Jaune had previously thought that leaving home and hiking all the way to Vale was going to be hard. He was right, of course, but right now he wanted to change the difficulty from hard to impossible. He was out of breath, his lungs were screaming at him and his heart was beating in his ears as he ran through a dark forest. He managed to duck right before a thick black arm, with jagged white claws, ripped through the air right where his head used to be. Just as he thought he avoided death, he tripped over an exposed root of a large tree and tumbled down a steep hill, he came to a sudden stop when he splashed into a pond.

As he coughed up some water and sat up, he saw an imposing figure towering over him, he tried to escape by crawling backwards, but his back hit a tree. It looked like a bear, but it wasn't, this Creature of Darkness was a bear-like monster with glowing red eyes and pitch black fur and jagged white spikes of bones protruding from its hide, thunder boomed in the cloudy night sky.

A deep growl followed the thunder, but it wasn't from the bear looking creature, no, it was from the demonic wolf that had been chasing him for a few minutes now. He had only been able to avoid it by zigzagging through cluttered trees, but the beast had always been inches away from killing him.

The bear monster and wolf beast stared at each other, and then started to growl, both attempting to claim ownership of the human prey. He didn't want to move, hoping to not get their attention, and maybe the aching pain settling into his leg had a hand in that decision.

They fought. If you could even call it that. The wolf lunged towards the bear with its fangs, but the bear just swung a mighty paw and smashed the wolf to the side, and towards Jaune.

Pain flooded throughout his body, and it leaked through the holes the wolf's body had made. The bone spikes that the wolf had over its body had pierced him, and the sheer force of the collision had broken some of his bones. He was burning, his lungs were on fire, he couldn't breathe. He couldn't move, the corpse pinned his body against a tree, his hands splashed fruitlessly, one of them found something stiff, it was his sword, he gripped it tightly, even if it was useless.

'I won't give up.'

As the light of the world seemed to fade and he became dizzy, a second wave of pain woke him back up.

'No, not like this.'

The wolf's body dissolved completely, black and red ashes drifted through the air, and the spikes were no longer plugging his wounds.

'I want to live.'

He fell face first into the pond, he could no longer think, water filled his lungs mixing with his blood and the ash from the beast. Even as he died, his grip on his sword never faltered.

Darkness.

Then a sputtering spark of white light, it continued to sputter before it exploded in an endless rainbow of colors.

Jaune woke with a gasp and his eyes snapped open.

'W-what?'

He looked around to his right against his face was dry ground, to his left a canopy of trees and a clear sky. He sat up, he was alive.

'How?'

He checked his wounds, he found the gaping holes in his body but they were dry and cold. Since he didn't know how to check for a pulse, he just placed his hand over his heart, wanting to feel the vibration of his heart beating.

'Nothing.'

He jumped up in a panic, he noticed he was hyperventilating but he wasn't getting lightheaded, it took him a second before he realized he wasn't breathing and that when he inhaled air, it just leaked out the gaping hole in his chest. He put both his hands on his head in a panic, light reflected off his hand, no, his sword. He was still gripping it, and it felt warm. He dropped it, and watched it fall through the top of the trees.

'Wait.'

Jaune was above the trees. He let out a panicked scream and started to flail around. He just floated helplessly, and all the flailing around had made him sick, or he thought it did. It took him a few minutes to get the hang of floating, then a few minutes to descend. After he got over the panic, he thought it was kind of cool, but he had other things to focus on.

When he landed he found his sword, it was still warm and weightless, then he found the spot he woke up at, the spot he died at. The pond was gone and the tree had rotted away, he left that spot and backtracked his steps, he managed to find his shield-sheath, and after searching for an hour had found his bag.

He took off his onesie, the blue fabric was coated in dried blood and mud, dead leaves and twigs clung to the fibers . It was a sad sight to see, the onesie had brought him many warm nights.

Now, on to other matters, Jaune checked over his body. There were seven holes in total on his torso, two that has pierced his left lung, and one that pierced his right lung, one had narrowly missed both lungs and went down the middle and three that went to his gut. The holes weren't clean, there were bits of flesh that just dangled, but everything was painless. He could only feel a slight buzzing numbness as he checked where each hole led.

A few ribs were broken, small bumps made by the shards were visible in his skin, and pieces were stuck in his lungs; they would rattle when he focused on 'breathing.' There was a jagged rip in his left bicep that led to his bones, and the rest of his arms were littered with small scratches from tripping in the woods.

His right leg was discolored from the ankle to his knee, the rest of his whole body was pale white and cold, not that it bothered him, well it did, but that was just mentally. He unpacked his Scroll to use the camera and get a look at his face. It was as pale as the rest of his body, but his eyes were still blue, they hadn't glossed over. With the attention on his face, he noticed his mouth was dry, but it wasn't irritated. While staring at his face, he noticed he didn't blink.

Then reality truly set in for Jaune, he was really dead. He didn't have a pulse and looked like a corpse.

'Am I a zombie? But zombies don't float, ghosts do float though but ghosts also can't touch things or be seen.'

With that thought, his Scroll slipped through his hands, and his underwear fell to the floor. He panicked, again, and looked at his hands, but he couldn't see them, not just that. Everything was replaced with something so bright it blinded him, he tried to go back but then he couldn't understand anything, there was nothing here to understand. This was Nothing, The Void, The End, Death.

He couldn't feel anything, but thankfully the world shifted again, and he fell to his knees, breathing heavily, he was sure that if he knew how to make his heart beat, it would be pounding.

The world was back to the one that blinded him, but he wanted the world he could see and feel. The world snapped, everything was back to normal. He could feel the ground, and he wasn't invisible. Confusion seeped into Jaune, and he had an idea. Now that he could feel again, he shifted the world again, no it wasn't the world, it was what he saw. He spent a few moments letting his eyes adjust to the brightness, and could describe the first world now, ethereal. Nature was glowing with lights that felt alive, so was he, a white light seemed to start at his heart and flowed throughout his body, his sword also had his light.

He willed himself to be able to go through stuff again, and he felt himself spread open, his white light enveloped his body and broke it down. He was the light now, he shifted the world and back. When reality settled, he looked himself over. He was back to his body, naked and free of wounds, but he was transparent and glowing with wisps of lights floating off him. Jaune felt free and before he knew it, he was in the sky, he stayed there for a good hour or so before coming back to the ground. When he landed he pulled himself together, his wounds reappearing on his solid body, and he felt the world once more.

Back to his thoughts, he assumed he had messed up when he activated both of his ghost powers simultaneously. In the real world he tested out his invisibility, and he watched as light refracted around his body, he only knew where he was because he could see himself. Of course, seeing himself and not seeing himself, overlapped and resulted in what appeared to be transparency to Jaune.

He didn't understand exactly why he couldn't be invisible and be able to go through stuff, but maybe it had to do with himself. He didn't know how to use his new supernatural powers, so maybe he screwed up. Whatever the reason, he didn't really care.

While getting dressed, Jaune noticed a sharp rock lodged in his foot, without a second thought, he pulled it out and watched as the small wound glowed with light and healed. He took note of his healing power, and strapped on his armor, then he continued down the path he had chosen.

Just because he had died and came back to life, sort of, didn't mean he gave up on his dream of being a hero.