Hey everyone, I hope you enjoy this chapter, there will be more to come. If this chapter seems chaotic, it is because I use predominantly Jaune and Cinder as the points of narration. In short, both are relatively unreliable narrators. Jaune is unreliable because he is blinded by stress and grief, Cinder is unreliable because she doesn't understand how someone like Jaune can exist in the world. Do with that what you will. I take no requests and I'm proud of my work. If it is not to one's liking, then respectfully seek other authors. I want you to enjoy what you read, if this is not to one's enjoyment then please don't read.

To those that do read and enjoy, thank you. I appreciate your viewership and know that constructive criticism is valuable to me. I hope you enjoy this.

There will be 1 more chapter to the 'Prologue Arc', then we will be in the 'Path Arc'. I will indicate at the end of the chapter when that occurs. Each arc will be based on a significant change in Jaune or the end of a progressive change in Jaune.

Enjoy- PLZnostabbby


A voice from the void called to the boy, playing the part of his Virgil as he spoke.

"Lad, this world is one of chaos, your gods abandoned you, they left you and your people for the dust from whence you came. But I have not left, I am not benevolent, but I shall not let those foolish Brothers burn the only good thing they ever made." The hollow tired god called to the boy, his words playing sympathy to the boy's heart. It was not the sympathy of a friend, but of a father.

"I do not love you the way the Light did, but I do love you and humanity in my own way, I cannot change your fate lad. You will die, sooner than later, but you can change fate, alter destiny itself. Not even the word of the Brothers may bind your heart." The words echoed into oblivion, resounding in the very soul of the mortal.

His aura flashed as his eyes snapped open, his wounds closed, and his muscles healed as he rose from his prone position, the carnage that surrounded him force the recollection of the last fight to crash into memory. He remembered the hate and blood boiling destruction in his veins.

The scorch marks on his begotten sword gave way to truth that he had used some mighty power.

"What happened?" Jaune asked as he looked at the felled trees and beast claw marks in the dirt, he felt as if the whole world had changed quickly.

Fingers wrapped the handle of the ancient blade of the first Arc scion, the blue cloth felt warm to the touch, yet an emptiness had settled on the blade, as if this wasn't the true way the weapon should look or feel.

A voice resounded in his head, explaining things not in words, but in feelings and concepts.

Fate shattered and unbound.

Life granted and stolen.

A fight, nervousness and hardened resolve.

Jaune looked down upon the blade and saw his eyes, now tinged slightly with red, his face bearing a new scar above his right brow. The hands that held his weapon felt inhuman, almost totally detached. Then all at once feeling returned, and with it did the bile in his throat as he coughed up everything, he had eaten in the last eight hours.

The boy crawled to a nearby tree and sat beneath its shaded canopy. His thoughts roamed to his team, to his family. But then one idea appeared, from the presence he felt, he couldn't understand what this was.

Was it the Brothers?

A feeling of sickening hate ripped through him as he gave the notion some thought, then he rejected it just as fast.

Then the feeling of similarity, familiarity forced its way into his mind, and he realized.

Not the Brothers? But another God?

A feeling of satisfaction struck him, and he nodded, then a destination appeared in his mind, Vale City Center, there he saw a small rundown warehouse, and a moon shattered but high in the sky.

"So, I gotta get to some warehouse that could very likely be a trap in the dead of night, looking for something mysterious, and stay alive knowing that this will almost certainly be dangerous?" As the final word left his lips, great feelings of satisfaction found their way to him, and he nodded.

"Okay, not the craziest thing that has happened yet, after all I did befriend Pyrrha Nikos, and a team of highly trained huntresses. What the hell, let's do it." The sword he oft carried on his hip found its way across his back as he began standing, his feet crunching sticks and leaves as he climbed to his full height.

The young huntsman trudged through the brush of the woods, making his way to Vale proper, his eyes set upon the security wall that was erected decades ago.

His feet carried him past countless trees of varying size, animals skittered under foot as he treads the worn dirt path of the forest, the amber leaves burning themselves into his memory.

"You know, Pyrrha always loved this place, she always swore that it was the most peaceful place she had ever visited." The knight said, his words mournful, knowing that he had lost his team.

He then suddenly felt a sense of urgency linked to the place he saw, he understood it to mean that he had to hurry.

