Lunar Rose

By APIII and Fate-117

Chapter 6: Absolution

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The blond Knight didn't register the transition from consciousness to unconsciousness, nor did he have the pleasure of the opposite. It all happened in the blink of an eye, at least, to him. One moment, he was on his feet, rushing forward to meet the Deathstalker in battle, and in the next, he was gazing into utter darkness. A sense of disembodiment about him as all of his senses were numbed to levels one would associate with sleep paralysis.

Before the panic could settle in, his body was seemingly kick started as everything returned to him in a rush. First came the soreness of his limbs, no doubt from lying unconscious upon the ground for what felt like a while, if the crick in his neck was any indication. Then came the pain, not from pinched nerves of muscles and lack of blood flow, but torn muscle and bruised skin, severe enough to elicit a groan from him. Then the memories reached him, and Jaune was scrambling to pick himself up off the floor in a panic, irrational but understandable fears of Grimm surrounding him merely waiting for him to notice them before they pounce coursing through him.

He didn't rise to his feet in an impressive flourish worthy of a Huntsman, in all actuality, he barely got to his knees before falling over, and it took a few more moments of ragged breathing and exerting force before the Arc managed to wobble upright, knees shaky and threatening to out from underneath him. It was only then that he realized he wasn't in any danger, as the darkness he found himself in was absent of any glowing, blood red eyes.

It was the instinctive fear of the dark that had him patting his pockets for one of the flares he'd brought along. The ominous red light that filled his surroundings did little to calm his frayed nerves as the claustrophobically small setting made itself apparent to him. With several large breaths of air and more than a handful of minutes, Jaune put his right arm on the right wall, forcing one foot in front of the other as he made his way forward into the unknown.

It was as time passed on with no change, tendrils of self-doubt and madness more than firmly entrenching itself into his mind, before Jaune felt them. The tremor that traveled through the very earth, shaking the finest of particles of dust into the air. It wasn't a large one, barely perceivable, but it was enough to force Jaune to stop dead in his tracks. It wasn't consistent enough to be oncoming Grimm, and the narrow path couldn't fit the smallest of Boarbatusks. The tremor came again, and it prompted him to step forward once more, the answers wouldn't come to him if he did nothing, after all.

They only grew stronger and much more frequent as he continued, and his pace mindlessly picked up until he was all but sprinting forward. He saw light at the far end of the pathway. Now sounds reached his ears, the crashing of metal upon metal, of blades slicing through the air, and shockwaves that he'd only seen Huntsman capable of creating.

It had to be his team!

As he finally reached the light, Jaune crashed into a battle between two forces he couldn't fathom.

Jaune crashed into a body, bouncing off the set of armor with a thang, before slamming into the ground as all of his breath left him.

After taking a few brief seconds to catch his breath, his hand pulled at his armor to offer his lungs more room to expand so he could better suck in air, until he noticed a pair of massive boots next to him in his lowered field of vision. His eyes traveled up upon the figure, taking in the rusted scrap metal that hung off of its body, the pure black material seemingly absorbing the lights of the torches that lined the cavern. He gulped at the sight of the large estoc in its hand. As his eyes reached its face though, his mouth hung open as its equally black skull gazed back at him, hollow eye sockets honing in on him somehow.

The Arc was petrified, a cold clamor working across his skin as he stared death in the face. This continued up until the point where something smashed into the back of the monster's head, creating tiny hairline fractures along the back of its skull. It fell upon him, and Jaune scrambled back away desperately, kicking at the dark figure as he screamed and managed to wiggle his way from under its weight. The young man was horrified that the creature barely budged or even seemed fazed by each of the frantic kicks.

But Jaune didn't have the time to linger on that fear, as there were more to come in this nightmare.

A second figure, the supposed attacker, stepped forward, and brought down the sword in its left hand upon Black with the intent to cleave through its clavicle. In contrast, this one was bone white, though still seemingly a skeleton, also adorned in equally deteriorated armor.

Black barely managed to parry that downward swing, slapping aside the blunt side of blade with the dented vambrace on its forearm. The force behind the strike was so great that it created a gust of wind that whipped Jaune's hair about. Black seemed alarmingly agile and strong with being able to still defend from such an attack while on the ground, though it still could do nothing to stop the stomp that followed. The creaking protest of Black's cuirass before it shattered had Jaune covering his ears.

