Wraith

Chapter Eighteen

Beta: Smithrooks

Bloody Remembrance

Unknown, present day…

Jaune stared at the two apparitions before him. The 'fragment' of the original Nihilus, and the little girl… why was she here? She had been the one to snap him out of the murderous rage that drove him to kill so many people, and even now she looked at him with such sorrow in her exquisite purple eyes.

Beside him, Pyrrha gaped at the girl, and Jaune could well understand why. Obviously Pyrrha had never seen her before, but add to the fact that the girl looked exactly like a younger version of Pyrrha herself? Yeah, that would be rather disconcerting… especially since the memory of Nihilus was literally bouncing the girl on his knee with a fond expression on his face.

"Hello again, Pyrrha and Jaune," the phantasm of Nihilus proclaimed cheerily, "we have a lot to talk about."

Perhaps they did, but Jaune didn't want to hear it. He was a murderer now, he just wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere and die for what he did. All those people, all those lives… just snuffed out in an instant…

"Who…" Pyrrha gasped, her emerald eyes locked onto the little girl. "Who are you? Why are you here?"

"Now, now, Pyrrha," the memory tittered, "is that any way to greet your daughter?"

Well, that basically confirmed it then. The girl was his daughter, with Pyrrha as the mother too… that might make things awkward.

Pyrrha didn't say anything, her mouth opening and closing as she fought to choke out anything to say in the face of such a confusing statement.

But apparently the memory of Nihilus didn't seem too keen on letting Pyrrha take her time to work through the shock. "Yeah, I know. She's amazing, right?" the little girl waved cheerily from atop her father's lap as Nihilus spoke, "But I'm afraid we don't exactly have much time, so we need to keep this quick, yeah?"

"Why did you bring us here?" Jaune muttered finally. He was just so tired, when had things become so complicated?

"To explain some stuff, Daddy!" the little girl smiled, extracting herself from Nihilus' lap in favour of moving over to Jaune.

Small arms attempted to wrap around Jaune's broad shoulders, but they couldn't quite get all the way around despite the girl's best efforts as she seemingly tried to hug her 'father' to death.

But Jaune didn't return the embrace. Despite what she - and the fragment apparently - seemed to think, she wasn't his daughter. She was Nihilus' daughter, Nihilus' dead daughter. "No," Jaune whispered as he pushed the girl away from him, "just… just don't… please…"

It was all he could muster up. He just felt too dead inside, too disgusted with himself to even entertain the idea of humouring the little girl.

The girl had a crushing look of despair on her face, but even then Jaune didn't feel that it was his problem. She wanted comfort? She could find it somewhere else. Not with him, not with a monster...

"I- I don't understand."

Thankfully Pyrrha broke Jaune out of his truthful, if depressing, thoughts. She was good like that, too good for him…

The little girl rushed up to Pyrrha, practically leaping into her not-mother's arms as the words tumbled out of her small mouth. "I'm Violet Arc and my daddy is sad and-"

"Dear," the fragment interrupted, "I'm sorry, but we don't have much time. So just let Daddy explain it, yeah?"

The girl pouted from her position in the confused Pyrrha's arms, but she stayed silent.

Nihilus, or the fragment of him, stood up and smiled widely. "To cut an extremely long story short, the Pyrrha Nikos of my world and I had a daughter - the very girl you are holding - but then through a series of events that would take several thousand words to put into detail, both Pyrrha and dear Violet here were assassinated a few years prior to Nihilus arriving in your world. Got it?"

Jaune got the gist of it, but Pyrrha looked dizzy at the information being thrown in her face. Her emerald eyes drifted to the smiling face of the not-daughter in her arms. "I… you're our daughter?" the champion asked faintly. "Who… killed us?"

"That's not important right now," the fragment cut off before young Violet could say anything, "I can only sustain this for a short period of time, so I'm afraid that we need to get right down to business."

