Wraith

Chapter Ten

Beta: Smithrooks

Of Days Past

Abandoned mineshaft, present day...

"Get the door!"

Pyrrha grunted as she pushed her weight against the metal doorway to the abandoned mineshaft, the Grimm on the other side howling and clawing as they tried to gain entrance.

They had rushed post haste to the mineshaft that Jaune recalled as being just outside Dorme, or what was left of Dorme in any case. The mine used to have Dust in it, but was mined empty long before Jaune was ever born; then the miners had left it behind, a musty relic of the past.

Jaune and his sisters had played in here from time to time when they were younger, so he was reasonably confident that he knew the layout of the facility. Although, he had admittedly never come in here with a pack of Grimm hot on his tail before; that was definitely new.

The decaying and reforming body of Nihilus in his hands wasn't really helping settle his raging nerves either, although Jaune wasn't really sure which was worse right now; Nihilus waking up or the Grimm breaking in and eating them all.

Sadly, the latter seemed rather more likely right now.

The metal door rattled ominously as Grimm roared their defiance from the other side. "Jaune, I need some help here!" Pyrrha shouted, her strength being sapped even when Nihilus was unconscious.

As gently as possible, Jaune began to lay the Lord of Hunger on the ground; he had to help Pyrrha-

Jaune had less than a second to register that Nihilus' sickly yellow eyes opened, but then the world seemed to shatter around them.

All noise faded, everything becoming dull and distant until they were beyond his or Pyrrha's perception. The image of the poorly lit tunnel vanished too, the world around them becoming a pure, unblemished white.

"What? What's going on?" Pyrrha asked from beside him. They were utterly solitary in the void of blinding light.

"I- I don't know…" Jaune answered, his head rotating around as he tried to see anything that wasn't just plain whiteness.

"Hello!" a new, yet crushingly familiar voice said suddenly and impossibly cheerfully.

Jaune and Pyrrha spun around to face whoever was behind them, ready for anything. But all the readiness in the world didn't prepare either of the young hunters for what they saw.

It was… Jaune.

An exact replica of Jaune was lazing comfortably on an overstuffed couch, a wide smile on his face as he stared at the two gaping hunters.

"It's nice to meet you," he continued enthusiastically, "as I'm sure you've guessed, I'm Jaune!"

"What?" Jaune choked. Was he really talking to himself? Oh god, was he going crazy like Nihilus?

The other Jaune looked his counterpart in the eyes and smiled, "Yes you're talking to yourself, and no you're not going crazy like me."

Pyrrha looked confused while Jaune reared back in shock. Was he reading their thoughts?! Was that even possible? "Are you reading my mind?" Jaune asked rather pointlessly.

The other Jaune just smiled, as if waiting for something.

"Um… Jaune?" Pyrrha asked to the other Jaune, "What's going-"

The pieces finally clicked into place for Jaune, his mind finally realising what exactly he had said. "You're Nihilus!" he shouted, the noise seeming to die instantly in the massive empty space.

Nihilus clapped slowly, as if indulging Jaune. "Yes. I am Nihilus, but before that I was Jaune Arc."

"What!?" Pyrrha demanded, utterly lost.

"Do you remember the fairy tale of the demon king and the portal to hell?" Nihilus asked suddenly, utterly ignoring Pyrrha's question.

"Yeah…" Jaune said slowly, "It's an old one. A terrible tyrant ruled over the world, but then a great hero rose up and banished the evil king to hell through a swirling purple gateway."

Nihilus nodded, "Yeah, that one. There's more to it, but you get the gist of it. Did you know that it's true?"

Pyrrha and Jaune looked at him blankly.

"I am Jaune Arc from another universe," the mirror image said. "One where Pyrrha and I never became partners, and I… well, you saw what I became."

"If that's true…" Pyrrha said slowly, trying to wrap her head around the idea. "Then why did you come to our universe?"

"Simple!" Nihilus cried as he stood up, the couch he'd been sitting on dissolving into nothing the instant he left it. "To get away. My world hates me, and thanks to the meddling of those bloody girls your world is just starting to see me as a monster as well."

"Wait," Jaune asked, "how come you're… like, not crazy here? Actually, where the hell is here?"

Nihilus smiled weakly, his mirror image face of Jaune twisting oddly in ways that shouldn't be possible. "Tricky questions… okay, let's start with the basics. Do you know what my semblance is?"

"Yes," Pyrrha replied, looking at his strange distorted face. "You steal the souls of others."

Nihilus cringed, "Eh, close enough. I'm also rather skilled at manipulating aura, so to speak with you two I made a type of symbiotic link out of aura and distorted the world around us to make a barrier. And don't worry about the Grimm at our door, after all is said and done here only about a second will have passed in the real world."

