"Do you believe in Destiny?" Pyrrha's voice called out from the dark, that same image of the arrow burrowed into her chest as well as Ruby's dreams.
"-ae…"
"Yes…" Cinder's simple answer punctuated the end of that life as she drew back the string on her blackened glass bow
"Jae!"
"PYRRHA!"
Ruby felt herself wake up with a traumatic start as a nightmare took root in her mind once more, the Fall of Beacon continued to take its toll on everyone present and not. She looked over to Jae's sleeping bag and noticed that it was empty; "Maybe he's doing training…Or…Taking a walk…" She theorised to herself as she saw it was still dark outside with the sun slowly rising and the other two members of team JNR were still asleep.
Jae on the other hand, had something else to look for; He could pick up the presence of a Grimm deeper into the forest and followed its trail all the way to a large open lake surrounded by thick, overgrown trees. He had heard talking among people in the last village that water had been growing more and more dirty and tainted as time past since the Grimm became more active.
As soon as he stepped foot into the expanse, a slow sense of dread filled his body as he could recognise the presence of a Grimm much like they could recognise HIM. "I know you're there…You may as well show yourself." He said quietly as he stalked around the edge of the water, keeping an eye on the trees and the skies.
The wind whistled through as his answer as a separate voice rang through. "You need to keep focused kid, it's just you right now…"
"Come on, I know you're out there... Show yourself!" Jae called out, seemingly ignoring the voice's warning as he walked. "Where I come from we face our opponents…And if our enemy is unarmed…"
The sound of slithering could be heard even to the faintest of ears as whatever was out there had been goaded into making it's move on the unsuspecting boy.
Jae however was completely aware of this creature's motive and ran Fenrir's tip into the approaching tentacle followed by the sound of it's unholy screech. "We offer them a sword." Jae quipped as he turned around to see the water bubbling and turning darker as the head of what looked like a cephalopod with a bone plate covering the front of its face broke the surface.
"You knew I was there…How?"
"Simple, Grimm thrive on destruction and negativity…Since there's no people around, the only thing you'd want is this lake of spring water." Jae pointed out as he yanked the spear out of the Grimm's tentacle. "A Banaan, huh? Go figure."
The Banaan then growled menacingly and raised up it's tentacles menacingly in the hopes of scaring this newcomer that attacked it; Each tentacle had bonelike plating along the outer edges while the undersides had a red lining and suckers that looked strong enough to lift a cow. "Do not dare presume, Landwalker! For many a Huntsman who had the arrogance to think they could slay me…Had ended up bloated corpses at the bottom of my stomach!"
"You can talk a big game for a Grimm Fish but don't think that I haven't been able to handle myself either." Jae remarked back at him as he lowered his hands to either side of his waist; Now clad in white gloves that were patterned with deep red webbing that almost looked black in colour along and up towards the fingers where each tip was black. "But let's see just how much of a threat you are outside of your little pool."
"Insolent, Bi-Pedal pest! Your arrogance will choke you faster than the water will when I drag you down!" The Banaan then roared as it sent several tendrils down to try smacking him or grabbing a hold on him, though all it got was more frustrated as Jae ducked and weaved around like he was merely wading through a pool of water while occasionally batting at it's tendrils.
"You know, lashing out like this can be dangerous." Jae smirked as he then watched all the tentacles rear up to attack. Without any fear or anxiety on his face; Jae then lifted both of his hands up with curled fingers before thrusting them outward. "Because it'll bite you back."
The Banaan was about to make a comment but then saw it's tentacles slowly peel away before completely diced into smoking pieces. "Wha-That's not…Possible, HOW DARE YOU?!"
Jae smirked as he lifted his hands, each blackened tip of his gloves shimmered with an almost invisible thread as they retracted back to his fingers, "Told you…I bite back…But now I'm gonna make sure you don't try anything…Else." He quipped and then saw the tentacles slowly growing back. "Huh…In hindsight, I really should have guessed…" He admitted as a tentacle smashed down on top of him.
