Took a while to write, but here it is. Just one chapter left to this mini-arc!

REAPER IN RED

Chapter 26

The witches' den was a cave surrounded by dense underbrush and overgrown prickly bushes guarding the one entrance we could find. From what could be seen on the outside, the cave was long and narrow, but could possibly open up to become a much more cavernous… cavern. A lot more spacious to swing around our swords and stuff. The headmaster confirmed that the cave likely did extend out quite a bit and open up into a main cave, with multiple little cave offshoots. A common unifying terrain that witches of all varieties seemed to like.

Reapers too, obviously.

Who wouldn't like a big common room and little hidey holes to use as a bedroom, dining room and playing room? Those types of caves were incredible! Huh, did mom ever tell me anything about witches having the same living areas that we did? Not that I could remember off the top of my head, but it made sense why that wasn't very important information. Witches tended to leave after spotting a Reaper. They were pretty skittish creatures, for seemingly powerful Higher Order monsters.

It was a little frustrating, to be honest. There I was, a hundred and fifteen years old, and standing outside that cave, listening to Ozpin explain the basics of the witches vocabulary -which he helpfully called 'The Wycca Lexicon', which is way cool- and I felt like I was back in my fifties, learning how to hunt rabbits from my mother. Ah, those were the days. When mom would do the hard work when it came to Reaping and I'd just tag along for the energy.

"Be sure to remember, students. A rolled 'R' and a stuttering 'R' will result in two very different spells. I will be calling out the spells as the witches speak them but be warned. That still leaves precious seconds where you do not know what to expect. Be vigilant. Be patient. And above all else," Ozpin turned to me. "Do not lose yourself in chaos."

I gulped.

Velvet clapped loudly, "I guess it's time to put our training to the test. Be on the lookout, we don't know how deep into the cave system the witches are, so we'll need to be checking each cavern. That, and sealing off those rooms in case they're trying to lead us into a trap."

"They'll die first," Jaune growled.

"Love the spirit. Try to hold the antagonistic angst back a bit. Don't want to call Grimm to us while we're stuck in a cave fighting witches. Russel, do you want to take point?" Russel nodded at Velvet's request, brushing through a mesh of low hanging vines which blocked the entranceway into the cave.

Aside from the prickly bushes and lack of front yard maintenance, it looked like a pretty good home. The vines were a nice touch. I hadn't thought to try that before. Usually I would just place a large piece of bark in front of the entrance or roll a big boulder in front of the exits I didn't use to often. The vines gave the cave a nice homely feel, while still letting int some natural light. I would definitely need to try that out in the future.

I chuckled into my hands to cover the sounds of my laughter. Who'd have thought that a Reaper would already learn so much from a witch!

Velvet followed soon after Russel, then Jaune and I took up the rear. The headmaster followed behind all of us, wearing a light smile as he hobbled along with the help of his walking stick. I let my eyes flicker over to Jaune on my right, where he looked to be brooding silently.

"Are you okay?" I asked him in a whisper.

"Fine." Was his tersely muttered reply.

I frowned. He didn't sound like he was fine. He looked even more angry and jumpy than he did outside the cave. Caves were supposed to make you feel calm and relaxed, not jumpy and anxious.

"Jaune?" I asked once more, this time a little quieter. Without meaning to, I reached for his arm, only to have him forcefully shove me away.

"Hey!" I exclaimed. Now that was rude. I may not have been keeping up to date on my human emotions textbooks from the library, but even I knew shoving people away was considered rude.

However, I wasn't really sure where to go from there. I could do what it said to do in the book; that being to stay away and give him time. But he was so broody since we left on this trip, so I didn't think more time would help. I could do the Yang method and punch him. Or grab onto him and force him to answer me, but that seemed a little too violent. Also, I still wasn't sure how strong I could grab him without accidently breaking something.

That left me with only one option remaining. The Weiss method.

"Jaune, tell me what's wrong, you… you dolt! Or I'll… I'll… I'm not quite sure what I'll do yet, but I'll do it and you're not going to like it!" I stomped my foot and shout-whispered at him.

He growled and spun around to face me with a murderous glare.

