Hello, this is Desodus here with another story... yeah.

Edit: Disclaimer: I Own Nothing

Prologue: Gifts from an Angel... or a Demon

A young boy of about seven years of age panted as he ran through the forest; branches whipped past his face as he trampled bushes ad grass underfoot. He paid neither any heed as he continued to run.

He cried out in pain as his small body struck a tree.

He stood back up on shaking knees, one hand holding the tree trunk as he placed his weight on his remaining good leg.

There was a growl, followed by a strangled cry from the boy as he was struck once more, flying through the air to land upon stone groundwork.

The boy coughed blood as he tried to stand up, but his body no longer responded to his command, causing him to fall onto his back, left gazing upwards as the sound of air going through nostrils grew closer and closer.

Something drew his eye though; before him was a strangely built wooden table, lashed together by rope and odd pieces jutting upwards from the very back of it.

Candles were situated around the thing, and Jaune realized that maybe there was someone nearby.

Jaune tried to get enough air to scream for help, but was unsuccessful; he was only able to choke out a gurgle as he coughed. The taste of blood thick in his mouth.

The last thing Jaune ever saw was the bone plated skull, and the glowing red eyes of the Ursa before it opened its maw wide and everything went black.

Jaune gave a cry as he awoke; his body felt feverish and he was drenched in sweat. His hands wandered his body feeling for the injuries he had momentarily just received.

Finding none, Jaune took a deep breath as he looked around; he was back in his room, in his house, in his bed.

Not in a forest being hunted by an Ursa, an Ursa that he had purposely tried to fight.

Jaune pinched himself to make sure he wasn't still dreaming, and winced in pain as he felt slight sting. He scrunched up his face in confusion; he was sure what had occurred was no dream, that he was surely about to die... or was it truly just a bad dream?

Something caught Jaune's eye; to his left was Crocea Mors. Now Jaune was sure something was wrong; never had he been allowed to have the family sword in his room, it was supposed to be held in the family armory in the basement.

Picking the sword up with a grunt, Jaune held the weapon in both arms tightly to his chest as his arms slightly buckled under the weight of the weapon.

He pinched himself again to make sure he was truly awake this time.

He shivered as he remember his dream; it was so vivid, the blood, the pain, the Grimm, everything was so detailed, Jaune remembered every little bit of his dream.

Opening his room door, Jaune stepped out and began making his ways to the stairs, before coming up short; there were no stairs...

in fact, there was little of anything at all. As far as his eyes could see, Jaune was in some place that was very blue, and also very open.

Jaune took a look back where he had come from, on the other side of the door he had just exited was his room and his bed.

But this was definitely not his house though.

Creeping to the edge of where his platform, Jaune slowly took a look over the side to see emptiness, an abyss awaited down below.

Jaune gave a gasp as he jumped back as far as he could from the ledge.

His entire room had somehow separated from the rest of his home and was now floating aimlessly in some kind of blue void.

Now he was truly frightened. Where were his parents? Where was he for that matter?!

Jaune returned to his room as fast as possible, and remained sitting upon the covers of his bed for a while, clutching Crocea Mors to himself like a safety blanket as his body was wracked with shivers.

Jaune hugged himself as he began to softly cry; he didn't know what to do, his parents were gone, he didn't know where he was, or what had happened to him to be here... maybe he was dead?

Odd, mother had told him that after dying, they would all go to a better place; this place was wholly empty and oddly colored.

"Not as empty as you would think, Jaune" A sudden voice answered, speaking from nowhere, and everywhere at the same time.

Jaune wildly looked around sniffling as he did so, one arm coming up to wipe the snot running down his face as the other rubbed at his eyes, but there was still no one visible before.

Thinking he had imagined the voice, Jaune whimpered silently as he held himself.

"Grieve not, Jaune" This time, Jaune was sure he had heard the voice and not just imagined it.

"You are not dead, Jaune, just somewhere else for the time being" the voice continued speaking.

Jaune wildly looked around for the source of it, but was only greeted by the sight of his empty room.

That is, until a tear appeared in the very air before the foot of his bed and out stepped an adult man. The man was tall, with short brown hair, a leather jacket over a flowing shirt, black pants, knee high sleek black boots.

"W-Who are you?" Jaune asked, scrunching himself slightly to present a smaller target.

"I go by many names" The thing before Jaune said cryptically; Jaune was sure whatever was in front of him wasn't human. "But you may call me, the Outsider"

"Whe-Where a-am I-I?" Jaune asked, stifling his sniffles as he looked at the being before him.

