Wraith

Chapter Twenty-Two

Beta: Smithrooks

Blind Horror

Vale, present day…

Jaune felt wrong.

The wretched experience of existing was absolutely vile, the sensation of being alive when he knew that he shouldn't be. Most people would be pleased that they had avoided their death - but that was just it. Jaune hadn't avoided his death. He'd actually died. He'd actually died and had been washed away by the soothing feeling of nothing really mattering anymore. His existence felt wrong, forced in a way he could hardly comprehend.

Was he even Jaune Arc anymore? He felt like so much less now than he used to be. Like he'd had great chunks of himself just wiped away. Any emotion other than rage, disgust and sorrow felt like an absence in his soul; like he could remember the sensation of feeling things, but he couldn't actually feel them anymore.

Damn Nihilus for doing this to him. What gave him the right to decide who lived and who died? What gave him the right to bring Jaune back from the peaceful abyss he'd been wading into? Everything had just felt so right, so very peaceful and safe. Nothing had hurt, nothing had even been of the slightest discomfort… Being alive again made the contrast so much worse; the sensation of experiencing this wretched existence was absolutely vile.

"Jaune…?"

Pyrrha… she was looking at him aghast, her emerald-green eyes wide with horror at Jaune's pleading for her to kill him. Couldn't she see that he wasn't meant to be here? Couldn't she see that he was meant to be dead?

"Jaune," her voice was practically begging now, "what… what's wrong?"

What's wrong? How could she ask that? How dare she ask that! He had been mere moments away from the most peaceful rest, and then he was robbed of it thanks to Nihilus! Why didn't she see that this was all wrong? Why didn't she see that he was all wrong!

Fury threatened to overwhelm Jaune for a moment, but almost as soon as it came it was washed away under a wave of crushing despair. Of course Pyrrha didn't understand, how could she? She had nothing to go off, no basis for comparison. Jaune knew himself to be a freak and a murderer, and that alone was enough to warrant his death… but now, even despite that, he felt he simply shouldn't be alive.

"Pyrrha…" Jaune muttered, slowly rising to his feet. It wasn't her fault; she wasn't the one that did this to him. That was Nihilus. "I'm not meant to be here. It hurts."

Pyrrha opened her mouth, but Nihilus cut her off. "You're cursed now," the false lord looked at Jaune with a strange mixture of disgust and curiosity on his ashen face, "whatever fate you could have had has been robbed of you. No matter how far you run, no matter where you hide, the pervasive stench of death will cling to your rotting spirit until such a time when there is nothing left."

Jaune felt a pulse of anger throb through his weary mind as Nihilus spoke. He was the one that had done this to him, the one that had damned him. And that's all he had to say for it? Mindless drivel that meant nothing to anyone but the speaker.

"What did you do to him?!" Pyrrha practically howled in Nihilus' face.

Nihilus only cackled however, his sickly yellow eyes alight with naught but madness. "Can't you see?" he laughed louder, "I brought him back! Like the Lord of Sorrow, he is now naught but a broken phantasm, a pale image of what he used to be, the last dregs of a soul bound to the frail cage of a mortal vessel!"

The words probably meant little to Pyrrha, but to Jaune they were like a stab in the heart. That pretty much confirmed it then; Jaune was less now than he used to be, a shadow of the actual Jaune Arc - the man who died. "It's okay," Jaune whispered finally, the lie painfully apparent to those listening. "I… just leave me here. I don't… I don't want to do anything anymore…"

It was obvious enough that Pyrrha would never kill him like Jaune had asked, and Nihilus would probably find some sadistic amusement in letting Jaune live with the now vile experience of being alive. If they left him… he could find someone, anyone, who could kill him. Suicide could have been an option… but Jaune was afraid - not of death, he knew the joy of that now - but of pain. It would hurt, no matter how he did it…

"No!" Pyrrha grabbed Jaune roughly and forced him to look at her, "Jaune, it's okay, we can still fix whatever he did to you! We can make this right!"

