Hearts Eclipsed by Shadows
Chapter 2: Fighting Prowess
Flashback starts
"Now Jaune, you can't fuse now since you're still young and you haven't gained any malice from Grimm. We live in a safe area near Haven Academy, so Huntsmen and Huntresses constantly exterminate Grimm nearby." lectured Alexander. "I'll even bet you ten lien that our ancestor, Roland Arc had problems too fusing around others."
"Why dad? Do people not like us?" said Jaune curiously.
"Well you have to figure; your fusions look monstrous at first glance and they aren't really thinking about who that is. They'll attack you without realizing it." said Alexander seriously.
Jaune looked sad at what his dad told him. He couldn't use his semblance due to people might kill him while fused.
Alexander put his hand on Jaune's head and ruffled his hair. "Now don't look so down Jaune, your semblance is much more powerful than others. But there are some drawbacks to it." said Alex with a smile on his face.
"One is fusion backlash. it is of course self-explanatory, fuse too much in too fast of a span of time and your aura will fluctuate wildly. It might not protect all too well or you'll feel random elemental effects." said Alex with his index finger raised. "Two is that your emotions IS linked to your semblance. Give in to your anger or you'll unconsciously fuse into one of your fusions at random. You must keep a clear head, or you'll fuse without knowing it." lectured Alex while Jaune was shaking his head, understanding what his father told him.
"Now. Let's work on your kicks, they really need work with power and flexibility." said Alex lifting a ten-year-old Jaune.
Flashback ends
Jaune woke up feeling refreshed around six o'clock, sitting up and stretching his body and looking around his surroundings. Ruby was all over the place, her arms out wide with her legs at different angles. Yang was snoring lightly but wasn't taking a lot of space.
'Guess I should get ready for the day.' yawned Jaune as he thought mentally about his aura and the two fusions he has available. 'I should talk to Ozpin soon anyways. Would be best after I get assigned to a team.'
Jaune grabbed a pair of jeans, a black shirt and his special edition Pumpkin Pete's hoodie. He earned that by sending in a bunch of box tops and kept it in excellent condition due to a great mother and seven sisters. As Jaune walked in the bathroom, an energetic ginger was dancing all around a man wearing green with a magenta strip in his pitch-black hair.
"Morning! Good morning!" said the ginger with seemingly endless energy. Jaune felt bad for the guy as he was just not feeling it this morning. He overheard something about sloths as he started washing up. Jaune got dressed after drying himself off, going to the mess hall to see if they have any decent food or seats left. Jaune made sure to grab a decent amount of bacon and eggs with toast, a healthy breakfast for the day. Yang and Ruby were sitting together with Ruby waving him down to sit with them, Jaune sitting across from them smiling. Ruby had cookies that no-one knew how she got them and Yang with a steak breakfast.
"How did you guys sleep?" inquired Jaune, yawning a bit.
"Pretty good eh Jauney?" said Yang with her arms underneath her breast, pushing them up to give Jaune a view but he looks away blushing badly.
"W-Well… I'm g-glad that you had a nice night of sleep…" stuttered Jaune.
"Yang…! But I had a good night of sleep. Thanks Jaune" smiled Ruby while feeling annoyed with Yang.
"Awesome. But now I think it's time to start with initiation." said Jaune after saying that, they finished their food and went to the locker room to get ready.
As Jaune was searching for his locker, he overheard a conversation between two girls. It happened to be Weiss and a redhead in bronze armor with a red sash around her hip. Weiss was saying something about being the most powerful pair at Beacon, but the redhead looked kind of uncomfortable with Weiss so Jaune decided to help a bit.
"Want to know what else is great? Me, Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you…?" said Jaune a bit slow missing the glare Weiss was sending him.
"Excuse me but do you know who this is?" said Weiss, a bit hot tempered.
"Not a single clue Snow Angel." said Jaune in response as Weiss' eye twitched at the nickname.
"This is Pyrrha Nikos." as said redhead said a small hello in response to her name, waving her hand at Jaune.
"Not a clue who that is." said Jaune cluelessly.
