Jaune Arc, Human Supremacist
Preface:
So, this'll probably be the most controversial out of any and all of my stories, a story focusing a villainous but complex Jaune.
He's not just going to be a villain for the sake of being a villain, but because of a deep hurting and pain, that'll elaborated on more in later chapters. There'll be hints of it early chapters, too. But it'll be kept vague and only alluded to until the big reveal, just exactly why Jaune is the way he is.
Needless to say, though, he's not just evil just for the sake of evil. Not just blind prejudice for the sake of blind prejudice.
Chapter 1 - The Pain Within
His village was burning.
Screams of terror ringed and echoed in his ears as everything and loved was being destroyed, teared down, violated.
His own father, murdered before his eyes after trying to reason with his assaulters.
Jaune could only hide, the only one of his siblings that got away in time, in the few corners of his home where he could remain hidden.
He could hide in fear, and watch on, powerless, crying, as his mother, and his sisters cried in agony, as those filthily animals laughed while - !
Jaune woke up in a cold sweat aboard the bullhead.
Startled and jumpy, he looked around himself quickly, though his mood soured even further as he saw a few of those damned animals aboard the bullhead.
But he took a deep, shallow breath and calmed himself.
'Keep calm, Jaune. You know you'll get your chances later. For now, just focus on getting your huntsman license, so you can get your legal immunities.' Jaune took another breathe, and sat still, motionless, as if meditating.
"Are you alright?" A voice asked from out of nowhere. A young girl, adorned in scarlet robe, approached him, with a concerned look on her face.
Jaune glanced at her.
"Sorry." Jaune said, "Could you do me a favor, and spin around a little bit?" Jaune asked.
"Huh?" Ruby didn't quite understand, but did as he asked.
"Thanks." Jaune said.
It didn't look like there were any holes in her dress, and there were no visible animal parts to her anywhere, so she was probably fine to talk to.
Still...
"You're..." He began, "A human...right?"
"Uh...yeah?" Ruby answered, puzzled, "What else would I be, an alien?" She joked.
Jaune gave a light chuckle. The fact that she answered that way, with naivety and not offense, further was a point of her favor of her not being one of the animals.
Of course, he still couldn't be perfectly certain, but if he was too cautious, he would never be able to start up a conversation with anyone. Besides, while he wasn't certainly, he could at least be reasonably assured she wasn't an animal.
"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" She asked.
"Huh?" He asked, "Oh, right. I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm just feeling a little nauseous. Air sickness and all."
It wasn't exactly a lie - the air sickness was pretty bad, and it probably was making him feel worse than he normally was. His mind, all the more susceptible to bad memories, because of his body's sense of nausea.
"I see."
"Sorry, did I make any sounds while I was sleeping?"
"Oh, no!" Ruby answered, "Just a sharp, surprised sound when you woke up. But I don't think it was anything too weird!" She hurriedly added on, "I mean, my sister makes weirder sounds in her sleep all the time!"
"Right..."
He didn't have much else to say. And neither did she, apparently, going by the awkward silence that came between them.
"..."
"..."
"...So, um, my sister was actually the one who encourage me to talk to you, you know. Since I'm new to Vale and all, and she thought I should make some friends, and..."
Ruby kept rambling on for a while, apparently not knowing when to stop.
"...And I figured, since you looked kind of like you might be sick and might want some help or something that maybe you'd be willing to talk to me, and all...?"
Ruby paused, and flushed, noticing that Jaune wasn't didn't seem to be paying attention.
'Aw geez,' She thought to herself, 'I didn't start being annoying with all my rambling, did I? Dang it, Ruby! This is exactly why don't have any friends...!'
"Sorry, am I annoying you?" She asked, "I can, I'll just -"
"Oh, no, no." Jaune replied, finally seeming to notice her presence, "Sorry, I can get lost sometimes, in my own thoughts. I appreciate your concern, though."
Ruby sighed a breath of relief. Well, at this was one person she hadn't turned off with her social awkwardness.
