#grimm!jaune

But in just some minutes, his plan failed. His Aura could only took 5 hits form her magic, 4 if you didn't count an ice stalactite that was tanked by his semblance and reduced his Aura to 1%. Atlas was falling faster than he though and he just got a call from Ruby that everyone of his friends were searching for him, so the idea of them leaving Atlas in one piece was a colossal no right now. There was also the factor that three Seers were keeping him in the ground with his face on the dirt and in front of the queen of the Grimm, he was still panting and searching for an opportunity to escape from the Seers tight hold

"don't fight it, they will tighten their hold on you the more you fight" Salem smiled while holding and inspecting Jaune's sword, the same shining and sharp metal that cut her head four minutes ago "an excellent blade for an incompetent huntsmen, looks like Ozma has been lowering his standards about his soldiers"

"funny you say that, because i remember this incompetent huntsmen cutting your head minutes ago. With that said, i think i'm a pretty good huntsman" smugly replied the blond before he was kicked in the face by the pale woman

"you bragging about that little mistake? oh my, Ozma really has really lower his standards. I'll admit, you lasted longer than the previous Ozma pawn who faced me, i'll give you that" she chuckle, then she walked slowly to the almost broken shield from Jaune, just a short distance away from him

"why, thank you. i would have last longer, but i wasn't prepared to face a magical old hag" the blond said, before he was slapped by one of the seers and caused a little cut on his right cheek

"do you have a death wish or something?" she shook her head in disapproval, holding the faced-downd shield "youngsters these days. anyway, i know from two certain agent of mine, that you are quite close to that silver-eyes spawn, so i believe that i can ask a certain question. how do you activate the Relic of Knowledge"

"you have to say immas ucke-uuughh!" the seers tighten their hold on Jaune and he was lifted to the same level as Salem's face, whose red and black eyes were looking straight at him

"wrong answer, i will say it one more time and slowly so you could understand. How. do. you. activate. the Relic. of Knowledge" Salem took the shield and inspectione it, it surprised her the weight a little, but the Arc family emblem was what took her attention. It was like certain emblem in that tower she used to live, but inverted, before she was what it was now. Sadly for her, her blond prisoner still had enough energy to insult her again and suffer the consequences, and took her away from her memories momentarily

"fine, i think it was ligma-AAAAAAAHHHHH!!" this time he was meet with a little (in her words) thunder from her. She didn't even looked at him when she fire it, she just looked again to his shield and with some hand moves, a diamond was put in his shield, in the middle of the inverted emblem

Something hit her in that moment, it was a still existing pain in her chest that was later replaced with joy for a few moments, then sadness took the joy's place. If what she thought was true, then her daughters (or at least one) could have lived after that explosion of magic that take them from her. Many thoughts came to her mind about what could had happened so one or all her daughters could have survived in that moment, many were about Ozma hiding their daughters from her. Just a few were about none of them knowing that their children were alive, and they left them before checking if they were alive. But that could take her mind another time, right now it was about her descendant and how she was torturing him

She droped the shield, and the Seers released a confused jaune, who touched his jaw to feel any other damage apart from the kick from her and kneeled to recover from the still fresh thunder he received. Salem, on her part, was having an internal struggle. She was just looking at him, the way his eyes and body were showing fear for the first time, the way he was trying to comprehend what was happening and why Salem didn't used a Grimm to turn him in nothing more than just a pile of flesh, and how he was screaming mentally at himself to run. It got worse when she began to cry

"my family... i'm trying to kill my family again... just like thousands of years ago" tears leaked from her eyes, just as her bloody red eyes looked deep at his sapphire blue ones. Nostalgia came, it was like watching at her youngest daughter again, only turned into a boy, but the resemblance was evident

"your... family? what. what are you talking about?" his question was not answered, for something worse than a truth was now to take place

"it can't be... Ozma, he... Ozma!" hell broke loose, she released all kind of spells destroying constructions and even creating more craters in the destroyed streets of Atlas "HOW DARE YOU USE OUR CHILDREN AGAINST ME, OZMA?!!" what she did was like a light spectacle. Fire, thunder, ice, earth, wind and any other elements where shooted to all directions from her hands, mouth and eyes, she didn't even spare one of her Seers, but strangely, not a single hair was touched from him, but that didn't took the possibility of a stray attack coming his way, after all, he didn't had Aura and an attack with that kind of magnitude would kill him immediately

After what it felt like an eternity, she calmed herself enough to give a mental order to her seers to leave them alone or dissapear, which they did the second with out an objection and left after their labour was complete. Jaune for his part, was still scared and on his knees, the sovereign of the grimm used all her power to vent for her anger at Ozpin in front of his face, she decimated an entire block of Atlas in her anger with just one of her spells, the other only did craters deeper than the previous one in erratic shoots of magic. All that show of her power made him understand a little the ex-headmaster of Heaven academy, if her power scared him for almost destroyed Atlas in her irrational anger, then what a rational Salem could do with all that magic made him tremble

and suddenly, his worries and fears were lost after a single question from her part "what's your name, my child? i need, no... i must know the name of my family"

