Symbiote Knight

Chapter 29: Anger Issues

The ride back to Beacon was not a quiet ride, everyone was talking about what happened, mainly team RWBY talking about Jaune's semblance. A semblance was a great moment for someone that had their aura unlocked as there were people that while they unlocked their aura, they never discovered their semblance.

"So, what's it feel like when that covers you?" Yang asked curious.

"Uh, well…it's hard to explain," Jaune wasn't trying to deflect, it really was hard to explain into words. "It's like having another layer of, well yourself over you, if that makes sense."

"Not really but hey, it's your semblance," the other blonde shrugged her shoulders.

"I've never seen or heard of something like this," Blake commented thinking hard on it. She had been around and seen a lot of semblances both in and out of the White Fang. Something Jaune had though? That was something unique she couldn't think of anything similar.

Weiss nodded her head. "It is a very unique semblance, what are you going to call it?"

"Oh uh…" Jaune really hadn't thought of that question. "I'll…get back to you on that."

"Yeah, naming a semblance is a commitment," Yang stated.

"It is, since this is going to be a part of you," Pyrrha was doing her best to help cover for Valor's exposure. She wasn't even technically lying as Jaune explained to his team how the bonding was permanent.

As the flight continued all, but one person was talking, Ruby was remaining silent. This was because she was actually worried for her friend, the way he had acted when he fought that Grimm was so unlike Jaune. He had acted like he was fill with anger at the Grimm, sure she would understand people being angry and even hating Grimm for the things they have done, but Jaune wasn't the type that got that kind of angry. It was kind of scary actually how much he had suddenly changed, and she was worried something was going on with him.

Eventually they made it back to Beacon as the ship landed, everyone had handed off their sap earlier, Ren was taking Nora back since she still had sap stuck to parts of her face to help her wash it off. As everyone was leaving Jaune felt someone tug of his clothing as he looked to see Ruby looked up at him.

"Hey Jaune, can we talk?"

~She's not going to confess to you too is she?~

'What!? No way, she's like my best friend,' although given he had three girls interested in him, something he never thought would ever happen in his life, he wasn't completely sure of that.

"Uh okay," Jaune looked at Pyrrha, "We'll catch up."

The others gave curious looks, but they figured Ruby wanted to talk about something important and private. As they were left alone Ruby looked up at Jaune with a worried look. "Jaune, are you okay?"

"Huh?" Jaune blinked.

"When your semblance came out you changed, and I don't mean just how you looked." Ruby told them as they slowly just started walking away from the loud noises of the aircraft and other students. "You acted almost like someone else, you were vicious in that fight, it was very unlike you. So, I started to worry that maybe there's something going on? You're my best friend and I'm just worried about you."

~That's my fault~ Valor mentally sighed he was already feeling bad enough about letting his emotions flow out into Jaune like that, but he could see the worry in the younger girl's eyes. Over time as he had gotten to know Jaune's friends he had felt that Ruby was a kind soul. She had the kind of good heart that Klyntar like himself liked to bond with.

If he hadn't bonded with Jaune, he was thinking Ruby would have been one of the few good alternative choices and the emotions of guilt over the incident with the Grimm were only compounded now by worrying the young girl.

Jaune could feel the inner turmoil of his symbiote and wished he knew how to make him feel better. He focused on Ruby as he needed to deal with this first.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Jaune scratched the back of his head. "Looking back, I guess it was kind of scary?"

"Maybe a little but I was more worried about you." She told him.

"Thanks for worrying but it's not what you think," Jaune told her. He was at a crossroads here, he trusted her and her team but was he ready to let them all in on the secret of Valor? He knew that if he ended up dating Weiss or Yang, he would have to tell them about Valor, and it wouldn't be fair to keep that secret from their entire team.

However, given Valor's feelings now it might be best to push it off until he helped his symbiote with his anger issues over Grimm and the guilt about what happened today first.

"Say Ruby, what if you had a secret that was a really big secret, I'm talking like this is a huge secret," he asked her. "This is the kind of secret that you're afraid to tell others because of how they would react, what would you do?"

Ruby thought about it. "Sounds like a big secret alright, honestly I'm not sure."

"You have no idea just how big," Jaune sighed. "The thing is what happened has to do with that secret."