"I don't have to tell you anything, alright?" Jaune stepped forward and I reflexively stepped back. "You don't tell me everything, so why do I have to do the same with you?"

"Maybe because you are my best friend and even someone like me can see that you're hurting." My anger slipped out.

I was a freaking Reaper for Salem's sake. If I wanted to, I could tear him to pieces with my bare hands, while in human form. Probably. I could definitely do it in Reaper form, for sure. One look at me and he'd be frozen in place. If I really wanted to, I could search through his mind and pluck out the very memories he was trying to hide. Well, I could do it when he was asleep. Awake Jaune would be much harder, but I was confident that I could still do it!

Taking a breath, I continued, "it's remarkable that Grimm haven't descended on all of us with your emotions going wild like that. Just tell me. Please. And… and… And then you can ask me about anything you want, and I promise to answer it truthfully in turn."

Jaune looked straight ahead, over my own. If his eyes weren't so somber, I would have thought he was making fun of my much shorter height.

"Domremy is a small village, maybe a few days drive from Vale. A week at most." He spoke slowly, eyes glazing over with every word. "There were a couple hundred of us. Maybe a handful of huntsmen, mostly from my family. I'm not sure if I told you this, but my father is a huntsman. And his father and his father before him. It goes back generations. The Arc name is pretty well known in some of the small villages around Domremy."

I held back a snort. Jaune Arc really didn't know about how infamous his family was to Reapers. But now wasn't the time to be cracking jokes, even inside my own mind. He looked more depressed than I'd seen him in a while. Almost like how Yang looked that night at the docks.

"Guys! Don't fall behind," Velvet said from further into the cave. Her scroll's flashlight was too bright and I covered my eyes with my wrist.

I turned to our short-term leader, "we'll catch up."

Grabbing Jaune's hand, I pulled him towards the rest of our team and the headmaster, while Jaune continued to speak just above a whisper.

"We lived in a small house. Me, my dad, mom and my seven sisters."

Seven? Didn't he tell me he only had six? I asked him that right away. He shook his head sullenly.

"Saphron, Amber, Lemon, Jasmine, Poppy, Rosemary and… and my little sister Pepper. She was four."

I could feel the sadness rocking through his body. I glanced around, making sure he wasn't attracting any Grimm as he continued to tell his story. The lack of cackling was nice; no witches were close by yet.

"I'm the only son and the second youngest. Right after the twins Poppy and Rosemary, right before little Pepper. We were at a beach, maybe a few miles from home. My da had cleared it of Grimm a few weeks before with the help of Amber and I had begged him to take us there for a family vacation. I got so bad, balling my eyes out to my mom. Even got Pepper to beg for the trip. Da accepted, of course. If nothing to get me to stop whining. To stop complaining. I was young, but not young enough to warrant the terrible behaviour. He should have just told me to shut up. Or hit me to be quiet. I wish he did hit me.

"I remember the beach almost exactly. White sand like nothing I'd ever seen before. And the lake. It was the bluest water has ever looked. Blue and calm and warm and oh so inviting. There were caves around the far shore, maybe a short swim away. The water between the beach and the caves was low enough that my parents could wade through it without much difficulty. I had to stand on my toes and raise my head as high as I could at the time, but I could also tip-toe along the floor to reach them."

Jaune sighed. "It was my idea to have dinner in the caves. There were so many of them. Our parents, Saphron and Amber went to one, so they could eat and talk grownup stuff, while the rest of us would eat together in the cave entrance right next to theirs. All we had to do was listen to Lemon. She was in charge, being the oldest among us, after all.

"But once again, I had to act like a child. I had to pretend to be a huntsman. Like da, like Amber. 'I was the man of the group, without my father around,' of course I was strong enough to protect my sisters if anything was coming for us.

Then we found them."

There was cackling. Far down the cave, so far that the only sound was the repetitive low echoing, but it was noticeable. It's eery cry ricocheted across the chamber we were in, bouncing off stone walls, vines and the small pools of water. Stalactites dripped small droplets of water onto the stalagmites below them, breaking up the raucous crackle of bones.

"Keep your guards up," Velvet warned, tightening the tape wrapped around her palms.

"Witches," Jaune muttered, pulling free his sword from its scabbard.

"Witches," I repeated, pursing my lips.

