Unraveling the Knight
Blake stared dumbstruck by the sight in front of her. Jaune was staring at her with a twisted smirk on his face. His right eye was black and red with an almost crazed light in it. While his left was still blue but was emotionless and cold. But the biggest thing was the red and glowing tail-like appendage that was coming from his back and impaled in the ground where she was a second ago. And finally, in the air around them was the feeling of pure bloodlust.
She finally found her voice as she swallowed, "Jaune, what are you doing? What is that thing?"
The response was a chuckled from the blonde knight. But unlike his usual warm one, it was so cold. Then he answered her in that same distorted voice he spoke in before. "My, my, the kitty is curious. But you should be careful, remember the old saying…"
Blake's instincts screamed for her to move and she did. She jumped back but a second too late. The tail burst from the ground where she was standing and managed to cut the outer part of her exposed left thigh, since she was still wearing her yukata. She landed on her feet a few feet away and looked down at her bleeding leg. Her aura was already patching it up but the question on her mind was: 'How did he get past my aura?'
She looked back at Jaune as he pulled the tail from the ground and retracted it towards him. "Curiosity killed the cat." He then moved the tail to in front of his face and he licked her blood off it. That unsettled her further. People could do that for intimidation but she had a feeling that wasn't his intention. Especially, with what he said next. "Interesting taste. Don't have many Faunus to compare it to but leagues better than CRDL."
Blake couldn't believe what she just heard. That had to be wrong, right? "You…you're saying that you killed them? That you…" she asked in a shaky voice.
His smirk just stretched a bit on his face, "Guilty." Was all he said as he shot off towards her with a speed almost equal to Ruby. He came down with a right fist but she managed to jump to her left in time and see him shatter the ground with the strength behind it. His red eye glanced at her and the tail shot towards her like a snake. She back flipped out of the way and the tail impaled the ground once again.
That's when a second tail sprung from his back and flew at her while she was still recovering. She quickly used her Semblance to leave a double to intercept the attack while she got away. Or so she thought. As she was still jumping back from using her Shadow, she found herself face to face with Jaune. He used his two tails to pull him to her when they were secured into the ground. Before she could react, his left hand was over her face and he threw her off the cliff to his right.
She screamed as she flew through the air over the forest. She looked up when she felt a shadow over her. There was Jaune once again and delivered an open palm strike to her stomach, sending her plummeting to the forest below and knocking the air out of her.
Blake was tumbling head over heel as the ground was nearing her faster and faster. Even with her aura, she'd have little way of coming out unscathed if she impacted the ground. She tried to reorient herself the best she could before using her Semblance again. She fell into her Shadow and pushed off it horizontally. It worked but that horizontal push made her hit a tree branch with her ribs, shattering it but slowing herself down. She managed to grab another tree branch with both her hands to slow herself more but her weight snapped it and she fell into the bushes below. Sore but alive. She laid in the bushes for a few seconds to try and get her breath back and stop her head from spinning. She also needed her ribs to stop throbbing. They were bruise, hopefully not broken.
Once the world wasn't spinning, she stood up and walked out of the bushes. She looked around to regain her bearings but that was when her ears perked up and picked up on sound. It was like someone was breaking wood. She spun around to see that Jaune was using his two tails to hit or grab onto trees to slow himself down. When he was on the last set of tree branches, he wrapped his tails around one and swung himself to the tree right beside her. That's when he flipped upside-down and wrapped his tails around another branch. This gave him the appearance of 'standing' upside-down on the branch and looking down at her, that smirk still on his face.
The two just stared at each other for a minute or so. One in glee while the other was wary. The Ghoul was the one to break the silence, "I suggest you call your weapon. As much fun as this is, I'd rather if my prey fought back."
Blake wasn't sure on what to do right now. She was shaking in fear. The last person to instill this kind of feeling in her was Adam and for good reason. It took a while for those feelings to become apparent but Jaune managed them in just a few short minutes. She wanted to run but Jaune had proven to her that she'd have no chance of getting away from him, unless he wanted her to. She really only had one option.