"Do…do you not want to tell me?" Ruby felt a little hurt about that as she trusted him with pretty much anything.

"I do, but it also involves other parties," He cryptically said. "It's not just my secret."

"Ohhh," Now while she might not get what kind of secret it was, this she did get. "It wouldn't be fair to the other people if you just said it."

"Yeah exactly," he nodded. "Plus, if I told you, I would also want the others of Team RWBY to know so you're not keeping a secret from them either."

Now she was starting to get where he was coming from, he didn't want to put an extra burden on her. Truth was, she hated keeping secrets, at least serious ones. Things like where Blake kept her secret book stash she was fine with. It was the big ones, the ones she might have to lie about to cover up, those were the ones she hated the most.

"I do and will tell you guys, just, well there's some stuff I have to deal with first," Jaune told her. "You see the 'suit' you saw me wear? Well, it kind of made me angry during that fight."

"Wait it was the suit that did that to you?" Ruby had never heard of a semblance that altered the emotions of the user, usually it was the other way around like how anger could fuel Yang's semblance, not as much as actually taking damage did but when she was angry it had flared out of her from time to time.

"Yeah, it kind of dumped a lot of aggressive feelings into me," Jaune mentally felt his symbiote 'wince' at that as he sent a mental apology to him.

"But you're okay now, right?" She asked him.

"Oh yeah, totally fine," he assured her. "It's just something I have to work out with him-I mean the suit, what I have to work out with the suit."

~Smooth~

'I'm sorry!'

Ruby let the slip by as she was already thinking about his suit. "Okay well if you need any help or you know just to talk, I'm always here."

Jaune gave her a warm smile. "Thanks, you're a good friend."

Ruby shoulder bumped him. "Hey, you're my first friend I ever made here, if you need help, I'm there."

Ruby then got a thoughtful look on her face. "Although for a moment there I thought you were going to say you were the Vale Knight."

Jaune stumbled a bit, "What, why!?"

"Well, that suit looked a lot like his, it was different, like the style was totally different like the mask, didn't have that kind of armor covering and it was just a different moon symbol. There was also that moving cape thing which I will want to figure out one day, but it just reminded me a lot about that guy's suit."

"W-Well it couldn't be me, I was with Pyrrha when you guys got attacked right?" He tried to cover it up.

"I thought you guys split up because you dropped your scroll?" Ruby questioned him.

~You did say that~

"Uh, well it was on the way to the meeting place, we were together for most of it and then on the last block I realized and turned around, found it not far away." He hated lying to her like this, but he had to make it seem like he had been in two different places.

Ruby thought back to how she had seen Jaune already there as she and Yang were the last to arrive, she didn't remember seeing him out of breath or anything.

'Right, that's silly, there's no way he would have been able to do that, if he was with Pyrrha most of the time, I wonder if it's just a similar semblance?' Ruby thought about it and figured there just wasn't enough time to slip away.

Ruby laughed it off, "Yeah I guess that was a silly thought, I guess you guys just have similar taste in colors or something."

"Yeah maybe, look at Weiss, she wears a lot of white too." He pointed out.

Ruby hummed and nodded. "Well thanks for hearing me out, I was just worried something was going on."

"I'm glad you were worried and came to talk to me and I promise you, I will tell you the full story when I can."

She pointed at him. "You better because I'm holding you to it."

He only smiled back and nodded as she gave him a small smile as they went back to the dorms.

By the time Jaune got back to his dorm room after putting away his weapons in the locker he found everyone already changed and cleaning up, even Nora finally got the last of sap off her face with Ren's help.

"Everything okay?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yeah, Ruby was just worried about how aggressive I got against the Grimm," he explained to them. "Speaking of which, I think we need to have a talk with Valor because of how he reacted."

The symbiote came out covering Jaune. "I apologize for that."

"Why did you become so aggressive with it?" Pyrrha asked.

She symbiote shifted a little. "It's hard to explain."

Suddenly the symbiote pulled back from Jaune's face as he started talking. "Buddy it's okay you're a part of his team now too."

"Yeah, lay it on us," Nora nodded.

"Thanks for that Nora."

"Any time you're our super-secret fifth member." She smiled at him.

"Yeah, so you can tell us what's going on," Jaune told him.

Every time they switched out, the symbiote would cover Jaune's face and every time he wanted to talk it pulled back. Ren voiced something he had been thinking about seeing this.

