GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING!
"Happy birthday!" Preto Hele-Nui happily exclaims carrying a large strawberry cheesecake, he lays it down on the coffee table in front of the boy along with the bag he came in, "Seventeen years old, officially a man."
Jaune Arc laughs, "Yeah, yeah."
"Come on, it's not only a new year but it's also a new you." He jokes, "I can't believe it's been three months since I've met you."
"Longest three months of my life, in fact it feels more like three years."
The man rolls his eyes, "Hardy, har, har."
"In all seriousness I'm glad I met you, Preto. You've been like the brother I've always wanted."
The boy's mentor smiles wide, "And you've been the little brother I never knew I needed." He sits next to the younger werewolf, the two grab a plastic fork from the bag he took the cake from and begin digging in.
"Gods! It's so good!" Jaune hums in contentment.
"It really is!"
As the two finish eating, the older Omega takes out his pack of smokes and lighter, he gives one to Jaune. The two place the death sticks in-between their lips and Preto lights them.
The man takes a deep breath and releases a large puff of smoke which Jaune copies a moment later though he releases it from his nose, "So I've been thinking…"
"Yeah?"
"When everything is all over and done with, we should go to Vale."
"Vale?" Jaune questions as he takes a puff from his cigarette.
Preto nods, "Yeah, I want to Introduce you to a family friend of mine."
"Oh?"
"He's a Druid; basically an advisor to a Wolf Pack, my sister met him a few years into our… relocation."
Jaune nods before his eyes widen, "Wait, Druid as in a magician?!"
The man snorts, "Kind of. Like I told you before, magic is a lost art form, barely anyone can use it and nowhere near to the level in ancient times. You and I can use a little and only if we use our blood as a conduit but he is one of the few proper magic users, though he can't do anything crazy like in the movies."
"Still." The boy responds with an excited gleam in his eyes.
The older of the duo huffs in amusement, "Anything he could teach you I already have." He guesses the boy's thoughts.
Jaune pouts, "You taught me a couple Runic spells."
"Yeah and that's all our kind can do!" He exclaims before a thoughtful frown finds itself on his face, "As far as I know. Maybe, you'll be the one to change that."
The younger Omega chuckles, "Maybe." He stands up, stretching and finishing his cigarette. "Want to spar?"
Preto stands up, giving a nod, "Yeah, sure."
The two walk towards the entrance of the house and grab Crocea Mors from the door frame she's leaning against. As they step onto the front yard, the two separate and Jaune unsheathes the sword and puts his left arm through the straps of the scabbard, just as he's about to press the button to unfurrow the weapon it unfolds by itself.
The boy blinks, "Hm, odd?" He mutters, he shrugs and drops into his guard, he looks at Preto who raises into his own.
Derek Emerald is hunched over in a corner, his whole body shivering. His dark green hair stuck to his head with sweat and dirt.
He's in some kind of cellar; it's small, barely big enough to stand in and hasn't been cleaned in years. Two other people are with him, one is his friend Eric Anderson and the second is some middle aged woman.
He's not sure how long she's been here but she looks worse than either of the boys do. All three of them are inflicted with the same curse, the same burden.
She had taught him and Eric to control it, at least a little but… he gags at the things he done under the red haze of rage or lust.
It's not Derek's fault, he repeats to himself. He can't control himself. If he could… if he could that he would never ra–
No! It's not his fault, it's that monster's fault! Whatever they did to him has turned him into whatever they and Jaune fucking Arc is!
The three still, a silent order given. The cellar door opens but barely any light enters. All of them only see horrible ruby red eyes.
The monster throws in a half eaten deer carcass, Derek tries to stop himself, tries to control himself. All three of them do but it… smells so good.
All three of their eyes burn yellow and they begin tearing into what little flesh the dead animal has left.
Derek snarls in the woman's face when she gets too close to him, trying to take his portion.
She snarls right back.
The bigger werewolf throws himself at her, their claws and teeth slashing and sinking into one another. He is the victor of the clash and he returns to the meal, eating her portion of the animal.
The woman whines in distress and curls into herself.
The largest of the Beta's growls and she silences herself. When he's done eating he moves towards her and presses his chest against her back and nips at her neck.
The older werewolf tries to move away only for Derek to snarl, stilling her. His hips begin molding with hers, slapping echoing in the small room.
When he finally comes back to himself he feels his stomach clench and tears threatening to spill from his eyes. He pushes himself away, pressing his back to a wall and his knees pulled to his chest.