"What business?" Jaune groaned. Why couldn't anything be easy? Less than a week ago, he'd been lazing around the house preparing for his chance to sneak out - easy stuff compared to all this crap… "What are you talking about?"

"You," the fragment looked downwards, his blue gaze locking onto Jaune's right hand. "Or more specifically, that."

Jaune raised his right hand slowly, everyone's gaze following the limb with thinly veiled interest and disgust as the ring on his middle finger became clear. It looked wrong; the metal band didn't look the same as it normally was, instead the silver seemed tarnished and almost looked like it oozed a thick black miasma.

"When Nihilus gave you that, he did something unnatural," the fragment muttered, idly catching Violet as she jumped back into his arms with a whimper of disgust. "Everything about that ring is wrong."

"Nihilus gave you that?" Pyrrha questioned suddenly, her eyes boring into Jaune. "Why would he do that?"

"I… I asked for the power to help you fight," Jaune whispered, "I didn't want to be useless…"

"Quite," the cheery fragment exclaimed. "And the ring is literally that - pure power."

Jaune's gaze narrowed on his counterpart. "No! This… this thing is an abomination!"

Truer words have never been spoken. Jaune had tried to throw the ring away in disgust after his… episode… but the infuriating thing wouldn't budge from his finger - it was like it was fused there.

"Oh, for sure," the elder Arc agreed easily. "But with that ring and enough fire Dust, you could burn down entire cities. The problem lies in how it gives you that power."

"What does it do?" Pyrrha questioned quietly, her face twisting uncomfortably.

"That ring contains everything Nihilus knows about using fire Dust - which is literally three life times of information." Violet whimpered as her father mentioned the last part, her face twisting uncomfortably even as she cuddled closer into the fragment - though Jaune couldn't exactly blame her, he felt pretty disgusted himself. "You have to understand," the memory hedged, "something like that shouldn't be - isn't - possible unless you delve into some pretty messed up stuff."

There was a moment of silence, both Jaune and Pyrrha feeling the icy claws of dread slowly creeping up on them as the memory grew uncomfortable.

The memory of Nihilus fidgeted uncomfortably, "Memories are tricky business; memory itself is stored in the brain, but the emotion behind it is part of the soul…"

"What are you saying?" Jaune whispered, his mind slowly catching on to what the fragment was saying.

"That ring is poisonous," Violet practically screeched, her angry words at odds with her previous cheer. "It's wrong and bad and evil! My daddy was never like that! He wouldn't-"

"Hush darling," the fragment whispered as he drew his daughter closer, "it's okay, we can still fix this. Just let me explain…" his blue-eyed gaze drifted back to the two young hunters watching. "That ring is like me, a fragment of memory - except there is no specific memory, it is emotion in its purest and most unrestrained form."

Both Jaune and Pyrrha knew what emotion it was, how could they not? Jaune had felt the unnatural shift in his entire being the moment he tapped into the ring's power, and Pyrrha had seen it twist him into a murderous beast with just a single snap of his fingers.

"Hatred," the memory whispered. "Pure, unrelenting hatred. The very same hate that keeps Nihilus bound to the mortal coil now, enough rage to set the world on fire…"

"How do we remove it?" Pyrrha demanded, her normally polite demeanour taking a backseat.

The fragment didn't answer; his blue-eyed gaze averted as he held his daughter closer.

"We can't," Jaune whispered, "can we? The first time I used it… it became a part of me, didn't it?"

The other Jaune nodded wordlessly.

Neither Jaune nor Pyrrha had anything they could say after that. What could they say? Jaune had been… corrupted. God, how had things gone so wrong? Just a few days ago Jaune had been waiting for Beacon to start, his hopes soaring sky-high as he prepared to start the life of a huntsman. But now? Now he was a murderer, a freak - even his very soul had been poisoned by Nihilus…

"You have to go now," the fragment suddenly announced, his eyes locking onto his younger counterpart once more. "I fear that Nihilus will discover us if you stay… and you don't want that."