"It's too bad we can't have you talk separately, this back and forth of switching means one of you has to wait for the other." Ren sighed.

"Oh, I can fix that," the symbiote pulled off Jaune's head completely as a second head came out of his shoulder. "How that?"

"Wait you could have done that the entire time!?" Jaune looked at the new head as it looked back at him. It was a very surreal experience.

"Never needed to until now," Valor replied.

"Is there more I should know?" Jaune had to admit that he didn't know the full limits of what the symbiote could do.

"We have plenty of time to explore our options," Valor told him. "This is a learning experience for the both of us, the more we bond the more we will be able to accomplish together."

"That's…vague," Ren admitted as the symbiote faced him, which was a little creepy with he large 'eyes' and mouth and the way it moved in a fluid way that didn't look natural for it.

"It's honestly the best I can do, every time I bond it takes time for myself and the host to I guess you can say 'figure things out' between us."

"I think we should get back to the conversation at hand," Pyrrha gently stated as she didn't want the conversation to get too far off track.

"Yeah right," Jaune looked at Valor. "So, buddy, what got into you? I would literally feel the anger you had you were disgusted with that Grimm."

The symbiote looked a bit downcast as the head started to look around. Valor knew why the Grimm angered him so much, mainly because of what they reminded him of, they reminded him of the origins of his kind.

They reminded him of Knull.

"Are you okay Val?" Nora took a few steps closer to the symbiote's face.

"Val?"

"Yeah, you know, short for Valor." Nora grinned at him. "Friends should have nicknames for each other."

"Friends huh?" Valor hadn't had friends in a very long time, not since he last joined with a host and that was a very long time ago.

"That's right buddy," Jaune told him. "We're your friends and you're a part of this team."

Klyntar didn't normally do the whole 'social' thing, it came with their nature. They bonded to a host and that was usually it but sometimes through the host other connections, granted not as close as with the host, did happen from time to time. It came with the sharing of thoughts, emotions of their very being.

"The Grimm are an artificial creation I can literally feel it when I tried to bond with one. It was just full of nothing, but negative emotions and the body was made out of something that was pure Darkness, or at least as close as it can get to True Darkness."

"What do you mean by 'True Darkness'?" Ren asked hearing the importance of those words in the symbiote's voice.

Valor wasn't sure how much to explain to them, there were reasons why the Klyntar didn't go into their origins, one for safety another was because of the collective shame of it all. They where ashamed of their origins and so it wasn't easy for them to talk about. Even the Corrupted didn't like to talk about it.

"Hey buddy you, okay?" Jaune said as he could feel through their bond the turmoil his symbiote was going through.

"It is…not an easy subject to talk about," Valor looked away. "It has to deal with the origins of my race."

"How so?" Pyrrha asked him gently. "Is there anything you can tell us?"

Valor mulled it over and he supposed an abridged version he might be able to tell but he couldn't bring himself to say certain things, things that scared their kind to their core.

"We…were created," Valor slowly started. "The Klyntar were created by a malevolent being of pure Darkness, he is the true Darkness of the universe, a dark god that created us as his…weapons."

"Your people were created to be weapons?" Ren asked him as the symbiote nodded in shame.

"We were created for the purpose of helping him in his plan to…to revert the universe back to its original status."

"Which was?" Jaune hesitantly asked knowing he wouldn't like the answer.

"Darkness," Valor stated. "In the beginning there was nothing but darkness, nothingness, there was no light, no time, no anything and that's what he wants the universe to return to."

That sent a cold chill in the room for them all hearing that. They couldn't wrap their minds around the concept that there was a 'before' the universe they knew. That things like time were a concept that wasn't always just there. That there was some entity out there that wanted to basically take away everything in the universe until nothing remained.

"You make him sound like a god," Ren stated remembering the stories of the God of Destruction but on a much larger scale.

"He is," Valor replied. "He is the god of the symbiotes, our creator, our shame and our enemy."

"He's a god?" Nora asked surprised. "Like a god-god?"

"There are many entities in the universe that would be called gods by you and others. Entities that are cosmic embodiments of concepts such as Eternity, The Celestials, The Living Tribunal, The Phoenix Force, Lord Chaos, Entropy, Death, and the less powerful beings you would normally think of as gods such as the Asgard, Chthon, Kly'bn and countless others. There are gods for nearly every race, some have one, some have many."

