Wraith
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Beta: Smithrooks
On a Pale Horse He Rides
Atlas, present day…
Nihilus clutched Weiss' soul in his hand.
It was so tempting to consume it, to let the soul dregs of his former acquaintance feed his never-ending hunger.
But no, not yet. He wanted Weiss to see what he was going to do. Robbing someone of their soul without destroying the body was tricky, but he'd done it. The perfectly intact corpse of Weiss Schnee was still bound in those wretched chains before him - it was dead, but the cause of death simply stemmed from a lack of any soul to stir the heart into beating.
Restoring that to life would be simple, far simpler than restoring his younger counterpart had been. Really, it was a wonder he'd been able to mend the dead boy at all! It had what, maybe ten percent of its original soul left? Plenty of aura still kicking around, though perhaps he would generate aura slower now…
What… what had he been thinking? Why was he tired? So tired… but he was happy too! Happy because he'd… killed someone… was that snow he felt? Nihilus hated snow. That wretched, vile snow! It was snowing when… when...
No! Focus!
Weiss' soul writhed and squirmed in his grip, his iron will halting her essence from fading away. She had the audacity to say that he will never achieve his goal? She was a fool! Nihilus would get his way, in this world and in a thousand more! His hatred would never die, his need for justice would never fade. Not now, and not ever.
Nihilus would continue onwards for all eternity, he would let all things die and turn to ash just to get his revenge.
Like everything else had! He'd watched, watched, as eternity slipped away by him. So long did it take to get to this iteration of reality… he may have actually overdone it when first opening the Rift - may being an understatement, as this world seemed to have evolved with the Rift always being there… whoops?
"Nihilus?"
Dear sweet Jaune, the utterly broken and hollowed thing that he was… his soul - or what was left of it - shivered in disgust as he stared at the icy blue soul of Weiss Schnee. What was wrong? Was he not pleased? Jaune should be rejoicing that in mere moments Violet would rejoin the world!
Jaune may not actually be her father like he was, but they were family nonetheless! Violet would be reborn; sure, the shell she inhabited may be different, but that didn't matter much to Nihilus. If his dear daughter asked, then Nihilus would do some… remodeling,just as he had done with his current stolen body.
"What are you doing, Nihilus?"
Foolish boy! Couldn't he see that Nihilus was thinking?! How dare he interrupt his-
"Calm, old friend. Soothe your ailing spirit."
The voice rose up to the edge of perception for mere moments, taking only as long as needed before fading away and taking Nihilus' rising irritation with it. A second later, it was gone.
The world blurred, shifted, and Nihilus forgot.
What was he doing? Spoken words were fickle and fading, much like actions only of the physical nature. Words of the soul, just like actions of the soul, were infinite and unbound in their nature - so much better to show the little Jaune what he was doing.
With his free hand, Nihilus called forth the errant soul of his daughter, so small and tiny compared to what she used to be. She didn't struggle and writhe like Weiss did, she just sat there like a good girl waiting for her father! Yes, like a good girl…
With the gentlest of hands, Nihilus guided her into the empty shell of what used to be the body of Weiss Schnee. "Behold," Nihilus said aloud, his words utterly at odds with the speech of his soul, "my daughter is reborn!"
The spoken word was fickle and fading, a transient thing compared to what he was actually saying. As Nihilus pushed the soul into the empty shell, his soul spoke the real words - words spoken only between the father and his daughter. "I will protect you," her soul seeped through the skin. "If by your return we will be together then I will rejoice in it, through this I will stay by your side for all eternity." The heart gave its first shuddering beat, "Unbound by distance, laws or death, our souls will stay together. I will protect thee."
Eyes opened, not icy blue, but the deepest of purple.
Nihilus' sickly yellow gaze looked back.
Atlas, present day…
Jaune took a wary step forwards, adrenaline still pounding away in his body.
"Behold," Nihilus cried joyously, his eyes back to the blind and pale blue Jaune knew to be his natural eye colour, "my daughter is reborn!"
The elder Arc placed the hand with a faint purple glow upon the the empty shell of a body that used to be the alternate Weiss Schnee. In his other hand, he held an orb of violently pulsing blueish white light. It looked… angry.
