Author's Notes: You all knew it was coming and if you've read this far then you know exactly where this is going to go...But for those of you who need a heads up; What I put on this came from a very....VERY dark place to try and make it feel as authentic(?) as possible so be careful for a trigger warning for Violence and...Yeah you can kind of get the idea, but hopefully you enjoy it regardless and look forward to feedback!
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Ruby had to duck and roll away from every lazy kick that Mercury sent her way; She knew that Penny had been able to handle anything that came at her, from the airship used in Torchwick's heist and to stopping a speeding truck from hitting her…But she also knew that Jae has been making literal leaps and bounds with his own ability including unbelievable strength and while it could go either way, Mercury seemed to know something about this that she didn't. "I have to call Weiss…Pyrrha, Glyn-Anyone! I have to stop this before something happens out there!" Ruby tried to formulate a plan as she tried to rush forward past Mercury with her Semblance but unfortunately he was quicker as he kicked her harshly in the stomach and knocked her backward.
"Too bad…Let's just keep this between us pals, okay?" Mercury sneered as he then shot his foot forward and then blasted Ruby's scroll out of her hands, clattering to the floor; "You might've been smart to notice but you're also dumb enough to go after us without any help…That's a mistake you're gonna regret."
"I don't know what you're planning, Mercury…But when the others find out…They're gonna be all over you!" Ruby grimaced as she got to her feet; Torn between trying to get answers out of the grey haired teen and running past him to stop the match before Jae OR Penny got hurt.
——Meanwhile——
"My word….Just look at the effort made by miss Polendina!" Port remarked in awe as Jae and Penny were both fighting fairly evenly with each other; Jae was currently using Mezzalom's twin daggers to keep up with Penny's ring of swords in a blinding flash before breaking off to get distance.
Jae was feeling off his game since everything with Pyrrha but something else nagged at the back of his mind, something that he couldn't explain. He dismissed the thought as nerves and then summoned up his trident Seiryu with the cheers of encouragement from other people in the crowd including Nora and Ren.
"YOU GOT THIS, JAE!!" Nora yelled out but then looked in surprise to see that Pyrrha had come in to sit with them, her encouragement turned to concern as she saw Pyrrha with a look of worry on her face.
While Jae had been trying to get ready for his own match, Pyrrha had gone to be on her own to try and clear her thoughts but she also felt guilty about what happened and wanted to show herself to give Jae her support in his match. Though from what she saw in his movements and his attacks; She could tell that something was on his mind equally as much as she did. "Does he feel guilty about what happened earlier…"
Jae however kept trying to push back with Seiryu; Using the Wind abilities to push her back in the hopes to knock her out of the ring and to keep her out of close range. "You got this, just keep out of her sword's range and you'll b-LOOK OUT!"
Penny had used the lasers from the conjoined form of her swords as a jet to quickly close the gap and hit him with a powerful blast from the landing, knocking him backward when she caught him by surprise.
Jae groaned and got to his feet but something in his body felt wrong, Seiryu vanished and the mark on his arm zapped with black electricity briefly before returning to normal again. "What th-" He muttered and then felt himself getting kicked in the head by Penny while he was distracted and got knocked on his back.
Penny then tried to pin him by using arm against his throat and the swords dangling over him like a chandelier threatening to fall. "Yield."
"P-Penny…This is a little excessive…."
"-id…ake….al…"
"You can't win this….Yield now." Penny continued to urge him with zero hint of her usual peppy attitude, her eyes starting to dilate like she was in a trance.
As Jae struggled to pull free, the fact that Penny's surprisingly hard forearm was pressing against his windpipe had started to make him remember something he REALLY didn't want to remember.
The fact that he could hear quiet voices in the crowd calling for Penny to win; Slowly getting clearer that they were on her side as the grip to hold him down got tighter.
"Beat him…."
"Finish him…"
"He doesn't matter…"
Jae tried to block out the echoes and did his utmost to pull free but Penny was like a vice on top of him. "Penny…Can't…Breathe….." He wheezed up at her to try and get her to stop but her monotone voice and her tightening grip was not budging or hesitating for the briefest of moments.
"It is better this way…You are a Demon…A monster that will come to destroy everything if you are given the chance…I shall do what I am required to by those around me will me to do…Can you hear them?"
"…ID!…ou….up….NOT….LISTEN…!"
Those echoing voices in the crowds started to jeer and cry for his end louder and louder until they made his head ring; "No….No….Nonononononono!" His head practically bursting at the seams with the long forgotten memories that he had hoped to stay forgotten.
——Many Years ago in a memory long repressed——
Back when he was a child still waiting for his mother to come get him and surrounded by people who hated him just for being younger than they were. Made even worse when a bunch of kids who overheard one of the caretakers let it slip that Jae was the Demon kid who either got caught up in the accident in his last home or was the cause of it.
