Chapter 21 – Purpose
"What did you say!?" the woman yelled. Jaune looked around the room, ready to make his move the moment they make themselves open.
"I'll cuff him." The woman in black armor said. She approached Jaune with caution, knowing that he might make a move.
"3…2…" Jaune had begun to count down which startled the Huntsmen and Huntresses.
"Why are you counting down!?" the man yelled as he pointed his gun towards the black knight.
"1…"
Ruby looked at her phone to check the time. She only had about 45 seconds left before the storage room where Yang was being kept explodes. With all her aura, she increased her speed, but had many Grimm blocking her way towards her sister. With a swift and accurate strike, she slashed through many Beowolfs and Ursi. None of the creatures stood a chance against Ruby's speed, accuracy, and determination. She did not care what stood in her way, if it was preventing her from reaching her sister she would not hesitate to kill it. Streaks of red pedals were the only thing visible from the eyes of the woodland creatures could see. With 10 seconds left to spare, she made it to the storage unit and cut through the metal door that kept her beloved sister inside.
"YANG!" Ruby yelled. She entered the room and saw Yang tied up to a chair with a few bruises around her face and legs. She sped towards her and cut through the rope and pulled her sister towards the door, but Yang was being uncooperative.
"NO! JAMES!" Yang screamed, pained at the sight of Jay about to die in the inevitable explosion that was about to happen. Ruby with all her remaining strength and speed managed to leave the storage unit and run far enough where the explosion would not be able to harm the two.
Two explosions were heard from the distance that shook the skilled Huntsmen which Jaune had perfectly been counting down to take the advantage of the distraction. Jaune grabbed hold of the Huntress that was about to cuff him and used her as leverage to stop the other Huntsmen to fight him which worked.
"LET HER GO! STOP RIGHT THERE! DON'T MOVE!" Every Huntsman in the room was now on edge as they witness their partner taken hostage by the criminal.
"If you don't let me go, the only thing that you will have to remember of your partner is the sight of her head dangling from her vertebrae. I suggest you lower your weapons and don't do anything that will make me want to kill her." Jaune held his sword tightly towards her neck showing no sign of hesitation. The unit followed the knight's direction and lowered their weapons and allowed him to move freely with their partner in his grip. Jaune walked towards the exit that led upstairs to the main floor and felt something behind him. Jaune kicked the Huntress towards the unit and swung his sword behind him, wounding an invisible presence behind him. He looked back at the unit and noticed one of them unconscious, but still standing.
"His semblance must be the ability to have some sort of out of the body experience and physically be able to do things as if it was another human body… but the downside must be that his real body is rendered useless until he returns to it." Jaune managed to figure out what his semblance was and retreated up the stairs avoiding numerous rounds from the Remnant unit. Jaune saw law enforcement coming down the stairs and had no choice but to fight through them. He jumped on the metal railing and used his polarity semblance to stick on to it and run up without having the worries of falling off. He kicked, punched, and slashed the officers that were after him. He deflected, blocked, and teleported the projectiles that were shot at him as he ran up the steps towards the main floor and reached it with no problem. He proceeded to run towards the exit and led outside of the facility, finally able to escape. He exited the facility and witnessed the largest police force he has ever seen.
"DROP YOUR WEAPON AND PLACE YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR! IF YOU DO ANYTHING THAT IS HOSITILE, WE WILL SHOOT!" One of the cops yelled into a megaphone. Spotlights were aiming towards Jaune and helicopters were hovering over him with sharpshooters taking aim at the blonde knight. Jaune smiled and did what they said, slowly placing his sword on the ground and raising his hands in the air. In a brief moment, he conjured up black flames underneath the large number of patrol cars and blew them all up, causing every officer in the vicinity to jump away from the vehicles and look away at the dark knight. Jaune's sword returned to his hand and now the knight was on the run, running towards the woods to avoid the helicopters from finding him. He then noticed that the nevermore he rode on was attacking the helicopters, causing them to return to the facility to avoid the danger. The nevermore landed in an open area not too far from Jaune's location, but was infested with Grimm that were attracted by the dark aura. A King taijitu slithered towards Jaune in great speed, eager to eat Jaune. Although Jaune managed to control the Nevermore, he still didn't know how he did it and didn't want to try at the moment. Jaune readied Crocea Mors in his and sliced the snake in two with ease, and sped towards the open field where the Nevermore awaited. After fighting several creatures, he made it and was able to get on the Nevermore and fled the area.
"Jaune come in." Jaune completely forgot about the earpiece he still had in his ear and responded to Winter.
