Unraveling the Knight
The Ghoul was sitting on top of the ruins the students had to find during their initiation. He was just staring up a the fractured moon with that twisted smirk on his face and his hair almost completely white besides the tips. "Soon. It'll all be over soon."
He just closed his eyes for a few seconds when he heard a voice, "Don't do this." When he opened his eyes again, he was standing in a large room. It had a stark white floor with black walls and ceilings. In the center of the room was a single chair and chained to it was Jaune Arc. He was looking up at him with a desperate look in his eyes, "Please, just leave them alone. They did nothing-"
He was cut off when the Ghoul punched him across the face. His head whipping to the side and he spit up some blood. He looked back up to the Ghoul and he had an annoyed expression. "Shut it. You had your chance, Jaune, and you've thrown it away at every opportunity. Now, we do this my way." His smirk came back with a vengeance and he gently patted his cheek, "It'll all be over soon. Just relax and soon, you'll be able to rest. For good."
He turned away and started to walk away as he heard Jaune futilely struggle against his bonds. The Ghoul stopped, "Oh wait, I forgot." He snapped his fingers and screens appeared in front of Jaune. Each one lit up and showed one of the many times they killed someone. From Watts and Tyrian, to his family, CRDL, Blake, Yang, Ren and Nora. They were repeating the events and Jaune just stared in horror. "Something to enjoy until the main event starts." He started to walk away and heard Jaune scream in despair. That just caused him to chuckle.
With that, he opened his eyes and he was back in Remnant. He heard a rustling from the trees to his left and as his eyes drifted over there, a Nevermore the size of a small car, broke from the trees and flew towards him. Without moving, his Kagune erupted from his back and impaled the avian Grimm through its head and out the back. It dissolved almost instantly and that's when he stood tall from his spot. "So, you're finally here." He turned to his right and saw the three women walk out into the clearing. Each armed and holding steely determination in their eyes.
His smirk stretched just the tiniest bit as he jumped down from the ruins, leaving about twenty feet between him and his prey. His single Kagune was swaying behind him calmly. "Thank you for coming but excuse me." His other three tails erupted from his back with that and he cracked his right index finger. "I need to slip into something fitting for this encounter." With those words, his Kagune wrapped around his body to from his 'predator mode', but with a few more modifications. As his Kagune wrapped around his forearms and lower legs, three six inch blades grew from them. They curved away from his wrist and ankles, making it so any forwards attacks would slash but backwards would tear. Adding more offensive capabilities. Along with that, the tips of the tails split into three for his feet. Two laid on top of his feet while the third aligned with his heel, forming more dangerous talons.
He looked at their shocked and fearful expressions. Once he killed them, he'd call this his 'Apex-predator mode'. Seemed fitting. "I hope you've prepared yourselves because I'm coming for your necks."
That made them all tense and take half a step back. Ruby reclaimed her senses and took a step forward. "Please, Jaune, don't do this. Come back to us." She begged.
The Ghoul just chuckled, "Sorry to disappoint you but he's not able to do that." He pointed at his head with his claw. "I locked him in the cage he stuck me in. And to punish him further, I'm having him relive all the murders I committed using our body."
That made the three of them glared at him heatedly. "Give him back." Pyrrha hissed at him as she got Milo and Akouo at the ready.
The Ghoul made a thinking pose before he answered, "Maybe I should." That shocked them all. "I mean, think about it. He was suffering for months and you all didn't notice. Or just didn't care to." Pyrrha clenched her weapons harder with his words. "I could easily just let you all have him and just wait. You'll just keep hurting him and all that pain will just make me stronger and break him even more but much slower." Weiss was shaking in anger now. "You being his friends is crueler than anything I could do to him." With those last words, his grin grew.
That was too much for Ruby to handle. At that moment, she shot forward in a cloud of rose petals. She curved around him and reappeared behind him with Crescent Rose fully deployed. She slashed down vertically to have her blade bite into his shoulder. The Ghoul easily spun around and caught the snaith of her weapon easily with his right hand. She stared in shock as he readied his left hand. "Too easy."
He shot it forward, towards her heart when it slammed against a Glyph that formed between them. His senses picked up the sound of mecha-shifting and he quickly releases Ruby, who rushed away in a flurry of petals. He used both his arms to guard his face as bullets collided with his Kagune-armored arms. When they stopped, he felt his legs becoming encased in ice. He lowered his arms and stared at the champion, who had her gun trained on him, and the heiress, that was in her usual fighting stance.