"Right…" Jaune sighed, more confused than anything else. "So we're in a world made of aura?"

The other Jaune blinked, "No, not really, but I suppose that's a good explanation as any."

"Linking aura like that isn't possible." Pyrrha frowned, her emerald eyes never leaving the form of Nihilus.

Nihilus nodded, his features seeming to twist and distort inhumanly as he did so. "As was the common belief for most of history, but well… when you have to stare at something all day, every day… let's just say that you get curious."

Nihilus suddenly clapped his hands, the world seeming to blur around them until the scene changed into that of a comfortable looking office with massive gears moving underfoot and above the ceiling. "This is Ozpin's office," Nihilus said wistfully as he sat down in the headmaster's chair. "It's weird, you know, out of all the times I was in this office I always wondered if the chair was comfortable… I suppose I'll never really know."

Jaune and Pyrrha gawked at the room around them. The sudden shift was utterly alien, and yet had felt so utterly natural at the same time. "What… what was that?" Pyrrha asked cautiously.

"This place is just a mental construct," Nihilus hummed, "I control the world just as much as you do. I see your minds just as much as you could see mine if I allowed it."

Jaune's deep blue eyes narrowed as they met the identical counterpart. "You see our minds? That's wrong!"

"Yes, well… normally I would do you the courtesy of allowing you to enter my thoughts as well," Nihilus said as he began to spin in circles on the chair. "But I'm afraid that would drive you both quite insane."

The two young hunters stared at Nihilus, their eyes narrowed.

"Back to your original question however…" Nihilus' face twisted inhumanly again, almost as if taking a normal expression and going far beyond what was humanly possible. "The reason I'm not insane here. Well, let's start with how you were wrong about my semblance."

"What?" Pyrrha's brow creased, she had felt it. She couldn't be wrong. "No, I've felt the effects of it. You were draining my aura."

"Yes, the passive effect of my semblance is to drain aura," Nihilus muttered, sounding almost disgusted. "And that is what you felt, but you still have no understanding of the context of it all."

"How to put it…" the false lord hummed, "Aura and the soul are actually two different things. The soul is like the… generator for aura - but it's not actually aura itself. Think of the soul as a beautiful tapestry; when I stand near you, my semblance tugs at the edges - then when I touch you I take the tapestry and sew it onto my own."

Jaune interrupted, "As interesting as this is, what does it have to do with anything?"

"Everything!" Nihilus cried with a thin smile, "Now don't interrupt. Where was I? Oh yes, now the reason for my physical form being insane is… well, I made a mistake basically. Going back to the previous analogy; each time I add a new tapestry there is still a clear beginning and end to each cloth, despite the fact that they are connected."

Nihilus stood from Ozpin's chair, the image of the room fading around them until they were in an icy-looking wasteland. "But then I ate something I shouldn't have. When I absorbed two particular women, instead of simply sewing the tapestries to the edges, it sort of… unraveled everything and then forced it all back together again in a chaotic mix that made little to no sense."

Pyrrha looked at the not-Jaune with more than a little trepidation. "So you… consumed… these two people then? You can hear them speak to you and that's what drove you mad?"

Nihilus raised an eyebrow at Pyrrha, the motion way too prominent to be natural. "No, were that the case then I'd still be me. It's more like…" he paused, and with him the world seemed to pause as well. "I became them, and they became me. Imagine that, three distinctly different personalities being forced to fuse into a single entity. My soul was corrupted and my mind shattered under the stress of all the different thoughts and emotions."

"Wait," the real Jaune muttered in confusion, "then what are you? If you soul was corrupted like you say, then why aren't you… like the rest of you?"

The icy landscape around them suddenly shifted into a barren and scorching hot desert, and with it Nihilus' look of mild happiness and amusement only strengthened. "I am, for lack of a better word, a fragment."

"A fragment?" Pyrrha asked dubiously.

Nihilus waved his arms around, a joyous smile on his face. "I am a single moment of time trapped within eternity. I am a single memory plucked from a greater whole when Jaune realised what exactly was happening to him. I am his single happiest memory preserved, so Jaune Arc could live on free of Cinder and Amber."

"A memory?" the real Jaune asked, "What's the memory of?"

"Ah ah ah," Nihilus hummed, "Spoilers. You need to experience it yourself, not through the lenses of a nut trapped in his own mind."

Before anything else could be said, a huge white crack split through the air. Jaune and Pyrrha were alarmed, but Nihilus merely looked on with a sad smile. "I fear our time here grows short. I can only maintain control for so long before the rest of myself asserts himself once more."

