Beta Reader: Champion of fate

Jaune struggled to keep his eyes open as he watched a fight in the arena below. The mission with Raven last night did not allow him to get any sleep before having to come to class. On the way to class he was constantly questioned by his teammates about his whereabouts after leaving the schools infirmary.

He, regrettably, was forced to lie to them, saying he caught a flight to Vale to try and find some new armor and was unable to catch a flight back till the early hours of the morning. It pained him to lie to his friends, but he did not want them to know the truth of what he did during the night.

Jaune was currently sitting above the arena where he had fought, and lost, many times against his fellow students. Right now the match was Cardin vs Nora, with Nora completely dominating the match. Never in his life had he wished to be in Port's class, he could get some shut eye in there and no one would even question it.

Jaune watched to keep himself awake. If he had fully rested the night before he would be more invested in the fight, but at this point in time he could barely keep his eyes open long enough for him to keep track of the fight.

Jaune put his chin in the palm of his left hand as he watched Nora try to break Cardin's legs, but was stopped before she could do so by professor Goodwitch using her semblance to take Magnhild from her grasp.

"That is enough Ms. Valkyrie. Mr. Winchesters aura has entered the red zone, so this match is now over." Goodwitch said as Magnhild hovered beside her.

"Awww! Can't I break his legs a little bit?" Nora asks with her bottom lip sticking out.

Glynda looked up from her clipboard at Nora and squints her eyes as she says, "No. Now return to your seat." Nora walked back depressed as Cardin limped away holding the left side of his rib cage.

Jaune's eyes began to close despite his best efforts. Jaune drifted off to sleep as he sat in his sleep and visions of the mission with Raven began to flood his mind. How he was able to defeat several members of the fang, the moment he and Raven stood back to back against their enemies, but most of all, the one that was the most vivid and the one stuck with him the most, was the moment when he killed that white fang member.

He could see the shock in white fang members eyes as crocea mors entered his chest and pierced his heart. He could hear the air leave his lungs as he took his last breath. But most memorable of all, was that he could still feel the white fang members blood pour down the blade of his sword and flow over his hand it had even dripped onto his chest plate and soaked his sweatshirt. He was using one of his backup shirts that matched the color but lacked the logo.

His visions came to an end when he felt someone begin to shake him from his slumber.

"Jaune? Jaune! Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked in a worried tone.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry Pyrrha, I'm just tired is all." Jaune said as he rubbed his eyes with his hands.

"I noticed. The professor just said the last match is about to be fought. It's going to be two on two, partners vs. partners, so I thought you would want to see who gets picked." Pyrrha said as she removed her hand from Jaune's shoulder.

"Yeah, I'd like that. Thanks Pyrrha." Jaune said as he stretched his arms out and let out a yawn.

"Don't mention it, partner." Pyrrha said as she turned her attention to the professor below in the arena.

"Okay, now lets see which pairs of partners will fight one another.." Goodwitch said as she began to pick out the two teams. The first pair of partners was Yang and Blake.

Yang shoved her fist in the air, happy that she would finally be able to fight someone today. Blake let out a heavy sigh as she and Yang rose from their seats and went down to get their weapons.

Everyone watched as Goodwitch searched through the many partners who were present in the class, and Jaune and Pyrrha's names were selected.

Jaune's let out a heavy sigh as he rose from his seat and he followed Pyrrha made their way to the locker room to retrieve their gear.

Jaune placed his scroll in front of his locker, unlocking it in the process and retrieves his sword and shield. Jaune began to draw his sword from its sheath and as he did so he thought he saw blood still staining the blade and he dropped it.

Jaune leaned against the wall and slid down it his legs no longer having the strength to support him. His breathing slowly came down from the rapid breaths becoming longer and deeper and slowly his heart rate also slowed back to its normal beat. Having finally regained himself Jaune stood and attached the sheath to his side and slid the blade now clean of the imaginary blood back in. When he emerged from the boys side of the locker room he must of still looked pretty bad because Pyrrha's face took on a concerned look. "Jaune what's wrong, did something happen?"

'Yeah I keep seeing the time I killed a man and it's haunting me,' he thought but put on a smile on his face and said "Yeah I'm just concerned about the fight with Yang and Blake. You might be able to take either of them and possibly both of them but I can't."