Those kids decided to start changing how they approached their terrori-Pranking of their new foster sibling and decided to try their new game called "Slay the Demon King" which was fun for them but for the little Jae, it meant that he had to start running once the kids picked up sticks.
It wasn't that uncommon that they got bored and walked off when they couldn't catch Jae even after he was whipped with the sticks and covered in welts, one particular kid however felt like he hadn't won the game yet so he got Jae knocked down and pinned him by the neck with the stick in his hand. "You're not getting away, Demon!"
"V-Verm….Please….This hurts!" Jae whimpered as he tried to push the bigger and stronger kid off of him; Verm was one of the bigger kids in the home and he was always the one who caused the most bumps and bruises on other kids there.
"Then go on, call for help….Do it….I dare you to try crying for someone, filthy Demon…" Verm sneered with the most vile look on his face as he still sported a black eye from when Jae hit him in self defense.
Jae gasped and gagged as he tried to look around frantically for someone, anyone at all to come help him but the air was cut off even further when Verm pressed down even harder and reduced him to barely letting out a gasp or a whisper.
"See? Nothing….No one's coming for you and no one's going to notice if you beg or cry….Or even if you stop breathing altogether…" Verm gloated as he gripped the stick and was ready to go all the way with this.
——Outside of the Memory——
Jae was struggling harder as he gazed up at the now snarling Penny, his adrenaline started to kick in and the forced reliving of that horrific memory pushed Jae into a trauma induced frenzy of self preservation and the scream that he let out sounded like it ripped out of his diaphragm from the deepest pits of the abyss. His head pushed upward and headbutt Penny in the face to knock her off balance, sending her crashing to the ground as she wasn't expecting Jae to react so violently to her. Jae then began to mount her like a fighter in a ring and began to flail in a rabid frenzy.
The audience watched in horrified shock as Jae smashed and ripped Penny apart in a shower of sparks and coolant. Demonstrating that even though most of it was his mind using his adrenaline, she was taken down like she was nothing more than a rag doll while he screamed and howled like a wild animal.
But in between the mortified silence and Jae's hoarse yelling, that same Voice was coming through clearer and clearer like it was a radio losing it's static for a stronger signal.
"-d…."
"You won't be missed…."
"What makes you think that you deserve what you have?"
"-id….!"
"A monster like you should have never been born!"
"You should have died back in that forest to the wolves…"
"I'm sorry…"
"KID, WAKE UP!"
With that final cry, Jae's frenzy finally shook loose as he regained focus like he had just been lost in thought, when he looked down however it was a sight that made his blood turn to ice and the image in front of him burned itself in place as his hands and body were now covered in that same pale green coolant that coated the floor..And Penny's eviscerated body.
From Penny's perspective, she tackled him to the ground and pinned him gently so she wouldn't hurt him while doing so but he seemed…out of it, like something had triggered a response from him but with his more violent thrashing getting harder to hold; She had no choice but to push him down harder, with her head turned to yell up to the proctors and to the announcers to stop the match so that Jae could be examined, his head snapped upward and knocked her into a daze. Being someone with an Aura meant that she could feel emotion and had a soul inside of her but her robotic body meant that all form of physical contact was lost to her. It did nothing to help the fear she felt when she saw Jae; The boy that she had grown to adore like she had adored Ruby had ripped her apart like tissue paper in a moment of his rabid madness.
By the time that Jae realised what had happened wasn't a dream, his heart sank like a stone as Penny's slowly deactivating body sparked and finally died out from under him; "This is a dream….I want to wake up….Please let me wake up back in the dorms…" He thought to himself, too petrified by shock to do anything but too lucid to black out what he saw.
In the stands however was Emerald who finally let the headache that she got from her Semblance fade enough so she could leave the stands in the midst of the chaos but that wasn't all what made her feel like this; Those feelings that had budded from a mutual respect for each other as would be competitors into a genuine like for the guy had all but driven a knife into her heart as she snuck past the guards who ran past her into the arena with more guns trained on the catatonic Jae, the only thing that felt like a permanent goodbye was a brief message in her forced hallucination on him and that was enough to make her harden her heart for the next step of the plan.
Oobleck and Port were snapping about killing the feed and stopping this from being broadcast while Security brought out 20 armed guards pointing their guns at the spattered and very frozen Jae, though before they could do anything to apprehend him; Another voice came out over the intercom as clear as day.
"This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident. This is what happens when you hand over all of your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians…" Cinder's voice declared over the speakers though for everyone in the Stadium, all they could hear was a heavily modulated voice with a Queen Chess Piece as the symbol of these vicious sights. "But are in reality; Nothing more than men. Our Academies' Headmasters wield more power than most armies and governments, yet one was audacious enough to control both and shamelessly flaunt it in another kingdom's face."