The world around them seemed to shudder, more cracks appearing in a flash.

"Wait!" Jaune cried as the image of the sane Nihilus grew hazy, "Before we go, can you tell me what is wrong with your body?!"

But there was no reply. Instead, the only thing that the other Jaune graced the two with was a wide smile and a wink, before the world shattered and they were once again within the dimly lit mineshaft.


Beacon, present day...

Yang was dead.

Ruby felt the fat wet tears leak down the side of her face as she thought about her now departed sister. She had told Yang and the others to stay back if they saw the Lord of Hunger, but… maybe Yang's temper had just gotten the better of her one time too many.

Yang had always held a special hatred for what Nihilus had become, her anger always burning hotter than the rest of the team for what he had done and what he was doing. She had never really liked Nihilus when he was still Jaune, back when he was still a person. But to lash out and attack him, knowing that she had no chance of winning? The real Yang must have died years ago with their father and Uncle Qrow; what she had become was just a ball of anger and hurt.

"Are you alright, Miss Rose?" Ozpin asked mildly as they rode the elevator upwards to his office.

Ruby let the tears fall quietly… so much death. First she lost her friend Jaune to the insanity that plagued Nihilus, now she had lost her sister. Did it ever end? The world would certainly be better off without Nihilus… but she knew better. She knew there was only one way he could be defeated… if only he was sane enough to listen, sane enough to be guided to the correct end for his life.

If only it didn't have to be this way. Just looking at the universe around her, Ruby felt the burning jealousy. Things were already different, and the Jaune of this world would never turn once what was left of her team caught him and… laid him to rest.

"Yang has been absorbed," she finally said, her voice flat as she began to reign in her emotions.

Ozpin closed his eyes and sighed; Ruby could almost feel the sadness that emanated from his frame. "This is dire news indeed… I am sorry for your loss, she had a bright future ahead of her."

A weak comfort. None of her team RWBY had a bright future anymore. They were too broken, too damaged from all the exposure to Nihilus… if they ever succeeded then the life of a hunter would be forever beyond them; lest they wished to live a short, brutal existence before suffering an equally brutal death.

Really… this was their last mission. Stop Nihilus. Put an end to her first friend at Beacon because he was out of control. It wasn't the worst fate she could have gotten as a hunter; she was still far, far luckier than Nihilus himself.

The elevator doors opened, and the duo stepped inside. "I have arranged for a video conference with a aura specialist from Atlas in the hopes that he might uncover more useful information about Nihilus' semblance, but if you do not wish to do this…"

"No," Ruby cut her old headmaster off, "I'll be fine."

Ozpin peered at her from behind his small glasses, but eventually relented. "Very well, I'll connect the call now."

The aged headmaster fiddled with his computer for a few moments, but then a wide holographic monitor appeared in the centre of the room with two men's faces on the screen.

One of which both Ruby and Ozpin recognized very well.

"James," Ozpin said mildly as he sipped his coffee, "I didn't realise that you would be joining us today."

"Yes, well," the stern-looking man grunted, "I thought it best to keep as up to date as possible with the situation." He turned his gaze to Ruby. "And you must be one of our other guests. My name is General-"

"I know who you are," Ruby interrupted, "I've met you in my world." No one missed the thin veneer of calmness that covered burning anger.

The third man coughed awkwardly, trying to ignore the sudden tension. "Ah… um, well… I am Doctor Polendina. I understand that you wish for my expertise regarding aura?"

Ruby's glare at Ironwood didn't abate, her silver eyes never leaving the face of the man she hated the most in the world. "Yes, that's right Doctor."

"I assume this is regarding the supposed semblance of the rogue hunter that terrorised Vale recently?" the bespectacled man asked, his hand rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

Ozpin nodded, "Yes, assuming that simply absorbing aura and semblances is the extent of his abilities."

The hand rubbing his chin stilled, the scientist's eyes widening slightly. "He absorbs semblances too?" he asked faintly, "that poor bastard…"

Ruby's eyes finally shifted off Ironwood, her silver gaze settling onto the doctor. "What? What difference does that make?"

"Well…" the scientist shifted awkwardly, "a semblance is an outward expression of aura, but more often than not it's also something that your body needs to… change to accommodate."

Change? What the hell did he mean change? Sure, when you unlocked a semblance it hurt a bit. But that was just your body adapting… oh. "And he has to do this whenever he takes a semblance," Ruby muttered, "that would be agonizingly painful wouldn't it? Taking in a dozen different changes at once."