"Is that your sister over there?" He asked, tilting his head towards a blond girl that seemed to be staring at them.
"Huh?" Ruby glanced over, and saw Yang looking over curiously, before turning away. "Oh, yeah! That's my sister, Yang! She's super strong and cool, by the way."
No animal features on the sister, either, Jaune noted. Well, that was probably a good sign. Usually if there were siblings, at least one of them would show something. Especially if their clothing was relatively revealing, like the older sister's outfit was.
"Oh, I'm Ruby, by the way. Ruby Rose!" She declared, "Huntress extraordinaire! Or so I'd like to be, at least. And definitely a human, not an alien!"
Jaune chuckled little bit at that. A few animals seemed to be offended by her words, hearing Ruby's declaration from her loud voice. But Jaune paid them no mind, and Ruby didn't seem to notice.
"Jaune..." He said. "Jaune...Arc."
He seemed to flinch a bit, recalling his last name. Ruby didn't know why, but it was kind of endearing to her, to be honest. Like, something that kind of made her want to hug him.
Ruby shook her head quickly, as she blushed lightly. No, he was a complete stranger here, and doing something like that would be super awkward, she had to remind herself.
Luckily, Jaune didn't seem to notice. Again, he almost seemed to be staring in the distance, lost in his own mind.
The bullhead seemed to be descending now, though, and she still had to talk with Yang about a bunch of stuff...
"Sorry, I gotta go now." She said, "My sister is probably waiting for me right now. But I'll see you again later, Jaune?"
"Huh?" Jaune said, "Oh, uh, yeah. I'll see you again later."
Yang was waiting for her. More specifically, ready and waiting to tease her.
"Wow, sis, really putting on a show there, huh? Did he catch your eye that much?" Yang teased, "I guess he does have that "trouble but cute" look to him down, after all."
"Huh?" Ruby asked. "Oh!"
Remembering her quick little twirl, Ruby blushed lightly.
"Yaaaaaaang, it's not like that. He just asked if I could do one, that's all!"
"Wait, what?" Yang's eyes flashed red for a moment before she calmed down, "Ruby..." She asked slowly, "...Was he looking at you with weird eyes, or anything like that? Like maybe, like a predatory-wise, or something like that?"
"...Uh, no?" Ruby replied, "He looked more relieved than anything, now that that I think about it."
"Huh." Yang thought about that for a moment. Well, that was weird in its own way, but at least it looked like she didn't have to way about the guy creeping up her little sister.
Still, something didn't seem quite right about that, though Yang couldn't quite put her hand on what exactly it was...
The first thing Jaune did as he exited the bullhead, was to calmly find the nearest trash can, walk to it, and very silently vomit into it. It helped him feel a little bit better, at least. Not much, but at least back to how miserable his usual state was.
His next move was to try to find the place where the beginner huntsmen where supposed to gather.
On his way, he passed by a seemingly irate, but very pretty, girl in white, and -
'Wait - is that Weiss Schnee? I should try to strike up a connection with her. Might prove useful, sometime later down the road.'
Weiss didn't seem to have noticed him, but that was fine. There would be plenty of time to establish a connection with her later.
And, wait - was that Ruby, too? Well, he didn't expect to see her again so soon. But, figuring he might as well, he helped her back up, as she dusted off her mini-skirt.
She struck up a conversation again, this time mostly about weapons.
Jaune didn't have much, but he did have his sword and shield.
"Oh, old fashioned weapons, huh?"
"Yeah," Jaune replied, "They may not be the most flashy or creative of tools, but they're reliable and steady. Unfortunately, I lost my family's -" He seemed to flinch again, at that.
But he shook his head, and recovered, trying to focus on the conversation at head, "But the ones I have now have always been pretty trusty."
Ruby nodded, understandingly. "That's cool. There's always a place for the classics!" She chirped, "I have a lot of respect for them, too!"