Ironwood didn't have to be a genius to recognise that this pointed comment was directed at him, with a clenched fist and a storming march up towards the announcer's booth. "I was right….I shouted, I pointed at the threat that was clearly in front of us and no one, not even OZPIN could see it…I need to tell him about Penny before this gets worse…"
Cinder was watching the shocked expressions in the crowd from Mercury's Scroll while they sat on the rooftop in Vale to broadcast their message throughout not just Vale but to the entire world. "These weak willed leaders cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet what do we have here in front of us? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army, mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil. What twisted need would Atlas have for a soldier to be disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference…And neither can a Demon."
Ozpin stood to his feet once this latest comment was heard on the feed and he realised that if this was going the way he thought it was, both the Huntsmen in Vale and the army that Ironwood had stationed would need to be on high alert.
"And what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching his students? First a dismemberment, now this? Huntsmen and Huntresses should carry themselves with honor and mercy, yet I have witnessed neither. Especially since he's taken a particularly strong Demon child and attempted to groom him into becoming what appears to be a weaponised deterrant against any would be attackers on his kingdom." Cinder carried on with her speech; "A Demon who is strong enough to….Kill Grimm that they themself brought into the city." She then posted a picture of Jae holding back the Alpha Boarbatusk. "Strong enough for Atlas to bug, survey and to investigate…I say this sets a very clear example to what Ozpin and Atlas will do to further their agendas and especially when they have no issues with hiding their true abilities and their status from everyone here since you all know the stories: Where you see a Demon…the Grimm will follow."
Nora and Pyrrha looked heartbroken and close to tears while Ren was doing his best to keep strong for the three of them, the white clenched knuckles however proved to the contrary as he was equally as torn up about this to see not only Penny being mercilessly ripped apart in front of them and Jae being broken down and used like this.
Weiss and Blake who had been watching the match were previously cheering on Jae but the recent upset and the broadcast had forced them into silence; Weiss was clutching onto Blake for some semblance of comfort because she knew that after seeing Jae like this and Penny with him, she was two words away from breaking down crying.
Cinder smirked as she watched and continued her tirade. "Perhaps Ozpin felt as though defeating Atlas in the Tournament would help people forget his colossal failure to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded its streets. Or perhaps this was his message to the tyrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting kingdom with armed forces…Honestly? I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong. But what I do know the existence of peace is fragile, the so called leaders of our kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves, amoral intentions and secret weapons that can only attract more Grimm if they are given the chance."
Yang had been watching Jae's match from her bedside window since she was still under detainment though she knew instantly that what happened to her had happened to Jae as well. "So I'm not crazy…Jae…If I can just get out of here, I can help vouch for you like you did for me…"
"As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you the situation there is... equally undesirable. Our Kingdoms are on the brink of war against an enemy that they know nothing about, yet citizens like you and I are continuously left in the dark and promised that enough guns, weaponised Demons and armed forces will put it down…So I ask all of you; When those first few shots are fired…Who do you think you can trust?"
With that final question to permeate the atmosphere, the message cut off and everyone was left staring at Jae in a growing sense of fear and worry.
"He…He's a Demon…."
"He killed her!"
"BEAST!"
"MONSTER!"
"YOU DID ALL OF THIS!"
"FILTHY DEMON!"
The cries rang out loudly as they now had a clear target for what the cause of all the recent disasters were, each yell and jeer being crueler than the last once Jae's secret was now pulled out of the dirt and exposed to the light.
"Stop…Stop…Saying those things!" Nora yelled out with angry tears to the crowd as she would sooner be thrown out then listen to everyone using Jae as their scapegoat.
"Penny…" Ruby could only whimper before she broke into despairing sobs at the sight of her dearest friend lying on the ground unmoving.
Jae could hear them all; He wanted to tell them to stop, to say that it wasn't him…That it was all someone else. There was no point; Something wet and stinging trickled down his cheek and that snapped him out of his trance, with the inhale of breath and the ringing sound of an alarm going off.
The echoing scream of pained anguish and grief let out from Jae was drowned out as a Nevermore landed on the shielded top of the stadium and used it's beak as a battering ram to get in for everyone who was releasing all their negativity.
"A Nevermore?!"
"How did it get past the Kingdom's defenses?"
Ren saw that the sky which was still dimming into night had a black cloud encroaching on the stadium and there was no two guesses as to what it was; "Because it wasn't alone…"
The Nevermore could practically taste all of the negativity that attracted it and it's kin, but something else seemed to catch it's eye; Something that tasted stronger than a normal human's negativity; To a Grimm, it was like picking out a vintage whiskey among cheap beer.
"WARNING: STADIUM DEFENSES AT 15%"
"Kid….Kid, you gotta move…"
…
"Kid…If you don't move, then you'll die without getting payback for her…"
"…Why?"