She reached for her scroll to call for her locker but her eyes stayed glued on Jaune. "Why?" she asked in a shaky voice. He just raised an eyebrow at her. "Why are you doing this?"
He just looked down at her for a bit before he shrugged and let his tails release the branch. He fell towards the ground before he flipped to his feet and landed a foot in front of Blake. She quickly took several steps back as she watched him. His left hand was in his pocket as his tails just swayed closed to the ground. His smirk was gone, replaced by a very neutral look. "I guess a reason could be, that the few people Jaune cares about treat him like a waste of space." He said that as he cracked his index finger which made Blake flinch. "You are one of the worst because you don't even bother to interact with him. You see him as nothing and have done little to prove that wrong. Sad, considering the one that knows trauma the most, is the one that ignores him most."
That confused her. What did he mean by Jaune knowing trauma? And why was he referring to himself in the third-person so suddenly? Before she could ask either question, they were interrupted by her locker slamming into the ground a few feet away from them. Blake finally turned from Jaune to it before looking back to him. He just looked back at her and motioned with his head towards the locker. She slowly started to walk towards it as she kept her eyes on him. His red eye never leaving her as well and that neutral look was still on his face.
She finally reached her locker and she opened it to reveal Gambol Shroud. She took her trusted weapon in her right hand before turning back to the blonde knight. He was still in the same stance as before, only difference was that the tails were now rigid. He was ready to attack at any moment. Were they really going to do this? Throughout her time in the Fang, she had managed to keep her hands clean of blood, both innocent and otherwise. Was she really going to get them dirty now. With her friend's blood no less. "Please, Jaune. We don't have to do this."
The answer he gave was to just crack his middle finger before his left tail shot out towards her. She was able to deflect it with her weapon but that gave him the time to close the distance between them. "No. But I do." He then landed an uppercut to her chin, sending her into the air.
As Blake was flying with a pained gasp, she realized something: 'He's as strong as Yang with her Semblance. How did he get this strong so fast?' She looked back at him to see his right tail coming to knock her further away. She quickly batted it away with her weapon but before she could rest, his other tail was on its way. She managed to dodge it and land on her feet. That's when both his tails tried to flay her in a flurry of slashes. She started to duel wield her weapon to keep up but was slowly losing ground. The barrage eventually stopped when she slashed both the tails away simultaneously. She was sure she had cleaved them but she looked on in shock as they slowly moved closer to Jaune, unharmed.
Jaune took the time to look them over before speaking out loud, "With all my aura in my Kagune, it has made them as strong as a Hunter's weapon. Maybe more so. Good." His neutral mask broke for a split second as that damned smirk came back. "Time to really get going." With those words, he released the other two tendrils of his Kagune, bringing it to its maximum capability.
Blake felt a shiver to go up her spin. 'That was him holding back?!' she shouted in her mind. She quickly got a grip and Jaune used the exact same strategy as before: using his Kagune in a fury of slashes. But now, she had to deal with many more attacks. Blake was using her full maneuverability to dodge them if she couldn't use Gambol Shroud to intercept them. She also had to use her Shadows constantly.
She eventually managed to parry two of his tails before using her Shadow to avoid the next two. She was above his Kagune and had her pistol aimed at him. She then started to fire as quickly as possible. Jaune used his Kagune to start deflecting the bullets. While he was distracted, she used the kusarigama mode and threw it at him. It managed to get past all his tails and slash deeply into his right shoulder, causing his blood to erupt from the wound.
Blake's eyes widened again at the severity of the wound he had just suffered because of her. There was so much blood and his arm was barely connected to the rest of his body. 'Why didn't his aura protect him?!" she shouted in her head. She felt her stomach churn but was interrupted before she could have a chance to vomit.
Jaune grabbed the ribbon connected to her weapon with his left hand and quickly pulled her towards him. He was completely ignoring the wound she had gave him. With her now being pulled towards him, he aligned all four appendages of his Kagune with her so she'd be stabbed through her four limbs. Blake acted in desperation and threw her cleaver at his other arm. It managed to get lodged into his other shoulder; More blood spilt from his body and his arm fell to his side.