The Arc watched as White was kicked away from Black, the seemingly light impact sending the massive skeletal structure back at least a dozen feet before its boots slide along the ground, sparks flying from the metal. The creature recovered quickly and looked towards its downed adversary, and then slowly towards Jaune. The young Arc froze completely, his mouth shut, and he stared back at the ghastly face of White. Unlike Black, it completely lacked any skin or eyes, but Jaune swore that he could see a light deeply in its sockets as mist left its mouth.

Then suddenly, and Jaune couldn't tell if it were sheer speed or an illusion, White was back upon Black within a heartbeat as it swung about a dull greataxe in its right hand, lifting the heavy weapon with a single arm, with another weapon in the other hand. The action proved too impossible for Jaune to believe as he realized there wasn't any skin on its arms, or any on its body for that matter.

No skin, no muscle, and no ligaments on White, and barely enough on Black for even a starving vulture to pick at.

He thought about the unholy abominations that were Grimm, and how these beings were much the same. Their bodies should have proven unable to support their weight at all, the power they were capable of in their attacks seemed unproportionate to the mass they had.

The very same phenomenon occurred as White's great axe swung towards Black's helmet, ending the being's attempts to stand, the metal of its armor screeching as the figure was sent careening back down to the floor. But its small victory would not persist as Black had seemingly grasped at the handle of the axe and gave it a mighty tug, hurling White across the room as it haggardly rolled with the force of the fall with a kick aimed at the stomach timed with the momentum of its own crashing fall, using the force of White's swing, and gravity, in the throw.

White crashed against the wall closest to Jaune in full force, the ensuing shockwave snuffing out the a majority of the torches near the point of impact and caused some of the mounds of bone to fall. After the briefest of moments of silence, White creaked and forced itself from the small crater in the wall, clambering onto the floor. Jaune could hear the groans of bone upon bone as White slowly made its way onto its knees, and then, its feet.

It wasn't just its own bones creaking as Jaune realized that he was utterly surrounded by a macabre display of bones, some broken and powdered with most of the full sets being around the walls. There had been weapons scattered here and there, but the walls had been decorated with long, deep gouges that Jaune could easily tell weren't from swords… this was a mass grave. The kind that he had only read about in class, the kind that would litter Mt. Gleen. It immediately donned on him that this must have been a last stand, a large shelter that had been breached that likely no one survived to record.

The tall imposing figure turned its head so it could glance at Jaune for a mere moment, which was just enough to rob the Arc of his breath before it turned its head once more to focus upon Black, who was still recovering on the floor.

Black looked around the room as it reached for its sword. Jaune noticed that the creature seemed to reach for something on its back that hadn't been there, at least any longer, judging from the way it tightened its fist in what Jaune could only guess was frustration. Instead, it stood, widened its stance with a loud stomp, and grasped the hilt of its sword with both hands, the blade tilted towards its now emerging adversary.

Across from it, White shuffled through the piles of bone and rusted weapons that left a chilling screech that echoed off the walls and into Jaune's ears. White slowly stumbled to its feet, using the axe handle to balance itself, crushing a skull that had dislodged from its body under its foot to a fine dust. The sickening sound made a shiver go down Jaune's spine, causing him to grit his teeth and cover his ears. The thought that the dust in the air possibly could be made up of grounded bone didn't occur to him. But he would not look away, his cobalt eyes watching as White now, like Black, readied his weapons, lifting the sword forward and holding the greataxe near its back leg. And then it stopped.

They both stopped.

Jaune's mind raced, his hands fidgeting and his legs trembling as he stared at them from the corner he had made his sanctuary, which was between two mounds of crumbling remains. His hand quickly grasped at his mouth when the loudest sound in the chamber had become his own frantic breathing. He needed to calm himself, to clear his mind and get a better grasp of the situation he found himself trapped in. As soon as the sound of his own heartbeat and the rush of his blood could fill his ears, the abominations shifted ever so slightly, but it was just enough. Then, they lunged.

They moved at a speed Jaune found nearly impossible to trace in this lighting. The young Arc couldn't keep sight of their silhouettes whenever they tried to slip away and had a lingering sense of dread whenever they were out of his sight for too long. Which, fortunately for his sanity, was never too long due to their clashing blades, each meeting of steel sending out showers of sparks, clearly with the intent to kill judging from the ferocity.