"Just so you know, when using my Kagune, all my aura is channeled into it. So, my body does not have its usual protection. Which makes me susceptible to most damage. And even if I can heal from virtually anything, if you destroy my heart…" he pointed at it before raising it to his head, "Or my brain, I'm dead. For good." That caused them both to freeze and he smirked more. "Just thought you should know. Kinda ruins the purpose of saving him, if you kill him in the process."
He bent his legs slightly and had his claws at the ready. He shattered the ice and shot towards Pyrrha. She was shocked by the sudden attack but quickly managed to raise her shield. His claws scraped off her shield but still sent her sliding backwards. The Ghoul pulled his left arm back, to send his claws after her, but he was interrupted when a slam cyclone slammed into his side and started pushing him back.
He quickly grabbed the ground with his talons to stop himself and looked to see Weiss with the cyclone coming from Myrtenaster. He smirked and threw his right hand to the side, shooting his claws out like tendrils where they impaled into the ground. He pulled himself out with them and as he was flying through the air, he impaled his other set of claws into the ground as well and used them to fling himself at the heiress. She quickly used a Glyph to form a shield between them. The Ghoul flipped so he would land on it with his claws and talons, holding him there and shocking Weiss.
In response, he just tilted his head and the blades on both his arms extended into tendril and whipped around the Glyph to impale her in a pincer attack. She quickly formed a second Glyph below her to send her backwards as the tendril narrowly missed her.
The Ghoul launched off the Glyph towards her but at an angle where he was several feet above her. Her eyes widened and she quickly slid her fingers across her blade, setting it aflame. She then swung it to send a wave of fire at him. He did nothing to avoid it. He let it pass over him and on the other side of her attack, his cloths were singed and he had burns across his exposed neck and face.
As he was on top of her, he used his right talons to grip her left arm painfully. He had his arms spread and his claws at the ready. That was when he heard the familiar sound of a bolt-action rifle. His smirk stretched again. He shot his left talons in the ground to pull him back to earth. He spun the two of them as he was pulled. As his left foot finally touched the ground, Weiss screamed as a sniper bullet impacted her back and damaging her aura. The Ghoul looked over Weiss to see the shocked look on Ruby's face. His smirk stretched further as he raised his right arm, ready to use the blades on his arm to tear into her chest.
Or that would've been if it wasn't for the shield that collided with the back of his left knee. That caused him to collapse to the ground and freeing Weiss who quickly used her Glyph to get some distance between them. The Ghoul saw the shield return to Pyrrha and he growled in annoyance. He shifted into a four-legged stance and shot off with his speed and strength.
Pyrrha got into a defensive stance with her shield at the ready. The Ghoul saw this and twisted his body just enough to miss her. As soon as he touched the ground. He quickly shot off to pounce on her. She quickly used her Polarity on her armor to spin herself around. Claws met her xiphos and shield and the two stared at each other heatedly. Red with manic glee and bloodlust. Green with determination. The two broke apart before going at each other with a flurry of attacks.
Sparks were flying from their assaults. Weiss and Ruby were standing on opposite sides. Waiting for the right moment to intervene without endangering Pyrrha. They didn't want to risk anymore friendly fire. Meanwhile, Pyrrha was having her own problems. Unlike mostly everyone else she fought, the Ghoul had no metal on him, so she couldn't use her Polarity to affect his attacks. Plus, his fighting style was unlike any she had faced before. She could see some kind of style at its core but it seemed to mostly rely on savagery and primal instincts.
Their melee came to an end when Milo came down on his forearm and he used his blades to lock her blade to move it to the side. He reared back his right arm and she quickly raised Akouo to defend. He swung his arm down on it and caught the edge of her shield with his blades locking onto it. He then slowly moved her shield to the side as well. The two were in a deadlock and staring at each other. Pyrrha was struggling to regain control while the Ghoul was having no such trouble keeping them like this.
"Shocker, huh?" he asked with that damned smirk still on his face. "Never thought that Jaune would be the most challenging fight of your life, did you?"
She gritted her teeth at him and spoke with her voice filled with venom, "You're not Jaune."
He chuckled, "True. To you, Jaune was just your weak partner who couldn't do a damned thing without you." His eyes holding a cruel look to them. "Newsflash, he survived hell without you and was fine. With all your worrying over him, it's odd that you never noticed how much he was suffering." That made her wince internally. There was some truth to that. "Or maybe you did notice but, like the Cardin situation, you decided to do nothing. You wanted him weak, that way he'd rely on you more. That way he would belong to you and only you." The last sentence was said in a cruel whisper that made her freeze.