"fa... family?" he was lost of words, scared of the implications and he was hyperbelint

"yes, my child. You are my family" Salem, for the first time in millenia, truly smiled, a bright smile showed and more tears filled her eyes, this times were tears of happiness

"that, that's impossible. Ruby and, Ozpin said-" he was cut from his rambling, as his belief were being proven by Salem, who was now walking with her arms spread, waiting for a hug he didn't wanted, but was too shocked to even try to fight it

"oh please, Ozma always liked to keep his secrets well hidden. Just look at me, if people knew about my existence, do you think we would had this conversation? Would you be alive or would you be dead?. Who knows? Maybe you could have had a good life if it wasn't for Ozma's silence, but not anymore" she broked the hug and stroked his hair, like his mother used to when he was a younger and more tiny, now he recieved from his many-greats grandmother "your name, darling, tell me you name"

"Jaune... Arc" certain memories inside him made sense in that moment, why he was admitted in Beacon even with his fake transcripts in first place, why was he named team leader and why Tyrian was interested in him. Was he there because Ozpin wanted? Did Ozpin made him team leader for a master plan he had in the moment? he didn't knew it, but... a part of him told him that he did

"then, Jaune Arc, accept this gift from me" her ivory hand came to his chestplate and without much effort, she tear it from his body, then she put the same hand in his chest "AWAKE!"

His chest began to hurt and some weird black liquid enraptured his body, he felt good, it was relaxing and for some reason, he forgot why he was afraid, so his mind just sleep, he was safe, he was fine and he would obey. Then, the black liquid over his body become a black under suit, his white and gold gloves changed to a white and red armored gloves that covered all his arm and with sharp nails that resembled claws on his fingers. His foots also got white and red armored protection that covered all his legs and toe caps that looked like feets of a beast, with a white armored belt over his waist with the Salem/Arc emblem in the middle painted black instead of yellow. His chestplate came next, this one was more stylish than his previous one, the area of the pectorals were bulky and had red pattern over them that looked like roots and a yellow gem bellow the pectorals

Just when he was about to receive his helmet, a well known voice for him came to his ears "JAUNE!" it was Ruby, who first looked at her friend with a worried look, then she looked at the Grimm queen with hate "leave him alone!!" the red tipped haired girl sayed before she deployed Crescent Rose and taked a shoot at Salem's head, who recieved with a smile

"a silver-eyed girl descendant of Ozpin trying to save my descendant. Ironic" she said, still with her hand in the armored chest of her descendant, whose look was in the floor

"desc- Jaune's your descendant!?" Ruby lowered her weapon a little, shocked but not fully believing the words of her enemy

"that's right, silver eyes, your beloved... friend, i guess? is my family. Please, show her, my child" Salem patted his armored shoulder and stood from her previous posture, letting Jaune stood

"yes, mother" Ruby gasped at his face, his previous saphire eyes were now blood red eyes with black sclera and black veins coming from his eyes. there was also some white hairs in his previous blond hair and his hair was the same when she meet him for the first time, long and messy, instead of his spiky short hair

Before she could even mutter a word, his face was covered by white helmet with sharp fangs, long wolf like ears, some simulated fur made with the same white metal coming from the sides, it was practically a wolf helmet showing his fangs with yellow eyes.

He would later took his sword from the floor and gave it a new form with the black liquid, it was more longer, had black root like patterns in the blade and the guard of the sword was replaced with what it looked like bat wings

This wasn't Jaune anymore, not the one who was always for her when she feeled down, the one who cried when they meet again in Argus and not the same vomit boy she was falling for. this was... as much it broke her heart, another Grimm, one she didn't and hoped never to face. His sword was lifted in order for a horizontal strike, but his target moved faster than him and avoided his attack to recover the shield of Jaune, with the diamond shape thing out of the arcs of his emblem. She hugged the shield and gived the armored man a last look, before the tears could leak from her eyes and used her semblance to get away

The shock of that...that thing erupting from beneath the murk near the bottom of the marsh and how it too easily snatched and dragged her down. The absolute panic and trying to focus through it enough to hold her breath, quickly followed by the dizzying spin of what felt like a death-roll. Then the pain, gods have mercy, what pain. Shrouded in its great shadow and weight, Pyrrha could only twist in its grip as something tore into the meaty muscles around the socket of her right shoulder and neck. It damn near made her scream and lose what precious air she had manage to trap. With her other hand she had just been able to reach the last phial of Dust she had tucked away in her sash, shoving it against whatever had a hold of her until the frail glass fractured. A charge of aura set it off, a flash and bang muffled by the water that was able to pry her loose and let her flee. Her Semblance latched on to her own armor to propel her through the water, all but hurling her against the farthest bank where she scrambled out and bolted.

And since then -what now feels like hours ago- she still runs because that's what every last instinct is telling her to do. Even the fragmented energy that resides in her soul is frightened of that thing, nudging the young huntress along with an almost irrational fear that it's pursuing her.