His feet carried him faster and farther, without knowing, he channeled his aura into his feet, the force pushing dirt and leaves as he raced faster than he had ever thought possible.

In the next ten minutes he would cross the forest, scale the wall and reach the dingy warehouse he saw, the worn metal siding threatened to fall from where they were bolted in. It looked like no one had cared for this building for some time.

A harsh scream belted through the open windows of the building, the vicious noise rattled the windows and poorly kept metal walls of the building.

Jaune gripped his blade and ripped it from the sheathe on his back, somewhere deep in his mind told him that this action was natural, like breathing it was something he had done a thousand times.

He leaned forward and gripped the handle of the door; his hands shook but he steadied himself as he cracked the door.

His eyes roved the crack that the breach in the threshold formed, finding a raven-haired woman collapsed to the cold stone of the floor. Her voice was shrill as she spoke, looking at a rather estranged looking man with a scorpion tail.

"The Goddess told you there would be consequences for any more setbacks, she said that you needed to learn a lesson. So you will learn, here and now, that your place is doing what you're told and ensuring her will comes to fruition." He madly pronounced as he leaned back and lifted his nose skyward, his eyes fixed to the broken moon that had risen and he cackled like a man driven to the brink.

"Do not disappoint again, girl. Else you will find yourself at the blade's edge." He said then a portal appeared behind him and he took a step back and was gone into the void.

Jaune's eyes fixed to the woman, and he slowly opened the door, as he did, he looked around the building, seeing that it was some form of outpost.

"Hey, Miss? Are you awake?" Gloved hands gripped the woman's shoulders and turned her gently, his eyes fell upon what looked like a stab wound.

Almost like instinct he dug his scroll out with one hand, holding the wound tight desperately fighting to keep her alive.

"No-no hospitals." A whisper came from her barely living form of the raven-haired victim.

"Okay, stay still, I need to bind this wound. I promise you can trust me." Jaune spoke, his voice level as he sought desperately to not convey any of the fear he felt.

Blood coated his hands as he ripped the sleeve off his hoodie and tied it around the wound, the stab wound was deeper than any wound he'd ever seen.

A slam rang out as the doors opened and three men in suits waltzed into the room, their dress shoes clicked against the stone floor.

"This is gonna hurt, I have to move you." Jaune said as he gripped a bunched portion of the jacket the woman wore and tugged her behind cover, hidden from view with a trail of smeared lifeblood coating the stone.

As the men approached Jaune sprung from cover, his blade sand and slammed into one man with the flat of the blade, knocking him to the ground, his gun clattered uselessly to the floor. The second man drew a short blade and slashed, Jaune knocked it away just in time for a bullet to hit his aura, the metal collapsing and clinking to the ground. Then with as much force as Jaune could muster, his foot slammed into the chest of the man with a sword.

He closed the gap, the huntsman and the gunman clashed, Jaune threw a harsh right hook that was followed by a downward slash that cut into the man's shoulder and slammed him to the ground, out cold but breathing shallowly.

Azure eyes roved the battlefield of the warehouse, then he was slammed from behind and he could feel the edge of the goon's blade against his neck, ready to slice.

Then three gunshots rang out from behind and the man collapsed atop Jaune, then shoved to the side as the young man stood, blood coating the back of his hoodie.

"Thank you, M-Miss." Jaune spoke, his voice was shaky from the hostilities, then he rushed to the wounded woman. He reached under her head and legs and lifted her in a bridal carry, one of her hands clutched the pistol and the other gripped the young huntsman's hoodie, refusing to relinquish it.

Blood had thoroughly covered the pair and Jaune raced to find a safe place for the both of them, his mind roved to the apartment he had rented out just before the start of Beacon, while he only had one month left in the apartment, it would do for tonight.

Blood had soaked through the hastily made bandage, Jaune gripped her side to staunch the bleeding to no avail.

"Whoever, whatever you are that led me here, help me. Please." Jaune said quietly, his eyes meeting hers as the light threatened to flee her fading autumn eyes.

"Please, dammit!" Jaune yelled and his aura flared white, like a soothing light of mercy granted by the heavens. The light enveloped the two, contrasting with the twilight of the night sky.