"Exactly, his body would probably be in a state of flux." The elder man sighed, "Worse still, if he took in semblances that naturally opposed each other-"

"As interesting as this is," Ironwood cut in, "it's not relevant. In your report you said that he was captured, is it possible to recreate the circumstances of said capture? This Lord of Hunger could further research on aura by decades if we were allowed to study him."

"Experiment on him, you mean!" Ruby hissed, "The steps taken to capture him were too much last time, and it only made him more powerful in the end! I will not allow it to happen again."

"Foolish girl," Ironwood grunted, "With him contained we could-"

"Enough, both of you." Ozpin's voice cracked like a whip. "James, I am forced to agree with Miss Rose, containment isn't an option. We'll do what we must and no more, put an end to Nihilus and that is it."

Ironwood stared at his long time friend with a mixture of disappointment and anger. "But think of the things we could learn, Oz!"

"He is still a man!" Ruby snapped, "A monster and villain yes, but still a man. Death is the only way this ends, but we don't need to lower ourselves to his level."

Ozpin smiled at Ruby, "You are right Miss Rose, we needn't degrade ourselves because of greed. We will do the humane thing and put Nihilus out of his misery."

Ironwood looked furious, but he knew that he had lost this argument. "Fine! Damn us all then!"

With a click the call ended, leaving Ozpin and Ruby alone in the room once more.

Ruby sighed… that had gone poorly. But it was sort of expected too. Ironwood was a bastard through and through, wanting to use Nihilus as a test subject - despite how powerful the Lord of Hunger actually was. She had seen the results of Raven's Rock prison facility; she saw the utter devastation… that place couldn't be allowed to happen again. All the bullshit Ozpin and the other leaders had with the Queen was nigh irrelevant compared to the threat Nihilus posed… and the threat that Jaune posed.

"Ozpin," she said quietly to the other hunter, "we need to talk about Jaune, the one from this universe."

The older man sighed and sipped his coffee, the near-black liquid soothing his frayed nerves. "Yes… I suppose we do."

"Something needs to be done about him…" Ruby muttered as she began pacing the room. "Right now he isn't really a threat, but when he unlocks his semblance he will become a major danger - a second Nihilus."

Ozpin looked deeply into the dark steamy depths of his favorite drink, seemingly searching for the answers neither of the hunters had. "What do you propose we do?" he asked.

Ruby grimaced, her face twisting into a pained expression. "As much as I hate to say it… he should get the same as Nihilus."

Ozpin stared at her, his dark eyes boring holes into the younger huntress. "Miss Rose… that would mean condemning an innocent man to death."

"Yes, but it could also mean saving the lives of dozens of people." Ruby argued despite the bitter taste it left in her mouth. "It isn't right, but it is necessary."

Ozpin rose to his feet and moved to stare out the massive window that dominated the back half of the room. "This is a dangerous path to travel down Miss Rose. We cannot allow ourselves to become the very thing we are fighting against."

Ruby looked at the headmaster sadly. "Things must look good in that glass house of yours Ozpin… but if I see Jaune, then I will do what I must."

Ozpin didn't say anything, staring silently out at Vale.


Dorme, present day...

Cinder walked through the devastation, her footfalls light and graceful enough not to disturb the ashes around them.

She had just arrived at Dorme… she had been following the rogue hunter that stole aura for quite some time now. Not for a direct confrontation of course, that would be nigh suicide. For now she and her minions were just going to observe, see if there was any way that he could be bent to their will.

But then that fight had broken out and destroyed a nearby village. The fire had burnt so hotly that even Cinder had been slightly wary; that wasn't just Dust fire - it was magic. The same type of magic that the Maidens had. Which should have been impossible, there was no Maiden nearby save herself.

That led her to only one possible conclusion; that rogue hunter must have absorbed Maiden powers at some point. A man with the full powers of a Maiden… that was wrong. But it would also make him the man with the most potential power in the world. If he could absorb Maiden powers, then what couldn't he absorb?

That man, If given the right opportunities, could become the greatest fighter on the planet. But luckily, he also seemed… unstable. Easy to manipulate for sure, if she could ensnare him into her service… nothing would be able to stand against her.

But the issue with that particular plan laid in how she would avoid becoming just another meal for him. The only way to resist his semblance that she knew of was the black armour that the mysterious new team had worn, but luck seemed to be on her side today.

The blackened and rotted corpse of one of the unknown hunters lay at her feet; whatever she used to look like was gone now, utterly destroyed by the Lord of Hunger eating his fill. Perhaps she may have been beautiful once, but now all that remained were blackened and rotted bones and the thick smell of death.