"She graduated at the top of her class at Sanctum!" yelled Weiss angrily at Jaune.
"Wow. You must be pretty smart if you did better than everyone else." said Jaune in awe, Pyrrha smiling brightly.
"She's also the four-time Mistral Regional Champion! The youngest in history!" Weiss her iron-will discipline declining at the blonde-haired doofus.
"Doesn't it get boring after the third time? I would have been bored around the second time honestly." said Jaune neutrally.
"Honestly it's a challenge but you are right that it'd be boring after the third time." smiled Pyrrha.
Right before Jaune was about to say something, Weiss cuts him off. "After knowing all of that, do you think you're capable of being her partner?" said Weiss with her hands on her hips.
"Maybe. Maybe not but nothing is impossible right?" shrugged Jaune. "By the way… my locker is right in-between yours."
Both Weiss and Pyrrha left Jaune to his own while he put Crocea Mors on his belt while putting Chimera on his hands. He saw his necklace hanging on a hook and ties the leather strap around his neck. It's a Yang symbol with a stone half way in the symbol and outside of it. It was currently glowing blue like his eyes. (A.N: If needed for viewing pleasure, look up Talisman for Shadow Hearts.)
"Will all students arrive to the cliffs for initiation." declared Goodwitch. Jaune was walking to the door when Yang and Ruby appeared.
"Ready Jauney? What's up with the necklace you have?" pointed out Yang, curious about his necklace.
"Oh. It's a gift from Dad. The stone is made from my aura and reacts in distinct colors. it changes to green, yellow, orange then red. Five colors in total." said Jaune a bit proudly. "But I don't know how Dad did it anyways. He knows all the rituals."
Yang shrugged while Ruby was looking at it intently, seeing if it would do a trick while they walk to the cliffs near the Emerald Forest. Yang was just talking to Jaune about a bunch of random topics while Ruby was skipping right next to them. Suddenly the talisman changes to green.
"Ooooh… that's really cool. I think it changes color near Grimm or something. I never heard of aura doing that." said Ruby curiously.
They arrived at the cliffs with several large tiles placed four feet away from each other with several students are already on besides Jaune, Ruby and Yang. Miss Goodwitch was standing there with Professor Ozpin, already having a conversation with her.
"Now some of you have heard rumors about partners but we are here to dispel them now." Miss Goodwitch said with a glare to all the students. Ozpin coughing a bit to gain everyone's attention while drinking his coffee.
"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So, it is in your best interest to be paired with someone whom you can work well with." said Ozpin as Ruby let out a groan of disbelief. "With that said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."
Ruby felt her world collapsed after hearing that she had to get along with other people. "What…?!" yelled Ruby
Jaune felt bad for Ruby and hoped she got Yang as a partner or at least someone like her. Ozpin then told them to pair up and head off to the northern part of the forest and do not hesitate to kill Grimm or they will die.
"We will monitor and evaluate your performance throughout the initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You'll come across an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must take one relic and make it back to the top of the cliff." instructed Ozpin. "You will guard that relic and your standing, and you'll be graded appropriately. Are there any questions?"
Jaune figured that they had to use their own landing strategy after seeing a ginger haired kid with large armor get launched into the forest. His dad did tell him that Ozpin had a proclivity for launching students into the forest for two reasons. One is for his own amusement and the other reason is to have students prepared for impromptu flights that aren't in their control.
Ruby got launched right next to him and he stood with his feet shoulder width apart with his right foot forward, hunched over.
"Mister Arc. I have high hopes for you this year." smiled Ozpin as Jaune got launched into the forest, Ozpin sipping his coffee with a smile on his face.
Jaune grabbed the sheath off his belt and activated the shield as he slammed into multiple branches then use the sword to hook into the body of the tree, the sword slipping off the tree causing Jaune to slam onto his back to the ground.