"Do you mean like, the Brother Gods?" Pyrrha asked him, she like everyone on Remnant have heard of the story of the Brother Gods but the number of people that still believed was hard to pin down. She was more of a believer in fate and destiny herself.

"From what I read of your world it would seem so although it's odd that they seem to be so absent." Valor couldn't even begin to fathom the reason why the Brothers hadn't been seen so for long that many viewed them as myths or legends. He could only speculate since the history of this world didn't seem to go back as far as other races.

"So then what's your god's name the-mphh!" Jaune started to ask but a tendril suddenly formed and wrapped around his mouth.

"Do not ask that question!" Valor was visibly scared of such a thing. "His name is to be forgotten, he is imprisoned, and he must stay that way, to say his name is to court his attention!"

The symbiotes went out of their way to keep their dark god locked up for eternity and they would do it anyway possible. They even scrubbed all known knowledge of him, his name and where he was imprisoned. Valor was of the school that even saying his name was to court disaster. Even locked up, the darkness still had ears to hear with.

Slowly Valor pulled back the tendril from Jaune's mouth.

"Okay so no asking that, got it, don't want some dark god looking at me anyway," Jaune felt very creeped out that just saying a name could get the attention of something like that.

"Gods have ears, if a mortal prays to them, says their name, then they will hear it," Valor explained.

"This…is a lot to take in," Ren sat down on his bed he thought that aliens were bad enough to try and wrap his mind around but to learn that gods were also real? That they were everywhere out there just like alien life, it made everything seem so small in comparison.

"No kidding," Jaune sighed just learning his alien friend was also a weapon created by some mad evil god that wanted to destroy everything. "So, what happened? I mean you were created by him and then what?"

"In short…we rebelled and sealed him away," Valor wasn't going into the specifics as talking about all this was hard enough.

"You said that the Grimm were created as well," Pyrrha thought about what was said. "Do you believe they were also created to be used as weapons too?"

Valor thought about it. "It's possible, although unlike us the Grimm are less than what we are. They have no true mind of their own, they are creatures more of emotions than thought and all I felt was negative emotions. They are creatures created by some form of Darkness and are filled with nothing but hate."

"So, it reminded you of your origins?" Jaune asked.

"It's deeper than that," Valor told them. "It's like they attack us at our core, on pure instinct it sickened me to even touch those creatures. Just looking at them now makes me feel an instant dislike for them now after I attempted bonding with one. They are toxic to us, a poison that must be destroyed."

"Like a dark mirror you're looking into," Ren muttered.

Valor looked at him and nodded. "I suppose so."

"Okay I'm starting to get it, but you got to learn to control those impulses." Jaune gently told him. "We're in this together and I promise you that together we're all here for you."

Valor looked down slightly. "I know that my emotions were starting to influence you and in the battlefield that can be dangerous. I know that the Corrupted relish combat, they love it and looking back, I was starting to act just like one of them and that…disturbs me."

The Corrupted were the ones that exiled him into space in that asteroid, lost in the dark for so long had been one of the worst experiences of his life. To think he was even close to acting like that was both disturbing and sickening to the Klyntar.

"Hey there, don't be so down," Nora gently patted the head. "We're here with you and if you're worried about that you can count on us to help you out."

"That's right," Jaune told him. "You're not just my partner in this but my friend, if you feel like you're losing your way just lean on me and let me help you. After all this goes both ways, right?"

"While I'm also Jaune's partner, I'm also your teammate and friend," Pyrrha came up to him smiling gently. "We look out for each other and support each other and you're no different."

"That's right," Nora eagerly nodded as Ren gave his own silent approval.

Valor wasn't used to this, a bond without bonding but it felt…nice.

"I will need to work on how the Grimm affect me, to control my instincts on them," Valor spoke his thoughts out loud.

"We're here for you buddy," Jaune said again.

"Thank you, all of you," With that he merged back inside of Jaune leaving him in just his normal clothing.

"Guess he wants some private time to think on things," Jaune figured.

"Still, kind of a bombshell he dropped on us," Pyrrha now could think on what she learned. The universe suddenly got a whole lot bigger and complicated.