As cascading waves of aura rolled over the pair, the deep stab wound of the raven-haired woman closed, her health returning to her, a blush came to her cheeks as the exhaustion took her and her body went limp.

Jaune once again carried her in a bridal carry, his arms gently laying her on the bed that he had in the apartment. Then he sat at the side of the bed, hours passed, the gentle light of the new day rose through the slightly cracked window, the spiderweb cracks refracted the light and cast a bright rainbow-like luster upon the aged hard wood floors.

His eyes fixed to the light when he felt a hand on his shoulder and a blade to his throat.

"Who are you?" The hoarse voice of the woman called her tone dangerous and promising death at the wrong answer.

"I saw you get injured, I wanted to help you, so I did help you. I don't want trouble; I just couldn't watch you die. It's not something I could live with." Jaune levelled his voice as he stood slowly and turned to the woman, her eyes fixed to his.

"Why would you help me? I'm nobody to you." The woman, now calmer, her eyes drifted to the blade on the young man's back.

"Because I don't let people die if I can help it, and besides, my mom always said, "Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet." So I followed that and hopefully saved someone I could at some point call a friend." Jaune said, a goofy grin on his face as the woman lowered the weapon.

"You're an idiot." She said matter-of-factly her eyes met his and he spoke.

"Well at least I'm an idiot who saved your life, that's good enough for me." The young huntsman said and looked at her again.

"What's your name, Miss?" He spoke, his voice level, his eyes meeting hers again.

"Cinder, just Cinder." She said quickly and he nodded.

'Why did I just tell this fool my name?!' She thought harshly as she smacked herself mentally and then sat back on the bed.

"Well, 'Just Cinder', I'm Jaune, how are you feeling?" The annoying boy asked Cinder and she rolled her eyes.

"Better than last evening, thank you." She said and he nodded and walked away. Her eyes followed his stride, measuring the lengths, mentally calculating how fast he could reach her and she prepared herself for a clash.

"Would you like something to eat? I think I got some frozen dinners." He said and turned around a corner with just his head peering around, an awful grin striking his face.

"Yes, that'll do." She said quaintly, some light shined in her eyes as she spoke giving away her hunger.

"Well, I'll get to it then. You may want to get cleaned up, there's a shower in the back hall left of the bedroom, feel free. I should have some clothes in there too, they probably won't fit you, but they're the best that I've got at this moment." Jaune said and she nodded following his words but still extremely hesitant.

'What does he want from me? Why is he doing all of this, he has to have an agenda.' She thought as she stood and made her way to the bathroom.

Inside she saw a small bathroom with a single sink, shower, and toilet. The kind of bathroom you'd see in a dorm room.

'This will do, I suppose.' She thought to herself as she got undressed and began to inspect the scar that had formed from last night's injuries. Her eyes widened when she saw how well healed it was.

'He has to have a healing semblance, that's the only way this rate of healing could have happened.' Her fingers roamed the tingling flesh, feeling some numbness from the damaged tissue.

She shook her head and turned to the shower and turned the water on and after it had gotten hot, she stepped in. The steam coated the mirror of the room and she sighed at the relief that the heat gave to her aching muscle.

In the kitchen Jaune sighed in relief when he heard the shower run and after placing the dinners in the oven, he stepped into the bedroom and stripped the sheets, bundling them up and bagging them in a trash bag. His eyes found his Pumpkin Peat hoodie that he had discarded in the rush to help Cinder, he lifted its blood cracked cloth from the floor and set it aside, swearing to get it fixed and cleaned rather than throwing it away.

He looked down at himself and saw the sweat stained shirt and pulled off his sword and the shirt.

The blonde's ears didn't pick up the sound of the shower cutting off, nor did he catch the stares of the raven-haired woman as he drew on the shirt.

"Thank you for the shower, but may I ask you a question." Cinder said and Jaune spun to meet her gaze. His eyes found hers and he spoke.

"Yes? Is everything alright?" He spoke and left the sword at the bed, propped upon the side of the old mattress.

"Why are you helping me?" She looked at him then continued to speak as she shook her head, "It makes no sense, I'm nobody to you, and no one is so benevolent to assist anyone they find. And if they are then often it's naivety rather than benevolent consideration." Her voice seemed to shake, and he smiled.

