Happy Valentine's Day guys! I hope you guys had a fun-filled day with your significant other and you single birds found your match.

Anyway, I'm starting a new fanfic in honor of V-day, and it is currently a side project at the moment. If you guys want to see more of this, then please leave a review saying so. Readers' feedback is what motivates me to write, and if I get enough of it, I'll consider moving this up on my priority list.

Anyway, let the story begin!

The life of a soldier was not for the faint of heart; this was a lesson drilled into his brain from the first day of basic training.

Every day of every week of every year, he was constantly reminded of this whenever he failed in any aspect of his training, which happened more often than he was comfortable with. He was a failure, and in his opinion, most definitely week at heart.

The current condition of his health did much to prove this as an accurate assessment of both his heart and skills as a soldier.

He was limping through the forest with a sprained ankle that flared in mind-numbing pain with every step. His uniform was soaked crimson in his own blood that leaked from the innumerable amount of cuts and slashes littering his body, as well as the blood of his deceased comrades that spilled through their mutilated corpses when they were attacked. With every aching breathe, small drops of blood would trinkle down his mouth and onto the ground, but these afflictions on his health were nothing compared to most damning injury that was slowly killing him.

He had lost a fatal amount of blood during his escape from the battlefield, and this was the result of the condition of his right arm that was mercilessly dislocated out of its socket and torn to shreds by the enemies pursuing him.

His already limited strength finally abandoned him as he collapsed against a large tree and slowly slid his back against its trunk, staining its rough bark with the scent of iron and the shade of roses. As he lied against the tree, fearfully anticipating the arrival of his murderous pursuers, he woefully looked up to the starry night sky with miniscule tears clouding his fading vision. He was suffering from extreme blood loss and vertigo, his good arm was possibly infected to the point that he would need it amputated, and he no longer possessed the strength to flee from them.

His fate was inescapable and clear; Jaune Arc was going to perish tonight, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Jaune's only regret was that he didn't get to say goodbye to his friends, but most people in his line of work often went without that luxury.

With a melancholy sigh of despair, Jaune's eye's descended from the sky to the enchantingly ominous object occupying his good arm. It was the entire reason why he was mutilated and his squad was attacked and brutally murdered, it was the object that he was sacrificing his life to protect with all of his will, and it was what his attackers were apparently willing to do anything to obtain.

An ominously foreboding urn; completely made out of shimmering black Dust.

(Hours ago)

"We're under attack! Men, prepare for battle!" A captain shouted to his underlings from atop his armored horse as he pulled his sword from its sheath and rode around the camp to warn the rest of his men.

Jaune gasped audibly as he ceased slashing at the training dummy, not unlike the rest of the rookie soldiers around him.

From the look on the captain's face when he rode by on his steed, it could be safely assumed that they had very little time to waste. As quickly as they were able, they rushed to their tents to retrieve all of their supplies and geared up for battle.

"THEY'RE BREACHING THE GATES!" A panicking soldier screamed in a panic as he rushed to said gates with his great-sword strapped to his back.

Jaune gulped fearfully as he finished strapping on the rest of his armor. "Well…that's bad." Jaune whimpered with a shiver, not at all eager to see what was causing all of the panic.

"C'mon Private Arc! Don't pussy out on me now! Let's go kick some ass!" a rather ecstatic and bulky gorilla Faunus shouted zealously as he roughly patted Jaune's back before hefting his war-hammer over his shoulder, ready to obliterate his enemies.

As much as Jaune appreciated the sentiment behind the Faunus's words, he wasn't exactly eager to rush into the jaws of battle like he was. Oh well, he was a soldier and he would do what was expected of him, regardless of his own cowardice.

It was times like these that made him wonder why he didn't just become a farmer like his former drill sergeant oh so forcefully insulted through venomous shouting and abusive exercises. If he truly had a choice, he would have loved to become a Huntsman like his ancestors, but unfortunately he showed no signs of being able to use Aura. It was nothing more than a pipe dream, and being a soldier was the closest he was going to get to being the hero he always wished he could be, so he put up with it.

However, as he sprinted through the camp to the gates alongside his fellow soldiers, he heard the monstrous and primal roars of the enemies trying to ram their way through the gates. It sounded as if he wouldn't have to worry about his life choices for much longer.

"We can't hold them off! Prepare for battle!" one of the riflemen from the top of the gate's framing shouted as he fired another round.

Jaune and the various other soldiers assumed flanking formation around the entrance, ready to combat the threat invading their territory.

Their momentary bravery was short-lived when an intimidating and foreboding violet glow began to seep through the cracks in the damaged gates.