But her armour was still there, or most of it anyway. The helmet was nowhere to be seen, and the plating over the arms looked horribly damaged from what must have been thunderous blows. Faded yellow paint covered two wrist-gauntlets, the weapons now pitted and scarred from years of combat.

Normally Cinder felt herself above grave robbing, but what was left of this armour was the first step to being able to convert Nihilus to her side. With little grace or ceremony, Cinder tore the still viable torso and leg plating off the desecrated corpse.

It was heavy, but necessary for her new plans.

Just as Cinder began to turn away from the body and leave this now dead place, something caught her eye. Clutched in the skeletal hands of the corpse was a photo.

She plucked the laminated paper out of the dead hands and stared at the image. It had obviously been folded and unfolded many times, well loved and cared for… but the property of a dead woman. The picture had 11 teenaged people that were obviously hunters-in-training all holding another young hunter up in the air; the ones holding the boy up were all smiling joyously as they held their comrade aloft. The man being held had a horribly scarred face, three deep lines marring his looks; his eyes a pale blue, the type of pale that showed blindness. His face was twisted into a smile, not as wide as the others but still showing happiness.

It was an overly sappy picture, but what was written on the back was what really got Cinder interested. It read: The whole gang celebrating with the new 'Hero of Vale'! The loopy and slightly messy handwriting wasn't important. The date written beneath, however, was.

It was dated almost 5 months in the future.

But that was impossible, the photo itself looked to be nearly a decade old… but the date was all wrong. This huntress couldn't have come from the future; that was preposterous.

But that still didn't explain the photo. Just what exactly was it?

She would have to think on this, ponder the ramifications of this image and what it could mean…

But first she had to take her new armour home.


Vale, many years ago…

Jaune had decided against confronting Ozpin about not being able to see Grimm. It had been a hard decision to make, especially given the horrible dangers it posed, but Jaune and the rest of his team thought it was for the best. Ozpin obviously had some kind of agenda, some other reason for allowing Jaune to stay in the school other than what he had said. But now they had a leg up on the old headmaster; he didn't know that Jaune knew, and Jaune could use that to his advantage.

But all the crap with Ozpin aside, for the first time since initiation things were looking up for Jaune.

It had been a week since the near-fiasco in Forever Fall, and since then Cardin and the others had started treating him as an equal, not just some lackey. Cardin had even thanked him for saving him from the Ursa, and the other two had apologised for running away when they should have stayed to help.

He had forgiven them of course, and why wouldn't he? Sure they had been arseholes throughout his time at Beacon so far, but they had also trained him and started him on the path to power he was on now. He could do amazing things with Dust, albeit destructive things, but amazing nonetheless.

And all that wasn't even the best thing to come from what happened in Forever Fall. He had finally gotten over his fear of Pyrrha. The champion had been overjoyed when he had first made overtures of friendship; she was so nice to him, so kind. He actually felt kind of silly about suspecting her for trying to murder him! It had all been a silly accident.

This week they had spent quite a bit of time together; things had been slightly awkward at first, but eventually they had started chilling out. It was rather nice actually, because with his new tentative friendship with Pyrrha he and Ruby had warmed up to each other once again. The younger girl had apparently been rather depressed due in part to his constant dour mood since initiation. Things may have been a little rough with her team though… Yang and Blake still looked at him like they expected him to be a racist tool like Cardin and the others. Although Blake was the worse of the two, being a Faunus herself - though he made sure not to make any comment lest she take offence. Weiss had been rather like her namesake, cold and distant - though Ruby just laughed that off and said that she was like that with everyone.

Although, if Jaune was being honest, he never really felt the need to care what people thought of him anymore. He could care less if most of team RWBY didn't like him, why waste the energy worrying about it?

Pyrrha's team had been… odd. Ren and Nora seemed to be joined at the hip, always going everywhere together - but not together together as Nora had made clear. Russel though… that particular situation had just gotten worse. The boy had been furious that Jaune and Pyrrha now spent quite a bit of time together; Russel had apparently been glaring at him venomously whenever they were in the same room. Though truthfully, Jaune hadn't actually noticed that until Nora had commented.

All in all… life was good now. Sure Cardin, Sky and Dove were still racist arseholes… but he had other people to hang around now. He was probably strong enough to scrape his way through combat class without any extra teaching from them. Sure he was still the weakest in the school, but he was strong enough to forge his own path onwards.

Or failing that, he could just ask Pyrrha for help; claiming repayment for spearing him to a tree and all that.

Currently, he and Pyrrha were in Vale enjoying a nice afternoon meal. Not quite dinner, but still enough to sate their appetites. It was a nice little place near the docks that served mainly fish-based foods. They had been coming to this place all week, both because Jaune enjoyed salmon and to get past the awkward 'sorry I impaled you' stage of friendship.