Decisive swings, twists of the blade, and bone crushing bashes that literally sent out shockwaves which trembled the ground beneath Jaune. It was as though they were dancing, they either were master fighters, or they knew each other well enough to have acquired this level of understanding in the other's movements. Though, Jaune was sure it was a bit of both as Black managed to counter and block White's dual-wielding assault even as the beast of a fighter would swap the weapons between his hands in the flurries and clashes in ways that he felt would even give Pyrrha's genius pause.

'What are they, and how long had they been fighting.'

That question rang in the Arc's head as he desperately tried to blink away the apparitions, hoping that his vision was going haywire from the concussion he likely had sustained from his fall. He was exhausted, potentially delirious, and grasping at the chronic worry that he'd died and gone to some sort of hellish realm of nightmares. But, no matter how much he blinked and slapped his cheeks, he could still see the intense sparks and feel the bursts of power from their duel.

Black had retreated back into a defensive stance, its legs bent at an angle and as secure as a fortress as it waited for its antithesis to pursue. White came dashing forward at a speed that seemed unbecoming of its size. At the last moment, White twisted on its hind leg, shifting its momentum as it extended its body up, the creature hauling the axe over its head before it even finished turning.

When the greataxe of White came swinging down, Black quickly took a jump back, nearly landing into a pile of bone, to avoid the strike that literally shattered the floor and cracked the walls of the chamber. Dust and powder erupted out from the cracks that rippled out, the shockwave knocking countless bones and debris into the air. Jaune screamed when he felt himself actually bounce subtly off of the ground in his hiding spot, his heart sinking when he fell down the mere few inches he'd been lifted.

Black, who seemed mostly undeterred by the shockwaves of force, counter attacked by lunging forward with its sword aimed at White's chest, its feet quickly slamming into the shards of stone unheeded with each step.

Rather than attempt to dislodge the axe in its hand, the pale skeleton quickly let go of the weapon and dropped its weight as it rolled to the side of Black. It used its now vacant hand to latch onto the ground to control the momentum of its tumble, essentially anchoring itself so it could recover before Black could from its lunge, resulting in the skeletal structures crashing into each other as White tackled the other onto the ground.

Jaune watched as White tried to quickly place its knees on top of Black's arms in an attempt to pin it there, but the task was far more difficult than expected as it received a powerful hilt bash to the side of the skull, knocking the skeleton's helmet clean across the room and to Jaune's feet as it tumbled into his shoes.

The young Arc was startled when it came in contact with him, being the first direct interaction he had with the fight since his initial crash, all but destroying any lingering hope he had of all of this being a figment of his weary mind. And with that thought, Jaune turned his gaze away from them just in time for White to return his own punch on his downed opponent, a sickening sound of bone breaking still reaching the Knight's ears.

He had to find a way out.

His eyes quickly glanced around the room from his corner, barely taking in the detail of shattered weapons and mounds of skeletons for more than an instance. The sounds from the two behind him caused him to rush in his search, but even then, he concluded that there was no exit, No exit besides the one he fell from down the hall he took to get here and he knew he couldn't make that jump and he dared not try and climb while the battle persisted, still uncertain of who or what they were.

With no other options available to him, Jaune rushed over to the only better hiding spot he felt he'd make it to in time; behind a discarded tower shield that'd been leaning against a group of long dead fighters only a few feet from him. Given the sight of the two animated beings, the blond was uneasy in his choice of hiding as there was the now plausible chance that these sets of broken bones could be revived at any moment.

Jaune sat with his back against the cold metal of the shield, his eyes focused on the wall across from him as he tried to gather his nerves. Each time he almost managed to collect himself, the ground would rumble underneath him and he'd hear the sounds of metal once again clashing. He slowly turned his head, nearly peering over the shield, but rather got a good look at himself in the dirty inside of the piece of equipment. His face paled as he couldn't tell how he felt from the fact that there was a long, blackened streak of crust across where his face had been, knowing full well that it'd once been blood.

He gulped and slowly traced his hand over his throat before deciding to tuck his chin down until he felt the chill of his armor against his skin. As he looked back over the edge of the shield, he saw them again.

This was a nightmare, it was a hellish nightmare that he just wished he could wake up from. The sounds of cracking, of bashing, and of metals crashing together made him squeeze his legs once again as he remained hidden behind the shield.