"Arggh… that's smarts…" Jaune groaned as he got up in pain. "Thank Oum for aura but I'm gonna feel this in the morning I guarantee. "
A pack of Beowulfs must had heard his crash landing and came to get some free food or so they thought. Jaune put his left foot forward with the shield out to defend himself, keeping the sword at his side to retaliate. One Beowulf must have not thought all the way through as Jaune bashed its head with his shield, swiftly decapitating it as it faded into inky smoke. The others jumped into the fight as one of their comrades died. Jaune started by putting more force into his back foot to steel himself for a hit, one Beowulf swipes at his head but Jaune raises his shield, allowing the claws to skid off with sparks flying off. Jaune pierces its head from the bottom of its jaw, fading away as Jaune felt fire within his veins as he became a hurricane of sword swings. Jaune only had four left out of the pack when two fell due to gunshots from a woman with bronze armor, Pyrrha above them taking quick but precise shots at them as she killed the last two.
"I'm guessing we're partners now eh Pyrrha?" smiled Jaune as Pyrrha jumped down from the branch she was perched on.
"Yes, we are. Sorry for not jumping in earlier but it seemed you had it with your training." smiled Pyrrha.
"Eh Beowulfs. They aren't that difficult, but they do have numbers." said Jaune walking past Pyrrha. "So, do you know where to go to the temple. I didn't get a good sense of direction after being launched." Jaune rubbing the back of his head as he thought of the direction of the temple.
Pyrrha points to her left as gunshots rang out in that direction. "I'm guessing over there. Our comrades are already fighting."
"What's in that cave?" Jaune points at the cave with various drawing at the entrance. "Could a relic be in there?"
"Maybe. Let's find out." as they both walk into the cave, Jaune picking up a stick and wraps an old cloth around it making a torch. "Hey Pyrrha, can you hand me some fire dust?" Pyrrha sprinkles some dust on the torch, igniting it.
Jaune suddenly trips and drops the torch in a puddle, enveloping them in darkness.
"Can you feel that?" Pyrrha said slowly.
"Soul-crushing regret?" said Jaune a bit scared.
"No, it feels… warm." said Pyrrha as Jaune noticed a golden glowing object over his head.
"Hey, is that it?" said Jaune as he attempts to grab it, jumping for it.
"Got it!" exclaimed Jaune as the object moved.
"Um… Jaune… I don't think that's a relic." said Pyrrha as she slowly backed away.
The "relic" moved over where it revealed a Deathstalker's face and the "relic" was its stinger. Jaune screamed loudly as Pyrrha ran out of the cave, with the Deathstalker chasing her with Jaune on its tail.
"It's not a relic Pyrrha!" yelled Jaune as he held on for dear life.
"Just hold on- "Jaune was thrown from the tail unto the forest, Pyrrha rubbing the back of her head like Jaune, running away.
Jaune was flying through the forest wondering why did he decide to follow his dad's advice on going to Beacon to advance his Fusion powers. Now why is there a black and red blur coming towards him…?
"Oh cra- "Jaune then slammed into Ruby and they collide into a tree, Ruby being dazed while Jaune was hanging upside down groaning.
"Ow… What hit me…?" groaned Ruby with scythes over her head.
"That would be me Rubes…" as Jaune groaned and landed on the branch, prompting more groans.
"I didn't think I would be launched more than once today. Who's your partner?" inquired Jaune.
Ruby was about to tell him, but Weiss yelled out how she left her there on the Nevermore's claw.
"I told you to jump!" yelled Ruby.
"She's going to fall." said the boy with the magenta streak in his hair.
"She'll be fine." waved Yang nonchalantly.
"She's falling." said Blake stoically.
Jaune righted himself and prepared to grab Weiss in midair and is timing it right. Hopefully. Jaune jumped and grabbed Weiss and pulled her close so her body was protected by Jaune. They landed roughly but Weiss was fine while Jaune suffered another bad landing causing more back pain.
"My hero." said Weiss very slow and sarcastic, checking her nails and getting up.
"You're lucky you're as light as you look…" mumbled Jaune out of her earshot.
Jaune got up and popped his back as Pyrrha got knocked to the ground when the Deathstalker burst through the trees with the Nevermore cawing loudly.
"Great! Now we can die together!" yelled Yang sarcastically.
"Not if I got anything to say about it!" Ruby was about to rush the Deathstalker until Jaune grabbed her hood, causing an abrupt stop.