Russel was probably spying on them from a nearby grassy knoll or something, the jealous creature that he was. But neither Jaune nor Pyrrha cared, and why should they? The guy was a tool, but he wouldn't do anything drastic while within the city.

"So you really see using aura?" Pyrrha asked for what felt like the billionth time.

Jaune hummed, she had been asking him that question quite often. The concept of it obviously fascinated the girl a great deal. "Yes I do," He said slowly as he ate his fish, "everything has its own unique colour and shape."

"You see the aura of everyone?" she asked, honestly quite thrilled to be learning something new.

"Yeah," Jaune muttered as a small smile worked its way onto his face, "I can even see people's emotions, but that's kind of hard to work out most of the time."

"That sounds amazing!" Pyrrha exclaimed, "What does my aura look like?"

Jaune stared at her for a moment; the black and gold that was Pyrrha Nikos swirled around in gentle eddies, a comforting warmth seeping from her soul as it pulsed with life and energy. But how could he put it into words? He could just say that her soul was black and gold, but there was more to it. Colours that there were no words for, colours that he didn't even know existed until he lost his sight. It would be like describing sound to someone who had been deaf all their life. Or, more amusingly, describing colour to a truly blind man.

"There aren't words," Jaune replied honestly. "Every soul is unique, each made of things that I will never be able to describe."

He couldn't see her facial expression, but her aura flickered around like a candle in the wind. What emotion was that? Certainly not a negative one, colours tended to dull when it was a negative emotion. But now she just looked… alive? Exuberant? Vigorous? He couldn't tell.

"Jaune…" she whispered slowly, "Can… you teach me? To see like you do."

Teach her?! "What?" Jaune exclaimed, shocked. "Teach you to see like me? But… you can see normally."

"Yes, but I'm responsible for what happened to you." He didn't protest what she said; it was true, but he had already forgiven her. "And I want to understand you. I want to see what you see…"

It was touching, it really was. But he didn't know how to teach anything. It was probably easier for him because he couldn't see normally, but to teach her… he wasn't sure if he could. It required a sort of understanding of the world around them that Ozpin had struggled to teach Jaune, and that Jaune still wasn't entirely sure he fully grasped himself.

"Pyrrha, I-"

Whatever Jaune was going to say was violently cut off, the words dying instantly as an explosion rang out through the twilight air of the docks.

He saw Pyrrha's soul flicker in alarm, as well as all the souls of everyone else in the small restaurant.

"What was that?!" someone cried in alarm.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha hissed into his ear, "we should go see what caused that!"

She was right of course, but he was already 'looking' at the cause. A couple dozen Faunus-looking souls were gathered around the shipping area, as well as one human soul that looked vaguely orange in colour. The human had obviously been the cause of the explosion, as the fiery streaks of aura from the detonation were clearly his. And another, much more familiar soul was there too; the deep purple was hard to miss.

Just what exactly was Blake doing? And why did she just explode?

"Call your weapons now!" Jaune hissed as he dragged Pyrrha out of the establishment, "Blake is in trouble!"

Pyrrha gasped, but quickly complied.

Jaune himself always kept some Dust on him, mostly due to the raging paranoia he had felt when he still thought Pyrrha was trying to kill him. He kept his three favourite types with him: lightning, water and fire. They were the ones he was best with; fire being as simple as point and shoot, water being good for tripping people up and lightning being the hardest of the three, but the most deadly.

Within moments, the rocket locker containing Pyrrha's sword and shield slammed into the ground before them, the weapons within almost shining to Jaune's blind eyes as their radiance was like a shadowed reflection of Pyrrha.

"Come on!" Jaune urged as they began moving towards where he could see Blake was in trouble.

The duo ran as fast as they could towards where they heard the sound of fighting, but even as they ran a dozen more explosions rang out with a thunderous roar.

Finally, they came into view of the fight. The yellowish aura of a Faunus guy was beating up a bunch of other Faunus with what Jaune assumed to be some kind of staff. They all went down fairly easily, but the orange-coloured aura of a man was twisting violently in what Jaune could only describe as supreme irritation.

The man growled his frustration and raised his cane to fire upon the yellowish aura of the staff-wielding Faunus.

But Pyrrha got there first, her shield raised before her as the fiery explosion washed over her aura and defences.

"What?!" the boy shouted in surprise, but he was obviously pleased at the assistance.

Jaune let the violent energy of the golden lightning Dust flow through his body, a smirk gracing his normally passive face. "I love this part…" he whispered as he let the power flow out of his body and towards the cane-wielding crook.