She quickly pulled on the ribbon as his Kagune shot at her again. She barely avoided the brunt of the attack but they still nicked the outside of her lower legs, drawing more blood from her. She was now close to Jaune, so she flipped over him. She managed to free both halves of her weapon as she did so. But as soon as her feet touched the ground, his Kagune was already barreling down on her from above. They hit with so much force that they shattered the ground and kicked up a lot of dust.
Luckily, Blake was a good ten feet away from the crater. She managed to use her Shadow at the last second to get away. Blake slowly turned towards Jaune as he pulled his Kagune free and turned to her as well. The entire time his arms were bleeding profusely. Blake swallowed, "Please, Jaune. Let's stop this. You're hurt and I don't want to have to go any further than this. We can stop and go to the infirmary."
Jaune just chuckled, "I don't need an infirmary." As he said that, new tendons and ligaments started to grow from his body and connect to his nearly severed arms. Blake watched on in morbid curiosity as his wounds started closing and not even leaving a mark in their place. Jaune rolled his shoulders to make sure they were healed properly. He then noticed his hoodie sleeves were barely connected to the rest of it. So he reached up and tore them off, leaving his arms bare since he left his sleeves and gloves in his room.
Blake just kept staring at him as her hands shook while holding her weapons, "W-what are you?"
Jaune just reached for his hood and pulled it over his head. With the upper half of his face was in darkness now, his red eye was now glowing more noticeably and ominously. "A nightmare."
He took off at his top speed at her with his right fist coming forward. Blake used the broadside of her cleaver to stop it but she still slid backwards. "Tell me, have you ever been kidnapped?" His two left tendrils responded by whipping out and trying to stab her on her right-side. She shifted her kusarigama into its katana and used it with her cleaver to parry them. By that point, Jaune was above her and coming down with a heel drop. Her eyes widened and she threw herself to the side to avoid the attack.
While Jaune was crouched on the ground, he spun his body and whipped all for of his tails at Blake. "To be experimented on every day?" That stunned her and she took the attack and was slammed into a tree on her left. She was pinned to it by his Kagune as he walked towards her. "To believe that every day is Hell? To rather die than to wake up the next day to experience it all again?"
Blake pointed her gun at him and fired repeatedly. Jaune crossed his arms in front of him to stop the bullets from hitting his head, the shots penetrating his skin but not breaking through them. That lapse in concentration, loosened his Kagune enough for her to slip out of his grasp. As she fell to the ground, his Kagune wrapped around the tree and pulled it, snapping it and bringing it down on top of her. She rolled out of the way but just barely and the ground shook from the tree hitting the ground. Jaune lowered his arms, "To somehow survive all that and wind up as something no longer human or Faunus?"
He vaulted over the downed tree and sent his left tails at her again. She ran towards him, galvanized into trying to stop him from killing her. As she did, she used her katana to divert them and closed the distance and swinging her cleaver at him. He caught it with his right hand and blood started to cover the blade. His eyes stared into her's as he continued, "To then be tortured every day, just so they could see how much you could take before breaking? To know that you are living in Hell?"
Blake just stared at him in shock and sadness. With her distracted, he gripped her cleaver harder before whipping his right tails around his body to impale her. Blake saw this and had no choice but to let go of her cleaver and jumped back. As she did though, Jaune swung his Kagune in the opposite direction. It caught her and sent her tumbling across the ground. He pulled his Kagune behind him to sway back and forth again. He threw her cleaver to the side as he started to walk towards her downed form. "To finally break and you kill those that caused you so much agony? To only survive by giving into your new instincts and eating their corpses?"
The cat Faunus just stared at him, unsure on what to do. Sorrow and fear were both swimming in her heart but neither was overpowering the other. But the sight of him just strolling over to her made her shiver in fear. As much as she didn't want to, she had to end this. She moved into a kneeling position and fired all of her remaining bullets. Jaune pulled the two upper tendrils in front of him to block the shots.