"Well, I enjoy helping people, and I also know that it's wrong for anyone to leave someone to die, and maybe I am a little naïve. But I think that's not a bad trait sometimes." He spoke his voice resolute and without question, as if he was reciting divine law.

"That's foolish, what will you do with such childish beliefs in the face of real malevolence? In the face of real evil. Not the grimm, but a human who is so twisted that even the word 'evil' makes them look kind? What will you do then 'hero'? Are you so sheltered that you can't conceive of such a thing?" Cinder said and without a notice or perhaps a care, she let her voice rise with each point. By the end she was yelling her words hitting harder and harder, yet Jaune stood resolute.

"I will do my best, I will ensure I save who I can, but not everyone can be saved. My dad always taught me that what defines a choice is that all other recourses have been determined. That when all other choices are for naught, then a hero will take the suffering upon himself. He will take the guilt for what must be done." Jaune said resolutely, his posture even straightening, his pride in his beliefs showing.

"Then you will die a good man, but you will still die." Cinder said, and he laughed.

"He also told me that good men don't come home, that the ones that come home are not who left. All good men must die, because being good in war is a death sentence. But I don't agree, there has to be good, or else what's the point. We fight for good, for power, for love. What's the damn point if none of it survives the war?" Jaune spoke his voice rising too and Cinder faced him and sat on the stripped mattress and muttered.

"Truly a fool." Her gaze fell upon the floor as if a great weight landed on her.

A soft touch landed on her shoulder that was clad in Jaune's shirt, her eyes fixed to the black jeans she had taken to, the ankle cuffs she had rolled up so they would fit her better.

"I'm sorry for yelling, but we may believe different things, but that's okay because I believe in happy endings enough for the two of us." He said with an awfully executed wink.

"Anyways, breakfast in this case, is ready and I know you could do with some food." He said and she nodded lightly as he walked with Cinder to the kitchen table and they both began to eat their meals.

"Thank you, for helping me." She said softly, her eyes on the food in front of her as if she was guilty for eating it.

"That's not necessary, you needed help, and that's what I do." His words hit her and she nodded, her face now partially hidden by her hair, but if Jaune had looked closely, he would have sword that he saw a tear.

Over the next month, the two would spend more and more time together, Cinder had taken to disappearing in the day and returning after nightfall. Jaune had picked up a job at a café to support the rent for the apartment. Cinder had always come back, she and Jaune laughed and watched movies and in that short month he had grown closer to her than anyone he had every met.

But no matter how precious or beautiful the illusion, it will always be shattered.

Jaune was waiting for Cinder one night, the same as any other, when he saw her, her eyes were red. She had been crying, something bad had happened. She raced to him, her arms wrapping around him as an explosion rocked the front of the apartment. Concrete and shrapnel bounced harmlessly off the aura of the two, but the concussive wave sent them flying to the back of the apartment. Both lost their breath but Cinder pushed through it after they landed.

"Jaune, you have to run! The people I work for are here, they know about you and they want you gone!" Cinder spoke, her voice hoarse from tears and dust, and he understood. She had mentioned that she works for a pretty secretive organization, but never said that they were militant.

Jaune spoke then his voice called to her, a sound that she loved and hated all at once.

"We fight them together Cinder, together." He said confidently and then felt a heated pain on his cheek.

"No! We can't fight them! No one can! I won't watch you die, so just fucking run please! They're coming!" She said and he could feel his chest ache and he saw the look in Cinder's eyes. He had always known somehow that she was stronger than him, but after a while he shrugged it off. He nodded and stood with her, his grip found his sword that was hanging from a wall and strapped it to his back.

Absent was his armor that he once carried to Beacon, now he was just a man in jeans and a white shirt with a button-down brown shirt and a set of boots. Hardly a warrior's state of dress.

"Cinder, I'll find you; I promise. I've been here for you all this time, and I won't leave you now." There was much that was left unsaid, such things as, 'I love you; I have loved you since the day after I saved you because I had never seen someone wake up in such a cute way and I had never seen a smile so beloved.' Jaune knew he couldn't say it, so he said something simpler.

"I'll see you again, Cinder, I promise."


Thank you for reading, next chapter will be 07/27. If it is not then I am sick, dead, or forgetful. All of which are likely. Thank you for your patronage. -PLZnostabby