the armoured hunter had broken out, Jaune had followed his father's command like the rest of the villagers and began to flee, taking Pyrrha with him as he did so.

But… for some stupid, utterly idiotic reason, he had turned back.

That hunter… something was wrong, she had seemed… off somehow. Jaune knew that Nihilus couldn't be trusted, but his gut told him that the armoured huntress was the primary threat, not the Lord of Hunger.

It was wrong, totally and inexplicably wrong, but Jaune trusted Nihilus more than the huntress.

He had heard the vile things she had said to him before the fight started. Hunters weren't supposed to act like that. Hunters were supposed to be beacons of light and goodness to blot out the darkness of the Grimm, but she… no. She wasn't a huntress, not really.

Pyrrha had awoken as he started running. She was still drowsy and weak, but he had tried to explain what had happened as best he could.

Jaune wasn't totally sure she understood everything, but she knew enough for now.

Enough to join him in his utterly stupid, idiotic, dumb plan. He honestly couldn't ask for a better partner; it had only been two days since he met her, and already she was willing to leap headlong into horrific danger with him. Why she did this he would never understand, but right at this very moment he could honestly say he loved her for it.

He was going back to Nihilus, he was going to help if he could.

His gut told him it was the right thing to do, even if his brain screamed at him that it was incredibly moronic.

He and Pyrrha had just slipped out of the group of running villagers; behind them a massive inferno raged through the once peaceful village of Dorme, the fire burning down the work of countless lifetimes in just a few short minutes.

His father still held Crocea Mors, but that was okay. Jaune had stolen the sword when he snuck out for Beacon, it was only fair that John steal it back at some point. Jaune had just hoped that it would take a lot longer.

Behind him, Pyrrha coughed and choked as they circled around the village. He was only spared this by his still full aura reserves, although the air was blisteringly hot to breathe nonetheless.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha choked out, the burning ash and heat almost too much. "There!" she pointed to what had once been the tree line. Vaguely through the smoke, Jaune saw two blurry dark shapes that looked like people.

But they were close, and one had their hand clasped around the other's throat in a vice grip. The other struggled in vain against their captor, but the effort was made utterly moot a moment later when a scathing plume of fire burst out of the mouth of who Jaune assumed to be Nihilus.

Jaune and Pyrrha moved closer as fast as they could, but their progress was slow because of the heat of the air and excess of ash around them.

Just as they reached the self-proclaimed lord, they saw him place his hand upon the already charred and burnt forehead of the girl. Whatever she used to look like had been mostly wiped away by the scorching heat of his breath attack, but faint traces remained; lilac eyes, faint wisps of blonde hair.

But all that was washed away as her skin blackened and rotted, the last of her aura sucked out and the last dregs of her soul leaving her as she died.

"Nihilus!" Jaune shouted, not really sure what else to say. "We have to get out of here!"

The black-robed figure of Nihilus collapsed to the ground, and finally Jaune got a better look at the front of him. He was covered in blood, a deep cut on his forehead gushing away despite the heat and what looked like a dozen bullet wounds on his stomach. But he was still awake despite it all, his sickly yellow eyes drowsy and half lidded, but still open.

"Okay world, do your fucking worst," Nihilus snarled weakly to the empty air, "Cause I sure as hell just did mine." But then he seemed to notice Jaune, and his snarl faded into a weak cough as he choked. "My shell… Why did you return?"

Jaune honestly didn't know that himself, why had he come back? The world would be better off if Nihilus died here. But Jaune just couldn't do that… for whatever stupid reason he just… couldn't let someone die alone, consumed by the world around them.

"The gold and black light is here too…" Nihilus whispered almost reverently, "She looks so much younger… Pyrrha… Pyrrha… I'm sorry…" he cried, "can you hear me Pyrrha? I've failed you… you trusted me and I've failed you…"

From behind Jaune, Pyrrha stiffened in shock; how did he know she was here? He hadn't even looked in her direction, and what was he talking about? Had they met before?