"You are in my world, the Void" The one known as the Outsider explained. "You see Jaune, great things are ahead of you in the future, great events and even greater struggles" A flash of burning pain filled Jaune's mind as the back of his left hand burned. "This is my mark" the Outsider said, gesturing to Jaune's hand where a symbol had been tattooed there. "You have been chosen to wield forces beyond this world, my gift to you"

With that said, the being known as the Outsider began to fade away; "Come find me" he said at his parting.

Jaune opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again as his head was assaulted with knowledge about the uses of the powers he had just received from the Outsider.

Jaune was left panting upon his bed as the ability called "BLINK" was given to him' the power to instantaneously teleport a fixed distance from his starting position.

Now why would -

Jaune grabbed his headboard and held on as his room began to shake and rumble. Crocea Mors pressing uncomfortably into his chest as things began to fall off from their perches around his room; the lamp on his bedside table, a couple books from his bookshelf, and even a painting of a forest that hung on his fall fell.

But they never struck the floor.

Instead, Jaune watched slacked jaw as the things that should have hit the ground and in some cases shattered upon impact, began to float in the air.

The shaking finally stopped, so Jaune got off his bed on wobbly knees and moved towards his currently floating lamp.

The lamp hung suspended in the air and did not react to anything, not even when Jaune tried to snatch it back and place it onto his table once more.

The same went for the other items in the air. They remained stuck in the air and there was nothing Jaune could do to displace them afterwards.

It was then that Jaune noticed what had occurred outside his room; the empty expanse of sky had now been filled.

There were floating clumps of land everywhere now, like they had been just lifted straight from the ground, scooped up and deposited here for some unknown reason.

No, Jaune knew why they had suddenly appeared.

This was a test; "Come find me" the Outsider had said before marking Jaune and disappearing.

Jaune once more made his way to the edge of his own floating room, once more looked down into the expanse of blue that went on, and on, and on, and on.

Jaune gave an audible gulp as he moved back from the ledge once more. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves before looking at the nearest floating isle and then at the mark upon the back of his left hand and then back at the floating isle nearby.

Jaune took several deep breaths as he remained sitting upon his floating room before standing up, slung Crocea Mors over his shoulder onto his back.

He backed himself to the foot of his bed before crouching slightly in a bad imitation of a runner's starting stance and then shooting forward in a sprint before jumping off the ledge of his floating island.

Jaune pointed his left hand at the surface of the next island; 'There!' he thought as he was airborne. While airborne, Jaune had a good look at the emptiness once more below him, causing him to close his eyes as he tried not to think about freefalling for forever.

But all of Jaune's worries were for naught as he suddenly felt solid ground underneath his right foot. Jaune waited several seconds before putting down his left foot as well, and when nothing happened after that, Jaune finally opened his eyes to see he was indeed upon the next little floating isle.

Other than what felt like a slight drain upon his energy, he felt normal, well, as normal as one could be in this situation.

Jaune's hands once more roamed his own body to make sure everything was in its correct place before he released a breath that he didn't even know he had been holding before collapsing in a heap upon the stonework ground.

He looked up and followed the trail of floating islands that he would have to go through and saw that they were far more numerous than he expect or wanted.

He gave a sigh as he stood up once more, taking another deep breath before positioning himself at one end of the island and took another running jump towards the next one.

This time, Jaune did not close his eyes, he forced himself to watch as he pointed to a spot he wanted to get to and mentally told himself to be there.

And suddenly, in a flash of blue light and to the sound of displacing air, he was there; it was like someone had fast forwarded his vision as everything hyper focused onto the location he had mentally marked earlier, and then everything would return to normal as he arrived at his destination.

Jaune brushed himself off slightly as he took a look at the currently isle he was on and came face to face with an Ursa eating someone; its muzzle red with blood and gore.

Jaune covered his mouth as his stomach rebelled at what his eyes were currently telling him. He then lost the battle when he realized just who the Ursa was eating...

The Grimm was eating him.

Frozen in time and positioned like a wax statue in a museum; the Grimm from earlier -whether from his dreams or actually reality, Jaune no longer knew- was positioned on all four over his own dead body.

Jaune met his dead counterpart's eyes and threw up once more.

Jaune rested on his knees with his eyes screwed shut, trying to get the image before him out of his mind. His body shivering once more from shock.

He remained kneeling for a while before he began feeling the ground around himself and began to slowly lead himself away from the image of his own death.