Even if she didn't want to believe his words, they did hold some truth. She did want Jaune to rely on her. She wanted him to come to her for help, to make himself better. She hope that doing this would make him love her like she did him. 'Is that really why I wanted to help him? Not for him reach his potential but just for some selfish reasons on my part?' Pyrrha thought to herself.
With that distraction, the Ghoul drove his knee into her stomach, knocking the air from her. As her grip weakened in that moment, he tore her weapons from her grasp. His left hand grabbed her ponytail and pulled her backwards, painfully. Pyrrha tried to cry out in pain but was still too busy coughing. Her teary eyes stared into the Ghoul's as he readied his right claw to gouge out her neck.
He was too absorbed in his potential kill that he didn't react until a bullet hit his right shoulder. He hissed and turned to see his whole shoulder frozen in a block of ice. He looked to see Weiss using her Glyphs with Ruby's weapon. She fired three more times, hitting his right forearm, knee and lower back. Pyrrha used this opportunity to break away from his grip on her but it tore the ringlet off she used to keep her hair back, letting it hang freely. Ruby was still unloading on the Ghoul, continuing to freeze him so Pyrrha recalled her weapon and charged him to capitalize on this opportunity.
The Ghoul had other plans though. His right side was almost completely frozen but his left leg was fine. He slid it across the ground before he fired off the three blades on it. Pyrrha stopped her charge to raise her shield, one bounced off the top of it and over her, while the second hit it dead center. The third however drove itself painfully into her stomach. She looked down as blood slowly dripped from it, luckily it seemed to be non-fatal and her aura would start to heal her once it was out. She looked back in time to be flung aside as the Ghoul used his left claw as tendril to knock her into one of the many trees, damaging her aura severely.
"Pyrrha!" Three people screamed. Two were from Ruby and Weiss while the third was internal and was from Jaune. The Ghoul quickly angled his right arm the best her could and fired off the blades on that arm at the other two, shattering most of the ice on his forearm in the process. The two didn't know how to react, they didn't see him do the same with his leg just seconds before since he was blocking it. One passed between them while the others stabbed into Weiss' right shoulder and Ruby's left thigh. Both cried out in pain as blood started to drip from their wounds and breaking their concentration.
The Ghoul quickly had his Kagune unravel from his right leg and arm to thrash around to shatter the ice around him. With his right Kagune as their tail form, he slammed them onto the ground to send him flying towards the two remaining members of RWBY. He had his left side positioned forward as his Kagune started to armor his right side once again as he flew at Ruby.
That was when he was suddenly driven into the ground, cracking it severely. After a second of lying there, he forced himself onto all fours, using all his strength to do so. He looked around and saw a massive black Glyph around him. He looked over to Weiss, she was focused on the Glyph holding him but had three smaller ones floating over her shoulders and aimed at him to fire icicles if needed. "Give up." She commanded.
The Ghoul just chuckled, "Just like a Schnee to command everyone around her." His eyes took on a sadistic edge. "Guess that's why you treated Jaune the way you did. You were so sick of being under someone else's foot, so you did the exact same thing with the first opportunity you found." That took Weiss off guard. "Yeah, Jaune guessed about how severe your solitude was and wanted to help you. He felt a kind of kinship with you. That's why he wanted to help, why he was drawn to you." He chuckled evilly, "But you didn't want his help. You just wanted to cause him as much pain as you could. You wanted to prove you weren't your father but that apple didn't fall far from that twisted tree."
Those words made Weiss feel like ice had filled her veins. It was a reality she never wanted to come true. She never wanted to be her father or anything like him. But, in this instance, she was exactly like him. She was pulled from that shock as burning pain erupted through her. She screamed in pain and her Glyphs disappeared. She looked down to see a glowing red and twisted tendril sticking out from the right side of her stomach, running her completely through. Her hands started shaking as the reality crashed down on her.
She looked up in terror as she heard him chuckled. He was standing and when he was at his full height, she saw that his claws on his left hand had extended and burrowed into the ground. She looked behind herself to see the same ones sticking out of the ground and through her back.
In a panic she pointed her rapier at him but it was smacked from her as he backhanded it after closing the distance between them. She then felt his Kagune pull itself out of her and they retreated back into the ground and back to being his claws. Blood was gushing from the wound but her still active aura was doing everything to slow it down but it wasn't strong enough to completely stop it. She collapsed to her knees as she stared in shock and her hands shaking like crazy. Her vision was starting to blur and she fell forward. Her breathing was choppy as she slowly looked up at him. He raised his claws, ready to impale her, "This is the end, Snow Angel."