He didn't want this to happen; Jaune knew what it was like to be held back from death by Nihilus. It was a hell utterly unlike anything the experience of being alive could have prepared him for - physical pain and suffering were so completely trivial compared to the damning feeling of having everything you were torn away from you. But the feeling of being pulled back was worse.
Being pulled back was like having your soul ripped in half. Part of you wanted nothing more to return to the life left behind, but the larger part wanted nothing more than to just let go and let oblivion have its way with you - and then to be torn away from that, with the desire still there, it hurt.
It hurt so badly.
Jaune stared at the empty and dead body of the friend he'd never had. Weiss Schnee was still dead, it didn't seem like anything was-
Two violet eyes opened.
The eyes looked at Nihilus for a moment, the irises expanding until almost none of the exquisite colour remained.
Then she screamed.
It wasn't a scream of pain. That word simply didn't do it justice. It was a scream of absolute and all-consuming agony that words alone couldn't describe in any fitting way. She howled and howled complete torment, no words leaving her - only screams.
"Violet?" Nihilus begged, his free hand trying to hold the girl still in the unbreakable chains that bound her. "Violet? What's wrong? Tell daddy!"
The body of Weiss Schnee writhed and flailed about as much as the gleaming chains would allow, her wailing screams deafening compared to the lack of other noise in the decimated courtyard.
"Violet," Nihilus pleaded, his face twisting to show his desperation, "tell me what's wrong! Tell daddy what he can do to fix it!"
Jaune knew that Violet must be suffering, but this? Something was seriously wrong. Had Nihilus made a mistake in bringing her back?
Or… or was there not enough left? Compared to the glowing ball of icy blue light that Weiss was, Violet had just been the merest of pinpricks that was barely visible. Souls faded when death occurred, Jaune knew this. Had Violet been fading away this entire time? Or had Nihilus, however he had originally done it, only snagged the tiniest fragments when he saved her soul?
The Violet that was now forced into the body of Weiss could very well be just a shadow of what the actual girl had been.
The shining chains around her unravelled, the clanking of the steel barely audible over the continuing howls of the new Violet. The possessed body of what used to be Weiss Schnee flopped to the ground and jerked uncontrollably, her now purple eyes wide with some indescribable emotion as she screamed.
"Speak to me Violet," Nihilus begged, gently trying to stop her from moving. "Speak to me, please!"
She just screamed and screamed, the only pauses being the minute gasps of air.
"Nihilus," Jaune edged forwards, his hand coming to rest on the back of Nihilus' right shoulder. "I don't think it worked."
"No…" Nihilus began to sob, his futile attempts to calm the twisted parody of his daughter ceasing. "No, it isn't fair…"
The screams continued, unchanging and unrestrained.
"Nihilus, I think we should go…"
They definitely should - who knew how long it would take before they were confronted with another legion of battlemechs? Jaune wasn't interested in sticking around to find out. He… had no idea how he was going to fix the Nihilus problem - the problem being his mass-murdering alternate self. But what had the not-Pyrrha said? Keep him distracted? Sure, and while he was at it he'd also convince Nihilus to give up being an evil nutjob who wears robes.
It was impossible. What the hell was Jaune meant to say to get Nihilus away from cities?
With a jerk, Nihilus tore his shoulder free from Jaune's comforting grasp, the younger Arc stumbling slightly at the motion.
Nihilus' left hand still held the glowing light of Weiss' soul, but as the false lord lifted the shining orb upwards with a suddenly hateful expression on his face, Jaune knew something was wrong.
Violet's screams ground to a sudden stop when Nihilus' right hand brushed over her forehead, the girl going limp with unconsciousness. For a moment Jaune feared that Nihilus had killed her, but the slow rise and fall of her chest told a different story.
But Jaune didn't have time to ponder it.
Not a moment later, Nihilus jammed his hand into the glowing light of Weiss' soul. "Tell me what you've done!" Nihilus shouted at the light.
