He cleared his mind of distractions, he needed to fight the girl, and he couldn't rely on his mind to come up with ideas. He needed to let his body move, it saved him from Death, so maybe it would help again. He pictured his body, somewhere within him was a mindless survival instinct, slowly a cloud of black smoke circled around a glowing red light and made itself known so he handed his body over.
And he was in charge now. It was the first time he had seen the world, but that was only natural; he had just been born. Although his Core had been formed a few days ago, he hadn't sought to fulfill his purpose even once, instead he was forced to think with a semi-rational mind. For days he has been stewing in the memories, thoughts and emotions of Jaune Arc, and if his Core was less advanced, he might've believed that he was him.
And then, Jaune Arc called upon and released the primal instincts held back by the restraints of his own Soul. And he was born, his first thoughts were nothing of wonder or confusion. Knowledge inherited by his Core and gifted to him by a Soul, somewhere deep inside himself, he knew that he was an impossible existence, his two halves should've clashed, but instead he was a product of perfect harmony.
His purpose was still destruction, but that was only a single facet of him now, and yet he was still happy to oblige.
Unlike Jaune, he possessed an understanding of his abilities and his physical prowess, he was created to destroy. So he made his way over the balcony and dove down at his prey. If he was the type to complain, he wouldn't bemoaned his covered feet and lack of claws. And as his boot collided with his prey's arm that she held up to block him, he felt a slight resistance and then a flimsy barrier gave way. The force of his body falling had been mostly negated, but only in a physical sense, the momentum his spirit had held was sent straight into the girl.
Which seemed to have been a mistake.
Jaune Arc had handed his body over, and he had expected to win a fight, be rewarded by Junior for doing a good job, then tomorrow he would go to Beacon with a smile. What he didn't expect was to feel himself slip through his corpse and fall into the still living body of the girl who had started this mess. As soon as he saw his body held up by her gauntlet covered arms, he heard a thought from her.
'Darn, this dude somehow penetrated my Aura, still a big mistake pal, I still have some energy stored up.'
Then Jaune felt pain as more than half of him inside her body was suddenly ripped to shreds and had caught fire. And the girl exploded with energy, and his body was sent flying away.
And he realized just what kind of abilities his impossible existence had given him. When his kick had landed, he had felt Aura block it, but in the next instant he felt his boot meet metal gauntlet, he had suppressed her Aura Barrier. However she seemed to have another ability to reduce damage, and her explosion had been tainted with Aura. As he began to wonder if she could store damage and transform it into an explosion, he wasn't the only one thinking about her abilities.
'Wow! What was that!?' Yang wondered, her explosion just now had been a unique one. Although she was familiar to the way her Aura appeared to be burning when she released energy, this was the first time she had feit heat from the flames.
'Stop, I don't get it.' The weakened portion of Jaune's Soul inside had heard her thoughts, both conscious and unconscious. Memories and experiences related to her Semblance started floating around, assaulting his mind.
He had suddenly reappeared, another dive kick, this time from an angle, however now Yang knew that she shouldn't block it, and she had time to plan a counter attack. She nimbly hopped to the left of his trajectory, and the instant her right foot had found purchase on the ground she violently twisted her torso, her right fist collided with his face, halting his physical momentum once again.
The collision of fist and face, once again didn't halt the momentum of his spirit.
Jaune Arc had handed his body over, and he had expected to win a fight, then the new portion of his Soul linked up with the old one, confused memories were suddenly easier to handle now that his thinking capacity had increased. And then he realized that every part of him inside the girl was being burned up as fuel for her flames.
He managed to land from her punch, unfazed. Then he realized that his vision and hearing had suddenly increased, and he almost cursed himself for fighting with a handicap without realizing it, then he heard and saw the world, and his brain screamed at him. The world was confusing, and too hectic to comprehend.
Yang smiled as her eyes burned with joy and rage, felt her heart speed up, warm blood pulsing through her body, she supposed she had reached the peak of her adrenaline high. This was why she fought, for the strength to do what she wanted, and what better way to prove her strength, than fighting and winning? 'Let's keep going! None of us have even been hurt yet, you can't stop now!' Her thoughts burned away her reason.
He ducked beneath a burning hook, and weaved his arm through, his claws reached the side of her throat, but she didn't fall. His nails had dug nearly an inch into her flesh, but inside her body not only was her Aura Barrier somehow there, but he could also feel the force behind his nails vanishing, and his Essence was somehow being absorbed.