"Is that…Aura?" one soldier beside Jaune inquired as he tightened his grip on his lance.

His answer was answered when the gates finally gave in to the intruders' attacks and exploded in an iridescently haunting explosion of purple light that temporarily blinded the soldiers. The area was smothered in a suffocating cloud of dirt that was uplifted by the explosion, and some of the soldiers coughed violently or squinted in an attempt to see through the shroud of dirt. The dust finally settled enough to the point that they could somewhat see the intruders.

Well...they could only see one intruder.

One lone figure; wearing a concealing black hood.

"What the fuck?" another soldier growled angrily, confused as to how they were so alarmed by one enemy.

His curiosity was shattered when the figure snapped its gloved fingers to signal the rest of its companions.

Instilling terror in the soldiers hearts as they slowly became more visible, were multitudes of evil red eyes that radiated with murderous intent.

Only one creature could be capable of such an evil gaze.

"GRRRIIIIIIMMMM!" one soldier screamed in horror, shattering the silence that temporarily permeated the battlefield.

As if to definitively remove any doubt of the screaming soldier's declaration, the swarm of black creatures rushed past their obvious leader with their fangs and claws extended.

"Attack!" the captain roared in command as the creatures advanced on them.

They didn't stand a chance.

For what seemed like hours, the soldiers futilely battled the legion of monsters and their enigmatic leader, but the numbers that contested them were far too great. Jaune realized as he fought alongside his brothers in arms. Every time they managed to defeat and slay a Death Stalker, 5 Ursa would take its place. Whenever they slew an Ursa, ten Beowolves would emerge out of nowhere to continue the battle, and so on so forth.

They had already lost the battle; it was simply a matter of how long they could survive before there inevitable defeat.

As Jaune exhaustedly sprinted through the blood-soaked grounds of the camp that was now ablaze, dodging any attacks from any Grimm he ran past and assisting any of his comrades that were still fighting, he was frantically searching for the captain in hopes that the wizened leader had a plan. He was unsuccessful in locating him anywhere on the battlefield, which left him only one last possible place to look; his tent.

He wasted no time sprinting to his destination, and even though most of the tents were now engulfed in crackling flames, the captain's tent was the largest of them all and well fortified with protective Dust ingrained in the material, so it still stood tall, albeit with heavy damage.

"Captain Peach!" Jaune shouted as he entered the inside of the tent, then flinched in horror as he found his mutilated superior.

"Private…Jaune…" Captain Peach breathed lowly as he lied against the side of his desk bleeding out.

"Holy shit! Captain!" Jaune shouted as he rushed to closer observe the older man's condition to see if he was beyond saving.

And indeed he was.

Captain Peach's right leg was missing, his right eye was damaged to the point of uselessness, and his body was covered head-to-toe in angry slashes and bite marks. The only thing that could possibly save him at this point was a first-class Huntsman/Medic, but they were too far from the kingdom of Vale to even hope of finding one.

"Captain…" Jaune whimpered pitifully with a quivering lip, disheartened that his captain was only minutes from death at best.

"There's no time to mourn soldier…man…up." The gruff, but caring, captain ordered through labored breaths.

Jaune did as he was commanded and forcefully wiped his teary eyes with a strained "Yes sir."

It was horrible to see his captain in such a hopeless condition. The man was greatly respected by his subordinates and Jaune admired him for his desire to help his men achieve their full potential, yet at the same time maintaining a friendly and inviting demeanor. He would even accept their playful jives at his pink hair and retaliate with his own jokes, letting his men know that no offense was taken.

And now he was going to die, and this stung Jaune's soul with a searing and throbbing pain.

"Private…look under my desk…its important." Captain Peach said as he tried to swallow his painful coughs.

"Yes sir." Jaune complied as he circled around his superior to see whatever he wanted him to see.

It was a black chest, securely shut closed by golden clasps that were kept stationary by what appeared to be a combination lock consisting of four numbers.

"1…7…9…2…open it." Peach ordered while telling Jaune the required combination.

It didn't sound as if his captain had muck more time in this world, so Jaune quickly did as he was requested and pulled out the chest from under the desk. As quickly as he could, Jaune entered the combination and undid the top of the chest.

Jaune stared in confusion at the object that lied inside.

"Captain…is this an urn?" he asked, not at all understanding why Captain Peach would have such an item with him.

"It's what that bastard is after." Peach growled angrily, referring to the cloaked figure responsible for the Hell that was unleashed upon him and his men. "There's no time for questions Private…grab it." He commanded lowly.