The sound that followed wasn't a physical thing, but something… deeper. To Jaune it felt like someone had jammed a knife into his core and was wiggling it around. The utter and profound agony that the 'noise' let out was terrible.
"TELL ME!" Nihilus roared, seemingly unaffected.
Jaune felt like wailing himself, but what happened next made him stop dead.
"I don't know!"
The voice sounded like it was coming across a great distance, like it was stretching just to reach them. But worse, it was like twisting the knife the 'scream' had left moments earlier.
And it was Weiss.
Nihilus reached deeper into the light, his fury mounting as he tore away at what remained of Weiss.
"Stop him!"
The voice of Pyrrha was sudden and loud to Jaune's senses, like she was shouting in his ear. It spurred Jaune into reaching out to Nihilus once again, this time blindly obeying the command given to him by the wife that he'd never have.
But it was too late. The light that was Weiss shattered.
It was almost beautiful, in a terrible, sad way. Cracks splintered and coursed over the ethereal light, and a moment later it broke apart - hundreds and thousands glittering pinpricks of light just… fading.
Even Nihilus stared in shocked silence at what he had just done, his sickly yellow eyes wide open with disgusted horror.
"He's killed her."
Pyrrha again. But Jaune didn't see why she sounded so disgusted or why Nihilus looked so horrified - Weiss had been dead anyway, what made this any different?
"It's different because he didn't just kill her!" Pyrrha's voice snapped, "Jaune just ruined her. There will be no afterlife for Weiss Schnee; what remains will be trapped in the space in-between forever."
That disgusted Jaune, that explained their reactions. It also brought up interesting questions about what exactly the afterlife was, but Jaune's horror overrode his curiosity. The in-between was the absent place Jaune had been in when he'd died, and he'd only stayed there for the barest few minutes...
"I…" The elder Arc whispered, "I- I didn't mean to…"
Jaune stayed silent.
"This… this isn't my fault…" the pale man whispered, as he crawled over to the body that now 'belonged' to his sleeping daughter. "This… this must be Ironwood's doing!"
Ironwood? Nihilus was just placing blame now, though Jaune could hardly fault him. In his situation, Jaune couldn't say he'd do any differently.
"Yes!" Nihilus suddenly shouted, "It must be him! All the more reason for me to extract my justice!"
Jaune just sighed, his eyes drifting to the body that used to belong to Weiss Schnee.
Nihilus lifted himself upwards, carrying with him the unconscious body of his 'daugher'. "Tell me, Jaune," he practically hissed, near-glowing yellow eyes locking onto the younger boy. "What should we do? The Lord of Pain isn't here! Tell me, Tell ME!"
Nihilus was angry, very angry. It was directed at Jaune, but he knew that he wasn't the cause of it. Nihilus was just lashing out, and Jaune was a convenient target, especially given that everyone else nearby was either dead or unconscious. Ironwood was the real target of Nihilus' anger, being this 'Lord of Pain' - though the reason for the title was lost on Jaune.
"W-well…" Jaune said uneasily, not quite sure how he was meant to do this. "I, maybe we should… um, go to Ironwood?"
"We could," Nihilus mused, his temper apparently down to a simmer now, "but, but! We could draw him here instead!" the false lord gestured to the ruined courtyard around them, "This is his school! This is his city! If we destroy it, he will come! The death of Atlas shall serve to bring him to us!"
Jaune's eyes widened to the extreme. Destroy Atlas? Nihilus was strong, unbelievably so, but was he really that powerful? Could anyone be that powerful? He was far stronger than Jaune was, but that was driven by unbelievable hunger - something Jaune prayed was exclusive to Nihilus alone, and that no one else could ever be cursed with.
"There is no strength in the hunger he possesses," Pyrrha's voice slithered into his mind, "the will behind his power is a primal thing. And it devours him as he devours others—his mere presence kills all around him, slowly, feeding him. He is already dead, it is simply a question of how many he kills before he falls."
How was that helpful?! Nihilus was suggesting that they annihilate an entire society, murder thousands of people! And for what? To bring one man here? How the hell was that justified? What could possibly justify that?
"We can't!" Jaune near shouted, "Atlas has thousands of people in it! We can't just kill them all!"