Despite feeling a crushing weariness in her bones and spirit, Pyrrha knelt down beside the fallen lord. "Hey…" she said awkwardly, not really sure what to say. "You didn't fail…"

Jaune nodded from beside his partner, his hands pressed onto the bloody wounds on Nihilus' stomach to try and stop the bleeding. "Nihilus… the fire… can you put out the fire?"

"I… I…" the blind man struggled with his words, then he closed his eyes and for an instant Jaune feared that he'd died… but then the raging inferno around them began to die, the fires just fading out of existence as Nihilus exerted his will over them.

Pyrrha reached out her hand to touch Nihilus' arm, but in that instant his eyes snapped open and he shouted; "No! I- I can't! Not again!"

Jaune and Pyrrha shared an alarmed glance, but before they could Nihilus began shouting again. "NO! She's coming! Why now?!"

What the hell was he talking about? Jaune and Pyrrha both had no idea; his mad shouting was doing little more than attracting Grimm. But he said that 'she' was coming, who was she?

"Nihilus, what are you talking about?" Pyrrha questioned gently, trying to stave off the growing call of sloth on her mind. Just being near Nihilus was draining her so quickly; she couldn't do this for much longer… "Who is 'she'?"

But instead of answering her question, Nihilus turned his blind gaze to Jaune, his focus so intense that Jaune couldn't help but shift uncomfortably. "Listen to me my shell, if we're still here when she arrives then we are all dead." This was the most coherent that they'd ever heard him, was the threat that serious? "We must go, but it will hurt. It will hurt so much, and I haven't the power to maintain myself once we arrive. You must take us underground, do you understand?"

Jaune was totally lost. Arrive? Were they going somewhere? And why would it hurt? "What? I don't-"

But Nihilus cut him off, "UNDERGROUND!" he shouted, "YOU MUST TAKE US UNDERGROUND!"

Pyrrha stared at Jaune, "What is he talking about?" she asked, "I don't understand."

But anything else that could be said was cut off when Nihilus let out an unearthly scream of pure unrelenting agony, his hands shaking as he pushed outwards away from the two young hunters.

Light seemed to fade from the area around them. Everything grew dark as a single… tear… appeared before Nihilus' outstretched hand. Soon the entire world around them was utterly devoid of any illumination, darkness stretching outwards for what felt like an eternity.

But a single, burning purple light shone in the darkness. It was like a tear that hung in the air before them, and inside the tear... a thousand different images played at once, all mixing together into a chaotic mess that was utterly impossible to make any sense of.

And still Nihilus screamed, his hands shaking as he fed more power into the tear he had created.

A moment later he turned to the two slack-jawed onlookers, his face twisted into an expression of unimaginable torment and agony. "Run!" he shouted at them, "Into the Rift now!"

Pyrrha and Jaune stared at him, uncomprehending as to what they were looking at. Jaune tried to speak, but no sound escaped him; he took a step forwards, but he crossed no distance. What was happening? What…

Then it happened. It felt like a pulling feeling behind his navel, and he found himself hurtling into the smallish purple tear. He was dully aware of Pyrrha going through the same thing behind him, but all too soon his mind was taken up with other things.

Pain.

So intense, so real, so unlike anything he had ever experienced in his life before. He felt as if he had no body, and that something deep inside his soul was screaming out in terror and unimaginable agony as a blackened and silent void overtook him.

He tried to scream, but he had no mouth to do so. He tried to cry, but he had no eyes either.

A discordant wailing rang through his mind, his own soul screaming alongside the noise that he somehow knew to be Pyrrha.

But then it all stopped. All the pain vanished in an instant, and Jaune felt his body return to him.

He crashed to the ground a second later, his face connecting with hard unyielding stone as he returned to Remnant.