His body heaves as his mind replays what he just did, what he forced her to do with him and can't help but hate himself.
Why can't he control himself?
Why?
Derek places his face in his palms and desperately tries to muffle his cries.
Why is this happening to him? What did he do to deserve this?
The teen grits his teeth, his thoughts drifting to Jaune Arc; it's all his fault.
All of it!
If that loser didn't assault him and his friend in the bathroom than he would never had sounded so fucking crazy! If he didn't sound crazy, Rebecca would never have left and died! If Rebecca didn't die then–
"RrrRaAgH!~" Derek roars, startling the other two Betas who cower at his fury.
Henry Cazador pierce the ground with a large green metal pike that blends into the environment; the flat tops have speakers built into him. About a dozen or so feet away is his daughter, Amethyst Cazador, placing a pike of her own parallel to his own.
These aren't the only pikes they placed, two more are further up ahead, ready to be used.
The Slayers wear thick forest green jackets and pants along with shin-high black boots that had the pants tucked in as the hoods on the jackets were drawn up. Each of them carried mecha-shift bows that matched their outfits and quivers strapped to their backs filled with arrows.
The man quickly climbs up a tree, pressing his chest against the bark while his daughter does the same. He reaches into his jacket pocket and presses a button on a small device, the pikes turn on releasing a deafening roar.
The two wait.
It doesn't take long for them to come or at least one does.
Amethyst can't help but stare as a pitch black wolf that appears in her line of sight, their silver eyes roaming the area, their nose and ears twitch most likely trying to hear for the 'werewolves' nearby.
With the beta blockers she and her dad took which lowered their heartbeats along with the antiperspirant suppressing their odor and the generous amount of dirt they rubbed against themselves there should be no way for them, the Alpha, or any other Beta they have to clock them as humans.
Amethyst carefully reaches into her own pocket and presses a button on a similar device that her dad used earlier.
Two roars echo and the wolf head shoots up, before it can move Henry shoots out a bolla arrow. A silver line wraps around the creature's legs and the young Slayer sees smoke wisping off the limbs it's wrapped around.
Just before Amethyst can shoot her own bolla arrow around their maw to keep them quiet she hears her father shout and then a loud thunk.
A loud snarl echos, she… she sees Jaune but he's different; his skin is almost pitch black, his hair is darker, longer and wilder.
Like matted fur.
His jaw stretches out slightly from his face that it almost resembles a snot but what really startles her is his eyes, they glow an acid yellow, his irises taking over the white of his eyes.
He opens his mouth and rows of fangs reveal themselves, for a brief moment she thinks her dad is right; Jaune can't control himself, he's going to kill her dad and she needs to take him out first.
Amethyst takes a silver pointed arrow and pulls it back against her bow's string, ready to pierce his heart just for Jaune to talk.
"Mr. Cazador?"
The girl holds in a gasp, everything her father taught her says that a Newborn shouldn't have the facilities to talk while shifted, that their little more than human-shaped animals but… but…
Amethyst drops down, "Jaune!"
Jaune's head snaps over and he suddenly looks normal, his eyes are wide and his mouth is open.
Perfect.
She jumps into his arms and he catches her, the girl kisses him, as deeply as she's able and much to her relief he reciprocates.
It's not much better than their first kiss but the simple fact that she's in his arms again makes it all the sweeter. His lips are chapped, rough almost like sandpaper and as they grind against her own in a way that sends pure electricity across her spine.
"Hey, bud?" Preto calls out from where he's laying, "I'm glad you've been reunited with your girlfriend who is also apparently a Slayer but can you help?"
Jaune jumps back, "Shit! Sorry." He smiles at Amethyst and pecks at her cheek before rushing towards his mentor.
Henry groans as he stands up, he looks towards the two werewolves with a confused frown.
Amethyst smirks, "Told you."
The man rolls his eyes.
As Jaune approaches he unsheathes a sword and slashes at the silver cord, the older Omega sighs in relief and lays spread eagle, "Oh, that's better. It's been a while since I've been exposed to silver."
"Can you…" Henry scowls, as he covers his daughter's eyes who tries to slap the hand away.
Preto hums and transmutes back into a wolf and twists onto his paws, walking over to his charge and sitting down.
"Thank you." The father mutters and looks at Jaune with a questioning look, "How are you…"
The boy shrugs, "I don't really know, from what I've been told it might be thanks to my mother. Her Semblance is some form of mind control or compulsion, she's used it on me and the rest of my siblings since we've been small, Preto thinks," He waves at the wolf. "It made my mind more robust, able to handle the strain of a shift better than an ordinary person would have."