Nihilus drew closer to Jaune, the limp stolen body of his daughter in his pale hands. "And why can't I? I have before."
I have before.
The words hung in the air like a poison, cancerous in their nature and so very telling for Nihilus' personality.
"Last time I made him watch," the dark lord grinned slightly, "I made him stare into the flames as Atlas was torched to the ground. Then I took all that he was, and made him mine."
Jaune took a step backwards, the already horrified expression on his face twisting into true disgust and revulsion. He'd known Nihilus was a murderer - that much was hard to miss. But this? Nihilus was genocidal, Nihilus was a monster. He… he was just as bad as the Grimm.
No, Nihilus was worse. Grimm didn't make you watch, Grimm didn't kill thousands just to draw out a single man.
"No!" Jaune yelled, "Can't you see how wrong that would be?"
"Right and wrong are just labels," Nihilus hissed, "words used to condemn or extol based solely on personal opinion. Is it not wrong to organise the death of a little girl? Is it not wrong to have someone who used to be my friend, Ruby, pull the trigger?"
"It's not the same!" Jaune cried, "He ruined your life, he killed your family. But how does that equal an entire civilisation?!"
Nihilus reached out and slapped Jaune across the face, the blow feeling like it was done with solid steel rather that the back of his hand. "I am taking from him what he took from me. Ironwood dedicated his entire life to building Atlas, to protecting Atlas, and then ruling Atlas." Nihilus sneered, "Atlas is Ironwood's child, it is all he lives for! And just as he took all that I live for, I will take everything from him!"
Jaune's cheek stung madly, but he didn't let that stop him. There were too many lives on the line, too much chance of people dying for him to hesitate for even a moment. "B-but what about Ruby?" it was a last-ditch attempt more than anything else, but Jaune still had to try.
Nihilus' sneer shifted to confusion. "Ruby? She is in Vale."
Jaune was desperate now, but… well, he had to buy time, not an actual solution. That's what Pyrrha, Nihilus' Pyrrha, had said anyway. Getting Nihilus to not destroy Atlas and go to Vale instead was a terrible plan, especially since it could very well turn out with Nihilus just destroying Vale instead… but it used time, time that Pyrrha had claimed she needed to solve the problem. "Y-yes, but you said she was the one who pulled the trigger! So- so shouldn't she be the one who you want justice from?"
"Ruby pulled the trigger," Nihilus muttered, "but she was only a puppet. I will never forgive her for what she did. But with the death of her team, Ruby is now completely alone in the world. Her punishment can be life!"
Crap, crap… what could he say? He had to delay Nihilus. Ironwood was going to Vale, Ruby was already in Vale, Beacon was there… "But- but if you go to Vale then both Ironwood and Ruby will be there! And that way you can deal with both at the same time!"
Nihilus shook his head, "Ironwood must suffer before he dies. Killing his spirit a second time will be delicious."
Jaune winced, a new idea popping into his head. A truly terrible idea, but still an idea. "W-well, uh, have you considered… doing it differently this time?"
Nihilus just looked at him.
"Yeah, um… you said that last time you made Ironwood suffer by destroying what he cares about." This was a terrible suggestion, "So… maybe this time you could hurt him… physically?"
Nihilus blinked, however pointless the action was to him, and let a grin split across his face. "That's an excellent idea!" he cried, "For this life, I will make him beg for death to stop his agony!"
Jaune felt distinctly sick, but he pressed onwards anyway. "Y-yeah, and the fastest way to get to that would be by going to him in Vale."
Nihilus hefted the sleeping 'body' of his daughter as his grin widened. "Yes! Good, good! Come Jaune, we will return to Vale!"
Jaune could only hope that the solution Pyrrha promised was coming quickly, otherwise Vale was doomed.
They would all die…
And it would be Jaune's fault.
Beacon, many years ago…
"The Vytal Festival is only two days away now."
Jaune hummed from his chair. "And?"
"Is your team planning on competing?"
Hungry.
Jaune peered briefly at Ozpin's soul, no deceit or trickery - just a straight question. How novel. "Yes, I think Cardin mentioned something about that. Should be fun, I suppose."
