Protecting and repelling
A/N: Hey everyone sorry that I haven't updated this story in a while, I was so focused on other stories, and I couldn't figure out what to write for this story. So this might take sometime to pan out, so bear with it ok?
So we last left off with Jaune telling his friends why he never came to visit, or come back to them. He didn't want to be that one friend who is just there as a plus one, and the only one without love in his life. And he feels that his existence is a curse if he gets close to a woman he may grow to like. And he feels that he will just endanger his friends just by being there, similar to how Qrow felt with his semblance.
And seeing the girls he grew to like, are in love with each other, that hurts in more ways than one.
People think that oh if you liked them you should be happy, but sure you could show support, but deep inside that is going to tear a guy apart, and they will feel that they are a huge problem, and that they are so bad that it caused the two crushes to date each other. So that's where Jaune's mindset is at.
But we will see how things will go, and they will talk to him more.
But without a further ado, let's go!
"With this signing of this document, we humbly announce, and declare, that Menagerie will be Remnant's official 5th major kingdom!" A representative of Vale, declared to the people attending. There was a huge roar of cheers and approval. Yang jumped around in joy, and passionately kissed Blake, which she returned. Ruby and Weiss hugged, kissed happily too. It was joyous moment for everyone, the couples, and non-couples hugged each other in joy and celebration. The guards were even celebrating.
All but one, who decided to look at the high ground.
Jaune Arc decided to do look out duty while the others protect the ground just to be safe. He kept a look out to make sure no grimm would make it close to them, and/ or any traces of the old White Fang faction coming to ruin everything. He will be damned before he will let anyone ruin this for innocent people.
He was a huntsman, and he will protect them.
He felt Temari jumping on his shoulders in celebration too. Jaune just laughed at this. He swears his little fox friend was just so cute and adorable at times. To throw her a bone he pet her, and let her stand on his head, causing him to laugh a little at this.
Temari then stopped and looked more towards the crowd. Jaune noticed this and followed her muzzle….she smells, and see's something.
Jaune could see a person in a cloak getting closer to the front of the everyone, the person was tall and the person was getting closer to Blakes family, specifically her mother! The man quickly grabbed her with a chainsaw sword in his hand putting it up to her neck. This caused people to scream and back away.
"Kali!/Mom!" Yelled out both Ghira and Blake. Team RWBY went to attack him, but stopped when the blade was revving up. The man quickly took off his hood and seen that it was Adam's ex Lieutenant. He had a beard almost unkempt, and he still wore the old mask from back then.
"Nobody come closer, and I swear to the gods I will kill this bitch!" The Lt demanded everyone, they all stopped, not wanting to fight this crazed man, in fear of hurting Kali. Blake decided to speak up.
"Your Adam's old Lieutenant." Blake pointed out. She remembers that chainsaw blade anywhere. But she tries to stop him, and letting her mother go.
"Listen the old White Fang is done, the old ways didn't work out, people are happier now, we are working together, for the better, please you don't have to do this." Blake begged the guy for him to stop, with Yang coming up holding her hand, to show that things have changed. This just infuriates the man.
"You race traiting, human loving, slut. You murder Adam Taurus, ended our great campaign against the humans. And decided to be with a human, whore at that! You have brought shame upon us all!" The Lt spat out, with Yang's eyes turning red in anger for the insults he through at them. He just smirks cruelly at them.
"We may not be as big, but we are everywhere, in hiding waiting to strike, the humans will pay for their sins, no amount of peace will help us, they will just hate us, and bring us down like usual!" The Lt spoke with some craze to him. Blake just shook her head, and Kali just looked down in disappointment, her previous fear just turned to sadness.
"You still refuse to move past your hurt, and hurt others, we have achieved peace in our nation. Their will always be someone who is racist, but it goes both ways, the hatred you have for humans is just as bad as theirs." Kali spoke up. This caused the man to turn furious, holding her tightly.
"Shut your whore mouth bitch!" The Lt. spat out backing up more he didn't like her words one bit. But Kali wasn't done yet.