"Winter I'm here. Did you all return back to the city? Back to the academy?"
"Affirmative, we returned to the school, however, Roy isn't here. I think he already went his separate way. Where are you?"
"I'm on my way, I went into a bit of trouble… but I managed to escape safely. Did Ruby manage to save Yang?"
"She did, however, don't expect for Yang to be open to anyone any time soon."
"… I understand. There are a few things I want to do here first, I need you to take the team and depart the kingdom as soon as possible. They could begin an evacuation of the kingdom in about 2 hours, the sooner you can leave this kingdom… the better."
"Very well, I will make sure the team return safely to Vale."
"… Thank you." Jaune observed of what was going on below him. The hundreds of Grimm that were arriving from the mountains… were now halfway towards the facility. It wouldn't take long until the creatures invade the kingdom. Jaune believed that the beam could attract more Grimm from each side of the kingdom and that it would most likely take another kingdom's help to completely stop the Grimm from attacking. At this point, they only thing that the Mistral government could do now is to use their military strength to maintain control over the Jaune flew around for a couple of minutes and decided to land on a small area, surrounded by trees and had a fairly sized lake next to it. The Nevermore landed and Jaune touched down to the ground and lifted Pyrrha onto his arms. He walked over by the lake and placed the now cold body down. The nevermore flew off again and disappeared into the distance. Jaune walked over to one of the trees and sliced it in half. He began to split the tree into small logs and sticks and placed it by the lake, making sure the water doesn't soak the wood. After several minutes, he managed to gather enough wood and picked Pyrrha back up again. He heard something land behind him and noticed it was the Nevermore, with a long blanket in its beak. Jaune smiled and grabbed the blanket from the Nevermore and used it to wrap Pyrrha's body. He placed the body onto the large plot of wood and ignited it with his black flames. He watched as the flames burned away at the wood and the emotionless body. He sat down on the ground at stared at the fire that emitted no light. He stayed like that for several minutes, mesmerized by the flame and trying to understand what he was going to do now. The people who attacked Beacon were now dead. Torchwick was still alive, but Jaune didn't feel the need to kill him because he helped him try to stop Adam, but he still wasn't sure whether he was next in his hit list… or not.
"How much has Jay endured? He lost his parents, the girl he loved, his team, and he was alone for a quite a while. He was a lone Huntsman in training, but continued to fight for a better future. We were no different, we were basically the same person living in two separate bodies, yet I feel like I have endured more pain than any other has. This dark aura is changing me and I'm not sure if it will help the world or destroy it. I don't know what to do… I don't know what to do…"
"Jaune… you there?"
"Roy is that you?"
"Yeah, it seems that this kingdom is going to need to endure a long battle against these dangerous creatures. I hope you and your friends can get out of here safely, I can only imagine what kind of pain your friend is facing right now. It's going to be hard for her to move past this. At least he isn't in Rhett's grasp anymore. To be honest, I'm surprised he allowed you to choose who you could save."
"What do you mean?"
"Well for starters, Rhett is a ruthless serial killer who enjoys torturing people for his own sick pleasure. I'm not trying to sound like a douche, but it was better for your friend Jay to die rather for him to endure an unmeasurable pain that he would have gotten from Rhett."
"I guess you're right."
"Listen, the words you told really inspired me to do more for the city. I'm no Huntsman, but you are. I think that anybody who has endured great pain is a true Huntsman. I don't doubt that you would sacrifice yourself to make this world a peaceful place and that is something I want to also create. The best start for me… is to help this kingdom from getting destroyed by Grimm. You take care of yourself. I wouldn't want you to become a bloodthirsty creature like them."
"… I will Roy and you sure you can handle this yourself? Maybe I should stick around and help you."
"Thanks, but no thanks. I've already got a team that can help me with this task and besides… there is another kingdom that needs a savior."
"Alright then savior… take care." Roy chuckled at the response and removed the earpiece. Jaune proceeded to do the same and threw it towards the water. He continued to watch the fire for several minutes and fell asleep soundly on the floor.
"You saw how they looked at you right? Your friends... all those officers? They were afraid of you… of the power you held. Do you honestly think that your friends will continue be with you?" A female's voice was heard in Jaune's head.
"YES OF COURSE! They have been on my side since I arrived in Beacon. They wouldn't abandon me!" Jaune yelled in his head.
"The people you worked so hard to protect will betray you. They will look at you like some sort of monster, no different than a Grimm." Jaune began to see images of himself in front of an angry crowd. Their eyes filled with anger, despair, and frustration.
"That's not true!"