"They were there in those caves. Silent ones, mainly. Didn't know that at the time. That there were different types of witches. Just that there were a whole bunch of them. There were probably no more than four or five, but every time I think about it, it feels like there were dozens, maybe hundreds." Jaune let out a disconcerting snort.

"like any of us would have survived if there had been that many.

"We screamed and ran. The parents and our older sisters came to save us, but by then it was already too late. Pepper had been hit by something. Some strange potion which clung to her like dust. She said she was alright when dad scooped her into his arms. Amber stayed back to give us some time to escape, then once we were all clear of the caves and back to the beach, she collapsed the cave entrance on their heads.

"I thought we were home free. Heh, we all did. We cheered, we hugged. I cried. Then the ground shifted. The white sand underneath our feet shook and… and changed. From the most incredible white ever to plain old regular yellow sand. I had no idea what was going on at the time. It was a spell you see. Those witches had laced their magic potions and their spells into the very ground as a last-ditch method to kill whoever was barging in on their home. Since Pepper was the only one who had been hit by a witch's potion… well, she was the only one the spell targeted. She died before any of us realized what had happened. What was going on. Just, one second we thought we had escaped and the next, my father was carrying around the body of his youngest child, my little sister.

"It was my fault we were at the beach that day. My fault we ate in those caves. My fault we went exploring further in."

My fault.

The words echoed in my head, pounding like a drum. What happened to him, it was just so similar to what happened to me. No wonder he felt so bad.

"Hey Jaune?" I touched his shoulder lightly.

"Ya?"

"Oh, umm…" I forced my question back into my throat. Hey Jaune, was there a Reaper there to help? Stupid question. Stupid Ruby. Of course there was no Reaper there. Jaune would be that much more scared. Or his memories would be changed. Or a million other reasons why he would have one of my own blocked from his mind or memory.

Instead, I decided to fall back on my book on humans once again. When something bad happens, it is best to apologize and offer sympathy. "I'm sorry for what happened to your sister. To Pepper."

"Thanks Ruby. I needed that." Jaune patted my own shoulder and gave my hair a little rub as he walked passed. "Oh, and Ruby? Can you… not tell anyone? I don't want any sympathy or anything from anyone else. I only told you and Pyrrha about it and… I don't think I'm ready to tell everyone just yet. Maybe after today. Maybe after I face down a witch one more time. Closure, you know?"

I nodded, even though I didn't know. It seemed to make him happier, judging by his smile. Finally with a calming sigh of relief, he took out his shield.

"Alright, let's go kill ourselves some witches."

"Ya!" I cheered.

Cackling shot out through the caves. Louder this time.

"They're just up ahead. Remember everyone, listen to the noises they make, and if you don't understand the language, wait for me, Jaune or the headmaster to interpret before attacking. Don't expect your weapons to work how they had for years. And keep a hand on your fire dust at all times." Velvet said, sounding much more like a leader than I ever had. "This time tonight, we'll be back in Beacon with the first Higher Order notch on our belt!"

Some cheers erupted from the three students, brandishing their weapons. Headmaster Ozpin smiled as he stood back behind us, hands on his cane. I stayed silent, excited to be going after some witches, but not so happy about my fellow classmates ticking off any more notches on the Higher Order belt. Especially not the final boss of Higher Order Salemites.

Shaking the thought from my head, I gave my sniper-scythe a gentle pat. Time to finally let loose

Ended up being a bit exposition-y, but whatcha gonna do? It did answer a question which I put out in like the second chapter, though it was such a minor detail that I don't think anyone commented on it. But it explains Jaune's drive to be a huntsman in this fic.

theshocker517 - Ruby is going to be in for some trouble quite soon. Didn't she ever learn to listen to her elders? Or maybe in this case, listen to her youngers?

Alucard45 - One more chapter until you find out if your (first) prediction is right! The second one may take a little longer. But don't worry. it's coming up sooner than you think!

Dragonqueen1993 - Thanks for that. Always good to know that one bad chapter won't tear down a fic. Even if it sounds obvious after the fact. :)

lasereye27 - Oh Ozpin, always trying to hide what you may or may not (probably the latter *wink*) know.

See you all in two weeks!