Behind him two similar crashes rang out, and without even looking at his surroundings Jaune spun around to see Pyrrha forcing herself to her feet, a look of bone-deep fatigue marring her features.

But beside her… there was almost no describing what condition Nihilus was in. He was unconscious, but his face was twisted into a expression of complete torment as his skin blistered and boiled, pale flesh falling from the bone and being repaired over and over again in a terrible cycle of pain.

Jaune rushed to his side to see if he could help in some way, but Pyrrha stopped him. Her hand grabbed his arm in an instant, "Jaune, look around us."

Jaune's blue eyes lingered on Nihilus for a moment, but then he obeyed Pyrrha's command, and his eyes finally took note of where they were.

They were still in Dorme, but it was all wrong… the entire village looked like it had been a ruin for years, not mere minutes as it should be. Lesser Grimm prowled the broken streets, and the land for miles was utterly desecrated. Carrion birds poked their beaks at skeletons that littered the ground, looking for a meal that had long since rotted away by the passage of time.

The burnt forest clearing they should have been in was gone, replaced by hard stone and utterly lifeless dirt.

"What…?" Jaune didn't understand, what had happened? What the hell was going on?

A howl drew his attention; the Grimm had picked up the scent of fresh blood.

"Underground…" Jaune whispered, "We have to go underground!" Nihilus had known this would happen… that's why he told Jaune to go underground! Jaune tugged at Pyrrha's arm as he moved forwards to pick up the prone form of Nihilus. "Come on, we have to go! There should be an abandoned mineshaft near here, we can hide in there!"

He let go of Pyrrha and picked up Nihilus, ignoring the slick feeling of blood on his hands.

Pyrrha nodded, and they started moving.


Forever Fall, many years ago…

There hadn't actually been a massive beat down of a training session like Jaune had feared.

In the week following that history lesson, Cardin hadn't actually bothered trying to train Jaune at all; the larger teen had practically spent all his free time thinking up ways to shame Nikos for the things she had said.

Why Cardin never showed this kind of dedication to anything else was lost on Jaune. Sure Pyrrha had given him an absolute verbal smackdown, but at least she hadn't impaled him.

Currently they were at Forever Fall collecting sap for Professor Peach; it was meant to be a team-building exercise or something, but Cardin had decided that now was the perfect time for revenge.

Why he decided that revenge was best taken in the middle of a Grimm-infested forest was beyond Jaune.

Currently they had him playing lookout for Grimm while they collected the necessary sap to complete Cardin's rather dubious plan. The plan being to throw a jar of Grimm-attracting sap at her and then set a boxful of Rapier wasps on her of course. Rapier wasps were arguably the weakest type of Grimm on the planet, so weak that they were basically just a normal wasp but black and white instead of yellow.

Even ignoring the questionable decision of getting the blind guy to watch for danger, the whole plan was dumb, and Jaune knew it. But Cardin just didn't want to hear it.

Although getting him to play look out did make sense in a twisted, ironic sort of way. Despite being blind, Jaune technically had the best sight in the team; he could see through walls, he could see in every direction…

But right now he didn't actually see anything he'd associate with a Grimm.

He could see the lights of life he knew to be plants, he could even see small animals and mundane creatures… but no Grimm. He saw souls, and Grimm were soulless as he understood it - so he expected to see an absence, like a blank spot where nothing was but stuck out anyway due to the lack of anything in a world so full of everything.

Instead he saw… nothing. Maybe more experienced hunters had come and cleared the forest before they had arrived? That would make sense, you wouldn't want to risk the next generation of hunters dying early.

But errantly, a terrifying thought just wouldn't leave Jaune alone; what if he just couldn't see Grimm?

It was silly, why would Ozpin have allowed him to stay at Beacon if he would never be able to see the monsters he was supposed to fight? But despite the utter irrationality of the notion, it just wouldn't leave Jaune alone.