White had been dashing towards Black, zipping between what few mounds of bone remained standing in frightening speed, even leaping up unto the walls and ceiling whenever its path had been blocked before quickly returning to its circle tactic. But, before it found its opening, Black took the initiative and stabbed at its opponent as soon as it went behind one of the mounds. Jaune watched as White narrowly avoided the blade that seemingly surprised it - that went on to pierce through a dislodged skull - by ducking its head low. It was once again surprised when suddenly the entire mound exploded as Black had followed through with its lunging strike, kicking a plethora of bone and discarded armor into its body and causing it to tumble onto the ground. As White tried to roll away with the momentum on its elbows, it dropped both its axe and sword for the sake of avoiding the blade once again as Black stabbed into the space White occupied just a second ago, the tip of the estoc easily sinking into the stone.

Black's eyes lit up as it saw this opportunity and quickly made to follow up its attacks with a powerful flurry of piercing strikes aimed at the pale, fleeing abomination. The speed of its attacks created a sickening sight as Jaune was certain that when he saw one strike, two, or even three had already occurred, but that wasn't the only display of speed present.

Jaune marveled over how something so big could be so dexterous as White rolled and twisted around on the ground to avoid the strikes, shifting regularly from its back and to its elbows or hands to angle its lean body just right to have the blade graze its armor or bones. It even managed to deflect some of the attacks with its foot or sweeping its vambraces against the advancing blade.

Unfortunately, as White made efforts to avoid each strike, Black would occasionally approach closer with a step here and a step there, timing each step as to not over extend and give the crafty monster an opportunity. As the seconds went on, it looked less and less like Black narrowly missing its strikes and more like it was controlling just where White could and would go, causing White to have to push its body further and further away from its weapons. This hadn't been ideal as it grew closer to the wall where it would have nowhere to run. It needed an opening if it hoped to survive this assault.

Suddenly, Black, seeming to have either found its target, or over zealous at this chance to slay its antithesis, took two steps. Before the attacker could even place its foot upon the ground, White had twisted off of its hands and spun itself around so that it could perform a sweeping, horizontal kick at Black's one source of leverage in an attempt capitalize the overextending.

It succeeded.

The towering mass that was Black had begun to fall. As soon as the dark titan began to hit the ground, White righted itself from its sweep and spun around on its hands and knees before placing its toes against the ground and then bending so that it could dive across and over Black towards its weapons. But, just as it passed over its downed opponent, Black once again managed to grab onto White as it had been reaching its long arm over and got a good grip of the abomination's ankle and used it to drag it back to the ground.

Jaune watched as White struggled to try and reach towards its sword, its fingers inches away before Black tugged and began to drag it away. The pale monster quickly looked around as it seemingly couldn't power through to its weapons for something else and quickly grabbed the first thing it could just in time for Black to give a mighty toss as it rolled its body with the motion that literally threw White back towards the wall.

When White hit the wall, Jaune could only wince at it impacted so hard that it bent the armor the skeleton had been adorned in and he was sure it would've been screaming in pain or rattled if it still had the capacity to do so. As White struggled to move for a moment, Black just managed to jump to its feet where it then turned its attention back to its now cornered enemy. Jaune was sure that this was over as Black raised its sword and poised the tip towards White before quickly lunging in for one final strike.

As the blade got closer, White sprung into its counter and used the skull it had picked up when it was thrown in an attempt to block much of the piercing strike. With the blade piercing clean through the skull, White let out a sickening sound as its hand was suddenly covered in a low, white glow that prevented Black's attack from going in too deeply. They held it there, both creatures struggling to try and overpower the other as White now switched to both hands to resist Black attempting to drive off of its legs, going as far to twisting the blade in its hand in the hope of drilling through the defense.

Jaune was breathless, petrified, and unable to look away.

During the past minute or two of this bout, he had found himself leaning progressively further out from behind the shield until now his entire head was exposed. Still, his view had still obscured of much of it as all he could see now was Black standing over what he assumed was White and seemingly exerting a tremendous amount of force as it slowly managed to step forward towards its cornered foe. The Knight had two thoughts going through his mind, was this almost over, and the other…

Was this his chance?

Slowly, he crept out from behind the tower shield, daring to peek away from the struggling horrors only to ensure he wouldn't accidentally trip or make a sound that would announce where he had been hiding. He was sure he could do it, but he feared to reach too far. He paled as he had to stop himself from placing his hand over a skull that had been smaller than the rest, but he pressed on because it looked as though it had been the most secure spot he could use to get down.

The two beings weren't paying him any mind, they both knew this was the day that their endless struggle would do just that; end. The glow around White's hands was slowly dimming, the blade slowly inching ever closer to its skull. Their bodies creaked as both beings put everything they had into the two actions.