"'Make this right'?" Nihilus cackled from nearby, "'whatever he did to you'? You forget yourself little illusion, you asked for this. You wanted him to return, you are the one that prayed for this miracle to happen." Nihilus' grin turned sinister, "I know the suffering of the undying, I carry with me the soul of Sorrow - and he is as twisted and corrupt as the Usurper is. I myself am no better than dear, sweet Jaune."

Jaune stared at Pyrrha. She had wanted this? She was the one that had forced this wretched existence on him? But… but why? Pyrrha was kind; Pyrrha should have known better… why couldn't she have just let him die…?

It wasn't anger that coursed through Jaune; instead it was unbearable sadness. He was so much less now than he used to be, so much smaller and insignificant in ways he could hardly even comprehend. All because of a person he had thought was his friend, of a person he had trusted - a trust that had become so strong in such a short time, so utterly important to Jaune. But now he could see that it was little more than a lie. Jaune was truly alone…

The betrayed look must have shown on Jaune's face, since Pyrrha rushed to speak. "I didn't want to be left alone!" Jaune couldn't bear to look at her as she pleaded, "Please Jaune, stay with me."

"Oh, fear not dear illusion," Nihilus practically sang, "the cursed one here has given me a gift beyond compare, and for that I will reward him by staying by his side - just as he shall stay by mine!"

"Gift?" Jaune whispered. Why couldn't they just let him die? "What are you talking about?"

Nihilus didn't say anything, his mouth twisting into a feral grin as his arms lashed out and clutched at something unseen to both observers. The manic look of total joy on the dark lord's face escalated beyond what a human face should be capable of as he brought his cupped hands closer to his chest, his bony fingers clutched tightly around something hidden as though it were the greatest treasure the world had to offer.

"This boy," Nihilus nodded to Jaune, "gave me the gift of his insight, something I had thought him lacking in." Slowly, he moved his right hand away, revealing what he so desperately coveted. "And for that, I will grant him every pleasure the world has to offer: the joy that comes from serving me."

It was a small thing, little more than a glowing pinprick hovering above the ash-white hand. But it was unmistakable, even to those that knew nothing of the soul: the small, incredibly faint stab of exquisite violet light could only be one thing.

Jaune couldn't help but shiver in horror as Nihilus clutched at the tiny little soul shard, deep empathy unlike anything he had ever experienced before oozing about his psyche - he knew the sensation of being clutched at by the dead god.

"Rejoice," Nihilus whispered in reverence, "for you shall be reborn, Violet. Daddy will make sure of it."


Vale, many years ago…

As a general rule, Jaune tended to avoid going into Vale.

People tended to stare, children tended to call him names, and he just felt uncomfortable. The few exceptions were whenever he needed to go buy Dust, which he tended to do in bulk so he could avoid making the trip too often.

Even when Jaune had his team with him, people tended to make things awkward for him. Nothing overt - having three burly guys surrounding you tended to make people more subtle, but in some ways that was worse. At least when Jaune was alone people didn't automatically assume he was an invalid who needed help to get around.

"Stop spacing out."

Jaune sighed as Cardin walked next to him, Sky and Dove trailing behind a little bit. He loved his team, really, he did. But Cardin was obsessed with the idea of presenting a 'strong and unified front' when in public - which was fine, but to Cardin that also seemed to include not allowing any team members to look even the slightest bit distracted or anything other than attentive to the task at hand.

"Yes, Cardin," Jaune muttered eventually.

They were in Vale for their first official mission; being 'junior detectives' as their current handler had called them. When they'd first selected this particular mission that monkey Faunus with a yellowish aura from the docks had complained rather loudly that he had wanted that one, but seeing as it was the only mission within the city where Jaune could see any possible attackers - not that he was expecting to - Sun's compassion got the better of him and he allowed Cardin to steal the mission out from under him.