Jaune opened his mouth to speak, but no words escaped him as the world suddenly shattered into thousands of glittering fragments. A terrible and depressingly familiar pain in his shoulder speared through his senses. With a start, he realised he was being dragged through the air, once again trapped under Nihilus' crushing strength as the false lord spirited them away from Beacon.


Beacon, many years ago…

Pyrrha was alone in her room, and she hated it.

Pyrrha liked to think she was a pretty humble person, despite her abilities and achievements. And if she had the chance to re-do her life, she wouldn't stop herself from fighting in those tournaments - they helped shape her into the person she is today, after all. What she hated, however, was the impossible pedestal that she had been placed upon by everyone around her.

Before coming to Beacon, she had all of two friends in the world - but that wasn't much of an achievement, considering that the friends in question were actually her parents. Make no mistake, she loved her mother and father dearly, and she wouldn't trade them for the world, but everyone needs someone they can call a friend right?

That was easily one of the main reasons she chose to come to Beacon; because it was literally a world away from Mistral and her adoring fans.

Or so she had thought, anyway.

It had only taken about two or three hours for Pyrrha to be singled out once again, because who would speak to her? Obviously she had better things to do than socialise with the masses around her!

On the second day, things had started about the same; only two people dared approach her. The first was Weiss Schnee; talented, skilled, intelligent and would doubtlessly make a fine huntress… but she was also a fan. Pyrrha had tried to be polite of course - because manners were important - but the Atlesian girl had been supremely unsubtle when she tried to recruit Pyrrha for her team. Not befriend, recruit. As if Pyrrha was just a sword to be used.

That hadn't exactly endeared the heiress to Pyrrha, as she later made it a point to avoid Weiss in initiation.

But then Jaune had come along and practically rescued her from Weiss' ham-fisted attempts to rig the game. Jaune hadn't even recognised her! When Weiss had irritatingly listed off some of Pyrrha's achievements, all Jaune had said was 'good for her, I suppose?'

That… had pretty much sold it for her.

Jaune was to be her partner, just on the fact that he didn't really know her reputation - unhealthy cereal aside.

Her plan had been simple; pin Jaune to a tree, get him as a partner and then come out of initiation smelling like roses.

Nothing in her life had ever backfired quite so badly as that plan. By the time Pyrrha had found where Jaune had been pinned, he was gone - and there was a great deal of blood covering her spear and the tree. Had something gone wrong? She'd heard screams, but at the time she had assumed that it was from the surprise of it…

As she tried to track the bloody trail, she had run across her later partner: Russel Thrush. A fan similar to Weiss… but that hadn't been important at the time. Jaune had been hurt, by her own weapon no less.

But… then she had found him in the ruins… there had been so much blood. She had burst into the clearing with her confused partner trailing behind her; Pyrrha got there just in time to see a large boy slam a Beowolf off of Jaune's fallen form. Jaune had survived of course, but at what cost? He had been maimed and blinded all in the space of about an hour.

Over the next few weeks, Pyrrha had been so distraught; Jaune was terrified of her, and rightfully so… but then things had gotten better. So much better. Forever Fall had been like food to a starving man for her, in one fell swoop half of her problems just vanished.

Jaune was… interesting. That was the best word to describe it. As she got to know him better, Pyrrha continually found herself being surprised by the blind boy. The way he acted and treated the world around him was just so… different! He was such a contrast to everyone else she had met in Vale, and that alone made him as good as gold in her eyes.

One of the best things about Jaune was actually his apathy. Not generally considered a great trait to have, but in this context Pyrrha couldn't help but be awed by it. Jaune literally doesn't care what other people think of him - or at the very least he doesn't show that he cares. People whisper and call him names behind his back? He doesn't care. People insult him and call him weak or ugly? He just smiles, as if enjoying a private joke only he knows about.

Pyrrha couldn't help but be slightly jealous of that. To live life unconcerned by the opinions of others sounded very… freeing.