There was no getting out of the situation unscathed, the duel was over. White's hand twitched, letting go of some of its strength for a fraction of a second as it readjusted just a few inches, and that was all Black needed.

Its blade tore through White's skull, ripping through the cheekbone, cleaving off half of the lower face and jaw as the weapon fully lodged itself into the stone wall behind them by entire feet. The impact sent cracks snaking through the stonework and nearly caused Jaune to slip from across the room. Black watched as White's arms slowly fell to its sides and its body going limp. Rather than let go of its sword, it kept steady on the hilt of the blade as it waited and waited.

It was over.

Everything froze, the passage of time became unknowable as nothing happened. Jaune hadn't even been breathing, the only sound he could hear being his heartbeat, and even that seemed slowed until finally the sound of Black trying to pull out its sword filled the room. It tugged, yet the blade remained lodged. It took the moment to adjust its grip, reaching over with its other hand and tried to tug at it again.

Slowly, little red dots appeared in White's eyes as what remained of its mouth creaked open, mist flooding out once again. All of the sudden the room was filled with a surging howl.

Before Black could even react properly, White jolted forward, snapping a piece of its jaw right off against the sword as it suddenly sent its right hand up to punch Black, uppercutting it so hard that its teeth shattered, its jaw bent, and it was sent sailing into the air as the impact sent a shockwave through the dust. Before it could get too high, White had already been standing and drove its other fist downward into the stomach of its hulking enemy, sending its body slamming into the ground with a violent bounce, its head smashing into the floor, as it crashed through the mound behind it and slid across the ground for a dozen feet.

Black tried to recover and managed to roll onto its knees, but its skull was suddenly met with a lunging knee bash head on as White was already upon him. The monstrosity recoiled, its head cocking back as fractures began to appear, but it was not out yet. It quickly attempted to counter White and sent a blind jab towards the pale abomination, who ducked right and rose up just as quickly as it now wrapped its left arm around Black's extended right, locking it to the side.

The darker creature then tried to quickly push White off with its left arm, but White simply pressed forward and grasped the offending hand with its free hand. Before Black could try and kick at White, a loud, gut wrenching crunch could be heard echoing through the room as White had stomped its way through Black's shin, its foot being connected by the mangled, dried flesh of its leg. The shift in balance caused Black to begin to fall backwards, but it was kept up by White's grip of its struggling arm.

Now that it had subdued both of its arms, White suddenly snapped and twisted its left arm, wedging Black's arm under its own armpit until a popping noise filled the room. But it didn't stop there, it kept applying pressure until another crunch could be heard, and Black's entire arm hit the ground below them.

Still, even after all of this, Black took what stance it could on its one leg and tugged at White's grip of its one arm and bashed the front of its skull against White's, the resulting impact rattled and fractured White's skull. White seemingly stared back for a moment before snapping its own head back, bringing it down with enough force to crack Black's skull as well.

This was it.

This was what it all came down to, an immeasurable amount of time spent at an impasse - at a standstill - with nothing quite changing in the small pocket of death they inhabited while the rest of the world left them behind. Who knew how much longer they would have been here if Jaune hadn't tipped the odds ever so slightly in one's favor. That first blow the blond teen had been witness to, when Black stared at him, allowing White a blow to the back of Black's head, had been the first fracture.

White looked over at the fear stricken Jaune for a few seconds and regarded him with a slow, slight nod, then it looked back to Black.

This was it, the end of a long journey they had taken together. White looked at Black for all of a few seconds, taking in the taut skin that was pulled at places, the fire in those long dead eyes, and the bones that had been broken and allowed a dim light to exhume from that little spark that still lied inside… this was their peace. White slowly tightened its grip against Black's hand that refused to let go even after all the damage before ramming its head through Black's, shattering it completely. The fragments rained down to the ground as powder flew from the impact and Jaune swore he saw what remained of lights flickering in and out like fireflies.

White slowly let Black's limp remains fall from its hands with a loud and unceremonial thud. It grew motionless as it stared at the broken and beaten corpse. That first fracture had been the deciding factor in it all, the simple causality to this wonderful, wonderful reaction. Like the first crack in a dam before the water flooded in.

Jaune's throat felt like his heart was lodged inside it as the room went silent, the dull clang of bone snapping fading into nothingness as the air very seemed to freeze up, refusing to fill his lungs no matter how desperately his body demanded he take a breath.