But that's because it is. Dreadnought, the lumbering hulk of bone and flesh that it is, powers through the trees. It's heavy, calcified armor protects its frail humanity as it plows down hundred-year-old timbers after the half-maiden, and Pyrrha can hear and feel the lumber striking the earth but doesn't dare look back. Even as a tree falls much to close, one of its branches slapping across the back of her neck, raking the skin.

She doesn't dare because that thing has a human face and it's haunting. It's haunting because she's convinced she knows it, knows its eyes though it's impossible.

Cinder isn't far behind, though she takes to the chase much more casually than Dreadnought. She could travel as fast as she wished, but is content to merely keep close and watch. She had expected Pyrrha to fight, not flee, and she finds steadily growing humor in it. The poor girl must know what -who- Dreadnought is -was. She can only imagine what's going through Pyrrha's mind right now; is it terror or heartache? Disbelief? Most likely, but maybe it's a mixture of all three. Maybe she would start crying soon like she had that night in the vault. Maybe she'll cry before I kill her.

Her lungs are burning like the muscles in her thighs, a hot tingle has started down her sword arm and she wants to drop, but the magic in her spurs her on, supplementing her diminishing aura so she can continue. Pyrrha breaks through the trees into a clearing that only grows wider in her minds eye as the tense seconds tick by. There's a lake in front of her -a real one- and, oh gods, are there people here?! The huntress in her takes control, that still unchanged part of her that wants to do good, and it switches her thought process from flee to defend. She has to stand her ground, and draws her sword and shield though it hurts like hell. But, just as she spins around on her heels, ready to fight, there's a blink of whiteness in the instant before she is overwhelmed with the scalding, splintering pain of something connecting hard with the bridge of her nose. She can't recall having ever been struck so damn hard before. She falls back, knocked clean off her feet, and the wind is almost knocked from her lungs as she hits dirt and bounces.

Pyrrha tries to rise quickly, knowing she might have seconds to do it, tears hot in her eyes as she reminds herself to breathe. Blood gushes down her face now, she can taste it, and her face already feels heavy with swelling. She pushes through it, the magic in her flaring meekly, and she looks up at Dreadnought as it lumbers towards her with a shield of bones etched into heavy scales. Looks into those frigid blue eyes that she's certain she knows.

Once steady on her feet she tightly grips Milo, her Semblance flexing just to be sure Akouo is fast to her bracer. Then a thought flickers madly through her mind, a desperate and impossible idea that she can't stop herself from trying.

"Jaune!" she half sobs, because saying his name is like steel wool in her throat. "Jaune, please," and she doesn't know what else she could possibly say.

Dreadnought pauses, the bone jaws covering the lower half of its face shifting, bone tusks grinding together and smearing the traces of her blood on them. Then there's a low rumble, the air around them both vibrating as the Grimm-hybrid continues advancing, shield up, and its free arm out. From between the first two knuckles the flesh splits, opens up, and out of the fissure slides an impressive, strangely bloodless, bone saber. And as it reaches its full length, Pyrrha feels her heart drop. She finally accepts that it means to fight, and advances to meet it.

It's slow, but hits terribly hard, and it only seems like a minute passes before Pyrrha finds her face in the dirt again. The magic is starting to flare, this time out of a pure survival instinct, causing the golden fractals in her eyes to flash and glow. When she's steady on her feet she pushes in again, this time at a near full sprint while the magic in her soul stirs hotter. As her foot touches the ground at the end of her third stride, sensation punches through the pain center of her brain, coming from her ankle, and then again as Dreadnought swings its shield to strike her wounded shoulder and send her flying. There is the distinct pop and crackle of her aura shattering before she hits the ground.

Cinder strolls out of the tree line and across the winter withered grass, bow in one hand and raising the other to Dreadnought to set it still. She smirks, mostly to herself as she eyes the stunned, prone huntress, the expression intensifying as she sees fleeting sunlight catching on the arrow piercing Pyrrha's ankle. She can feel the magic again, like it's calling for her, and she feels the customary itch to be whole.

"I expected a lot more out of you, what with the way everyone carried on over you and all. And gods know I gave you plenty of time to get your shit together." Cinder shrugs and sighs. "But months later, and you couldn't be bothered to do much more than hide away and give yourself a make over -and not a very good one, I might add. I always knew it when I saw you, but, then again, I'm not just anyone, am I?"

Pyrrha spits out a mouthful of blood, stiffly turning her head to look through a lead haze of dizziness. Cinder can see the flecks of molten gold in the girl's left eye, can feel the heated pulse of magic, yet can't help but chuckle.

"You haven't done a god damn thing with it, have you? Just let it sit inside you like a spare rib?" the smile turns into a snarl. "You don't deserve it."

As she listened to Cinder's gloating, Pyrrha hoped and prayed she wouldn't notice the movement of her hand. She hopes it's just out of her view, allowing Pyrrha to reach for the end of the arrow in her foot and grip it. A little voice in the back of her mind is begging her not to do it, though it might be the only action standing between her and death, and the flicker of Autumn in her is edging her on. Do it. Survive. Take back what's yours.