She was so glad that they were friends now; the cold and lonely world that was her life always seemed to brighten up whenever Jaune was around. It wasn't a crush, not really. She still felt much too guilty over the events of initiation to even consider such a notion. But she really did consider Jaune to be her best friend.

All the better, considering that she had training with him in about five minutes. Those training sessions were always the highlight of her week, although she was still unsure why Jaune insisted that they train in the official training rooms and not just on the roof, which was much easier to gain access to compared to the hassles of booking an arena to use.

With a small smile on her face, Pyrrha stepped out of her room. Her other teammates were out and about somewhere doing their own things; currently she neither knew nor cared.

"Hey Pyrrha?"

The small voice behind her caused Pyrrha to stop and turn around. it was Ruby. "Hello Ruby," she greeted politely. Ruby had always been a nice girl, she had helped Pyrrha try to speak to Jaune just after his injury - and despite the miserable failure, the two of them had become friends. "How can I help you?"

The younger girl fidgeted on the spot, her folded up weapon shifting on her back as she did so. Actually, why did she have that? It was about 8 o'clock, and unless Ruby was expecting to find Grimm in the hallway then the only other reason could be that the younger girl wanted to train - which couldn't be possible considering that Pyrrha and Jaune had the hall booked for the night.

"So um… you're gonna go train with Jaune right?" the now positively tomato-coloured girl said quickly.

Pyrrha nodded, a small smile on her face as she began to see where this was heading.

"I was… um, hoping I could come too?"

Knew it. "Sure thing Ruby, you can come train with us."

The two of them set off towards the training hall quickly. For a few moments Ruby was silent as Pyrrha led the way, but apparently Ruby had something on her mind. "So, Pyrrha…" why was she blushing so much? God, Pyrrha hoped this wasn't going to be anything awkward… "Are you and Jaune… ah, together?"

"No!" Pyrrha exclaimed quickly, thankfully years of training for dealing with unexpected questions thanks to her fame let her contain the rising heat in her cheeks. "He and I are just friends…"

Where had Ruby even gotten that idea from? Sure, she and Jaune were good friends, but that was it. Nothing less and nothing more. Jaune was nice, but he was also… cold. If asked, then he would help just about anybody, but if not… well, then it wouldn't be his problem. Or so he claimed anyway. That, and the crushing guilt Pyrrha still felt whenever she got to look at his mangled face on the rare occasion he took off the bandanna covering his eyes. The way he stared… his eyes were blank of everything. He could smile, snarl, laugh, or cry - but his eyes would never change. They just sat there, cold and empty as the rest of his face twisted around them.

"Oh…" a small smile seemed to split across Ruby's face, "that's good."

The rest of the walk was a quiet one, though it was a comfortable silence. Maybe it was because of Ruby's obvious awkward nature, or maybe it was because Pyrrha didn't feel particularly bothered by the quiet, but neither of them spoke until they reached the training hall.

Pyrrha pushed the door open and was unsurprised to see Jaune already there and waiting. He was funny like that, how was he always so punctual when he couldn't read a clock?

But something was wrong. Normally, Jaune was enthusiastic and greeted Pyrrha with his own unique brand of subdued excitement… but even at a glance, Pyrrha could tell something was off about him tonight. The way he slouched on the benches, the downwards tilt of his head - something was eating at him.

"Hey guys," he said quietly, "I didn't know you were coming, Ruby?"

Could it be that? Pyrrha didn't think so, Ruby and Jaune usually got on grandly.

"Pyrrha said it would be okay if I joined you," the younger girl chirped, either not commenting on or not noticing Jaune's dour mood. "That's fine, right?"

The very forced smile that slipped over his face was somewhat telling, enough that even Ruby noticed it. Her face twisted, and she looked absolutely crushed all in the space of about a second. "I-If it's not okay I can just go-"

"No."

Jaune cut her off abruptly; his voice wasn't hard or sharp, just… serious. Not his usual apathy or mild awkwardness, just a calm seriousness that was so unlike the Jaune they knew.