"Now do you see? The futility of your actions like so many of you before! You chop and you chop into exhaustion but then I'll be there to drag you down to your oblivion!" The Banaan would brag and smash into Jae over and over, only to find that once it raised the tentacle up for another smack; the entire thing was gone and the stump was covered by a bright red fire.
"Is that right? Then if dicing you into sushi won't cut it, I guess I better pull out the big guns…" Jae said as he got to his feet and held up what looked like a falchion; With it's wing-like blade coloured in red at the sail portion of the wing and black shades along the what would be considered the wingbone. Its handle bears a draconic eye that had a red sclera and a burnt orange pupil, the handle itself consists of dark red leather in a criss-cross pattern. This was the blade that Jae had "inherited" from the Wyvern at the top of the Tower before Ruby had it turned to stone.
"A single sword? Now I am sure that you have lost your mind? You truly believe that you have better luck with a physical sword in hand rather than what you did earlier? I STILL HAVE ALL MY OTHER LIMBS!" The Banaan was taunting him, though not quite realising what lay in store.
"And what gave you the impression that Tiamat was just a sword?" Jae asked cryptically, putting both hands on the "Sword's" handle and then slowly pushed on it to split the blade into an L-Shape, then again for a third and a fourth side until it resembled a large cross-blade of dragon wings. "It CAN be a blade but I've got a Fūma Shuriken to use on you." He grinned and started twirling it with his fingers to turn it from a four pronged cross into a spinning buzzsaw before throwing it.
The shuriken quickly cut through the air and started effortlessly cutting through the tentacles when the Banaan tried to flick it out of the sky. "AGAIN WITH THIS STRATEGY, I can grow back my tentacles as many times as I want." It roared proudly and reared itself back but then realised that none of the cut tendrils, including the first one that got hit had not grown back.
"Not if I use fire to seal off the stumps…." Jae smirked as he then grabbed the shuriken and rushed forward to the struggling Grimm who was trying to put out the fires. "And by the way, Dragonfire is harder to put out than regular fire so good luck trying water!" He yelled and then threw the Tiamat like a discus; The spinning blades quickly ignited in the air and carved straight through the fortified bone plate in the Banaan's head. "And like that…It's spring water and peaceful scenery for Anima."
"You…You think you have the arrogance…To believe that I am all that plagues the land? You're ignorant…And foolish to believe that someone like you can stop it…You cannot hope to stand…To even breathe when you face the Nu-"
Jae cut off what would have been another foreboding monologue by using an Explosive shot from Carmen to finish off the Grimm and saw that the Black smoke from the Banaan rose like steam along with the teardrop shaped light that entered into his open palm. "Sorry, but I'm not in the mindset to humour post-mortem one liners…" He grumbled to himself as he walked back into the trees and started to stumble back towards where the campsite was since he could see the sun starting to come up.
"You need to slow things down…You won't change anything if you keep pushing it."
"I don't need your input…Nor do I need to slow it down since SHE is still out there somewhere and I'm not going to let her have the chance to get away with anything else!" Jae mentally argued back, even though he was full of vigour to do more than what he was capable of before; The dark rings that started to faintly form around his eyes showed he was still having trouble with things that couldn't be shot, punched or otherwise killed physically.
"…Right…But still, you need to sleep more and less intensive night fighting…It's not exactly healthy…"
Jae halfheartedly nodded as he climbed into his sleeping bag to at least get a couple of hours sleep. "But with the dreams I have, sleeping doesn't make it any better…"
—Meanwhile, halfway across the sea—
"You know, you can't just stick to small talk forever…" Sun mentioned from the railing as Blake was staring out to the water.
"I'm keeping an eye out for other Grimm, Sun…If we got attacked once then who's to say that it'll happen again." Blake pointed out rather bluntly; It was a lucky thing that she had a friend to help her protect the ship but she equally refused to let anyone else tag along…She already ran away from both Yang and from Jae even though it hurt her to do it.