Ozpin shifted slightly in his desk chair, "If you are to compete, then I think that will be an excellent learning experience for your future… role."
He meant future role killing rogue hunters. The meaning wasn't lost on Jaune. The things Ozpin had been teaching Jaune in the weeks since they'd started the training… they were lethal. Very lethal. Granted, it had helped boost him up in the combat class rankings - but that seemed very… insignificant compared to everything else.
Although it was nice to be in the top ten of the class. Team RWBY was still beyond his power to defeat individually, his closest match being Weiss - if only because of her use of Dust. NRVR, Pyrrha's team, was a mixed bag; Russel was easy, Ren was a challenge that Jaune had a fair chance of winning… Pyrrha and Nora were totally beyond him though. His own team were total pushovers now though.
They didn't like it when they found out that particular detail.
But Jaune was learning to take down people rather than Grimm - it was to be expected that he would have an advantage over his classmates who lacked the same luxury.
Hungry.
"You want me to see foreign fighting styles?"
Jaune shifted his fingers slightly, all four of his rings making a pleasant clicking sound as he did so. When Ozpin did that… stuff… to his original rings, Jaune had seen fit to get another two rings so he could use more than just fire Dust again. The new rings were apparently a slightly different colour than his original ones, but Jaune didn't care about that - why would he? Blindness tended to grant a certain degree of apathy.
"I want you to enjoy yourself, Jaune," Ozpin had taken to calling him Jaune; a strange sign of, dare he say it, friendship between the two of them. "This is perhaps going to be one of your few chances to enjoy the relatively simple life of a hunter-in-training."
Perhaps friendship was a strong way to say it; their relationship consisted entirely of Jaune trying to set Ozpin on fire, and then Ozpin taking him into his basement to pound him.
Yeah, the implications of that weren't lost on Jaune.
"Whatever," He really wasn't interested in the Vytal tournament. "Are we going to work on the aura stuff or not?"
Jaune had taken to teaching Ozpin about all his discoveries regarding the soul, as not only did it make for excellent conversation, but it was also an admittedly petty way for Jaune to get back at Ozpin for his whole situation. Like saying 'haha I worked out more about aura in months than you did in over fifty years!'
Petty? Yes. Necessary? No. Satisfying? Definitely.
"Indeed," Ozpin intoned, his aura soothing over. "let's."
It was weird how slowly Ozpin was picking it up. At first Jaune had thought it simply because the man was old and thus learned slower. But anyone who spent any significant amount of time around Ozpin would eventually admit that the man was as sharp as a sword, so it had to be something else.
Hungry.
Ozpin's forest aura flowed out tentatively, going slowly and steadily towards the blind boy. Jaune on the other hand had much less trouble with it, and his white aura oozed outwards smoothly and entangled itself with Ozpin's spirit.
This was an… odd technique that Jaune had discovered shortly after he began teaching Ozpin. It was something that required two people, so he hadn't ever really thought of it before.
Aura was like water running out of a faucet, the soul being the deep reservoir within that said water comes from. But the soul wasn't technically within. It just sort of… existed. The soul took on weird shapes too - and it varied between people! That was the most fascinating part; Ozpin's looked like a kindly older figure hovering over his shoulder, gazing with benign green eyes. Pyrrha's soul looked like a lion, fiercely protective to those she cared about as it paced around in step with her. Cardin's looked like a proud eagle, noble and strong as it soared over his head.
And Ruby's looked like… a small dog. Like a corgi or something.
It was weird.
For a time, Jaune had thought that Ozpin's soul was the only one that would resemble that of a person, but then he'd seen Ironwood's soul - a rigid grey thing that looked to be the powerfully cut figure of a tall man, covered in splintering cracks that had sealed over in scar-like lines.
Jaune knew what his own soul looked like, but he'd only found out yesterday when he'd finally managed to do this successfully. The reason he hadn't known was simple; how can you look at the thing you're using to look with? It's like trying to look at your own eye, it just doesn't work without a mirror.
This… this was like a mirror.
Hungry.