The man jerked in surprise as the golden lightning struck him, his body convulsing even as his aura tried to wash it out of his system. Jaune smirked again; this was easy! All he had to do was attack again-

But his moment of distraction cost the blonde boy. The electrified man moved faster than the blind boy expected and slammed his cane into the side of Jaune's head.

Jaune stumbled to the side with his ears ringing. His head ached terribly, but he found himself suddenly rather preoccupied with other things; the cane was jammed into his gut with unyielding force and the blind boy couldn't help but choke as he was punted backwards.

Thankfully for Jaune, Blake finally made her reappearance. With a cry of, "He's mine!" she slashed her dual blades at the cane-wielding bastard.

Jaune panted for air as the two way more skilled fighters duked it out less than a metre away from him, his head and chest aching terribly. Unfortunately he could tell he would be getting no help whatsoever from either Pyrrha or the yellow aura of the Faunus boy, they were preoccupied with the dozen or so goons around them - the battle dragging out because neither of the young hunters were aiming to kill, unlike their opponents.

Blake staggered backwards as she was overpowered by the orange aura of the enemy, the cane slamming into her head similar to how it slammed into Jaune's just moments ago.

With a wheezy breath, Jaune forced himself to his feet and threw himself back into the fight. He let the power of the lightning Dust flow through his body, but now outside of it. He thrummed like a generator as he charged at the criminal with a yell; the cane swung towards him and Jaune didn't even try to block or dodge, it was a metal cane after all. And not much conducted electricity better than metal.

The cane slammed into his left shoulder with bone-crunching force, but Jaune was more interested in the pained yelp the man let out as the power in Jaune's body ran rampant.

Seeing his chance, Jaune thrust his hand out towards the man's face. The criminal let out a pained shout as Jaune's fingers closed over his face, the man screaming and screaming in blind agony.

Jaune grimaced as the man dropped his cane due to the convulsions of his fingers; the sound was terrible, the pain the man must be in-

The criminal howled in anger and tried to jam a knife between Jaune's ribs.

Thankfully the blow was largely deflected by his aura, but he still felt the metal blade grind against the bones before his aura pushed it away. Jaune yelped as he was pushed backwards; his ribs throbbed in agony, but he had hardly a second to realise this before he felt a violent explosion shatter the ground at his feet.

Jaune was flung backwards, his body slamming into the hard and unyielding concrete as he bounced across the ground.

For a moment he blacked out, his awareness fading for just a second before he snapped back into awareness.

The end of the cane was jammed in his face; it was obviously a gun and the cause of the explosions. "You ruined my night blondie," the man snarled, "and for that I'm going to ruin you!"

Jaune was afraid, but he didn't let that show. He wouldn't give this prick the satisfaction!

"Say goodnight!"

But the death blow was stopped. "Hey!"

It was Ruby, her scythe deployed and in her hand as she stood on the roof of one of the many warehouses.

The criminal's attention shifted to Ruby, and in that single instant Jaune took his chance.

Quickly switching to fire Dust, he blasted the prick with all his might. The plume of fire was massive, and burnt hotter than anything that Jaune had ever produced before. The blind boy roared as the heat burnt his hands as well, but he kept up the assault even as the criminal was blasted backwards.

"Jaune!" he heard Ruby shout, but he ignored her. He had to focus, if he lost control of the flames for even a moment then he could accidentally ignite the Dust within the shipping containers.

More and more he pushed the fire, throwing the arsehole hard against the metal side of one of the warehouses. "Yeah!" he shouted once the fire crystal he'd been using began extinguished itself. "Take that!"

Jaune grinned into the flames, he could still see the simmering orange aura of the criminal; but it was greatly diminished compared to what it had been. He was winning!

Pyrrha and the golden Faunus guy had just finished up with the rabble, Pyrrha's aura quickly moving towards where Jaune was. "Are you okay Jaune?" she practically demanded, "I saw you take some hard hits."

"Nah, I'm fine!" Jaune waved her off, more concerned about Blake who was slumped against a shipping container. Her aura was very low, had she been caught by the edges of the fire? It seemed that way; nothing else could have taken her out so quickly. "I think Blake needs help though," the blind boy said worriedly, he couldn't let a friend down!

Or a friend of a friend anyway...

But Jaune's elation and worry soon turned to horror when he saw what could only be Bullheads swoop past overhead. Inside were many more Faunus souls, at least twice as many as they had already fought!

"Salutations, potential friends!" an impossibly cheerful voice rang out behind him and Pyrrha, "Please forgive me for this!"