"You were about to rush a giant Grimm without help. Let's grab our relics and handle them later." said Jaune already knowing that she was going to get hurt.
"You're right. Let's go and think of a better plan." as Ruby grabbed the golden knight piece while Jaune grabbed the golden rook piece.
All eight of them ran from the temple to some abandoned ruins while the Nevermore launches its sharpened feathers at the group, everyone dodging at various degrees while Jaune and Pyrrha blocked them with their shields. they ended up getting separated since the Nevermore destroyed a bridge causing Ren, Pyrrha and Blake stranded fighting off the Deathstalker.
"We got to get over there! But I don't think I can make that jump…" said Jaune nervously.
Nora then smacked Jaune behind her and then transformed her grenade launcher to a giant hammer, jumping to the other edge and slamming her hammer down, launching Jaune to the other side then pulling the trigger to fire a grenade to propel her to the other side too. Nora landed in front of the Deathstalker and hit it with her hammer and when the Grimm was about to stab her with its stinger, she triggered an explosion firing her backwards and away from the stinger, knocking off Blake. Blake used her ribbon to swing herself to the Nevermore, using her semblance to get on top of it swinging her weapon all over the back of it. She jumped off and landed next to Yang.
"It's hide is too tough for me to cut through." said Blake as she transformed her katana to its gun form.
"Then let's give it all we got!" yelled Yang as she got Ember Celica, Weiss changed her dust and formed glyphs in front of her and Ruby aiming Crescent Rose at the Nevermore. They started launching attacks at the Grimm as it moves away to get away from the firing.
Jaune, Nora, Ren and Pyrrha combat the Deathstalker by having Ren fire at the stinger while Jaune blocks one of the claws from hitting Pyrrha. Pyrrha shifts her weapon to its carbine form and fires a few shots at it when Ren got knocked back by the other claw. Jaune notices the stinger is loose and knew Nora can nail it to kill the Grimm.
"Pyrrha! Can you hit that stinger?!" yelled Jaune as he slashed at one of the eyes. Pyrrha throws her shield and hits the stinger where it was loose.
"Nora! Nail it!" said Jaune as he pointed his sword at the Grimm. Pyrrha raises her shield over her head and Nora lands on it, using a grenade to launch herself high up in the sky. She goes ahead on her way down fires a grenade to increase her velocity, slamming her hammer onto the stinger. The stinger pierced the Grimm with an added effect of destroying the bridge they were at, launching them across the ruins unto some soft grass.
"I'm glad to not be attacked right now. I will be sleeping after this fight." Jaune laid his head down on the grass exhausted. He will be taking a long, hot shower and plenty of tasty food.
As Jaune got up, he looked to the cliffs to see Ruby running up with a Nevermore hooked by her scythe with glyphs keeping her on the cliffs. It seemed she was firing off rounds to keep her speed up and is yelling loudly. As she reached the top, the Nevermore got caught on a rock and all the momentum caused Ruby to decapitate it, striking a kneeling pose with rose petals falling all around her.
"Well. How to showoff featuring Ruby." smiled Jaune as they all walked towards the others.
As they got to the top, Ozpin was waiting for everyone. "Congratulations everyone. I'm proud that you all defeated a Deathstalker and a Nevermore with your wits on you. Now I'll be taking those relics now." Ozpin held a box so that the pairs can put them away. Jaune and Ruby were the last ones to put theirs away as Ozpin spoke. "The team ceremony will be happening later tonight, so you may get some sleep or something to eat."
The group left and gathered up at the cafeteria, so they can get some food in their stomachs.
Jaune was eating some chicken nuggets, a habit he hasn't kicked from home and loved eating at any time, Ruby had some strawberries and cookies, Weiss was eating a simple salad, Blake eating some fish that made everyone wonder if she had a craving for seafood, Yang having steak with cooked mushrooms, Nora having a stack of pancakes that everyone knows that can rival Ruby's appetite for cookies, Pyrrha having some Mistralian cooking from home while Ren had a salad with a cup of tea with him.