Jaune felt an influx of his Soul enter Yang's body, alongside something else.
Yang felt a fulfillment she rarely got from a fight, glee started burning inside her brain as red and black ash swirled inside her heart.
Since he failed to tear out her throat, he shifted gears, then with a quick step forward and a sudden push, he got his prey unbalanced and dragged her body to the ground by her neck. He raised his other arm in the air, his nails aiming for her eyes, he knew from her neck he could damage the body, so he hoped to at least blind her.
'Watch the hair!' Yang's rage overtook any enjoyment she got from the fight. Her hair caught fire, burning away the glass shards and metal fragments that had gotten caught by her golden locks. Her body exploded once more, her emotions reaching boiling point.
Jaune watched, helplessly, as his Soul was used to fuel the fire Yang burned his corpse with.
As the boy growled, baring his fangs, the girl stood up, her body burning. In the heat of this battle, both of the opponents had looked at each other, rage burning brightly in both their red eyes.
She shot herself forward like a rocket, and he rushed forwards like a wild beast, but halfway to her, he hesitated, she didn't.
A white shimmer surrounded his body as her metal covered fist met his chest. She was a second away from pulling the trigger of her shotgun gauntlets, when she noticed. Her punch didn't meet a Barrier, it met flesh.
Time seemed to slow down for her, and she could do nothing but watch as her arm disappeared into the boy's chest. As the new burning flames that surrounded her body followed the path her punch had made, and then she felt pain.
He didn't know why Jaune had got in his way of his fight, but only for an instant did he dwell on that matter. Immediately after he had been forced back into his Core, a flaming fist swam through the now exposed Soul and collided with him, shattering his entire existence, killing him not even a minute since his birth.
Jaune felt dread as he saw his body go intangible, enough vague knowledge from floating memories had informed him of Aura. The white light that filled his corpse, and when he had gone intangible in the forest, he had seen that light convert his corpse into the same thing as itself. Aura, the manifestation of the Soul, it was supposed to shield the body, but what if he opened up his body? As her fist impacted his body, he hoped at the most it would just be a clash of two Barriers.
Yang had always been using her Semblance rather intuitively, she never thought too much about what she should do in a fight aside from how to move her body fluidly, so she had never trained her ability to not absorb kinetic energy.
Burn, her Semblance, the ability to absorb and store kinetic energy within her body, and deal it back out as she desired.
And unknown to her, because her Soul was currently mixed with another's, her Semblance had gained a conditional ability.
Jaune's Soul within her body sought his Soul within his corpse.
For as long as his Soul, with its entire being, desired to reunite with his source, Yang was granted the ability to make that come true. As the boy hung impaled on her arm, burning from her flames. Burn was greedily absorbing his entire Soul, but before she could finish, cold electricity zapped her flesh and malice burned into her bones. Black and red ash swirled within her heart, and clawed its way into her Soul.
And again, her Semblance was forced to evolve.
A single minded purpose, primal instincts burned with one desire, destroy everything.
Intense bloodlust filled her brain, mixing with her shock, and she couldn't control the new facet of her Semblance. Every bit of stored energy within her was amplified beyond the limits of what her body could hold.
The side-effect of her Semblance, the imaginary flames, so-called because they had never burned before this fight. And only did so at the cost of using up another fuel source she had suddenly gained in her body. Those flames engulfed every inch of Yang. All her shotgun shells exploded at once, and that was the spark that set off the bomb.
A blindingly bright explosion rocked The Club, the force sent Yang flying through a wall, and it launched the almost hollow corpse through a different wall.
It was a blur, her sore body, the ringing in her ear, and how she had almost crashed her bike as she went back to the motel she was staying at.
But it hadn't been a blur for Jaune, after he had handed his body over, he suddenly found himself taking control back and attempting to stop the fight. He failed, and his Soul was absorbed, and then he linked up with himself in her body right before Yang had exploded with flames, and nearly all of his Soul had been burnt up in the blast.
With the cold electricity that had zapped Yang, he was able to transform a part of himself into something that couldn't be used as fuel. And since then, even though he only existed as a small electric orb, he observed everything she did.
And as she passed out on the cheap bed of the motel she had bought a single at, he was also able to decipher the memories of the Ashes.
With it was shattered, the fragments of the Core and the Ashes, the old Essence of it, both had been within Jaune's Soul, and so they had hitched a ride. Now that it was inside a new body, one with her Aura entirely depleted, the Core began reforming. And the old Essence held a grudge against Yang for shattering its Core.