"They'll blame you for the incident and when they do, they'll want you dead even though you were the one who stopped it. What will you do then savior? Would you continue to help humanity even though they see you as an enemy or will you finally realize that you aren't a part of them and realize the truth?"
"WHO ARE YOU!? LEAVE ME ALONE!" Jaune awoke from the unusual nightmare. His face was in a puddle inside a home.
"Water?" Jaune said. He picked himself up, away from the puddle and it was then when he realized what it was, blood. Jaune was able to look at his own reflection from the crimson red blood that lay on the ground. His face held a horrified expression and his eyes widened in shock as he slowly looked to his side and noticed three people dead on the floor. He slowly looked to the other side and saw a male and a female, sliced open. He looked behind him and saw four others, with multiple gashes. He noticed the walls were covered in blood and the floor looked as though it were a pool. Jaune looked at his hands that were stained with each person's blood and his sword tightly gripped on his hand. Jaune stared at the door in front of him tirelessly, his body felt as if it never got any rest. He crawled to the door and opened it, his eyes was blinded by the sunlight and tried to comprehend where he was at. He used his aura to cover his face with his mask and slowly got up, using his sword as a cane as if he himself were an old man. The place he was at looked deserted, but not entirely. A few Grimm were roaming around and the structures seemed that of an urban area. Jaune looked around for the Nevermore that he was with, but was nowhere to be seen. Jaune hurried towards a different home, continuing to use his sword as support. He entered the home and saw that it was empty. Quite a bit of suitcases were laying on the floor as if the family who once lived here were in a hurry. Open drawer's with some shirts hanging, a television that was still on. Jaune grabbed the remote that was lying on the floor and changed the channel towards the news.
"Huntsmen and Huntresses were deployed evenly around the kingdom along with Mistral military forces. We've got a word from our general that aid from Vacuole will be arriving in a few days so we shouldn't fear. At the moment they have everything under control and can expect this to be over soon."
Jaune exited the home and looked around the neighborhood quietly, avoiding detection of the Grimm that roamed the streets. He noticed military vehicles abandoned on the roads and a few dead soldiers as well. After a while of looking around, he found an abandoned helicopter that was left on a crossroad. The helicopter held a dead pilot and two female citizens. Jaune guessed that they tried to escape, but were killed before they were able to fly off. Jaune pulled the dead bodies out of the vehicle and jumped into the cockpit.
"I guess my piloting practice starts today." Jaune said. He flicked switches, hoping that one of them will turn the air vehicle on and to his surprise it did. The helicopter turned on and was now hovering. This caused the Grimm in the vicinity to notice Jaune and they hurried towards him, itching to kill him. Jaune pulled the handle in front of him and that made the helicopter reverse and ended up slicing up the Grimm with its spinning blades.
"I guess that somewhat worked." Jaune continue to struggle to find a way to fly off and after a few seconds of figuring things out, he managed to make the helicopter ascend to the sky and leave the area.
"Now… where exactly am I?" Jaune asked himself. He looked at the view from high above and saw an entire city covered in smoke and flames.
"YANG!" Ruby's voice was heard through a speaker that was next to Jay.
"NO! JAMES!" Yang screamed, her yelling slowly faded away and Jay was left with a smile on his face, knowing that Yang was rescued and was now safely away. A few seconds later, two explosions were seen in the window. This puzzled Jay and he didn't know what to think of it. He was still alive and should have been deep fried a second ago.
"Was the bomb a dud? Why am I still alive?" Jay asked himself.
"My my my my my… you were expecting me to kill you dear James? Heavens no, you're too special for me to kill you… well not yet anyway."
"What are you talking about psychotic freak!?" Rhett punched Jay across the face, causing Jay to fall to the side with the chair.
"You're just like your dead girlfriend, never showing any respect. I'm going to need to teach how to respect people above you boy and the only way to do that is for you to live… under… my… care." Jay could only prepare for what was in store for him from the psychotic lunatic named Rhett.
Hey everyone, I apologize for not being able to upload two chapters this week or upload a chapter earlier today, but always late than never right? Anyways, here is the chapter. I should use this time to point out a something. At the moment, Jaune is hearing voices in his head which I know you can guess who this person is. Sooner or later, there will be a chapter that will arrive that will be the last chapter that will allow the reader to choose an outcome. Whether the end result stays the same or changes is up to me. There might be a choice for you to make soon that probably isn't as big, but stay tune for that. Does this mean we are coming to an end in this crazy story? Nope. This is just a heads up for the readers, but I do expect to finish this up by the end of the month I hope. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me and I will be happy to answer them. I will see you all later!