Though calling this a mission was kind of a stretch. Their handler was a veteran detective who was currently investigating a recent string of Dust robberies - except apparently he'd been speaking to Ozpin about Jaune's skill in aura sight. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, except the man seemed to think that this was either a massive weakness or a massive advantage - he'd told Jaune and the guys to go to one of the recently robbed shops and 'detect' things.

What the hell was that even meant to mean? Aura left smears; that was how Jaune saw things that aren't alive, but all aura left smears - meaning that unless Jaune looked at the crime scene before anyone else got there, his ability would be fairly useless.

"So…" Sky muttered, his blue aura showing quite clearly that he was bored out of his mind. "Can you see anything?"

They'd been pacing around the crime scene for about twenty minutes now, which made things much harder considering that people with their aura unlocked - his team - tended to let more aura seep out, thus contaminating the area even further.

"I see lots of things," Jaune growled, not bothering to hide his frustration. "None of them particularly useful or interesting right now."

And really, there had been at least a dozen people to pass through here since the crime - anything Jaune could see now was useless and irrelevant.

"This is just a waste of time," Dove commented, "we should just-"

A buzz from Jaune's scroll interrupted whatever the other boy was going to say.

What was with people wanting to contact Jaune so much recently? At least whoever this was had the decency to call him rather than text - this way Jaune could just answer the call after a bit of fumbling around to find the answer button.

As soon as he answered there was a rush of noise; the methodic clacking of metal hitting metal, and the terribly familiar and discomforting sound of Grimm howling. Whoever was calling was rather preoccupied, it seemed.

"Hello?" Jaune asked cautiously, choosing to ignore the agitated auras of his teammates and the terrible noise his scroll was making. "Who is this?"

"Hey Jaune!" that was Ruby. She sounded rather… distressed? Agitated? Jaune couldn't quite tell.

"Ruby? Aren't you on your mission?" Jaune asked, "Why are you-"

"Yeah, that's great and all!" she interrupted, "But I need a favour real quick, me and the girls are on a train about to crash into Vale from underneath the city and there's like, an army of Grimm following us, also a couple dozen White Fang guys in stolen Atlas Paladins trying to kill us. Do me a favour and call Professor Goodwitch or something and get us backup!"

Jaune wasn't quite sure what to say to that. "Ruby, I-"

"K, thanks bye!"

She hung up.

Jaune was silent for a moment, not entirely sure exactly how one was meant to respond to a call like that. Why couldn't things be easy? Why couldn't he get calls about how nice the weather is? Why did it always have to be serious and stressful things?

"I'm… going to call Professor Goodwitch…" Cardin muttered, having unashamedly listened to the entire conversation.

Jaune nodded distractedly; Ruby had said that they were about to crash into Vale from 'underneath' the city. How was that even possible? Jaune wasn't aware of any tunnels or tracks below the city… but he wasn't aware of a great many things, so it was possible he simply didn't know.

With a strained sigh, Jaune began to 'stretch' out his vision, letting his aura sight expand as far as he was able to make it go. Normally he didn't bother letting his 'sight' expand any further than about one hundred metres in any given direction - anything more tended to give him a headache if he didn't moderate himself. But with his full attention going towards his sight, Jaune found his range of vision expanding to nearly three kilometres in every direction.

Almost instantly he felt a throb in his head from the strain, not dissimilar to the ache he got from using soul sight, but slightly stronger. The chaos of the city around them came into sharp focus almost painfully, but instead of letting that stop him Jaune turned his attention downwards - beneath the city.

At first he saw nothing, just indistinct grey spaces where no living thing had ever existed; that was probably just dirt and stone. But after a few moments, something came into clarity. It was old… that much was clear, old smears of aura in an… empty space… tunnel leading out from beneath the centre of Vale. Whatever living being had once walked those paths was long since gone however, as the smears left behind by their aura were so faint that Jaune nearly missed it.