"It's okay, you can stay." Jaune rose from his seated position, his long legs covering the distance between them with a few quick strides, "But… but before we start, I need to ask a favour of either of you."

Ruby brightened up immediately, the peppy little spirit that she was. But Pyrrha was more sedate than the younger girl; what exactly did Jaune want? If it was something easy then she would be happy to do it for him, but the way Jaune asked made it sound difficult or deeply personal.

"What is it?" Ruby questioned, her red cape dragging on the floor slightly as she bounced over to Jaune.

Reaching into his sleeve, Jaune produced a letter, the paper slightly crumpled from him stuffing it into the tight confines of his hoodie. Why would Jaune have a letter? It was kind of silly; it wasn't like he could read-

Oh.

Oh… that made sense. Jaune couldn't read. Apparently he was taking steps to learn braille, but that was slow going as far as Pyrrha knew. And whoever sent Jaune this letter must either be unaware of his… predicament, or have an exceptionally twisted sense of humour.

"I…" Jaune started, his voice timid and weak. "I got this letter, the guy at the post office said it was from John Arc - my father. But…" he waved his free hand in front of his face helplessly, "I can't…"

Ignoring the small stab of pity in her heart, Pyrrha gently took the piece of paper from his hand. "I'll read it to you… if you want?"

"Please…" Jaune whispered, his hands slightly shaky as he handed over the crumpled letter.

Ruby stood beside Jaune as Pyrrha drew the letter out of the envelope, the neat but still slightly scrawled handwriting easily covering the entire page as she pulled it free.

"Hail and well met, my son," Pyrrha read aloud. "That you're able to read this means that not only are you still alive, but you are in Beacon just as I suspected. You are in grave danger, but that is the path you have chosen for yourself. I feel for you, I really do."

Pyrrha paused. What did he mean 'grave danger'? Surely nothing untoward could happen to them while they were at Beacon? And what did he mean 'still alive'? And that he suspected that Jaune was at Beacon? Not that he knew? This was obviously deeply personal for Jaune if the deadly serious and slightly crushed expression on his face was anything to go by. She couldn't ask him about it, not now anyway… maybe when they knew each other a little better.

"That said, the pain you are going to go through thanks to your reckless choice is necessary," she continued, feeling a small stab of contempt as she read the words - what a cruel thing to say to a family member. "But I dare not deny you the bit of inspiration it represents. Without it you cannot hope to carve out your destiny."

Destiny. It always came down to that, didn't it? She liked to think she knew what her destiny is, but did Jaune know his? Jaune's path was set out before him: become a hunter and protect those who could not protect themselves - but was that the same destiny that his father spoke of?

"Now that you and I can communicate, we can marshal our resources properly. You have chosen, against my hopes for you, to be a hunter. This is a path of only misery and sacrifice, but perhaps we can make your journey not that of the worthless martyrs that most hunters end up being, but instead one of the rare few that survives the gauntlet thrown at you."

Such was the life of a hunter. Pyrrha knew the words she had just read aloud were true enough, and looking at Jaune's face told her that he knew too. But Ruby? Not a chance. Her faith and optimism hadn't been broken yet. That would come in time. It always did…

"A hunter must walk with death, but a successful hunter must never accept its embrace. I learnt that as I watched my teammates die one by one over the span of years. Their deaths were violent and grisly - such is the nature of this world. In total honesty, you will never be able to save everyone. Maybe you can save yourself, but you must always remember: saving one person means choosing not to save another."

Pyrrha's voice shook slightly as she read the words. They were cruel, but they were painfully honest too.

"I remember I tried so hard to save my last remaining teammate. A bridge had collapsed and she was trapped on the other side of a gorge from me - tired and alone, she fought a horde of Grimm as I struggled to reach her in time. My desperate, ineffective bids to save her, the countless wounds inflicted upon myself as I climbed the sheer walls. All of that, for nothing. All I achieved was-" Pyrrha's hands shook slightly as she read on, the poor man… "-the honour of watching my last friend be gored by a Boarbatusk."