"No that's not it because you were like this before we even found out we were fighting, what happened while you were in Vale? I want to help you, but I can't if you won't tell me what's wrong." Pyrrha said as she placed both of her hands on Jaune's shoulders and shook him a little bit.

Jaune looked into Pyrrha's green eyes and let out a deep breath. "Its my semblance."

"Your semblance?! You unlocked it?!" Pyrrha asked with a mix of shock and happiness mixing in her voice.

"Yes, it happened when I separated from all of you during the breach. Its the main reason I was able to survive." Jaune said as he looked down at the tiled floor underneath the two of them.

"That's great! But why is it the thing that has been effecting you so much?" Pyrrha asked inquisitively.

Jaune couldn't tell her the truth.

He just couldn't bring himself to tell her what what his semblance has gotten him into, what he has been forced to do.

"I don't have a good understanding of how to properly use it, or how it truly works to be honest, and it has been effecting me greatly. I can hardly rest, and whenever I do I have nightmares from the day of the breach that wake me all throughout the night." Jaune said as he looked away from Pyrrha, unable to look her in the eyes.

"Jaune if you don't feel like fighting I can-!" Pyrrha began to say before Jaune stopped her by putting his hand up.

"No I appreciate it but I won't let you face them alone, you've been fighting alone for too long already. Besides while one is beating me you can beat the other and come to my rescue." Jaune joked as he stood up.

Pyrrha's eyes widened for an instant but then she couldn't help the smile that grew on her face. "Okay then Jaune. Let's do this." Pyrrha then grabbed her blad and her shield as she headed into the arena, with Jaune not far behind her.

Everyone watched as Pyrrha and Jaune entered the arena and stood across from their opponents. Pyrrha stood across from Yang, as Jaune stood across from Blake.

Goodwitch stood to the side as she started the countdown timer for the match.

10...9...8...

Yang cocks her gauntlets as she locks her gaze on Pyrrha.

7...6...5...

Blake draws her sword from its sheathe with her right hand, and holds her sheathe in her left.

...4...

Pyrrha firmly grasps her sword in her right hand and placed her sword on top of her shield as she put it in front of her.

...3...

Jaune drew his families sword from its sheathe and extended his shield out.

...2...

Everyone in the stands watched on the edge of where they sat.

...1...

The combatants all readied themselves, and locked eyes with the person they would fight.

0!

Yang and Pyrrha charged at one another. Yang slammed her fists into Pyrrha's shield as Pyrrha ran towards her and began to push her back.

Blake ran forward and began to slash at Jaune's shield, with Jaune managing to block them. Jaune then swung her blade horizontally. Blake blocked Jaune's sword with the sheathe of her sword and then swung her sheathe at his head.

Jaune ducked under the attack and pushed Blake back with his shield, and then charged at her.

Blake dodged to the side and slammed her sheathe into Jaune's right calf, causing him to stumble a bit before he swung his at Blake again as he spun towards her.

Blake leaned back to dodge Jaune's sword and wrapped her ribbon around Jaune's left leg.

Jaune fell flat onto his back and quickly rolled to his right as Blake slammed her sheathe into the floor where he once was.

Jaune picked himself up off the floor and readied himself to charge again. Jaune charged at her only to pass through the clone.

Blake appeared on Jaune's left side her ribbon wrapping itself around his left hand. She then slammed her sheathe into his arm, making him drop his shield as his pain shot through his entire hand. Blake then kicked Jaune in the chest and placed her foot on his chest as she put the tip of her sword at his throat.

"Submit Jaune, this need not go any further." Blake said in a cold tone as she pushed her sword closer to Jaune's throat. He could see the emotions flicker in her eyes, she was concerned although it wasn't for him. Yang was facing Pyrrha and the sooner Blake could join her the better chance they had. Jaune surprised her when he grabbed the blade pointed at his neck, his hand lit up with aura prevent the weapon from cutting him although it caused his aura to dip. With his other hand still gripping his sword he swung for her head. She leapt back pulling the sword free from his hand.

Her eyes narrowed as she transformed her weapon into its pistol form as Jaune rushed over to grab his shield. Blake open fired on him as he barely manages to grab his shield to deflect the bullets.

