บท 99: From Beyond by Coeur Al'Aran ( RWBY)
( Seeing that young man die in initiation was horrifying for her. Even with all her time in the White Fang, she hadn't expected to see such an idealistic man as Jaune Arc die like that. It should have been nothing more than a tragedy... Instead she's now stuck with the lingering spirit of this guy following her around, and no one else can hear or see him in any way. Jaune x Blake)
Chapter 1 - Death of an Arc
Jaune Arc was a man with dreams, some might say he was a man with more dreams than sense. Those people were probably right, he was forced to concede, as he plummeted towards the ground at a speed that was sure to result in him popping like a gory red water-balloon.
A whistling in the air caught his attention, even as a streak of light seemed to fly towards him. A sudden flash of fear through his mind had him twisting in mid-air, dodging what seemed to be a javelin that would surely have hit him.
Heh… dodged that. Maybe I can do this after all?
As the verdant canopy rushed up to meet him, he wasn't so sure. A tattered scream tore from his throat as branches and leaves cut into his body – doing little to slow his descent as he raced to reacquaint himself with Remnant.
His life flashed before his eyes as certain doom approached.
His last thought, before oblivion, was that he still didn't know what a landing strategy was supposed to be.
He also idly wished he had a better last thought.
Blake Belladonna was an unusual person. She knew that, could accept it even. Not in relation to her faunus heritage – there was nothing unusual about that after all. But rather to the life she had lived up until that point.
Child labourer, protester, soldier… terrorist.
And now she was trying to become a protector. Maybe this life would be the one she didn't need to run away from. With her telling ears hidden behind her black bow, Beacon was to be a chance for her to live a new life. One that wasn't burdened by the poor decisions she had made in the past.
It was a chance she wasn't going to squander.
So when a free-falling screaming figure passed above her, before crashing into the forest – it was a difficult choice for her. On the one hand she was training to become a huntress, and that meant helping people who were in trouble. But… the first person she made eye-contact with was going to be her partner, and she really didn't want someone who couldn't even land properly as her partner for the next four years.
He would be fine, surely? He had to be trained to a certain level to even be accepted into Beacon, so she could trust him to look after himself.
But what if he wasn't fine?
What about them… The words of her old partner stopped her. It would be so easy to abandon him.
And that would make her just another Adam.
"I'm coming…" She said softly, turning on the spot and rushing towards where the boy had landed. Trees passed her by, blurring into one continuous stream of greenery as she covered the distance. The silence bothered her more than she dared to admit.
Curse, moan, scream… rant about your landing. Anything. Instead she received nothing, nothing but a gnawing sensation in her gut.
And then.
She found him.
Laying slumped against a tree, his blonde hair matted with blood. A dark figure crouched over his body – the unmistakable sound of tearing flesh.
No… Her hand came to her mouth almost immediately. Life in the White Fang had shown her the truth of mortality, but never had she been forced to witness someone die like this. Being eaten…
"Die…" She seethed, drawing Gambol Shroud in one sudden motion. The Grimm turned to regard her, it was the blood on its jaw which broke her vaunted self-control. This monster did not deserve to live. Animals might kill for meat, or hunt for their family – but Grimm killed for no other purpose than their own twisted amusement.
She would avenge the poor boy.
The Beowolf leapt towards her. Powerful hind muscles driving it from the ground as it extended one hair arm out towards her torso, claws glinting red in the morning light. Her clone took the blow as she twisted above the creature's head, yellow eyes locked onto red orbs as it seemed to watch its doom approaching. With a flick and a twist she was able to land on the beast's back, before reaching down and holding her blade below its neck.
"This is for him." She said, hissing as she tore out its throat with one great slash.
The monster grunted, gurgling and thrashing in its death throes as she dispassionately watched on. It took a good thirty seconds before, with a final great heave, the beast was still. She could not distract herself for long however… not against the truth she knew lay behind her, in a pool of his own blood.
He couldn't be alive. She knew that, and yet desperate hope still led her to press two fingers to his neck. Gently at first, before pushing harder. A single pulse, the slightest movement… anything would have been enough for her – yet she received nothing.
"I'm sorry." She said to the young man, brushing a stained lock of blonde hair from his face. He looked so peaceful, laying there like that. She didn't dare look below his neck. Unwilling to see what the monster had done to him.
Could they have been friends, in another life? She didn't know. All she knew that was for this life, such was an opportunity tragically stolen from him.
"I'm sorry I couldn't help you." She whispered, reaching down to cover his vacant blue eyes.
"Eh, it's okay I guess." A voice behind her said.
Yes. Blake was a complicated person. Terrorist, freedom fighter, student. She had never been a normal child, and probably never would be. She was calm and collected - an analyser and a thinker. But at that moment, as she looked at the ghostly figure of the man dead at her feet…
She felt she could be forgiven for screaming.
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