"You can still move, can't you? Then put that effort into fighting back!"
Jae didn't even have the energy to respond as the ceiling broke open like glass as the Nevermore finally got through and landed in front of Jae, knocking the scattered parts of Penny away and made itself ready to attack.
However before it could take the chance, a bright red blur sped past Jae and drove one of Penny's swords into it's chest before stepping back to get between the Grimm and him. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" She screamed at the Nevermore Grimm who let loose a horrific screech to the sky but then was pinned to the ground just as quickly when dozens of lockers fell out of the sky and hit it's back like it was an artillery strike. Opening themselves up to show everyone's weapon s that were stored inside, the last one to open being Jae's that still had that ornate box inside.
However there was little time to regroup for a plan as multiple winged horse Grimm each landed to follow suit after the Nevermore's scream guided them to the stadium.
"Gryffons…Shouldn't have expected this to be easy." Ren grumbled as he readied Stormflower in his hands.
A Grimm much larger than the Gryffons stepped forward; it looked like it's brethren however it had a long twisted horn atop it's grotesque face that seemed to look like two horns twisted around each other into one.
This was the Alpha Gryffon known only as a Uniskorn.
"I'll deal with it….You guys handle the Nevermore." Jae stated bluntly as he summoned up Ripper in both hands and revved them into it's burning orange state. "I have some business with the Grimm anyway." He growled as he wasn't in the mood for snarking, quipping or just his usual attitude; There was a lot in his head and a good outlet for most of it came in the form of charging Grimm.
As the others teamed up to handle the enormous Bird Grimm that towered over them; Jae handled the Gryffons by keeping them off of the others, with his fevered revving of the blades in Swordmaster mode, Jae managed to turn those two chainsaw greatswords into a blender of white light, heat and Jae's own colours. Each Gryffon was bisect and cut down before they could even get close but the Alpha was subject to a curt and equally brutal decapitation by Jae using his twin swords like a giant pair of scissors.
When Ruby turned to make sure Jae was okay, her heart sank at what she saw; Jae had finished them all off but his remaining sword was planted into the Alpha's chest and weakly but repeatedly stabbed into it even though it was all over for now. She could tell that Jae wasn't entirely there and he was still processing what had happened. "Jae…Jae, that's enough…"
Jae then let the sword vanish as he stayed on his knees with the grief; "Ruby…" He then turned to look up at her but then quickly averted his gaze as he felt too ashamed about what had be undertaken; "I'm so sorry…" He mumbled but flinched when he felt Pyrrha's hand on his back.
"Jae…This wasn't your fault…Whoever was on that broadcast, whoever it was that said everything…They were the ones to do this and right now, we have the chance to make sure that they don't take anyone else." She would say softly to reassure him and placed that ornate box on his lap.
Jae opened it up and then felt his mood lighten a little as he saw the latest gift that Nico had given to him; It looked like a sawn off shotgun with the loading cylinders of a revolver. Each different slot for bullets was tinted with a different colour in the same way that his other guns were and he could see that this shotgun could blast Fire, Ice, Gravity, Explosive, Rock and what looked like Plant Dust. Underneath was a note from Nico that was also signed by Lady and Trish.
"Congrats on making it, kid…Make sure you show 'em that anything Atlas can do with Dust, we can do better!"
With the breath now caught up and everyone re-armed, they were ushered out of the stadium by Oobleck and Port who opted to stay behind to keep the Grimm in one place.
"Children! Make sure you remember that this day will most certainly go down in Remnant's history, I would much rather that my students live to tell about it." Oobleck urged them when they protested about leaving them behind.
"Go now, remember what we taught you and ensure that you stay safe above all else…Protect your Kingdom and protect your friends!" Port added in as they quickly rushed off to join the fight; "How about it, Barty? One last match, so place your bets!"
——Meanwhile in Ozpin's Office——
"They knew…" Qrow mumbled as him, Glynda and Ozpin had all regrouped while Ironwood was at the stadium. "About us, about Jae and who knows if they found out about the Maiden!"
"Right now is not a time to worry about secrets, Qrow." Ozpin mentioned as he grabbed his cane; "We have to focus on the city…Get down there and find James…We need to ensure that the city stays safe and above all else…Keep the CCT tower from falling…" He ordered as the two agreed and quickly headed off to join the fight, though as Ozpin took one last drink from his mug; He realised that there was no longer time or a choice to have Jae and Pyrrha choose what their fates would be. "I hate to force them to make that jump without knowing what could happen…But we ca-"
His line of thought was broken when the entire building shook and the dull thumping of something very big and very ancient starting to wake up…Within that brief moment; The Wyvern broke free of it's nesting ground at Mountain Glenn and made it's voyage to Vale, it had it's nap and now it was time to enjoy the carnage that was spreading.