He felt a tug on his left arm and looked down to see the ribbon was still wrapped around it, before he could even grab it and pull Blake had spun pulling his shield out of the way and fired off a couple of shots. "Just give up Jaune,' she said taking aim at him. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Yang and Pyrrha's brawl. Yang was being pushed back and it looked like she didn't have much longer before she dropped into the red.

Jaune then cut Blake's Ribbon off his arm with his sword and used it to keep his shield in his left hand.

"You've got to be kidding me? He can't be serious." Weiss says aloud as she watches this unfold from her seat above.

"He's dead serious." Ren said as he watched his friend up from where he knelt down with his shield tied to his left hand.

Jaune charged at Blake again and threw a vertical slash at her.

Blake ducked under the slash and slammed her sheath into Jaune's right knee.

Jaune stayed up on his feet and hit Blake's sheath away as he stabbed at her.

Jaune managed to land a small cut on Blake's shoulder, and separate a few strands of hair from her head.

Blake hit Jaune's sword away from her with her own and as she did so her blade collapsed around it. Blake threw Jaune's sword to the side and then kicked Jaune's shield out of his hand. She then kicked him in the stomach, and then followed up by hitting him in the face with her sheath.

Jaune fell back, feeling consciousness leave him. He drifted away as he heard Pyrrha yell his name as she tried to rush over to him.

Blood and fire.

That is what Jaune saw as he closed his eyes.

An entire village set ablaze, ravaged by some unknown force, leaving none living in its wake.

The stench of blood was so thick in the air Jaune could almost taste it. The fires heat was so hot it burned Jaune's skin as he held his hands in front of his face to shield it from the flames.

The bodies of the inhabitants of the village were scattered all over the ground, their bodies being mutilated to the point they were unrecognizable to Jaune.

Jaune made his way to the center of the village where he found the one who caused all of this.

There stood a woman Jaune recognized all to well with blood staining her mask and her clothes. As he stared at the woman surrounded by the carnage, the women he had spent the better part of the evening fighting White Fang with, the woman who knew what he was feeling and he could feel her. He felt every emotion she felt standing amidst the bodies or should he say the lack of.

Because at that moment Jaune Arc felt absolutely nothing.

Jaune's eyes shot open as his back hit the arena floor. Jaune watched as Blake was hit away from him by Pyrrha's shield.

"Jaune?! Are you okay?!" Pyrrha asked as she helped him up off of the ground. Jaune stumbled a bit as he began to stand up and fell to one knee.

"I'll be fine, Pyrrha. Just need a sec." Jaune said as he watched Yang and Blake readied to attack them.

Pyrrha used her semblance to bring Jaune's weapons back over to him and placed them in front of him. Jaune took his sword and shield in hand and readied to continue the fight.

"Jaune, stay behind me. I'll take it from here." Pyrrha said as she stepped in front of him and readied to defend herself against Yang and Blake.

No.

Jaune would not allow that.

He would not allow Pyrrha to stand alone any longer.

Jaune picked himself up off the floor as his aura began to emanate from him, shocking everyone in the room.

"Jaune..." Pyrrha said as she stared in amazement. Jaune looked over at her with a smile adorning his face. He then placed his left on her shoulder.

Jaune's aura spread from his hand and began to envelope Pyrrha's body as well. Pyrrha didn't know what was happening as she looked down at her hand as Jaune's white aura began to disappear.

'By the gods...what was that?' Pyrrha mentally asked herself as she looked at her hand she held her sword.

'That, was my semblance. We are now bound together.' Pyrrha heard Jaune say in her head.

Pyrrha looked over at Jaune with eyes wide as he simply smiled at her.

'I know you have questions, but they will have to wait. Lets finish this.' Jaune said as he placed his shield in front of him and put his sword on top of it as Pyrrha did the same.

The two of them then charged at their opponents.

Pyrrha blocked and dodged all of Yang's attempts at offense and countered accordingly.

Yang threw two punches at Pyrrha, only for her to block it with her shield kick Yang in the gut then hit her away with the staff part of her spear.

Yang's semblance began to activate as her hair began to glow and her eyes became red. Yang fired off several rounds from Ember Celica at Pyrrha as she charged forward towards her.