Before either Jaune or Pyrrha could so much as turn around, two small hands clamped down on the back of their clothes with the strength only the greatest of hunters could match; then Jaune and Pyrrha found themselves being tugged through the air backwards until they were dully dropped onto the concrete ground.

"What-?!" Pyrrha exclaimed, but within moments her voice left her.

Jaune himself was at an utter loss for words, his mouth hanging open in shock and surprise. The… girl… that had just pulled them back had just fired some kind of massive aura attack at the Bullheads. But it looked so… wrong.

Aura was meant to be the expression of the soul… a visible and physical manifestation of the soul… but this… freak was just… empty. Aura gushed outwards like a tidal wave of unstoppable force, but there was no life to it. It looked fake and alien, like there was nothing behind it. Only an aura that shouldn't exist. And the aura looked… mutilated too, like it was horribly damaged in some way...

Whatever this girl was… she shouldn't be alive, she couldn't be alive.

But Jaune's reservations could wait; whatever this girl was, she had just killed a dozen people and maimed many more. She was obviously on their side however, and ignoring the fact that she was an unnatural abomination/murderer, Jaune was perfectly willing to avoid getting in her way for this.

"Jaune…" Pyrrha whispered from her position next to him. "are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

Ignoring the golden opportunity for another blind joke, Jaune could only nod dumbly as the aura freak ripped another Bullhead out of the sky and sent it crashing into what had once been a neat stack of shipping containers.

Right, okay… so the abomination obviously had things under control in that particular regard. Perhaps it would be best if he and Pyrrha focussed their efforts on collecting the no doubt unconscious body of the criminal that Jaune had narrowly beaten.

But… he was gone. The orange aura that Jaune expected to see wasn't there; very distantly, Jaune could see something that might be the criminal… but it was too far away. Somehow, that prick had escaped! How?! How could he have escaped?!

Ugh, it didn't matter now. The freakish aura of the false girl was done with her overly cheerful murder spree, and was talking to Jaune and Pyrrha. But the blind boy wasn't listening; he was too busy staring at whatever the hell it was.

Because it didn't have a soul.

A/N

Yeah… so that happened.

So there is frankly too much in this chapter for me to even try bothering to go over step by step, and I have faith enough in all of my dear readers that if any of you don't understand something you can just PM me and ask.

BUT! There is something I do want to talk about! I had someone PM me a few days ago and ask about the difference in pacing between what's happening in the present day segments and the many years ago segments, mainly why present day had only covered about 1-2 days so far compared to about a four months (basically a third of a year) in the past.

The short answer? I'm lazy.

The long answer? In the many years ago segments I have about 15 years worth of history to cover while also covering only 1 year in present day. I am only writing the relevant details, the parts that will paint the picture of Nihilus' past enough for the readers to understand while still allowing them to imagine what they want for the bits in between. All that and the fact that I seriously doubt any of you care what Nihilus had for breakfast for the past 15 years, I know I don't.

That said, let's look at the reviews:

hirshja:

Thanks for reviewing.
Yes I have noticed this as well, many writers on this site don't seem to understand that since they are posting content on the internet that means that people with opposing views or ideals may see and disagree with them. I try to avoid this as much as possible myself, and if ever someone wants to talk to me about my writing then I'm perfectly willing to have a chat with them - be it an argument or a calm discussion like what we had.

Smithrooks:

Thanks for reviewing.

Yeah, hugs and new friends all around. Although I'd say that only in this chapter are they starting to get out of that awkward 'impaled to a tree' stage of friendship.

Gravenimage:

Thanks for reviewing.
Thank you so much for all your kind words, I always love hearing from new reviewers.
And fear not, Wraith will not contain any yuri or yaoi pairings. Ignoring the fact that all the girls on team RWBY (bar perhaps Ruby herself,) are clearly not... that way inclined, I only write things that I feel will add to the story I am trying to construct.

Toddem Mach:

Thanks for reviewing.

I don't believe I have ever heard that particular phrase before, though I'd say it's rather fitting.

Tabris the 17th angle:

Thanks for reviewing.

When Nihilus uses the word 'hollow' to describe things… he isn't referring to Grimm. His original use of the word was based around the Grimm, though when he uses it now it is in reference of something else entirely.

As to why Ozpin keeps Jaune around despite his utter inability to see Grimm… that will be explained in time, though not as soon as you guessed.

blaiseingfire:

Thanks for reviewing.

I probably could have written more, but as I stated above I have to cover 15 ish years in the same space as 1 year. I can't write everything about Nihilus' past - only the important parts.


I hope you all have a great start to the new year, and don't forget to review!