'No…No! Weiss!' The Ghoul heard Jaune screaming from the depths of his mind. His smirk turned manic as her brought his claws down, just for it to be intercepted by a sniper round. His arm was thrown to the side and made him take a step to the right. He glared at the reaper still kneeling on the ground a few feet away. She was glaring back and he growled in response.
He aimed his left arm and fired the blades towards her. She quickly used her Semblance to get away but she stopped after ten feet or so, tumbling across the ground and holding her thigh in pain. He turned from her to the heiress at his feet but that was when several bullets bounced off his armored back. He looked over his shoulder to see Pyrrha back on her feet, shakily though.
Knowing she'd keep at it, he turned to her and rocketed towards her. She quickly threw her shield as Milo was shifting out of its rifle mode. He quickly grabbed it with his left claw and spun his body counterclockwise to disperse the momentum. Once he was back to facing her, he threw his arm down and lodged the shield halfway into the ground before stomping down on it to force it down another quarter or so. He then leapt toward her to clear the distance.
Pyrrha quickly pulled her arm back before throwing her javelin forward with the help of a discharge. Milo flew directly at him but he didn't move or block the projectile. In fact, he barely reacted when the weapon went straight through his stomach and stopped halfway. He coughed up blood but that didn't stop him from landing in front of the stunned champion. His claws retreated up his arms so his hands were free. His left hand ripped off her gorget before his right wrapped around her throat. He lifted her off the ground as she struggled against him, clawing at his hand.
'W-wait! Stop! Stop! Please, don't do this!' Jaune cried out more in his head.
The Ghoul just ignored him as he strangled Pyrrha. "You know, I usually prefer to cut and stab my prey. But this is also pretty fun."
Pyrrha kept struggling against his grip. Frantically, she used her Polarity on her weapon. It moved all of an inch out of the Ghoul before he threw her to the ground, hard. Her Semblance stopped instantly from the force behind the throw. Her head bounced off the ground, giving her a concussion.
Pyrrha was trying to regain her sense as the Ghoul slowly pulled her weapon from his stomach and his wound sealed up almost instantly. He threw her weapon as far as he could and into a tree. He looked back down to see her trying to stand. He just grinned and his Kagune covered his right hand again to form claws. He then slashed the back of her ankle, taking a chunk out of her and severing her Achilles tendon, causing her to crumple to the ground. He grabbed her shoulder with his left hand and pulled her onto her knees. She looked at him with glazed eyes as he placed his index claw at the center of her chest.
Her eyes gained some clarity with that and he smirked as he was about to drive his claw through her heart. He slowly pushed it in, hearing her scream as blood gushed out from around his claw. He was pulled away when something hooked around his stomach and pulled him back with a gunshot. He looked to see that Ruby had hooked her scythe blade around his stomach before firing to pull him away. She spun and sent him back. He skidded to a stop by using his talons in time to see her grab Pyrrha and disappear with her Semblance. He turned to see her lay the injured champion with Weiss before she turned back to him with a glare.
The Ghoul looked down to see that he had a deep slash across his stomach where his Kagune was missing but it closed up as soon as he looked at it. He looked up at her with a smirk as he realized she was still favoring her leg. "That's twice now you've stopped me, Ruby. As a reward, how about a little deal? I'll let you run away to save yourself. All you have to do is just leave those two. What do you say?"
Her glare became more intense as she cocked her weapon, "I won't abandon my friends."
He just chuckled, "Then explain Jaune." He raised his left hand and popped his index finger just before it was wrapped in his Kagune again. "If you never abandon your friends, why did you never bother to look deeper into him? You saw him for the act he put up and never bothered to find the pain just below the surface. And you saw him as one of your best friends?" He shook his head in mock disappointment. "Some friend you were."
Ruby lowered her head and was shaking. The Ghoul prepared for her to charge at him but he was shocked by what she said, "You're right." She looked up with unshed tears in her eyes, "I see him as my best friend but I never bothered to look deeper. I let him suffer because of my naivety. But that is why I have to save him. I need to show him how sorry I am and help him come back from all this." Her eyes hardened, "That's why I will win!"
The Ghoul just stared at her for a few seconds, "No. You'll fail." He then performed a roundhouse kick with his right leg to fire his last blades at her.
She jumped over them before turning into a cloud of petals and starting making irregular laps around him. The Ghoul used his senses to keep up with her. Her speed was still being affected by her wounds so he could manage it. She appeared a few times from different angles but he managed to block her attacks. He started to lash at her with his claws as tendril but continued to miss. He was becoming annoyed with this and needed a new strategy.