"You guys ready?" Cardin asked, holding a full jar of sap in his hands. "I'll throw the sap on three. One, two-"

"Guys," Jaune sighed, already thoroughly over Forever Fall. "we have company."

Jaune had memorised the colour and composition of the aura of everyone on Pyrrha's team, mostly out of paranoia admittedly. So it was with mild surprise that Jaune noticed the pale green aura of Pyrrha's partner moving towards them quickly. What was his name again? Russel Thrush or something? It didn't really matter.

Whatever the boy wanted he was doing alone, Pyrrha and the rest of team NRVR were still over with team RWBY.

"You!" the boy shouted when he entered their clearing, finger pointing at Jaune. "I have a bone to pick with you!"

Cardin and the other two members of the team moved to stand beside Jaune; to an outsider it may seem like an act of team unity, but Jaune knew it was mostly just for show. "And what would that be?" the blind blonde boy asked mildly; he couldn't recall doing anything that might offend the boy.

"Whatever you and Pyrrha have going on you need to end now!" he snarled, "You hear me? She's mine! All she ever talks about is you! 'Jaune this' and 'Jaune that', but no more!"

What the hell was the idiot talking about? Was Pyrrha actively ignoring her partner in favour of Jaune himself? That was rough, but for the idiot to get so worked up about it… ah, he must have been a fan of hers then. No wonder he was obsessed with the girl, and that must sting to have her busy thinking about some other guy.

Even though she was probably thinking about how to discreetly kill the other guy.

"Listen Russel," Jaune said slowly, "Pyrrha and I have nothing going on, you can have her."

There, that should solve the problem. Easy!

"Bullshit!" the other boy spat, "You're all she ever talks about!"

Oh for fuck's sake… "Seriously, I want nothing to do with her." God this guy was dumb… Pyrrha had speared him to a tree like a human shish-kebab, and this idiot thought that was the start of what? A fairy tale romance?

Jaune opened his mouth to speak, but was instantly cut off when Cardin cried out beside him, "URSA!"

What?! Where!? Jaune couldn't-

With the sound of shattering glass Jaune and all the other boys were punted across the clearing with what felt like a thunderous, bone-rattling blow. The other four boys scrambled to their feet faster than Jaune; almost in slow motion, he noted that their souls all quivered in fear.

But he still couldn't see anything. The vibrant life of the grass and trees shined as bright as ever, but beyond that there was nothing… no Ursa… no Grimm…

Oh god, he couldn't see Grimm…

"Run!" Sky shouted, the others all too eager to follow the command.

But before they could the Ursa was upon them, its razor sharp claws hammering down on Cardin.

The large boy was unfortunately the nail of the situation, the dirt beneath him compacting as the Ursa Major focussed its attention on him.

But Jaune couldn't see that, all he saw was Cardin being punted back to the ground with enough force to pancake a car. Jaune scrambled to his feet and gripped two fire Dust Crystals, ready to back up the others as they helped Cardin.

"RUN!" Sky screamed again, rather pointlessly considering all of them bar Cardin and Jaune had already begun to flee, leaving only the blind boy tos try and save his partner.

Cardin tried to raise his mace to defend himself, but it was battered away by what seemed to Jaune to be an unseen force.

"Jaune!" Cardin shouted as he was slashed again, his aura visibly waning in Jaune's vision. "Help!"

Help… right. Okay, now how to do that without setting Cardin ablaze and still managing to burn the Grimm… "I don't see it!" Jaune cried, the beginnings of a plan hatching in his mind. "Point to it!"

"WHAT!?" Cardin demanded as he was once again thrown across the clearing.

"Point to it!" Jaune repeated, quickly growing desperate as he saw the silvery aura of Cardin begin to flicker. "Hurry!"

Cardin didn't question it again, his silvery aura raising a hand and pointing towards where the beast was.

And that was all that Jaune needed.