And beyond that… was a train. Holy shit, a train with not only Professor Oobleck and Team RWBY on it, but also a metric fuckton of other people too. Probably the White Fang Ruby had mentioned. Except… that train was going really fast, very nearly about to breach into the city based on that speed alone - a speed which would turn anyone without their aura unlocked into a fine red mist as soon as they broke into Vale proper.

"We…" Jaune nearly stuttered, the full enormity of the situation beginning to dawn on him, "we need to get to the plaza."

Cardin and the others didn't move.

"NOW!" Jaune roared, finally getting control of his quivering nerves.

The train was literally less than a minute away from smashing into Vale, and if Ruby was right about the horde of Grimm following behind the train then people would die; casualties would be catastrophic even if they were only lesser Grimm like Beowolves or Boarbatusks.

The other three boys snapped into action, Cardin quickly stowing away his scroll - apparently he'd called Goodwitch while Jaune had been searching for the train. With a kind of haste the four of them only reserved for true emergencies, team WASB began their mad sprint towards the city plaza. They weren't far, only a street over… but Jaune wasn't sure they'd get there in time. The train was moving too fast, its speed great enough to break its own path into the city.

When they arrived, the plaza was full of civilians as per usual. But now Jaune could see that they had mere moments, just a few short seconds before everyone in the large open area was turned into a red smear at best and Grimm food at worst.

"Everyone!" Cardin roared, his voice booming louder than Jaune would have thought possible, "This is an emergency! Grimm are about to break into the city! I need to you evacuate NOW!"

The silence was deafening for just a moment, but a second later everyone burst into a panic. The vast majority made a mad dash out of the area, but a smaller group ran towards Cardin - probably correctly assuming him to be a hunter.

Nearly forty people bowled into WASB, all of them seeking some kind of protection.

But not a second later, it happened.

For a moment, all Jaune could feel was the noise, then he felt the terrible ache of his ears popping. The entire world shifted and surged outwards in a single instant, concrete and stone exploding upwards as the train crashed to a sudden, shuddering stop. Vaguely, Jaune noted that RWBY and Oobleck were in the centre of it all, but his mind was too preoccupied to really make that connection.

Dozens of people hadn't been fast enough to get out of the plaza - the thunderous 'explosion' and the shrapnel shredded through their bodies like tissue paper. But it was wrong. Jaune had never 'seen' anything die using aura sight, but now he couldn't help but gape in surprise as their auras suddenly just… cut off. Like turning off a tap, the flow just… ended.

But more shocking still… was when Jaune desperately tried to use his soul sight to see if there were any survivors he could help… all the souls were still there. All the people that had died; their souls hung over their respective corpses like a miasma, all flailing about and fading slowly. Was this what happened after death?

A sudden roar snapped Jaune from his shock, his mind going blank in terror as he realised something. Grimm. He couldn't see them… but he could sense their presence, dozens if not hundreds all around him… and he couldn't see them.

Never before had Jaune felt so… blind.

A/N

A bit of a shorter one this week, but I have exams… literally tomorrow and then Wednesday and Thursday this week. So I think I can be excused for being a little pressed for finding time to write this.

So who expected Nihilus to find Violet? Most of you probably, but it's still exciting! Especially given that Nihilus is now bent on ensuring she is 'reborn' - whatever that may be.

And dear younger Nihilus is also in quite the pickle isn't he? Trapped between a Grimm and, well, a bigger Grimm! At least he has his team though.

That said, onto the reviews:

PhantomStranger:

Thanks for reviewing!

Nihilus is an arse, that is practically beyond question. And while he did indeed bring back an incomplete Jaune, it was based on the assumption that Jaune was like Nihilus - which he is not. You'll see what I mean next chapter, but Nihilus made a… miscalculation with reviving Jaune.

You were… kind of right! Violet has been noticed. But she, as this particular version of her always has, is bound to Nihilus. So long as he exists, so shall she.

Shaded Azure:

Thanks for reviewing.