"How many faunus have died for this day, we finally get our rights, and this continent has finally been recognized as a 5th kingdom, we have achieved our dreams, we need to let go, and move forward through our pain, and be better than this, please." Kali practically begged the man to listen to reason, and embrace this peace, they were given what they truly wanted, it is time to truly stop this madness.
The Lt started laughing softly and then eventually it started to turn to crazed laughter. Ruby was slowly ready to move, she and the others were still beating themselves up for not having their weapons on them, they felt that they have gotten soft. They need to start training more again. Yang still had a small gun in her arm but not enough to break aura, and the man was ready to kill, so she can't do anything.
The man still laughed until he gained a rageful and hateful look.
"Your peace is a joke, what are we supposed to do just lie down, and forget about our history of oppression?! We are just giving into what the humans want! And the traitors are no better, they are the enemy too!" The Lt spat out, the crowd was just disgusted with this man. Sure others are still upset, but hurting others will not fix the problem, it will just continue to fill that hole. And they are tired of it, tired of the fighting, tired of the hatred, they just want peace, among everyone!
Blake then spoke up. Her ears flatten in sadness and anger.
"You are just like him." Blake said softly, she then looked him in the eyes, with small tears coming down. "You don't care about equality, you just want revenge, and genocide, you don't want a goal, just cold blooded murder!" Blake spat out. This tipped the man over the edge.
"THE HUMANS WILL PAY FOR WHAT THEY DID, THIS IS A MESSAGE, SAYING THAT YOU ARE NOT SAFE, HUMANITY WILL DIE, AND THE FAUNUS WILL BE ON TOP, AND THE FIRST SHED OF BLOOD…STARTS WITH HER!" The Lt yelled out, about to decapitate Kali, Blake, Yang, And Ghira sprung into action, but they all realized something.
They were not going to make it.
Kali knew this too so she closed her eyes ready for death.
'Blake, Ghira, everyone, I love you all.' Kali thought to herself. The blades met a body, but it sounded metallic. And she felt a strong arm around her, she thought it was Ghira, but she looked up to see Jaune, in his full metal knight like armor.
He took the blow for her!
Everyone froze with what they saw, he was blocking the blades with his forearm! They could see his aura working hard to stop it, along with him. The Lt just stood their shocked, and tried to put more force in.
But then he heard a whistle and felt a canine like mouth on his shoulder as he was thrown away. Temari was in her nine tailed form and stood in front of Jaune and Kali growling and protecting them.
Kali looked on with widen eyes of this…..knight protecting her. It was like when she was a little girl, when she thought of a knight saving her, she had to blush at this, she just lived a childhood fantasy. Jaune then stood up at his full height, still shorter than her husband but stood in front of protecting her.
"Kali!/ Mom!" She heard her husband and daughter yell out her, they practically tackle hugged her, she just giggled and laughed at that.
"Don't worry you two I'm fine, thanks to our guard here that is." Kali said to them now turning back to Jaune.
He just looked ahead with his full armor on, they couldn't see his eyes properly but they could see glowing blue eyes, thanks to the helmet, looking at the man…menacingly. Jaune then spoke up.
"You are nothing but a murderer, you don't care what happens to the faunus, you just want blood to be spilt, you are no better than a grimm." Jaune spoke up to him, his voice speaking with authority. The Lt got up and looked at him in anger.
"You, you are that knight that's going around, spreading lies how humans care for the faunus, you can't fool anyone with what you do, I know you are just buying time and show everyone who you truly are!" The Lt spoke crazily.
"Your going to be another human that will beat, kill, and abuse the faunus you are "protecting!" The Lt spat out. It was clear that this man has lost his mind. Not as crazy at Tyrian but close enough. Jaune just closed his eyes and sighed with disappointment.
"You truly are gone aren't you, you can't look past your own hatred and your stained glass window, we are moving through that and choosing to not let ourselves be consumed by hatred. If you can't accept that we just want coexist with each other, that is on you, and if you try to harm others for that, I will take you down." Jaune spoke in conviction. The people around him roared in approval.
The Lt just lunged at him with a fierce roar!