Ignoring the ever-present burns on his hands, Jaune pushed his aura into the warm crystals that he held, a feeling of power rushing through his veins as the inferno gushed outwards and spiralled through the area that Cardin had pointed to.

At first nothing happened, but then Jaune 'saw' as the aura-guided flames seemed to coat around something unseen to him. Like an absence or void in the middle of everything, and at the same time he heard a terrible roar of pain and the smell of burning flesh assaulted his nose.

Soon the outline of the figure was completely within his sight, taking what he knew to be the bestial form of an Ursa Major. It felt… wrong. Like his aura knew it to be there, and yet he failed utterly to make any meaningful contact with the creature. It was almost as if it were… hollow.

Hollow… that was a good word for it.

The beast roared in terrible fury, its hatred for all things human echoing throughout the forest as its skin burned.

With a speed Jaune thought impossible for a beast of that size, he saw the hollow dart towards him with a claw raised.

Jaune tried to dodge, but the speed shown to him previously from his teammates held nothing to the fell creature that now assailed him. He hardly moved half a foot to the side when the swipe of the claw smashed him across the clearing near where Cardin lay.

Although the pain was great, it was still manageable. It was nothing compared to being impaled or being mauled. His aura and the armoured plates he wore protected him well enough, although the armour was heavy - heavy enough that he knew it was slowing him down.

The aura-coated flames that burned the Ursa had waned with his distraction; he quickly exerted his will over the fire, and the image of the Ursa became clear to him once again.

"Jaune!" Cardin cried as he clutched his ribs, "Do something!"

Really Cardin? That was your wise command as leader? Do something?! Well of course! Now that you say it he would leap to obey the wise and well thought-out order!

The Ursa charged again, and once more Jaune was unable to dodge in time. He was punted across the clearing once more, and although his aura tanked the blow well enough his hoodie and armour were rent beyond repair, the feeble metal seeming to shatter under the might of the fell beast.

Jaune staggered to his feet, his body throbbing and aching under duress from the prolonged fight. Things seemed bleak, like there was no hope of victory.

But Jaune wouldn't accept it. He'd been pushed around all his life; every time he really tried to commit himself to something he failed. Always overshadowed by his sisters, always quailing under the pressure of his family name.

Even during initiation he had failed, botched it up so badly that he'd been blinded and maimed.

But he was sick of failing. Sick of Cardin and the others lording their strength over him. Sick of being afraid. Sick of the Grimm. AND SICK OF THIS GODDAMN URSA!

The single rarest Dust he had fell into his hands in an instant, the thrumming power of the gravity Dust feeling so utterly different to the burning power of the fire Dust. But that didn't matter, what mattered was the result.

The ground around the Ursa compacted as Jaune poured all his power into the Dust, the already heartless and cruel power of gravity multiplying greatly - causing the Ursa to stagger under its new weight.

Jaune felt the power thrum through the area, but it was unfocused and undirected. The force multiplier just washed over the clearing and Jaune himself was caught within it, but he held firm; he would not be bowed by the weight of the world again.

The Ursa thundered to the ground, its own new weight too much for it to carry. Yet still Jaune stood, his legs shaking with the effort required to sustain himself.

"Jaune!" he heard the piercing cry of his name, but it was from the last person he wanted to speak to now. Pyrrha.

He was utterly immobile, and Cardin had already scampered off so he was alone.

Alone with naught an Ursa Major and Pyrrha Nikos for company.

This would be the death of him. He knew that now, Pyrrha would no doubt use the golden opportunity to end him and claim that the Ursa had done it while she had been unable to help in time.

He had wondered from time to time what his death would be like. Would it be comforting? Or would it be something he fought tooth and nail against, only to fail miserably? Would the girl leave his remains for the Grimm to eat? Or would he be taken back to Beacon and given a service?

Even as his legs strained to support him, Jaune smiled for the first time in weeks. Ugly though he may now be, he wanted to die with a smile on his face.

Crack!