After one last attack, his Kagune started to unravel from his body. Ruby didn't know what he was planning but couldn't risk it. She flew above him and solidified before firing every bullet she had at him. His tails started to bat them away and with his vision obscured by them, she shot on last time to come down on him. She managed to get past his Kagune but didn't realize they had slowed down and almost stopped. Crescent Rose went through his right shoulder and into his chest. She landed on her feet and was about to continue her assault when she heard something that made her freeze. "Ruby?"
The Ghoul didn't say that. It was Jaune.
Her eyes widened as she stared at him in horror. He refused to look at her as he just stared at the blade in his chest. "W-why?" he stuttered out. "D-did you r-really just want t-this? R-revenge?"
Tears started to pour from her eyes. "Jaune, no! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" She quickly pulled her weapon from him and quickly tried to grab him as he started to fall backwards.
It was too late when she saw the smirk on his face. One of his Kagune smacked her weapon from her hand as the two upper ones wrapped around her arms to restrain them. The left lower one wrapped her legs together before all three lifted her a foot or so off the ground in a 'T-like' pose. He stood back up as he laughed like a mad man. He stopped and stared at her with his glowing red eye, "That worked too well."
She just stared at him in shock and he chuckled more, "I guess I'm a better actor than I thought." He gave her an apprising glance, "Too bad. I was hoping to leave you for last. Oh well." His grin grew as his last tail was prepared to strike. "Say, 'hello' to your sister for me."
With that, his Kagune shot forward. Pyrrha and Weiss shouted her name in desperation. The attack struck true, completely running its target through. Ruby's eyes widened as blood spilled form the wound.
And the Ghoul coughed up blood.
He looked down in shock to see his own Kagune running through his stomach. His shock turned to anger once he realized what happened. "You bastard!"
In their mindscape, he was bond to the chair once again as Jaune stood across from him.
Back in Remnant, Jaune's left eye, which for so long was cold and emotionless, was now shining with a light of determination. "I warned you to stay away from them."
Jaune gently lowered Ruby to the ground before releasing her. She stared at him in shock. This looked like Jaune except that his right eye was still the Ghoul's, "Jaune?" she asked in a whisper.
He nodded with a small grin, "Yeah, it's me, Rubes." That's when one of his Kagune touched the wound on her leg before it started to glow white and her wound was closing. His other two Kagune stretched across the clearing before gently laying over the other two's severe wounds, who were staring at him in shock. "I'm using the aura stored in my Kagune to heal your wounds. You should be fine soon."
"Don't think this'll change anything!" the Ghoul shouted using Jaune mouth. "You may have control now, but I will get it back! You're just delaying the inevitable!"
Jaune nodded, "True. You'll always fight for control. No one will be safe with that. That's why I'm doing what I should've so long ago." Jaune's voice was hard with determination.
The Ghoul's eye widened in fear, "No…No! You can't do this! I won't let you!"
"You have no choice in the matter." Jaune replied simply.
"You're really willing to do this! For them!" the Ghoul shouted in disgust.
Jaune just shook his head in pity, "You don't understand, you never have. So, I'll explain this to you, one last time: They're the ones that matter."
With that said, the wounds of the three women were healed. He dismissed the other three tails besides the one running him through. "I need to say this now before I lose my nerve." He took a deep breath. "I love you. All three of you." They three were shocked at his words. "I have for a while now. I'm not sure whether it's in a familial way or romantic, but I do love you all. That's why I have to do this." He pulled his Kagune free. "Ruby. Pyrrha. Weiss. Thank you for being there for me. Don't waste your tears on something like me. I'm not worth it." He gave them all a small smile as they stared at him in shock.
His Kagune prepared to deal the finishing blow as the Ghoul screamed from within his mind but unable to do anything. They all realized and shouted for him to stop but it was too late. It came forward and through his heart. Jaune's eyes started to close and the last words out of his mouth were, "Good bye…"
A/N- Here it is, the end of the story! This one was pretty interesting to write. Wonder how many of you expected this ending though? Anyways, I'm so glad I was able to finish this whole thing by Halloween. Would've been pissed if I didn't. I do plan on releasing a epilogue for this in the next few days or so. That said, I'd like to thank my Betas for this story, Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh and Jauneforever, this probably wouldn't have been as good as it was without them giving me suggestions. I hope you all enjoyed this and hope you'll be excited for the epilogue. See you all in that update!