"I know to label the death of my team as traumatic would be the epitome of understatement, believe me I do. The memory of seeing their lives ebb away haunts me still. But the pain it wrought can be wrought in turn to greater ends. It's what drove me to become the man I am today - and such sacrifice is what turns martyrs into survivors. I know that in terms of strength, you are somewhat… lacking - so trick yourself. Fool yourself into believing you are capable of anything you set your mind to, as confidence is the key."

"I have every faith that you understand, forge of tomorrow whatever you must to save your life. Deceive yourself in every last detail - deceive the world. Do this, and victory is assured. Best of luck to you, my son."

Pyrrha's voice ran silent as she finished the message, her emerald-green eyes never once leaving the terribly blank expression on Jaune's face as he sat in melancholy silence. Why was he not reacting? That letter… while it wasn't particularly world shattering, it was obviously deeply personal. Jaune's father sounded like a tortured soul… he sounded like he dreaded the thought of Jaune becoming a hunter, as if he had nothing to do with any of Jaune's training at all.

Maybe Jaune's mother had been the one to train Jaune then? That made a certain degree of sense, as hunters tended to marry other hunters.

"He's wrong."

Those two words snapped Pyrrha out of her thoughts, her mind closing back in on Jaune as he rose to his feet. "I don't care what he thinks," the blind boy snarled, but the expression was… all wrong. His face didn't twist in anger or hate, but instead… a smile? "I'm going to save everyone who needs help. I don't care if he thinks it's a fool's hope, but when I become a full hunter I will never stop until I save the world!"

Pyrrha could only stare, mouth agape as she looked at the blind boy. Even after hearing what his father had written him, Jaune still wanted to continue down this path? That… took serious courage.

"And I'll be there to help you," Ruby cheered, her face practically alight as she looked at Jaune.

It was impossible, a dream that could never come to pass… but Pyrrha couldn't help but feel a surge of elation. Maybe they couldn't save the world, maybe they couldn't save everyone who needed their help… but they could do as much as possible. "I'll be there, too," the champion finally announced, a small smile worming its way onto her face. "We can fight together."

Yes, together. Maybe they wouldn't save the world, but they could certainly make it a better place.

A/N

And we all know how that turned out, don't we? Save the world indeed… Poor Nihilus, even he doesn't know how far he has fallen.

So Jaune is forever stuck with that ring, nasty business. For those of you who didn't quite pick up on the implication of what the fragment said, let me clear it up for you: Nihilus split his soul and now that shard has bound itself to Jaune - permanently. Only one thing could possibly undo what Nihilus did, and that would be… problematic for everyone involved.

And on that happy note, onto the reviews:

spoony285:

Thanks for reviewing.
I can understand that, though this is somewhat intentional since everything is being seen by limited points of view - Jaune, Pyrrha, young Nihilus, and so on... the vast majority of things will become much clearer as soon as past Nihilus gets out of the Beacon Arc of his story, since from that point onwards things will accelerate quite quickly for him - even faster than the already disjointed pacing between past and present.

I myself tend to enjoy mage/wizard classes more than that of a knight or the like, and I tried to make Jaune (Nihilus) take a step away from the conventional Jaune Arc most of the fandom seems to favour.

thelastcenturion2015:

Thanks for reviewing.
Thank you! I do try my hardest with it, I hope you continue enjoying even through the... harsh... chapters ahead.

Shaded Azure:

Thanks for reviewing.

You asked about the ring a while ago if I recall; I hope this chapter cleared up a few things as to what exactly the ring was, and why it has the effect it does.

COOLER:

Thanks for reviewing.

I like to let people know that I appreciate their reviews, I feel it would be rude if I didn't. I enjoy making people really think about the stuff I write; I don't want to be one of those writers that has to explain every little detail and control absolutely everything - I want the reader to really be able to understand each character I use.


As always, thank you all for reading and don't forget to leave a review!