The Cazadors' look at each other with looks of disbelief, horror, and anger.
"Jaune," Amethyst's voice is gentle, "That is super messed up, you know that right?"
He shrugs, "Not much I can do about it now, can I?"
"Still." Henry frowns before shaking his head, "Jaune, do you have any idea what your Alpha has been doing?"
Jaune's face falls, "They're not my Alpha, not anymore, really not ever."
The Slayer eyes widen, "Ho- wha-" He closes his eyes, ignoring the look his daughter was throwing at him.
"I don't know how." The Omega says, "It," He presses his lips together. "After they bit me, they left me alone. Preto found me not long after and explained how dangerous the Alpha was, how dangerous its actions were. The two of us have been trying to track it ever since, to, well to–" His eyes look over to Amethyst with conflict.
"To kill it." The man finishes with relief in his tone.
"Yeah." He agrees lamely.
Amethyst rubs the boy's left arm and gives him a smile which the boy gladly returns.
"How?" The oldest of the group asks.
Jaune's attention returns to the matter at hand, "I have the ability to sense my bonds, to physically feel them. I've been training to, well, reestablish the bond between myself and the Alpha to track them down."
Henry looks at the boy with disbelief, "That's about the craziest thing I ever heard!"
"Jaune, isn't that dangerous?" The girl asks with a worried frown, "Wouldn't they be able to control you?"
The younger Omega sighs, "We really don't have any alternatives, Preto's been trying to track them the old fashion way but it's suppressed its presence along with its scent and its victims are random as far as the both of us can tell. It's this or wait until it makes a mistake which will just end with more deaths and/or with more werewolves under their control."
The father grits his teeth, "And are you close to reestablishing the bond?"
Jaune raises a palm and shakes it up and down, "I can feel the frayed edges of what used to be the bond between us but I can't find the other end." He admits. "Preto says it's a matter of patience, that a bond between a Beta and their Alpha can always be remade but… well he's never heard of it happening on the Beta's end before. It might be a lost cause."
Henry licks his lips and thinks, "I might have a way to help."
The other three look at him in surprise.
"I know a ritual of sorts, Slayers in the past used it to enter a trance of near death allowing a door in their mind to open. The results were miraculous; buried or altered memories could be recovered, perceived limits of Aura were broken, I read they could even commune with the dead or receive visions of the distant past and future."
Jaune looks in deep thought, he looks towards Preto who seemed dubious of Henry's words.
"A state of near death?" Amethyst asks, she looks at Jaune with conflict and a hint of terror.
Her father nods, "All bodily functions would slow to a near stop, they were all but catatonic. Many Slayers died performing it."
The boy breathes out harshly, "Let's do it."
"Jaune?!" The girl shouts.
The younger Omega smiles, "People are dying Amethyst and if this can stop that then what kind of person would I be if I didn't do everything in my power to help?"
Amethyst frowns but nods reluctantly.
Preto huffs but doesn't do anything more.
"What do I have to do?" Jaune asks the man.
Henry reaches into his quiver and pulls out an arrow. The tip was pure silver but the body was made of a brilliant pale blue crystal; Dust.
The wolf growls, lowering itself to the ground, his muscles straining taunt as Jaune takes a step back.
The Slayer raises his hands up, "I know but Ice Dust is needed for it."
"What? What is it?" Amethyst asks with a scowl.
"Dust is extremely volatile to werewolves." The man explains, "Usually to activate solid Dust you need to apply a significant amount of force or bit of Aura but for werewolves it just needs to enter their system."
"It doesn't react with us too well." The younger werewolf takes over, "It causes a body wide reaction, it won't kill us but the effects are… intense. Similar to Wolfsbane in a way. Like Wolfsbane it can slow us down, something of that size could freeze an Alpha solid in a matter of seconds, for me it would crystallize my blood and give me intense hypothermia, probably put me in a coma for a couple weeks."
"How…" The girl frowns in confusion, "Why is it worse for an Alpha then for you?"
The boy shrugs, "Preto thinks Dust is a remnant of magic and since our nature is also caused by it they feed into each other. Since an Alpha is so much more powerful they are affected by Dust a lot more."
"Then how is this going to work?" The young Slayer asks.
"We break off a piece, a small one and… we hope for the best." Her father replies.
Jaune hums, "I might have a better idea." An idea forms.
Preto gives a confused hum.