Jaune had to prevent the intense emotions of the Ashes from overwhelming Yang. And with each minute he spent inside her body, he would learn more about her from her subconscious mind. After two hours of continuous efforts, he failed. The Core had solidified with her Soul and it directly influenced her mind on a level he couldn't reach.
Nightmares racked the girl, and with every negative emotion she felt, she was feeding the Core. Even when her Aura was almost full, it did not help her from the onslaught.
A mess, she shambled through on her way to an airship. A mask of happiness she wore when she talked to her little sister, Ruby Rose. Violent daydreams and urges kept whispering into her ears, and when she hugged her sister, she feared crushing her.
Then, he saw himself, his corpse was walking about, with unblinking eyes and an unbreathing chest. When he stopped moving, he stood unbelievably still, when he walked it looked like he was a step away from falling.
He gave up more than half of his Soul to force a thought into Yang's mind.
Last night had been a blur for her, so she couldn't recall what her opponent had looked like. All she knew was that they had somehow cursed her after their death, but she knew they weren't really dead, they had thrown themselves on her fist, no one would commit suicide like that. Then again, she also thought about that having been a trick, if they could implant urges into her mind, who was to say they couldn't make her see something that wasn't there.
Something whispered in her mind again, telling her to do awful things, and yet somehow she thought that if she listened to the voice she would have fun like never before.
'Shut up! Shut up! Leave me alone!' Yang raged against herself. 'It's his fault.' She thought, and although she almost immediately ignored it, she realized that she hadn't been told to do anything. Her eyes looked up, and she saw a pale boy amongst the crowd, his eyes were dead and yet he moved. 'It's him?' Flashes from the night before were compared against the boy, and although he had blue eyes instead of red, everything else matched up.
He would rather not fuel her negative emotions, but this was the only way he could think to help her.
Jaune was cornered in the locker room, he was pinned to a locker room, and Yang was beginning to lose herself in rage at him.
Where her buring hand met his skin, he was able to send electric zaps packed with thoughts and intentions to his corpse.
And then he latched a ride back into his corpse when Jaune cleared out the Ashes. He couldn't touch the Core not without violently ripping out a part of Yang's Soul, but with the old Essence gone, the Core will generate more, but the new Essence would be more compatible with her.
For now he was just glad to return to his body.
Jaune Arc woke up, after that encounter last night he just wanted some rest. And while he was sleeping, his brain sorted through everything that had happened that night. He honestly had no idea what to feel.
After nearly a day within the body of Yang Xiao-Long, he had acquired some of her memories and knowledge. He knew what kind of food that she liked, that she was searching for the mother that abandoned her, that Ruby Rose was her sister from a different mom, that Summer Rose died and that Taiyang Xiao-Long had almost completely shut down after losing the two women he loved.
He knew who Uncle Qrow was and what kind of alcohol he preferred. He knew that Yang had snuck a drink from his flask one night and spent hours throwing up. He knew what type of boys she fantasized about and what her periods felt like. He knew how she used the shower and how she used the toilet. He knew what type of dolls she had played with, and what type of boys she had toyed with.
Jaune knew how she trained and what she learned, he knew nearly everything about her life.
That's kinda fucked up… I think?
Although he didn't know what exactly he should be feeling, aside from him gaining a basic education and some combat pointers, he didn't really care about anything else about Yang.
I guess I'll thank her or something.
Now that he was awake and his mind no longer occupied, he checked his burns, they were mostly healed, so he started to make his heart beat with electricity.
Oh yeah. There's that too.
After he had gathered the old Essence from Yang, but since he didn't gather any Core fragments, he didn't expect one to form. It did, a red Core had formed in the center of his Soul, with just a little prodding, he learned that it didn't hold any grudges. It appeared to him that the Ashes without a Core will be recycled to form a blank one.
I'll have to make sure this one doesn't develop a personality.
That was the problem his Soul inside of Yang had realized, because he had given it full reign to act independently, it had formed a separate consciousness.
As Jaune began his morning, with everything else sorted and with his energy mostly restored, he had realized for while now that he wasn't hadn't been making the smartest moves. And after a while he would just turn dumb and go with the flow, and he knew what he needed to do.
He needed to think, to truly and really think.
So he sent electricity surging to his brain.
Thanks for reading, and sorry if this chapter was confusing. It was Jaune sorting through three sets of memories, it had to be a little incoherent.
Feedback is always appreciated, be it by leaving a review, visiting my forum, or even PMing me.