The sound of a single gunshot rang out, but the pain Jaune expected feel never came.

Instead he heard the struggles of the Ursa stop, the forest growing quiet once again.

It was impossible; it was insane and utterly shocking.

But Pyrrha had killed the Ursa, not him.

The power he had over gravity shattered as he drew his aura back within himself, and he fell to his knees. His power was exhausted, Pyrrha could still use this chance to kill him; there would be nothing he could do to stop her.

But instead of death, he heard something better. "Jaune? Are you okay?" It was gentle, but even he could detect the pleading undertones.

She… wasn't going to kill him. He realised that now. This would have been the perfect chance; she could have ended him just as easily as she ended the Ursa - yet she didn't.

He slumped to the ground, and for a moment he saw Pyrrha's aura flicker in alarm; but she calmed once more when a deep, rumbling laughter escaped his lips. "I was so wrong…" he laughed.

"Jaune?" she sounded so scared of another rejection.

His sight focussed on the girl. Her black and golden aura wasn't a thing to be feared like he had thought; it was warm, and it was kind. She would never hurt him, not intentionally anyway. "I was wrong about you Pyrrha, I am so sorry."

He felt, just as much as he saw the joy that seemed to soar through her aura. "I forgive you," he declared, "And I hope… that we can be friends from now on."

For a moment it seemed that her aura was afire with emotion, but he hardly had time to comprehend this before he was enveloped in a hug the likes of which he'd only gotten from the closest of family. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you…!" over and over again the normally composed girl sobbed.

Jaune couldn't suppress the smile that broke out across his face. It finally seemed that life was looking up for him.

A/N

So… Nihilus just 'saved' Jaune and Pyrrha from her, question is; who is 'her'? I'm sure you can all guess, it's not like there are many female antagonists in RWBY- oh wait, yes there are. Meh, I'm sure you can all work it out.

Nihilus can't see Grimm either! Some of you probably expected that given his reaction to them just before picking up Jaune and Pyrrha, but it is still an interesting thing to note. Ozpin would undoubtedly be aware of this too, but why do you think that he'd allow the younger Nihilus to continue his training to become a hunter knowing that he would be forever blind to the creatures that he'd have to hunt? Obviously there is something larger happening.

Another interesting thing to note; this chapter shows when Nihilus first used the word 'hollow' to describe something - Grimm in this case. Though I should point out that by the 'present day' segments when Nihilus' uses the word hollow he usually isn't referring to Grimm, but to something else entirely.

Let's look at the reviews:

blaiseingfire:

Thanks for reviewing.

I wouldn't quite go that far; but hey, I'll take the compliment.

hirshja:

Thanks for reviewing.

Hmm… it seems I was mistaken, the conversation between Ruby and Ozpin is in chapter 10. Sorry about that, but I still thoroughly enjoyed our conversation on the subject. The reason for my mistake stems from the fact that I write about 4 or 5 chapters ahead, and thus I tend to get slightly confused as to where everyone else is compared to where I am.

Though I daresay that when you do read chapter 10 you will be more interested in other things.

Toddem Mach:

Thanks for reviewing.
Not quite the reaction I was going for, but I'll take it. Oh shit indeed.

Tabris the 17th angle:

Thanks for reviewing.
I always love reading reviews like yours, picking through the thoughts of my readers is something I greatly enjoy and thank you deeply for.

You're right in the sense that Nihilus see's Remnant for what it really is, in that respect Nihilus is practically omnipotent - but he is crazy for another reason. Nihilus' insanity is borne of what can only really be described as the death of Jaune Arc, something that you will get more information about in chapter 10. Though you are right in the sense that Nihilus also see's the alternate team RWBY as being on the same level as Grimm - though their killing of Pyrrha is a secondary reason compared to their greatest crime against him.

Don't worry about leaving long or theory packed reviews! I always love to read them.


As always; thanks to all of you for reading, and don't forget to review!