Unknown to Yang Pyrrha had been slightly altering the path of Yang's shots by using her polarity upon Ember Celica, allowing her to continue forward unhindered.

Pyrrha blocked one of Yang's punches with her shield and kicked Yang in the chink before bashing her in the face with her shield.

Yang punched Pyrrha back, and then ducked under Pyrrha's shield as she threw it at her and it bounced off the walls of the arena.

Yang charged forward and launched an aura charged punch at Pyrrhas face, only for it to be blocked by Jaune's shield. Yang was surprised to say the least as she looked over and found Jaune holding Pyrrha's shield with his blade stabbed into the floor as he just threw his shield over to Pyrrha.

Jaune drew his blade out of the concrete floor and parried an attack from Blake's sword, and blocked her sheathe with Pyrrha's shield.

Jaune didn't know how he was doing it. Since he linked with Pyrrha he began to move more...fluently. As though he had been fighting the same way Pyrrha had for nearly the same amount of time she had. He figured it was because of him bonding with Pyrrha earlier and would wait til later to learn more about how his semblance really worked.

Jaune threw Pyrrha's shield at Blake's sheath and pinned it to the arena wall with one of the sides of the shield.

Blake stabbed at Jaune with her sword, but Jaune countered by swinging his sword horizontally to his right.

The two of them matched one another blow for blow.

Jaune swings to his left, Blake would swing to her right.

Blake would slash downward, Jaune would slash upward.

Jaune would stab at Blake, only for her to dodge to the side and then stab at him in return.

Blake then transformed her sword into its pistol form as she swung at Jaune horizontally and held it inches away from Jaune's forehead.

Before either one could say anything Milo in its javelin form hitting Blake's pistol away from Jaune's head, giving Jaune the opportunity to kick her away from him.

Jaune then grabbed his sword where the guard met the blade and snagged Blake's shirt with his sword. He then rushed her as she put her sword up to defend herself and put the sharp point on the blunt side of her sword next to her throat.

"Concede, Blake. This need not go any further." Jaune said as he looked Blake in the eyes.

"I...concede." Blake said as Jaune took back his sword and released his grip on Blake's. He then turned his focus to Pyrrha as she was having difficulties with Yang having lost her weapon to save Jaune and not getting a chance to summon them back because of Yang's aggressive assault.

Pyrrha was doing her best to fight Yang hand to hand, but Yang was an expert in fighting this way as Pyrrha was simply adept in it.

Jaune had to act fast, otherwise he was about in deep trouble.

Jaune rushed over to where Pyrrha's shield was stabbed into the arenas wall and then threw it at Pyrrha and Yang.

Pyrrha got a mental note from Jaune to duck down. Pyrrha quickly kicked Yang in the gut then pushed her against the arena wall. Pyrrha then ducked down and as she did her shield zoomed over her and found its mark as the side of the shield embedding himself into the wall by her head. Pyrrha summoned her Milo and pressed it to her neck.

"Fine, fine. You got me. I give up, you win." Yang said as Pyrrha brought back her shield and the two swords.

Glynda announced that the match was now over as Jaune went over to his shield and transformed it back into its sheath form. Jaune put his sword back into his sheath and placed it back on his waist. He then severed the link he had formed with Pyrrha earlier as she walked towards him.

Jaune heard Pyrrha call his name but as she did so his world grew darker as he began to fall forward, and his consciousness left him completely.

AN: Sorry this took a little while, I was trying to get this out in January but as you all know shit happens. But now that volume 4 has finished up we now have a little bit more info on Raven to work with. Not much, but enough to help me and Champ out for the future chapters.

Hopefully my next chapter for Dark Knight won't take as long.

For those of you that don't know I now have a youtube channel, Ezra Blacklight, where I read the darker stories on the internet, mainly found on reddit, and read them to anyone who wants to listen. I was also thinking of reading my own chapters and putting them on either my channel or a second channel I may create for them so all of you can listen to the story when you don't have the time to read and would rather listen to me read it to you, but that's all up to you guys.

Well that's really everything I had to say for now. Thank you all for reading, if you saw any errors me and Champ missed in this chapter please tell us so we can fix it.

Til next time guys, later!