I won't take that bet, I don't like losing.

thelastcenturion2015:

Thanks for reviewing.

Thank you! I try to avoid doing things the conventional way, it makes thing more exciting if it's unique.

Cooler:

Thanks for reviewing.

Nope! That's pretty much what I was going for - Jaune isn't meant to be alive, he is unnatural now.

By the time Nihilus arrived in the other world (chapter 1) he has a ring for every finger, and each right fits a specific purpose. The first ring he gave Jaune is indeed one of the first two he obtained just prior to the paladin incident, the second however, is not. The second ring he gave Jaune he got later in life, but you'll see that soon enough.

Nihilus doesn't have any kind of foresight, but he does have excellent situational awareness. Remembering that in the 'many years ago' segments (over a decade ago for him) young Nihilus can 'see' in every direction for about 200 meters without straining himself. The Nihilus of the present is much, much more skilled than this.

Nihilus has a penchant for giving out titles, and if one were aware of his entire history then they tend to make more sense. In regards to what got her killed in his world… there was no scheme, no 'dark stuff' that either he or she were involved in. Pyrrha was killed for no other reason than she associated with him.

Jaune still has both the rings, for good or worse. Though to say that he is at the same level as the young Nihilus in the 'many years ago segments' is wrong. Jaune has got literally every single drop of information on the use of fire Dust as well as a second (work that one out yourself) type now. Young Nihilus still has to blunder around and work it out for himself.

Nihilus is messed up for many reasons, but his apparent insanity was explained back in chapter 2 - the Maiden power was the final push into proper insanity. Nihilus is technically already dead… kinda… and if the inclination struck him then he could pass on at any moment - but he's too angry for that, he still has his task to fulfill and he will never ever stop until that is done.

The exact words Jaune heard when he got the second ring will make sense next chapter, especially given what Jaune experienced when he died.

Guest:

Thanks for the longest review I have ever received!

I had drawn a comparison to Cell and Nihilus, but never with Gael (I have played all three Dark Souls games, though I admit it's been awhile). I can see the similarities though.

I'm always open to receiving suggestions, so let's go through them one at a time:

I try to clarify things in the author's notes because I am fully aware that the nature of what I'm writing can be vague at times. I try not to give much away, but I'm a sucker for hints regarding later plot development

I am a full time college student planning on going to university next year, add to that I have a plethora of other responsibilities within my martial arts club. I am also in top ten practitioners of Jo-do in my state. I am extremely busy. Chapter length is as good as it's going to get I'm afraid, I can't help that.

The reader isn't meant to understand every detail of what's going on, that is actually intentional on my part. The answers are there if one looks closely and reads each word carefully.

It sounds like you're referring to my first story, but I'm not quite sure. But although I tend not to bother broadcasting it, I put emphasis on the single thing that everyone can relate to: Desire. Everyone wants something. That is a single universal truth for all humans.

That's because some parts of this story are rushed.

Penny is a machine, inhuman and false - and she never showed any remorse in canon for the people she likely killed at the docks. No remorse is shown for the alternate RWBY because few people actually know about them, to everyone else they are just nameless hunters that failed to stop Nihilus. Nihilus went crazy for other reasons, he would have attempted to get revenge regardless of his sanity. Ruby and Yang it's equal parts revenge and necessity (you'll see later), and why they wanted (and technically succeeded) to kill Jaune becomes

very clear when you find out the full extent of what Nihilus has done.

I'd say fear of being stabbed is fairly rational, though that could just be me I suppose. And yes, that was fairly rushed on my part - I know. But I needed, and still need, to move things along in the 'many years ago' segments quickly, there is a lot to cover.

I try not to let things stagnate, so I like to keep things moving forwards pretty quickly.

I try to (within reason) keep the characters true to canon, barring any shifts caused by plot elements. I don't want to write a Ray or some such nonesense.

If you have anything further you'd like to comment on or discuss I am happy to speak to you about it.


Thanks for reading and please leave a review!