"Duh, that's why it's better to have someone come along with you!" Sun reiterated; "I mean, If we brought Jae along for the boat ride then we can kick butt like we did back at the docks."
"I already told you! I'm not dragging anyone else along into this…I'm going home…I need to rest and I need to recover." Blake confessed as she headed inside. "Yang and Jae already have enough to deal with…They don't need me to make it worse."
Sun sighed; "You know they wouldn't think that…Yang would sooner lay out dozens of Grimm to make sure you were okay and Jae can lay a Demon sized smack down on an-" He tried to say but felt Blake's hand clasp over his mouth.
Sun! Be Quiet!" Blake said through grit teeth as she covered his mouth once she noticed the looks their way, before leaning in to whisper. "After what happened at the Vytal Festival, people see Demons as monsters again like they did decades ago, only now they think they have a good reason to believe it! You can't just saying that out loud anymore!" Blake whispered to him.
Once her hand came away, Sun tried to think of the next thing to say; "So…You really believe Jae didn't do it? At least…Not by his own choice?"
"Of course I do! It happened to Coco, to Yang AND to him…Something made them act the way they did so I want to put my faith in him." Blake admitted vehemently; "Yang lost her arm because of my link to Adam and Jae has enough to deal with on his own…They don't need MY problems on top of that…"
—Back in Patch—
Both Tai and Yang were practicing and helping the younger blonde get used to her new arm; It had taken some convincing from Yang to try out her newer "arm" since everyone made the effort to get Ironwood's robot arm out to her but she often found herself questioning it after overhearing her dad and Qrow arguing about it. Currently her abilities were practically unchanged but her right arm seemed stronger and more durable like it was armoured, she then started trying to concentrate while holding her arm out towards her Ember Celica in the distance like she was trying to grab it.
"Alright, good so far! Keep that focus and you can…Whoa…" Tai encouraged her but couldn't help being blown away at seeing a larger version of Yang's new arm floating in the air, inching forward to grab her bracelet though it fizzled out with the further away it got. "Okay, we're making good progress…At least we can summon it now."
"Yeah…But it's not working! I should be good with my fists…Not struggling to make a punch!" Yang growled as she punched the ground; "I can't just sit around like dead weight anymore!"
"I know, Yang…But don't forget, you've been out of practice for a while now so you're going to need to get back on the horse again." Tai-Yang said to reassure her; "Besides, you were a natural when you first started training for combat school…You just need to get the hang of it back."
"It's not just that, I thought that I was…accepting that I was gonna have one arm and be done for good, that I couldn't get back to something close to who I was normally….Once I did then suddenly boom! No more shopping for single gloves." Yang explained as she gazed at the blackened arm. "I thought that without being able to do the one thing that I was good at, that I was just a liability..."
"Yang…"
"I heard you and Qrow talking about that arm…The one that you said came from Atlas…Qrow sounded upset by it." Yang then moved on to another subject. "But then…When I lashed out at Ruby…And what happened with Jae….Did I just screw it all up over nothing?"
"Oh right…That." Tai said with an awkward sigh and then sat with Yang. "When you came back to Patch, I wanted to make sure that you were okay so I went to Ironwood to ask in a favour to get you an arm made…Turns out he already had one being made by his top scientists…It would have been almost perfect but Qrow was adamant about not taking it."
Yang raised an eyebrow and looked at her dad in confusion, "Why not? Wouldn't he want me to get better?"
"You're his niece, he'd want that more than anything! But he also told me about some of the stuff that happened…Back at Beacon way before the tower fell…When you two….did the deed…" Tai explained, even though he was supportive of Yang's…partner, it still felt odd talking about it. "Qrow said that Ironwood bugged that Jae kid's hoody after the Vale incident and he had been monitoring him for however long up until the Fall…Needless to say that Qrow wasn't happy about it when he found out and I wasn't once I heard about the stuff you two had got up to."
It took Yang a brief second to process this but then widened her eyes. "You mean tha…All throughout that time that he was around, he's been watching Jae along with the rest of us?!"