Jaune simply reached to his back to get his shield. He gave Temari a whistle to tell her to move, much to her own annoyance.
Jaune simply used his shield to block the blades. Jaune held his ground, and barely pushing him back. Jaune squinted his eyes, and backed away slightly to let him fall forward a little, and Jaune used his shield to knock the Lt's weapon off of him.
The Lt didn't see it coming, and Jaune cocked his shield, and charged a shot, and blasted him about 10 feet away. The crowd looked on in awe to see how easily he is handling this. More so of his friends. They know that Jaune got stronger and better, especially with his time in the Ever After, he was at first able to stand by them before then, but now it seems he could make them really worry if they had to fight him.
Ruby was silently geeking over his weapon in silence, seeing it able to rotate and knock back someone so easily! And she can see that the guy's aura is almost gone. It was probably also thanks to Temari's bite and throw, but that would probably be superficial. But that cannon did damage!
She noticed something about it, there are other barrels on it. And they looked smaller than the ones he used on the Lt. His shield has two firing modes!
She can't tell the caliber, but she can tell the rounds he just shot were explosives, maybe 25mm grenades probably bigger? She couldn't tell.
Jaune then spoke up.
"Surrender now, your life is more than this ok? This is never a good way to let this end, you can still turn this around alright?" Jaune said to him. "Or." Jaune then cocked his shield gun, and aimed it at him.
"You will not walk away from this, either your life will be over, or rot away in a prison, it's your choice." Jaune gave him an ultimatum, but he wasn't done.
"You can also work with us, make things better, truly for the faunus like here." Jaune waved his arm among everyone. "But you can help make it truly better, please, I beg you, work with us, be better than what you are now, it's not too late, I have seen it with my own eyes, it's never too late." Jaune said, almost begging him to change.
The teams all looked at Jaune with happy and sad smiles. He was speaking about how Emerald wanting to change. How Mercury saved them in Vacuo, and helped take down Tyrian. Even though Salem was exposed to the leaves she was, able to accept life and death, which lifted her curse, and made her vulnerable. But she refused to change who she was. Deep down, she was just a bad and manipulative person, and she was forced to be killed.
The Lt. then froze for almost 30 seconds, and started laughing lightly, and then turned to a mad man's laughter. Everyone just sat there and waited with bated breath. The guy laughed for over a minute. Jaune was just glaring under his helmet, while the other guards and fighters were ready to take him down.
"Do…do you really think they will let me help? Do you really think that humans will actually accept faunus?!" The Lt. yelled out. Jaune just dropped his arm, like the guy was stupid, but then waved his arm around them.
"Menagerie just been recognized as it's own kingdom, signed by the other kingdoms councils, who have both faunus and humans, with other humans here showing support, including me, so what do you call that?!" Jaune yelled out starting to lose his patience, with someone who refuses to see what's in front of him!
The Lt. exploded again.
"IT'S A FARCE, IT HAS TO BE THE HUMANS ARE JUST GOING WAIT UNTIL THE TIME IS RIGHT TO ENSLAVE US AGAIN, HUMANS CALLED US ANIMALS, BUT THEY ARE THE ANIMALS, AND I WILL KILL THEM ALL TO FREE US!" The Lt. yelled out in utter insanity. The people watching just took a step back of how quickly the man just blew up. But they also just shook their heads in disappointment and frustration, this man is too far gone, he will not help anyone.
Jaune was just looking on with disappointment. No one could see what his face looks like but they can tell how he was looking at this man. Jaune just sighed at this.
"So be it." Jaune said, as he flipped a switch in his shield's grip, and he cocked his weapon, and then he shot at him twice, staggering the man, and then Jaune ran forward, and gave him a straight right cross to the jaw, and the man's aura broke, and he was left unconscious. The guards quickly came in and put aura retraining cuffs on him, and took him away.
Jaune just sighed in slight sadness, he knows that this man will never see the light of day, due to his actions in the White Fang, and his actions of today.