Then, all too quickly, the world lurched back into action. A crackling sound filled his ears as the white figure held out its arm towards the remains of the black abomination's corpse. Smoke enveloped the remains, sucking up the lights as it swirled about the ground before rushing towards White's outstretched hand, moving from there to envelop it entirely, shrouding its form from his sight.

Jaune had had enough, and his mind was finally able to once again process his fight or flight instincts; naturally, he turned on his heel to escape, making for the hallway he came through. His fingers desperately scratched at the rock for any leverage, and he was able to start hauling himself up before he felt something grab him by the back of his armor and drag him back, throwing him down to the ground.

Despite the shock, the Knight still managed to bring his shield up from off his waist, one hand unsheathing Crocea Mors as the thumb of his other hand ran across the switch that extended the contraption. Expecting the numbing force of a weapon to come crashing down upon him, Jaune didn't question it when no such thing occurred as he rolled away to the side, throwing himself onto his feet clumsily but hastily.

His right hand held his sword, his body tense as he tried to stop the shaking, peeking over the edge of his shield at the creature, his feet shifting his center of gravity as he prepared himself to quickly roll off to either side once more in case the need arose.

The sight before him was somehow more intimidating, though. It merely stood there, at the entrance of the room, standing in what would've been a neutral stance if it wasn't for the battered and chipped greataxe it held in one of its bony hands. Its head was tilted to the side, empty eye sockets gazing at Jaune as if in curiosity.

Jaune felt more like it was looking down at him, likening it to a predator would to its prey, and his skin became clammy as a disturbing thought occurred to him. Testing his theory, the Arc backpedaled a few steps, also gradually moving towards the right. Its body turned to face him accordingly, but it didn't move a step out of the way.

It knew that it was blocking the exit.

Silence once again reigned supreme, and the Arc recognized it as the calm before the storm. The fear that filled his veins with ice now fueled his adrenaline as he accepted the impending altercation. The familiar grip of Crocea Mors was his anchor as he inhaled deeply.

With a sharp cry, Jaune charged forward, shield held out firmly in front of himself, with Crocea Mors poised to strike. This time, he did meet resistance. It was the foot of the pale skeleton. Whatever armor it had worn between the metal boots and the ruined chest piece that still clung to its frame had long since rotted away, and that gave him the perfect opportunity to slash at the bone. Steel whistled through the air as his sword came down, but the dull clang it made as the white glow he saw earlier stopped all the momentum was the only thing Jaune heard. As the young Arc tried to push through, the fact that the glow had been Aura gave him just a moment's pause as his eyes widened.

The creature then proceeded to kick him off, the bones of the leg producing far more inertia than Jaune, with his already considerable size - who was also weighed down by all his armor - could possibly hope to stop. His feet left the ground as he was sent flying once more, tumbling backwards painfully as he scraped along the concrete of the floor, his armor working against him as it dug painfully into his skin because of the awkward positions.

By all rights, Jaune would've been struck down several times by the time he finally managed to pick himself up off the floor. Instead, to his confusion, he rose to his feet to see it still in the same position, as if glued to the spot.

It could have cleaved through him - should have. It could've swung at him with only its bony fists and he still felt that he'd be bested. So why did the creature hesitate?

No - hold back?

He didn't get his answers, of course, but he was given another question. The creature held up its arm once more, smoke - or maybe Aura - swirling and coalescing about it. Jaune realized it might be an attack, he'd seen Huntsman blast out their Aura in waves and beams before, though never in person. Just as Jaune was questioning whether or not his shield would even be able to defend him against such an attack, the Aura, or smoke - or whatever it was - dispersed, and a dark, almost blood-red stone was now held in its hand.

It was very small in nature, small enough to drop into his pocket casually, with enough room left for his Scroll too. There wasn't any black pulsating miasma around it or any ominous humming emitting from it, but Jaune still didn't want a thing to do with it, almost afraid the creature was going to throw it at him at any moment.

What happened was much more terrifying.

The Creature took a step toward him, and the world seemed to dim a bit. It took another step, and then another. Jaune's legs were shaking, not from fear, but the sheer effort it suddenly took him to remain standing. As the ghastly visage continued to slowly approach, the Arc was forced to his knees, his eyelids half-lidded as he struggled to remain conscious. The life wasn't being choked out of him nor was there any pressure slowly squeezing him, his strength was merely slipping away, without any explanation as to how, with his mind's final thoughts only fathoming "why" as the lifeless skull filled his vision.