While he was distracted, Blake had jumped over him and tried to cut across his back. Before she made contact, Jaune turned and sent his two lower tendrils to try and bisect her. They met her Shadow and with that, she was within his guard. She slashed him across his chest, from his right hip to his left shoulder, sending blood flying. His eyes widened as he fell backwards and his Kagune retreated back into his body.
Blake slowly relaxed her stance and was breathing deeply. She was trying to calm down from the reality that she just killed her friend. True, they weren't very close but that didn't make this any easier, even if he tried to kill her. Tears slowly gathered in her eyes as her breathing became choppy and her hands shook more.
Her breakdown stopped when he heard him cough up blood. She stared at him in shock as he just looked up into the night sky as his chest was already healing from a would be fatal attack. He slowly started to resume what he was saying. "I returned to my family after all that. We were all happy. Until they found out what I was." He slowly sat up but let his head fall to stare at the ground. "They feared me and started to distance themselves. Until one night they tried to kill me in my sleep." He slumped forward until his hands touched the ground, supporting himself until he was sitting on his knees. "Instincts took over, and I killed them before eating them, as well." He didn't look up as he finished his thoughts. "That's what I am, Blake. A nightmare that gave birth to a monster."
Bake just looked on as he just knelt there. He seemed so fragile. But who could blame him after everything that happened to him. "You're not a monster, Jaune. You're just someone who has suffered more than probably anyone and has no idea on how to fix it." She took a few more steps closer to him and stopped, "But coming back to Beacon with me would be a good start."
He just shook his head and didn't try to look up. "No one would accept me when they know the truth. Not your team. And not mine."
"Our friends are some of the most understanding people out there. They'll at least try. And if not, you'll still have me." She told him in a calming voice.
She saw him go rigid and start shaking. When he spoke, his voice was heavy with emotions, "Why would you do this for me? I just tried to kill you."
Blake just shrugged, "Like you said, I'm the one that understands trauma more than the others. I can understand doing things you aren't proud of and what the guilt will do to you." She reached her left hand out to him. "Come on. Let's go back. Together."
For a while, he didn't move. Then his hand slowly reached for hers. She smiled and knew things were going to be alright.
That was when pain erupted through her body. She was in so much shock, she couldn't even scream. Wide eyed, she slowly looked down to see his Kagune sticking through the left side of her stomach, just above her hip. She started breathing shallowly, trying to figure out what had happened. That's when she was lifted in the air by the Kagune and the pain increased. She screamed before it slammed her into the ground, pinning her there and cutting her off. Gambol Shroud was thrown from her grasp from the impact and it was too far to reach. She couldn't use her Shadow either since she was run completely through. She could feel herself bleeding out and, in a panic, she started to claw at the organic weapon going through her.
She stopped when she heard Jaune start laughing. She looked over to him in shock as he slowly stood up, his laughing never stopping. When he was standing fully, he finally stopped and looked down at her with that same smirk on his face. "And here I thought Ruby was the naïve one. You've must've read too many storybooks if you thought a few words would be enough to sway me."
She was trying to stay calm but her breathing was getting harder to maintain. "They probably would've worked on Jaune. Hell, they would've meant the world to him. Luckily, I'm not him." He then crouched down beside her. His red eye burrowing into hers. "This isn't personal. You are just one of the few that are causing Jaune to hold me back. So, naturally, you have to go."
"W-why?" Blake managed to gasp out as her vision started to go black.
He just tilted his head, "I'm what makes Jaune strong. But he keeps throwing away every chance I give him to use that strength…because of you seven. He'll get us killed one day. So, I'm making sure that doesn't happen." Blake's vision was getting darker and his voice seemed to be getting quieter. "Just rest now, Blake. Don't worry. Your friends will be joining you soon."
A/N- Here it is. Not really much to say, Blake is dead and there are six more on the Ghoul's list. Who will be next? Again, Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh and Jauneforever were the Betas for this chapter. Check them out. Just do it to shut me up, hehe. Hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you in the next update!