The people then clapped and cheered for him. Jaune was lucky that he had his helmet on, so no one can see his bashful face. No matter how much good he does, he will never get used to all of the praise, he is always glad to do what is right.
His friends were about to leap in to thank him and hug him, but was stopped when a guard yelled out something.
"Grimm! We got grimm coming from the South East!" A guard yelled out. Jaune immediately went up the guard and questioned him.
"Do you know how many, and what kind?" Jaune asked with authority, the guard froze for a quicks second but quickly composed himself.
"So far, we seen a few beowolves, the most common, we got creeps traveling under ground seemed like the main force. We also seen a few Raptoridae, almost two Alphas, and another bigger one I have never seen before!" The man yelled out in the end. He never seen one so big before!
Jaune froze at that. He remembers what Salem did, she essentially to use the last of her strength to change the grimm forever. Even though they weren't as organized as before, she did make them spawn a lot faster, and some even mature faster! But that wasn't the end of it. She used the last of her magic to create a new ranking of grimm.
And he liked to call them Elders. The ones who were already Alphas, became even more powerful, and so he goes around to clear out any Elders.
For Beowolves, they were bigger, with a lot more bone plating. Almost 12 feet in length or more, and knows how to entrap someone by using misdirection. That is just one of the things he has seen them do. He has found a few Elders, thankfully there wasn't a lot of them out there, but to have them out there, and that intelligent was scary.
They were just like the hounds, but without the person inside.
Jaune went into his leader mode immediately.
"I want guards protecting the walls around Kuo Kuana from where the main force is coming from. Spread out heavy ranged weapons around the walls, watch the far sides, some Alphas can give orders, believe me I have seen it, understood?!" Jaune ordered the guard. Said guard nodded, with a few hunters joining in. He turned to team RWBY.
"Ruby, I need you on the wall too, high ground for you, take out as many as you can, and slow down any bigger ones that you see, Yang I want you to hang back, if any get's by the line, take them out, Blake I want you stay with the people and protect them along with you Ren, Nora can't fight, so protect your wife got it?" Jaune ordered them. Ren nodded at this, trusting his leader's judgement. The teams were about to say something but Jaune wasn't done yet.
"Weiss I want you on the wall with Them, your glyphs can help push them off, and soften them up, got it…good." Jaune said with him walking away and whistling to Temari, and he climbed on her back, shocking the others at that, but Ruby decided to speak up.
"B-but wait Jaune!" Ruby yelled out, Jaune looked back at her. "Where will you be?!" Ruby asked. She was shocked to see how authoritative Jaune was. He was before, but never with amount of pride, and heart. This just caused the others to look on shocked at this too. Jaune turned back around and gave his answer.
"Right in the middle. Let's go Temari!" Jaune yelled out in the end, giving a slight roar. The others just looked on in shock and awe. They wanted to stop Jaune with what he wanted to do, but he was already gone. Ruby and Weiss decided to get them into gear.
"C'mon ladies, you heard him! Let's get to work!" Ruby ordered them.
"She's right, we have our orders, we trust Jaune with a lot for us, so let's not question him on this, even though I want to." Weiss said to them, ending with a slight worried pout. The others agreed with that, they were worried about Jaune. They know that Jaune is a lot stronger now, but they haven't seen him in true action, at least not yet.
Team RWBY along with Ren, managed to get their weapons, and got into position. Ruby used her Semblance to get her team to their spots.
Ruby got to her high ground and seen almost 50 beowolves, 75 creeps, and 30 Raptoridaes! The negativity of everyone collectively must have brought them all in. But she could see a Raptoridae that was bigger, and a little slower than the others, It was sniffing the air, gauging out everything. And it then let out a roar, telling them to attack.
"So that is an elder I managed to hear about, he is giving more orders than the alpha!" Ruby softly yelled to herself. "Almost reminds me of the hounds, this maybe even more difficult." Ruby said to herself, bringing up Cresent Rose, and taking shots at creeps coming in too fast.
They all died easy enough a few took more shots than others, the wall was holding up well.