He awoke screaming.

His hands up came up in front of his face, hoping to shield himself from the creature that was choking the life out of him. It took a few moments of him flailing his hands at nothing before Jaune realized that it was fear that was crushing his chest. It took another few moments for him to realize that there were multiple sources of lights, and twice as many to realize they were in an actual room, with the dull thrum of a small generator signalling that it was the source of power for the dim, fluorescent lighting.

The Arc's mouth hung open in utter confusion as his mind tried to process the sudden change of location, his eyes slowly roaming over the concrete walls of the room until he noticed three very distinct things. A door, a pair of large packs hanging against the wall, and the last thing.

The packs were hanging by the door, which Jaune completely ignored as he slowly stepped forward, transfixed with the third item; the sleek black sword pinned to the wall. The packs were slung over it, in a very deliberate manner, he realized, when he noticed the necklace looped to his strap.

It was the stone.

The mere thought of the nightmare spawn was enough for Jaune to step back with a gasp, flinching automatically at the sight. The world seemed to halt as he stared at it, ice in his veins as he battled, once again, to deny the implications of its existence. It took the faint mumbling he could barely make out over the generator to tear his attention away from the stone, and the sight before him was even worse.

Her skin was clammy and pale, and the redhead barely managed to give him a weak smile for a few moments before she clenched her teeth in pain, letting out a whimper that only hinted towards the agony she felt. Jaune's eyes widened when they finally found the source, a deep gash that tore through her lower thigh above the knee wide enough for him to stick several fingers inside. The lighting made it apparent what the dark crimson that stained everything was.

"J-Jaune, you're...awake...that's good." Ruby muttered aloud, lying down in between two shelves across the room from him. Her voice was light, as if she were dazed and not entirely there, which only served to further distress the Arc.

"Yeah, I'm here, Ruby, I'm here." He whispered out, immediately kneeling besides her, hovering awkwardly as he cursed his lack of medical knowledge, only knowing that anything he did would more than likely just hurt her.

"I'm… glad. Where… are we? Did you bring us here?" The words obviously taxed the young teen, and Jaune was reduced to biting his lip as he continued to see her in such a state.

"Yes." He answered a bit too quickly, unwilling and possibly unable to admit to Ruby that he didn't have a clue where they were or how they got there.

"Yeah, I brought us here, I think it's a panic room or something. Yes… there should be some supplies here!" He cried out, standing right away as the thought struck him.

"That's… good. We're safe from the Grimm here… very smart." She continued, Jaune only half hearing her as he immediately began to frantically search for any sort of emergency kit. "I-It's not as bad anymore. I t-think it was down to the bone at first, but I passed out from the pain. J-Jaune, I'm out of Aura, that's as good as it's going to get for a while." The fear in her voice was palpable.

A fact about Aura was that it's not a conscious act when it came to some aspects, like healing. The body always tried to heal itself with Aura as quickly as it came. The issue was that a person typically could only be injured after their Aura was depleted, and there usually wasn't any left to quickly heal an injury.

There were, of course, exceptions, the majority of which were injuries taken by surprise before the person could think to raise their Aura, though it sometimes occurred in other instances. Those even rarer exceptions mostly occurred with fighters who specialized in fighting with their Aura, where they'd receive an injury while they were pooling their Aura into another part of their body at the time.

Her Aura would've shielded her had she not been running, she wouldn't have been distracted. Hell, she might not have needed any of it if she hadn't had to have saved him. The realization shook him to the core; Ruby might lose her leg because of him. Her career as a Huntress, her entire life, ruined and forever warped because of his rec-

"Jaune, we have to get out of here. Everyone else might be trapped, we have to look for them!"

Ruby, ever the voice of reason and compassion, barely managed to pull him back from the brink of utter despair he'd been ready to hurdle himself into. Of course, even in a condition as bad as she was, Ruby was still preoccupied with everyone else's safety. The thought of the rest of his teammates only caused his throat to cinch shut, and he could only manage a choked noise of agreement and a nodding motion of his head before his hands slowly grabbed her by the waist. He watched her intently, listening just as hard for any signs of discomfort as he did his best to lift her without injuring her.

The redhead still hissed in pain despite it, letting out a gasp when she tentatively tried to put pressure on the foot once she had a steady hold of his shoulder. Pinpricks of tears amassed in her eyes, but she could manage a slow hobble.