Eventually, Jaune's questing hands reached the end to the floating island and he nearly pitched his entire body forward at the loss of ground to touch, only holding himself up with one hand as he withdrew slightly from the edge and opened his eyes once more.

He looked forward, refusing to acknowledge what laid behind him as he focused all of his attention at the next stop on his hopping adventure.

From what Jaune could see, the next floating piece of land seemed like part of an interior of a large room; with tiled flooring and what looked like a large stage with figures on it.

The distance between islands also appeared slightly greater than previous jumps.

There was no helping it as Jaune took a small jump off the island he was on and targeted the closest piece of land in front on him; which turned out to be a jutting strip of tiled floor.

His vision once more tightened as he made his attempt to reaching the next floating location. And he did, landing on the narrow strip of floor tiling and nearly falling off because of it as his balance nearly failed him from bad foot positioning.

After a second of struggling to maintain balance, Jaune was able to make his way to the center of the island and see what laid here.

What was situated there were several figures, and from what Jaune was able to tell, they were all older teens; the first figure was a redheaded woman wearing bronze armor and held a circular shield in one hand and a javelin in the other. The next figure was of a young man with wielding dual pistol-like weapons. The last individual captured in this scene was another young woman, but unlike the first, this one held a large warhammer that easily rested upon one of her shoulders.

Jaune looked at these individuals with wide eyes. They looked really cool, calm and collected.

Jaune had no idea whom they were though, so he ended up passing them and making his way to the edge and towards the next island destination.

After 'blinking' from floating island to floating island for the past several minutes, Jaune's body could no longer take the strain and he had to sit down.

Jaune wiped the sweat from his brow as he sat on his haunches, leaning his back against the newest obstacle in this course created by the Outsider; which so happened to be a ledge he had to climb up, or most likely, 'blink' to the top.

Once a sufficient amount of energy was regenerated, Jaune turned to face the high wall and 'blinked' upwards, landing squarely at the edge.

And he then nearly fell backwards off the ledge as he came face to face with several beowolves right in front of him.

It was only the knowledge that nothing could move in this world except him that didn't cause him to wet himself at the sight of the endless horde of Grimm before him, because behind the beowolves were Ursas, Boarbatusks, Deathstalkers and many more that Jaune couldn't even fathom existed.

What was odd though, was that most of them were facing a singular direction; the same direction that Jaune was supposed to go towards to the next floating isle.

Jaune slowly made his way through the towering army of Grimm, ducking under claws, bone protrusions, pincers, fangs and even the occasional hairy leg.

Everywhere he looked there were Grimm, the feared monsters of the Remnant night. Though he knew they were to be feared, Jaune could not resist studying every single one he passed, being that close, even those they were technically not alive, but in such detail both intrigued and disturbed him.

Eventually, Jaune came to the end of the Grimm horde, and was faced now with an army of human before him; soldiers in thick armor and in tight formations as they face off against the Grimm horde.

In the middle ground where Jaune was currently standing, the two sides were clashing, frozen for all time.

There were dozens of human soldiers and Hunters fighting Grimm, but from what Jaune could see; the army of humans were severely outnumbered here, and it showed in as the figures fought frozen in time; many a soldier was hard-pressed to win against several opponents at the same time, even though the Hunters faired better, it was visible upon their faces to Jaune that the strain was affecting them.

Jaune moved passed this all and he finally came to the end of his journey; there were no longer any other floating islands to hop to.

Behind him lay the human-Grimm battlefield, and before him lay the blue expanse of the Void.

It was in the midst of this great expanse of blue sky that the Outsider once more appeared to Jaune, this time seemingly just building himself out of the air before him.

"In the years to follow, your trials will be great, young Jaune" The Outsider said in his ethereal voice. "Seek the runes bearing my mark in the forgotten places of your world and the shrines raised in my name. These runes will grant you power beyond other men" The mysterious being gestured to Jaune's left hand; "Your mark will glow and burn as you draw near my runes"

As the Outsider said that, the mark upon Jaune's left hand began to throb and pulse. The Outsider watched as Jaune followed the throbbing of his hand to one side far behind the human lines of the battle behind him to a wooden table-like structure, exactly like the one he had seen earlier with the Ursa.

But this time, Jaune realized that it was actually a shrine dedicated to the Outsider, and upon the shrine was a stone tablet held together by metal clamps that fit right into the palm of Jaune's hand.

"How you use this power falls upon you, as it has to the others before you" The Outsider started talking again after Jaune had grasped the rune. "And now you will return to your world, but know that I will be watching you with great interest"

With those final parting words, everything went black for Jaune.