"You think we could meet a god if we just kept calling their name?" Nora asked out of curiosity.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Ren stated. "Valor listed things like Chaos and Death, I get the feeling there are some we really don't want to get the attention of."

Jaune was reminded of a being that literally ate worlds as he shivered at the thought of that. "Yeah, that might be for the best. We got enough issues with Grimm running around I don't think we need to add in some kind of cosmic horror or something on top of it."

"The fact that there actually is cosmic horrors out there doesn't put me at ease," Ren knew he wasn't going to get much sleep tonight. His mind always the analytical one would be going over these events. His mind was already coming up with so many horrible possibilities of what could be out there.

"Well, when you put it like that…" Nora trailed off. "Kind of a pity, I wonder if there were gods for hammers or lightning or something, that would be cool."

"Who knows," Jaune stated. "I'm going to take a shower and hopefully not have nightmares tonight of some dark god watching me sleep because I know about them."

Ren winced, now that was going to haunt him tonight.

For Pyrrha her thoughts turned to something else, mainly the fact she could hear the water in the shower turn on made her think of Jaune in there. She laid out on her bed facing away from everyone trying to hide the blushing of her face as she thought of him in the shower. She knew it was horrible of her but after that day of seeing him in a towel, she just couldn't help herself anymore.

She felt horrible about thinking about him like that, but she just couldn't stop. Her mind kept thinking about what he was doing and what he looked like. A few times even her mind went to her in there with him and things that could happen. Her face was very red by this point as she tried to think of anything else.

Her scroll chimed letting her know someone had a message, she was grateful for the distraction as she saw it was the private chat room that Yang set up between them and had added in Weiss. This was a way for the girls to try not and step on each other's toes trying to get time with Jaune.

Y: [Hey Girl, so I got Ruby to talk, said something about Jaune's semblance making him mad?]

Pyrrha decided to respond as best she could, she hated lying like this, but this wasn't exactly her secret to tell.

P: [It's fine, it's a side effect of his semblance, we were just talking about it]

Y: [So he's good?]

P: [Yes, thanks for the concern. He's just taking a shower now]

Y: [Lucky :p]

P: [Perks of being on his team ;)]

Y: [Just don't try and jump him in the shower before me and Weiss get our shot]

Pyrrha blushed again, how in the world did Yang know she was thinking that.

P: [YANG! I would NEVER!]

Y: [More fun for us then]

Pyrrha wasn't sure what to say after that as she felt a rare moment of jealously on how brazen Yang could be, it just seemed to come so easily to the other girl and Pyrrha wished she could allow herself to be more free spirited. Years of controlling what she said and did in public because of her image she knew had left her always on guard with her actions and desires.

P: [I don't know how you do it, how you can just say what's on your mind like that.]

Y: [You just got to be true to yourself P-Money, if you want it then go for it. Just not this time with Jaune, unless you invite me along]

Pyrrha's mind paused as she contemplated Yang's words. Was she hinting at the three of them together at the same time? She honestly didn't know how to respond to that, and she felt a mix of confusing emotions.

Thankfully Weiss entered the room.

W: [Yang how can you say something like that?! Do you know no shame!?]

Y: [Oh hey there, noticed you side eying me in the room lol]

W: [Oh course you were grinning suspiciously. Plus, I can't talk about this with Blake and Ruby in the room.]

Y: [Why not?]

W: [IT'S NOT PROPER!]

Y: [Pyrrha you should have seen her face it was hilarious. But what's there to feel shame about? If it's something people want, and it makes them happy I say go for it. Too many people seem to want to be miserable]

W: [Because who does that!?]

Y: [Why are you feeling left out? It might be tight but we could try and squeeze in another body]

[Weiss Schnee Logged Out]

P: [What happened?]

Y: [Shower is free, so she hopped in but man she had a funny blush on her face, LOL. How's our boy?]

Pyrrha heard the shower stop and realized he would be out soon.

P: [He's getting out now]

Y: [If he comes out in a towel I expect a pic, it's not fair you only got to see it]

[Yang Xiao-Long Logged Out]

Pyrrha sighed not sure what to make of all that as the door to the bathroom opened to see Jaune already changed with the clothing he brought in with him. She had to admit, part of her was disappointed, which she immediately scolded that side of her.

TBC…

Before you ask, Knull is not going to physically show up in this story.