Preto watches Jaune as he takes a small bead of the ice Dust Henry gave him and places it inside a cigarette filter before wrapping the death stick properly. The boy then pricks his left pointer finger on the tip of his lower fang and with a look of concentration the blob of blood drops onto the bottom of the tube and a thin red circle made of archaic symbols wrap around it.
"Dust Cigarettes." The man mutters, "Fucking crazy."
Jaune laughs, "Yeah but it should lessen the effects that the Dust has on me right? This way the Dust doesn't enter my system, at least not directly."
The two walk out of the large barn towards the path of the house through the sliding doors into the kitchen where Henry and Amethyst sit. The boy sits at the edge of the table with his mentor standing behind him, "Is there anything else that I need to do?" He asks the older Slayer.
Henry shakes his head, "No, Just keep yourself calm and listen to my voice."
The boy nods, he places the Dust Cigarette between his lips, he then pulls out a lighter and lights the stick, taking a deep breath. After, he places his left pointer finger and thumb between the filter, crushing it.
The filter starts glowing a pale blue along with the red line.
Jaune starts to shiver, his veins' bulge becoming more pronounced as they are dyed a pale blue.
"Whoa." Amethyst mutters.
Jaune keeps himself still as possible and closes his eyes, he takes another puff and empties his mind. He can feel his heart slow, his blood turning to lead.
"Imagine a door, Jaune. A door that represents you; your hopes, your dreams, your innermost thoughts, things that you try not to think about, things that you actively try and forget." Henry softly begins, "What does your door look like?"
The Omega hums, "It's white, startling white like… freshly fallen snow."
"And?"
"The symbol of the Arc family is stamped onto the front, it glows gold… it matches the frame. Around the door are shrubs with these dark purple berries growing from them; their juniper berries I think."
"That's good, is that all?"
"... The handle is odd."
"Odd, how?"
"It glows like the symbol and the frame, the shape isn't normal, it's shaped like a… a jackalope." His hand drops to Crocea Mors.
"Jackalope?" Amethyst mouths quietly.
"Okay, take a hold of the handle and turn it open." The Slayer commands.
Jaune does as he's told, opening the door.
"Have you done it?"
"Yes."
"Now, do what you need to do."
The boy nods and walks through the door, he looks down and sees a broken string in his hand, looking around the black abyss seeing a floating cord, striding towards it he grabs it and presses the two ends together.
The frayed edges twisted together, conjoining.
Rouge Arc sits up in her seat, her blue eyes flashing ruby red for a brief moment before fading back to normal, she sighs.
"You okay, Rouge?" Jupiter Arc asks with a worried frown, she stands up from her seat and walks around the table in front of the woman before placing her palm against her daughter's forehead.
Her younger sister looked up from their dinner, "Yeah, that was a pretty heavy sigh, Ro?" Verte Arc questions.
"No, I'm not alright." Rouge stands up, "Looks like I have to move up my plans."
"Move up your plans?" Noah Arc raises a brow from the head of the table.
"Blame Jaune." She says as she moves and slashes her pitch black claws through her mother's neck.
"AGH!" Bleue screams as blood splashes across her face.
Jupiter falls, her body hitting the ground, dead before she even realized what happened.
Noah blinks in shock before Rouge moves, her fangs sink into the sides of his head. The man briefly glows a soft white, his Aura raised in protection but it shatters immediately.
The top of his head crushed between her jaws.
Indi falls onto the ground as she pushes away from the dining table, her back hitting the sink cabinets while Igo freezes in shock.
Rouge leaps at Igo and sinks her fangs into her shoulder, they shriek in pain, turning towards Indi who struggles to her feet but before the girl can get up she's held down by the shoulders and her sister takes a mouthful of her bicep.
Bleue stumbles out her seat and runs towards the door of her home only to be thrown into the ground and her side being torn into.
"STOP!" Verte screams, "WHaT are yOU doINg?!" Her voice cracks in horror, tears streaming from her voice.
Rouge growls low and leaps across the room, she holds the other woman down who tries to pull away only to shriek as her maw snaps around the other's neck, blood leaking from where her fangs met flesh.
As the older woman pulls away, her younger sister holds her throat, their eyes held nothing but betrayal.
The oldest of the Arc children looks at the bloody mess she made, licking her lips and smiles as she one by one her sisters successfully turn. Wounds healing as if nothing happened.
She gives a silent command and her new Betas' still before slowly standing up. Rouge leaves her home, the Newborn Betas follow, the setting sun dying in the horizon.