It basically amounted to intertwining their aura until the connection was strong enough to 'switch'.
In short, they swapped souls briefly.
It was painful, but not in the physical sense. There was a moment of deep hurt on a level that neither Jaune nor Ozpin could quite grasp, then there was a moment of intense cold… then warmth.
For Jaune the world took on a slightly different tilt, remarkably similar, but still just different enough in every aspect for him to notice. This was how Ozpin felt the world through his soul, and no doubt if Ozpin were to 'look', then the elder man would see his own soul hanging over Jaune's shoulder - the green visage of the kindly old man.
For Jaune, he peered at his own soul that suspended itself above Ozpin.
Jaune's soul, so similar to that of Ironwood and Ozpin, stared down at him. White in its nature, looking to be the unimposing figure of a man with flecks of random colour smattering his chest and arms: gold, red, green, silver…
It was odd though - the other colours looked entirely alien, like they were droplets of paint…
"Ah, it never ceases to amaze me, to look at my own soul."
The connection snapped with Ozpin's withdrawal of aura, and the stained white of Jaune's soul snapped out of focus and back into the blind boy. It stung, but any damage was soon soothed over.
"You see why this is important now?" Jaune asked as he rose to his feet. It was time to leave.
Ozpin hummed pleasantly, "Indeed. Oh, and Jaune? I will be unavailable for further training for the duration of the tournament - you will have to make do on your own for a little while."
Jaune cracked his back, stiff from sitting for so long. "I'll make do, I suppose."
"Good luck in the tournament, Jaune."
Jaune stepped towards the elevator, "I'll be sure to do my best, sir."
It wouldn't do have a sub-par performance, no. If Jaune was to compete, then he'd make sure he made it a Vytal festival to remember.
Hungry.
1
A/N
You know something is pretty messed up when even Nihilus thinks he's gone too far. What he did to Weiss was damning, as that particular incarnation of her will never, ever get to greet her friends in the afterlife. The personality of Weiss Schnee is dead - but, and slight spoilers, there is more to her story yet. Memories and feelings will linger even after the death of personality.
Vague and unhelpful, but a hint nonetheless.
That being said, let's look at the reviews!
Thelastcenturion2015:
Thanks for reviewing.
Thank you for your kind words, I appreciate it!
As for Doctor Who: I have, but I haven't really watched it consistently or in any kind of order since the end of David Tennets run - not to say I don't like Matt or Peter, I just haven't really had time for them.
The Powder Keg:
Thanks for reviewing.
Nihilus technically held onto her soul anyway - he just wasn't aware of it until he revived Jaune and got his 'insight'. As for how Nihilus does this... well, without spoiling anything I'd remind you that Nihilus is basically a God - and that he is currently in possession of several thousand souls thanks to his semblance.
Tobi14:
Thanks for reviewing.
Pretty much, yeah.
Ruby is many things - guilty and justifiably angry included.
Nihilus wasn't actually in isolation - he had two people speaking to him on a regular basis. He just chose not to speak back. Thus the 'years of silence' comment from Weiss.
Nihilus will never actually complete his goal, as his goal is literally unending. The reason behind Nihilus' anger over Weiss' comment wasn't the implication that he couldn't physically do it, it was the implication that his will would falter first.
Weiss was indeed the most proactive, but her story isn't over yet.
Humans and Faunus may have different needs - but a simple conversation can prove to both parties that intelligence is there. Pain, hatred, love, and compassion can be felt from both sides - thus whatever differences they have are only there so long as they choose to act on those differences.
Jaune Black Smudge:
Thanks for reviewing - and sorry for being snappy before, I was rather stressed at the time. I'm open to talking if you want.
Nihilus has had them the entire story thus far - he has just never felt the need to use them. Enkidu (the chains) were the chains he was bound in when he was imprisoned. The gate of Babylon (the lights) are him using absorbed souls as a weapon - literally firing them at his opponents.
Shaded Azure:
Thanks for reviewing.
Weiss had a rough deal, both in live and in death.
See? I can do the meaningful part for you.
Thank you all for reading! Don't forget to leave a review!