Seconds later, Jaune opened his eyes to find himself once more underneath the shrine dedicated to the Outsider, he was back in the forest he had been in earlier, but there was no sign of the Ursa from before.

There was also the uncomfortable feeling of his shirt stuck to his skin for some reason, so Jaune looked down, and from the moonlight shining in between the trees, he was just able to make out that his simple yellow shirt was now full of splotches of a dirty brown color, and that it stuck to his body.

It also itched something fierce.

Pulling his shirt away from his body, Jaune felt the now stiff material rub uncomfortably against his body as he stood up on wobbly legs.

Jaune stumbled forward and tripped over something, falling face first into the ground. Looking back at what had caused him to fall, Jaune saw the rune he had picked up earlier lying at his feet.

Crawling over to it, Jaune picked it up before standing up once more, putting the rune into his pant pocket.

Jaune looked around and began trying to figure out which direction was home.

"Jaune!" A female voice shouted through the night. "Jaune, where are you?"

"Dear, please, keep your voice down" Someone beside the woman admonished. "There are many Grimm in the forest, more so when night falls, Joan"

"Do not tell me to keep my voice down, John!" The woman nearly shouted in anger. "Our son is missing, and Monty be damned if we don't find him!"

The woman's voice cracked as she nearly entered hysterics at the thought of losing her only child.

John Arc gave a sigh as he turned to one of the villagers in their little band of searchers; "Have you found anything?" He asked, shifting Crocea Mors to his other hand as he scratched his head.

"Someone reported that there were signs of a struggle further ahead" the other man answered, send furtive looks into the surrounding dark forest every now and then. "We must hurry"

"Then lead the way!" Jaune's mother cried.

The village man looked to John for confirmation, and John nodded. With that, the group of several villagers and a couple hunters pushed their way deeper into the dark forest.

The scene the group of people came to was not pretty; there were trees splintered everywhere, blood, and the ground had bee torn up and dirt had been flung everywhere.

Joan Arc gave a gasp and covered her mouth in shock before she began to cry, clinging onto her husband for support. John Arc held his wife close as she cried into his shoulder.

Several of the accompanying villagers lowered their heads in silence.

One of the other Hunters in the group came up and placed a hand on John's remaining shoulder; "I'm sorry, John" He said. "We were too late"

John Arc said nothing as he held his wife close as she began to wail. "Let's... Let's go back now... Joan" he said softly after a moment of silence and crying. "There's nothing left here"

John Arc tried to steer his wife away from the scene of carnage, but met resistance when Joan pushed him away and began shaking her head.

"No, no, Jaune's not dead!" she denied, shaking amidts the group.

"Honey... please" John said, facing his hysterical wife. "We need to leave... Now!"

"Not until we find Jaune!" Joan argued, tears no longer falling down, replaced with anger.

"Jaune'-!..." John couldn't bring himself to say those words for a moment. "... Jaune's dead" he finished softly, turning from his wife, unable to look at her now.

"No!" Joan denied once more. "I refuse to believe that!"

"We need to go!" someone said from behind John Arc. "It's closing to midnight!"

"Joan! Please!" John said, pleading with his wife. "We can return lat-!"

Whatever he was about to say was cut off as the unmistakable sound of bushes moving and twigs being snapped was heard by the group. Everyone turned to the direction of the source of the sound and saw brush trembling and shaking from something.

Weapons were drawn and John Arc leaped forward to grab his wife and place her behind him; she would be more of a liability now than an asset.

But there was no need as what came out of the bushes before the group was none other than the missing boy, Jaune Arc.

"M-Mom? Da-Dad?" his familiar voice was heard.

"Jaune!" John breathed out.

"Jaune!" Joan cried rushing around her dumbstruck husband to get to her son's side.

"... Mom" Jaune said one last time before slumping forward, falling unconscious.

Whisperings and mutterings were heard as the other villagers came closer to get a good look at the boy, bring with them the light of several lanterns.

Said whispering and muttering grew in crescendo when the state of Jaune's clothes and body were brought to light.

Several others clapped John Arc on the back at the safe return of his son, while Joan cradled Jaune to herself in a tight embrace.

But no one noticed that John Arc was not celebrating at the safe return of his son, because if one were to look closely at John Arc, one would see that his focus was indeed upon his unconscious son, but was utterly focused upon his left hand.

So I wrote this when I was playing through Dishonored a second time. I will be writing about his years before Jaune actually enters Beacon Academy in this story.