"Our supplies, Crescent Rose! Did… you find our things?" Ruby gasped out, more than likely just feeling the lack of the familiar weight of her precious sniper-scythe on her hip.

The Arc let out a noncommittal grunt at her words, his mind far too worried about the signs of exasperation she was already demonstrating from a few steps. With a nervous nod towards her, he stepped forth towards their bags once more, his fists balling up as he tried to hide his terror from her.

Pulling the bags away, Jaune was relieved to find that Crocea Mors was poking out of his own pack and that Crescent Rose was packed in Ruby's own pack. It lasted very briefly as his eyes came up, the section of the wall that had been obscured by the packs now visible to him, as well as the words scratched into the wall.

Take everything with you.

Shaky hands slowly brought the necklace into view, slowly unwinding it from his pack before it hung freely from his grip. He wanted nothing to do with it, but… With a ragged breath, he steeled his nerves and pocketed the stone, taking a glance at the sword before looking to the wall once more, noting with dread the crooked line scratched underneath everything before he hesitantly gripped the handle of the sheer black sword.

Jaune tugged at it once, to no avail, as it was firmly wedged into the wall. He gripped it with two hands, giving him more leverage, but it seemed just shy of enough to free the weapon. It took planting a firm foot against the wall and enough effort to make him grunt before it finally came loose, and he shortly pondered how much strength it must have taken to stab it into the concrete wall in the first place. Carefully using his jean's loops to tie it to his waist besides Crocea Mors, Jaune made his way over to Ruby, who was using the wall to push off of and stand on her own.

"Thanks, hand me Crescent Rose, please? I might be able to use it as a crutch."

The Arc nodded his head, reaching into her bag to hand it to the redhead. When he saw her unfold it and place it against her side, instead of on her hip beside her pockets, he thought of his own pockets, and then what should have been the very first idea that should have struck him.

Jaune's hands shot into his pocket, retrieving his Scroll. The small device had cracks running along the entirety of the screen, and a small part of him hoped it was merely cosmetic as he thumbed the power button until the metal bit into his skin.

"There's no signal, my Scroll works though. I'll shut it off to conserve power, I can't get a hold of anyone right now anyways, not through the tunnel." Ruby softly mumbled when she no doubt saw him attempting to call for help.

Returning to her as he pocketed the worthless piece of plastic out of habit, Jaune saw the fear in Ruby's normally shining eyes, the way her damp hair clung to her skin, how her chest heaved with every breath.

He gave her a smile with teeth to boot, "Come on now, I'm sure everyone is just dying of worry about us, so let's not keep them waiting. Yang is no doubt pissed about all the dust in her hair and Ren probably needs me to save him from the bear hug Nora is squishing him to death with." It was an attempt to try and keep the reality of the situation from weighing down on their shoulders, and the words sounded hollow to Jaune.

The Knight was in no ways a pessimist, but he was a worrier, his whole life a tangle of fear as he constantly bombarded himself with the reality that he could fail at whatever his task was, Beacon having practically been a long period of walking the line between managing it all and having a mental break down.

The same feeling washed over him now, but a hundred times more intense as the harshest of failures met him; Death. The literal end of his life, as opposed to the hypothetical end of his life as a Huntsman. But even more than that, the death of Ruby, the end of her life.

"Yeah, you're right. We'll get back to everyone, and Yang's probably going to hug me and embarrass me in front of everyone, Weiss might call me a dolt but I think Yang will pull her into the hug and she won't pull away too quickly. Blake, I think she might come in too, I'm not sure, she's friendly like that. Sometimes." Ruby began to ramble as they began the slow trek in the only direction afforded to them, forward. Whether or not it was in the direction of their friends, neither could tell.

Jaune eventually caught on to what she was doing, speaking to fill the silence and not allow their thoughts to filter into their heads. It wasn't a good idea, any Grimm that might've been there with them would hear them long before they'd hear it, now that they were out of the safe room, but he didn't point that out. He just listened and started rambling himself when it felt right, all the while his free hand gripped Crocea Mors tightly enough for his skin to turn white as he did his best to not grit his teeth at every small moan and grunt of pain Ruby couldn't hold back.

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Fate: Things are looking down for them, but they're not out yet.

APIII: Well, Jaune and Ruby are, for the most part, yeah.

Fate: I really hope everyone enjoyed the fight, it was something we worked on for a bit and had a few inspirations from the Battle of Mustafar between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader and some fights from Naruto. I'll be honest, I may had gotten carried away a bit.