Weiss used her glyphs to fire off ice bullets, to kill a few, a few creeps got in, about to kill a guard, but Yang quickly came in punching it. The creep just died almost instantly. Yang then reloaded her gauntlets quickly.
"Damnit, I want to be on the ground, I hate sitting back like this, the guards are holding alright, so maybe I should just jump down take out some of the alphas." Yang said to herself about to run in. But she heard running behind her, seeing Temari finally joining the fray, along with Jaune.
'What took him so long?' Thought the girls collectively. Jaune dismounted in the air landing with a role. He unsheathed his sword and cocked his shield ready to fight.
A beowolf charged at him, to his left, Ruby was about to shoot the grimm, but Jaune quickly fired his gun shield, with it's explosive rounds, killing it instantly. He swung his sword to his right killing a creep trying to jump him, thinking that he was too distracted, from killing the beowolf.
Jaune then got his shield in front of him, ready to kill anything that got too close. Jaune then charged forwared, and slashed another creep, killing it, shooting an alpha beowolf in the head killing it. Jaune then started to shoot other grimm around him killing them all.
Ruby and Nora was just looking on in awe, seeing how easy Jaune is killing the grimm. The shield is powerful, but the way he swings his blade, was amazing. It was polished over the years of fighting and he was showing his strength and skill he has earned over the years.
The seen him just cutting up any grimm that came near him, but then Ruby shook her head to get back into the battle. She kept shooting at grimm that got too close to the wall, and towards Jaune, which Jaune quickly killed them all.
The Elder then roared, causing the grimm to stop. And turn to Jaune. Jaune simply reloaded his gun, and was ready to fight. Temari came to his side sensing on what was about to happen. The Elder roared again, with the others, and they attacked Jaune all together.
Ruby looked shocked at this, and kept shooting at the ones more close to Jaune. But then she made a decision.
"Weiss, get down there and slow any of them down!" Ruby ordered Weiss. Weiss just turned with widened eyes. She looked back forward, thinking how Jaune could get hurt or worse. And she gritted her teeth.
She will not lose a friend again, especially not when she hasn't made amends with him, she will talk to him again. She will have him in her life again, and she will have stand with her and Ruby! She blushed at that last thought, but kept her fire withing her.
She created a Nevermore and rid on it's back, she made it throw it's wings on the grimm, killing a few, and injured the rest near them. The alphas were tough as ever, but not tough enough for her! She used ice dust to fire off more icicles, to kill any of them running toward Jaune.
Jaune was busy fighting back the small fry easily. All that was left was the alphas.
The beowolves were simple enough to take down. He thrusted his sword in their chests, and slashed their heads off easily. Temari was hitting them with her tails, and clawing the rest. She even bit the head off of one of them.
An alpha Raptoridae, speed to him, jumping and clawed Jaune's armor, Jaune didn't see it coming, and it knocked him back. Another circled around him, and jumped biting his shoulder. Jaune made a grunt of pain, while it shook him, like a how some predators do to their prey, and throw him. Jaune quickly gained his footing back. Another tried to jump on him, but he ran forward, slid under it, raised his sword up, and bisected it.
It screamed in pain, but died a short while later.
Jaune then shot one, speeding to his side, he missed the first few shots, trying to hit it's head, but then decided to aim for the body and legs. He hit it's leg, taking a chunk away, which gave Jaune time to shoot it's body, too shots worked, and killed it.
He noticed that he was running low on ammo.
And he seen that Weiss summoned a flock of small nevermors, taking out the more small fries, and he took this chance to take out the other alphas. Jaune quickly ran forward, and decapitated a raptoridae easily enough, with an upper horizontal slash. We charged out to another running towards him.
The alpha jumped at him with it's claws out, and Jaune simply raised his shield up and deflected it's blow. While doing that, he managed to put it on it's back. The alphas usually have more of a bony plate armor on the underside, but Jaune was able to break through by stomping on the chest a few times making the grimm cry out in pain. And Jaune simply stabbed it in the chest killing it.
Jaune was looking around and seen that almost all the grimm was gone.
All except for the elder.