After the ceremony, Jaune was named leader for team JNPR while Ruby was leader for her team (Which is also her name as well.) team RWBY. Jaune was utterly surprised after gaining the position but he was worried that he would lead them into trouble or something.
"Hey guys! We should get together and talk about ourselves since we are sister teams after all." said Ruby a bit excited to know more about JNPR.
"Do we have any plans this weekend after classes?" asked Jaune to his teammates.
"Me and Renny don't have anything to do so why not! He can cook pancakes for me!" yelled Nora with glee, Ren shaking his head but smiling.
"I really don't have anything to do this weekend so why not? I'd like to know everyone else too." smiled Pyrrha.
"Ok Pyr it's decided, we'll go ahead and come with you guys on the weekend." smiled Jaune.
"Maybe we should spar one of these times eh Jauney?" said Yang with a devious glint in her eye that Jaune somehow missed.
"Uh… Sure? I don't see a problem with that." said Jaune slowly as Ruby was trying to shake her head to discourage Jaune from doing that.
"Awesome!" Yang suddenly grabbed Jaune into a headlock he was trying to get out of, fruitlessly.
"Gah! Let go Yang!" yelled Jaune as he kept struggling then just giving up.
"Tried to warn you Jaune… She's relentless when she wants to fight." said Ruby a bit remorseful to Jaune.
"Thanks for that. Now I think it's time for us to go to our dorms and sleep." noted Jaune as the clock showed 7 o'clock, the sun started to set below the horizon.
The two groups left to their dorms when Jaune noticed a box on his bed. Jaune wasn't expecting a package from Dad or his sisters so soon, there was a note on the box for him.
"Dear Jaune, I heard from Ozpin that you passed Initiation without any problems and I decided to get you some better armor and clothes. That Pumpkin Pete hoodie can only last so long, so I got you a coat that goes well with the armor. I got you a new chestplate, vambraces, shinguards to help with your kicks. The coat is basically a brown trench coat, but it is enhanced with fire or ice dust to keep you warm or cool. It even has the Arc symbol on the back and will protect you from small arms like pistols and such, also some black cargo pants to hold dust or items if needed to and black combat boots. There's a blue T-shirt with your Talisman symbol on the back if you want to hide it by chance. These clothes are flexible for your hand to hand style of fighting. Oh, and do go ahead and tell your team your semblance and I know that you probably won't do that because of what I said about your great-great-great grandfather that he had to hide it. Your team will trust you no matter what and that trust is a two-way street, confide in them about your semblance and tell them to keep it a secret until you are ready. And I hope you could use my advice on dating! That is how I got your mother but anyway, I hope you have a lot of friends and good memories there at Beacon. Love dad.
Jaune smiled at the note and put the box in his closet, putting on his pajamas for the night.
A.N: Welcome to the second chapter! *Suddenly, the League of Legends icon hits me over the head* Sorry for not getting this out sooner but… League demanded my attention. *proceeds to get my ass kicked by TF2 also. * So, I'll address some questions here if I think you guys have questions at.
"Will Jaune become a Gary Stu with this semblance?"
Honestly, no. I'm putting limitations on the Fusing part of it. A.K.A: All level one Fusions will use up 5% of Jaune's aura to fuse into said monster. Level two will take up 10% of his aura. Level three requires a Gravestone and a fight to earn a level 3 monster and will use up 15% of his aura. The other three that he'll get (Not gonna spoil it for ya… unless you look it up. Cheater.) Will take up variating percent of his aura to use. But his Semblance will make him at least equal to the others.
I'm also gonna try spacing out the story so that the story doesn't end at like… Chapter 15 or something.
Also to address, the person Jaune will date… Secret! but it is narrowed down to either Dragonslayer or White Knight. I have an important plot for either of them in this story when we get to it.
Also, I'm gonna add in Yuri Hyuga from the game into this story by being Jaune's… Spirit guide. Reason why for this is that Yuri had his dad in his soul, but I wanted Yuri to be in Jaune's soul for future plot reasons and why not have a perverted Harmonixer within his soul for the laughing value!
Anyways, Like, follow or review if you like this story and I'll see you for the next installment of Hearts Eclipsed by Shadows!