To be honest, she had been feeling very self-conscious and nervous when talking with Jaune, ever since her sister had teased her about it. And now that she had looked at Jaune again, she couldn't help but notice that what her sister said about Jaune was actually quite true, making her feel kind of jittery.
The mild bags under his eyes and generally slightly tired demeanor he had about him contributed a lot to that look, and honestly, it was kind of attractive.
Which is to say, all of those factors combined made Ruby feel somewhat self-conscious around Jaune, patting the back of her hair, nervously. She tried to avoid looking at him at first, but talking about weapons had honestly helped her to ease her tension up by a lot.
"...So, um, are we friends now?" She asked him, nervously. She had put off a lot of people before by talking too much and getting too close too quickly, so...
"...Well..." Jaune seemed a bit hesitant. Ruby couldn't blame him, really.
"...Sorry, please excuse me for a second."
"Wha- ?"
Before she had known it, Jaune had his hands out, gently patting her all over, including the back of her skirt.
Ruby blushed furiously, "Jau-Jaune, what are you - ?!"
Jaune breathed a deep sigh of relief.
"Yeah," he said. "We can be friends."
Honestly, if it were anybody else, Ruby might've thought there was some sort of perverted intent behind their actions, but with Jaune, that didn't seem to be the case.
Jaune, if anything, seemed genuinely relieved that he had (or hadn't) found something on her.
What was with him? Was he really some sort of alien-hunter or something? Did aliens really exist? Somehow, Ruby wouldn't doubt the idea. But she knew better than to ask, lest Jaune use his memory-erasing pen on her!
Anyways, things got awkward between them again, for a little (at least on Ruby's part - Jaune was still as cool as ever).
But Ruby struck up another conversation with him, and before they knew it, Jaune had lead them to where they were supposed to go.
Yang, noticing her speaking with Jaune, gave Ruby a quick wink. Ruby blushed, mildly. 'Yaaaaaaang!'
She motioned to complain to her sister, telepathically. Naturally, she didn't have any telepathic powers, but Yang seemed to pick up on her message and embarrassed look, and just gave her a mischievous grin, before going back to her own business.
"So, I'll talk to you later, Jaune?"
Jaune nodded. "Sure," He said. "It's good to have a friend in this place. I was planning on just going about it alone, but if it's you, Ruby, I wouldn't mind."
Ruby blushed mildly at what she interpreted as praise, and nodded. "I'll see you later, Jaune!"
"See you."
Jaune took another shallow, calming breath.
The place was full of animals.
Jaune grit his teeth.
It pained him deeply, but he had to endure it for now. Once he got his hunter's license, then he could move more freely...
Until then, he just had to endure.
At least he had made a human friend on his way here, even if she did seem ignorant of all the savages all around her.
But, it might just have been better for her that way.
That way, at least, she wouldn't have to suffer in the same way he himself did.
If only he had the option to be as innocent as she was, then he knew he would've taken it in a heartbeat - to be unaware and ignorant of the world's evils.
Jaune shook his head. But he wasn't.
And it was because he knew, that he had to carry out his mission.
And he would do so, no matter how much he had to stain his hands with the blood of those filthly animals.
Author's Notes:
Naturally, the way that Jaune (suffering, troubled young man) and Ruby (innocent young girl) interpret events is very different.
Will it be a Jaune/Ruby story? Well, maybe on Ruby's end, at least. But it certainly wouldn't be a healthy relationship or anything, that's for sure.
Jaune's point of view and circumstances are going to be significantly darker than other character's POV, so just brace yourselves for that. And, just next chapters, he's probably gonna ask for his own room, because of constant nightmares and night terrors.
Tomorrow will be a comedy story, though. One that's almost like a parody of this serious story concept, in fact! With a much sillier and more lighthearted Jaune.
Also, Jaune's relationship with Cardin will be a point of interest. Will it still similarly antagonist? Will it be friendly this time? Or...? Well, let's just say that it probably won't develop the way you think it'll develop.
Also, how will Jaune get along with the rest of Team RWBY? Just some food for though. But there'll be interesting developments and interactions there.