—Back in Anima—
Team RNJR had set on the path to try and reach their next village after camping out. "So we have the chance to not camp in the rain at our next stop!" Nora cheered as Ruby handled the map to guide them.
"Well, we need to get there first…It's called…uh…Xhi-Zhi…I dunno, we're lost." Ruby struggled to try and pronounce the village's name while walking.
"We're not lost, the people in the last place said this village is called Shion…We can settle there for the night before moving on." Ren pointed out as they walked; "Plus with a roof over our heads, we can all sleep a little easier." He pointed out with a rather concerned look at Jae's back since it looked like something weighed on his mind more than usual; Nora was willing to wait for Jae to approach them with problems but even he couldn't help but feel concerned when Jae started to get less sleep and throw himself into more training.
"You think we can get any…Supplies?" Ruby asked as she then looked up from the map and saw the plume of dark smoke in the distance; "They might be in trouble!"
The others quickly followed suit up the path before they reached the gate to the village; It had looked like the entire place was a disaster zone, buildings smouldered and broke under their own weight, the ground was dark with dried blood and well trodden boots and the air was still thick with the smell of burning. Jae looked around for any indication of the cause but turned up nothing as he began to get more antsy and searched more frantically; "No…No, no, nononononono!" He thought as he ventured deeper into the village, one particular worry in the back of his mind.
—Meanwhile—
"Bandits…They swarmed the place…Burned everything down and then…in all the panic…" A dying Huntsman coughed as he struggled to recall the events but with enough intuition, one word seemed to finalise what happened.
"Grimm…"
Ren had moved away as he felt his own past regarding his village coming back in full, the memories alone were enough to put him on visible edge but Nora was quick to notice it.
"We have to help him…" Nora said as she looked to Ruby and to Ren; "We don't know if anyone will come back or if whatever's out there decides to finish."
Ruby nodded; "If we can find a way to transport him, we might be able to find a doctor…I can even run ahead for help!" She explained but then faltered when she saw the Huntsman in question slump over. "No…I think now at this point, we should probably bury him…Wait…Where is Jae?" She said mournfully and then looked around to Jae to see if he could help, her concern growing when he was nowhere to be seen.
"I don't know, I thought he was with you…Let's go find him, he can't have gone too far." Nora suggested as she and Ren finished burying.
The trio called out for Jae as they tried searching for him; their voices echoed on the walls but no one responded, it was only when they got to the outskirts of the deep forest nearer to the mountains that they saw their missing companion.
Jae was standing silently in front of a house that look like the entire front had caved in to show a completely ransacked house. "So…Not much changed…"
"Jae! This is where you've been, what ar-oh…" Nora was about to scold Jae for running off but she saw the house; "What is this place?"
"Somewhere that I never thought I'd come back to…Even after everything that happened, I had hoped the whole thing burned down…." Jae remarked grimly as he peered inside; The furniture and possessions that weren't burned or rotten looked to have been tossed around.
Ren would go to inspect the rest of the house; Aside from the damage caused by the Grimm or Bandits, the place was the same as any old house but as he traced his fingers along the wall: He felt engravings like a knife had carved words in them with varying degrees of age and each one gave him more of an idea of why Jae felt this way about the house:
"DEMON CHILD!"
"MONSTER!"
"GO BACK TO HELL!"
"Jae…Why don't you like this place…Is it because of the village…Or this house specifically?" Ruby asked, while Team JNPR, Yang and Weiss knew about his past, she was the only one in the dark but she was able to understand it quickly enough.
"It's because this place isn't a foster home or an orphanage…" Ren mentioned as he he came around to meet the others after inspecting for clues.
"Yeah…Because this was the house where it all began…The house where I was born…" Jae admitted as he grabbed a few of the old bottles of alcohol from a smashed shelf and poured it on the splintered wood. "I came here because I hoped there were answers about my mom…But it's as hollow as I remember...So now I think it's long overdue to put this behind me."