He could see that it was almost 10-12 feet tall, at the shoulders! It's claws extended out, like swords, or scythe blades. The teeth looked to be almost 7 inches long, with a shorter head, looked more for power. It looked much bulkier and bigger than the usual alpha. It looked on with its normal rage. Jaune whistled for Temari and ran over to him, she was growling at this creature in front of him.
Jaune then mounted Temari, ready to ride and fight.
"Let's weaken this thing Temari. Keep running around it, and I will shoot, let's go!" Jaune order his fox friend she roared a little, running around the creature. Sand was picking up, with how hard and fast they were running. Jaune shot his explosive rounds at it.
The elder roared, in pain and annoyance. It ran chasing Temari, wanting to kill the both of them. Weiss up top Kept summoning icicles, trying to do more damage. Some were just breaking hitting the bone armor, and some sticking in, this just made it even more pissed off. It was in pain, which was a good sign. Ruby left her high ground and made her way down toward the wall.
She was shooting at its hind legs trying to trip it up at least.
She noticed that the armor on it's legs, were holding up alright enough, but she can see the bone armor cracking. She seen Jaune was done shooting, and kept on top of Temari. He was probably out of explosive ammo. She doesn't know how big his other rounds are, but she doubts that they will penetrate it's armor.
Yang came jumping down the wall and was running towards the grimm, she was shooting long range shots, trying to do something. She noticed that the skin and muscle on the grim was peeling away, and then turned toward Yang wanting to kill her. She knew that she couldn't get away in time, so she was ready to jump to the side and haymaker it.
Jaune was getting tired of this, Weiss and Ruby were busy trying to help bring this thing down. It was slowing down which is a good sign, but it was still able to fight perfectly. Now Yang did some damage to areas where he shot at, but now it was turning to her!
"Temari, launch me!" Jaune yelled to his companion, he jumped on her tails, and she catapulted him towards it. Jaune took his sword in both hands, aimed his blade downward, and stabbed the grimm behind it's head, the blade didn't got in too much due to it's thick hide, and Jaune not putting a lot of aura into it.
Jaune cursed himself for not doing it, the grimm roared in pain, and tried shaking him off. Yang quickly took the initiative and gave a full force jumping uppercut to the grimm's jaw, that caused the blade to go more into the grimm's neck, severing it's spine.
It instantly seized up, and fell, it was slowly disintegrating while Jaune sheathed his sword and put away his weapon.
Ruby used her semblance to quickly get there, and hugged Jaune full force.
"I was so worried about you, you idiot!" Ruby yelled out, now crying. "I thought that you would have gotten hurt, and you charge in like that?! I saw the reports of Elders, and other alphas, you could have been killed what were you thinking?!" Ruby reprimanded him. But Jaune was stoic, with Weiss and Yang walking up to them. They were about to give Jaune the same scolding, but Yang would have punched him. But he spoke up.
"Ruby, I have been doing this for a while, how do you think people got info on elders, who do you think reported majority of them?" Jaune said to her. This caused them all to widen their eyes. It was him that gave the reports, they didn't even look at who reported it, they were so focused on other things!
That made them look down sadly, they really are being bad friends.
They heard cheering from the guards and some people.
"Let's go, they want to see us safe and sound." Jaune said walking with Temari panting and transforming back to her small form, and jumping on his shoulder, resting.
The others just looked on in shock, what has he been doing without them?!
A/N: Hey everyone, this chapter took some thinking. And as I said before I am not good at writing fight scenes, so I hope I did at least decent. And now we see that Jaune is a lot more tougher than his friends think of him.
And I am making a correction from the first chapter. Salem was killed by them, by her lifting the curse thanks to accepting life and death, yes that's how the curse can be lifted. But even with all of that, she is still a selfish and manipulative woman. So killing her was the best cause.
And the age of them is different too. Everyone is 21, and Ruby is 19, I got those ages messed up sorry.
But I am thinking next chapter, they are going to have a sit down with him, so we will see what happens.
Please everyone look out for each other, and please everyone in Cali please be safe and don't give up hope! I hope that everyone will have a great one and finally!
May God Continue To Bless You All!