"W-Wait, what are y-" Ruby tried to stop Jae but then flinched back when she saw Jae lighting a fire to start burning down the rest of the house; She would have tried to question it but she recognise the pained but determined look on Jae's face and simply stood by while Ren placed his hand on Jae's back to help reassure him.
Nora gently interlocked her fingers with Jae's and gently squeezed his hand as a comfort; "We don't blame you if you'd rather not stay here…We can find somewhere else to camp for the night." She said quietly as she knew that staying here would be worse for all of them after the events of earlier.
—Later that night—
Ruby ended up waking up with a start though in a much less violent way as she heard a voice in the distance.
"-ae…low…eps…"
With her sleep now interrupted and noticing that Jae was once again missing from his place at their camp, she went to go investigate.
The fireflies flickered in the moonlight as unlike most days, the nights were quieter due to Grimm hibernating due to lack of negativity in the night. It soon lead Ruby into a clearing that was far enough away from the group to not wake them with noise but also close enough to avoid getting lost.
Standing in the centre of the clearing was Jae with his shirt off and letting his bare upper body bathe in the moonlight; That same jagged scar remained against the right side of his ribs from where Cinder stabbed him with Rebellion, while the Sea Feilong tattoo on his arm had it's tail coil around his bicep and end at his shoulder while the Wyvern took up a large portion of his back like it was taking flight, but that wasn't what drew Ruby's attention. It was seeing Jae's Scroll propped up on a toppled tree and on the screen was a recording of Pyrrha.
"Alright Jae…Let's do it like we practiced…To strengthen your Aura, you need to manifest it as a shield around yourself; So stand straight."
Jae stood to full height and closed his eyes.
"Take a deep breath."
There was a sound of Jae exhaling as he took a stance.
"And remember to spread your Aura across your whole body….Ready? Go!"
Jae's body quickly took on a dark purple glow faintly at first but quickly grew more solid; Though to anyone experienced in Aura control could see that something was off, while most colours that surrounded people like Ruby, Nora or Ren were more natural looking colours, the colour of Jae's Aura looked like someone had put him under a purple light and looked almost artificial.
"Good, Hold it…Keep holding it…"
Jae grit his teeth as the Aura around him flared and struggled to stay solid and sparked like a dim bulb before finally breaking after a few minutes, leading to Jae collapsing to the ground in exhaustion.
"Very good! Now, assuming that you aren't cheating this part…We can take a break~" The recorded Pyrrha signalled with a slight laugh in her voice, a sound that brought a visible look of pain to Jae's face before she started again.
"I know that it can be frustrating for you…To try being able to prove people wrong but only progressing by little amounts but I want you to know that I'm unimaginably proud of you. I've never met someone so determined to better themselves. You've grown so much since we started training and you keep showing me just how much that this training means to you…Just like how much I mean to you."
Ruby gently placed her hand on a nearby tree trunk as she heard the message and she couldn't help but feel the same pangs of heartache through her body that Jae looked like he was feeling when his shoulders sagged in his moment of grief.
"Jae…I…I…I want you to know that I am so, so happy to be a part of your life and to be able to look forward to spending the rest of our lives together with the others. I'll always be here for you, Jae…And I promise that no matter what happens…You will always be the one person I hold the dearest..."
The video then stopped on Pyrrha's pure and loving smile towards him and then rewound itself back to the beginning again as Jae shakily got to his feet. "Alright Jae…Let's do it like we practiced…To strengthen your Aura, you need to manifest it as a shield around yourself…"
Jae's face stiffened like he was conflicted about what he was going to do before refocusing his efforts, making it visibly clear that while he was staying strong with everyone else, he was only one brief moment away from cracking under it all while alone. Then his expression hardened along with his heart as he followed the rewound instructions...Locking away all of his grief once more.
Ruby saw him blink back a intrusive tear for the briefest of moments and decided to leave him alone; Mainly so that he could have his space to train, but on a smaller level to ensure that her first friend at Beacon, her confidant as a fellow leader…And the boy whom she had grown to adore wouldn't see her pain when he put himself through this.