Jaune would have immediately followed Peach's orders without the slightest bit of hesitation, but the urn, for some reason, gave off a feeling of insecurity and darkness. Just looking at the object chilled him to his bones and had him in shivers. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to shut the chest and leave it be, but Jaune was never one to disobey a direct order from the man he respected so much, so he ignored his instincts and grabbed the urn firmly and retracted it from its dark prison. Once he held it within his hands, the texture and glow that gleamed from its surface revealed that the urn was made of Dust, but Jaune had never seen black Dust before in his life.

Why would the captain be hiding this?

"Do you have it?" Captain Peach asked with a raspy cough.

"Yes sir." Jaune confirmed as he hesitantly held the urn closer to his chest.

Jaune heart skipped a beat as the captain gave his final order he would ever make again.

"Good…now run." Captain Peach ordered plainly and nonchalantly as if he just told his subordinate to drop and give him twenty.

Jaune recoiled in shock as he processed his words, trying to make sure that he heard him correctly.

"What?" Jaune asked in disbelief, appalled by what his captain was asking of him.

"I said run. Run and survive, and make sure that they never get their hands on that urn." Peach clarified, not at all losing his tone.

Jaune dropped to his knees in front of his superior with tears in his eyes.

"But Captain, I can't just leave you all like this?! I can't just abandon you all when you're dying!" he protested frantically, not at all comfortable with leaving his brothers in arms behind to their deaths.

He was silenced as Peach found the strength to roughly grab Jaune by his collar and shouted in his face, "WE'RE ALREADY DEAD!"

Jaune froze fearfully as the captain calmed down after his outburst.

"Jaune, nothing you do is going to prevent our deaths, but you can make sure that we won't die in vain. I don't know what that damnable piece of shit is, and I don't know why that monster wants it so badly, but what I do know is that it was important enough for the Valean Military to send us all the way out here to secure it. If that bastard gets his hands on it, then I'm certain that nothing good will come from it and all of us would have died for nothing."

Jaune let his captain's words sink in as his gaze sadly descended to the ground. As much as he didn't like it, Captain Peach was absolutely right. Staying to die alongside his fellow soldiers would ultimately accomplish nothing, and would do more harm than good.

Peach's hands came undone from Jaune's color and rested on his shoulder in a consoling manner.

"Now go...run…and live." He gently ordered with a soothing smile.

Jaune woefully sighed in submission to his captain's order and sadly replied, "Yes sir."

Jaune rose from his spot next to Captain Peach, ready to fulfill his orders, but flinched in fright as he heard the hauntingly familiar growls of Beowolves near the entrance of the tent.

They were close…

"You're running out of time! GO!" Captain Peach forcefully and authoritatively shouted as he pulled his sword out of its sheathe on his side.

Jaune began to sprint towards the exit to begin his mad dash away from the hellish battlefield, but before he completely left the doomed tent, he turned back towards his captain to say his final goodbyes to the honorable leader.

"It's been an honor serving with you sir." Jaune whimpered as he saluted his captain with barely restrained sobs and tears dripped from his cheeks.

Peach smiled warmly as he tightened his grip on his sword, humbled by his subordinate's kind and final words to him.

"Likewise…my friend." Peach replied.

Jaune sped out of the exit as soon as he could with the urn in hand, trying to ignore the sounds of angry howling and barking from the tent as he abandoned it.

He could not, however, ignore the sounds of Captain Peach's screams of agony as the monsters brutally ended his life.

Jaune tore through the battlefield in his desperate attempt to reach the exit, trying his absolute best to refrain from losing his lunch at the sight of his comrades corpses being devoured by packs of Usas and Beowolves, while also making sure that the urn was safely secured in his arms. The exit was within sight after minutes of unperturbed running, and Jaune increased his speed in anticipation of escape.

Unfortunately for him, he was cut off by a particularly crafty Beowolf that blindsided him, pounced on top of him, then proceeded to gnaw on his right arm and slash his body.

Jaune screamed and howled in pain as the beast eviscerated his arm, but maintained his wits enough to reach for the hidden blade in his pocket. With pain-induced adrenaline guiding his murderous blade, Jaune stabbed the despicable monster in its crimson eye repeatedly and ferociously, roaring in anger as he did so. With one final stab to ensure his enemy's demise, Jaune slammed the blade into its skull with an angry scream of pain. The beast finally lied still atop him, motivating Jaune to violently kick its body off of him.

He exhaustedly wobbled back to his feet with a painful grunt and tried to pick the urn back up from the ground at his feet, but grimaced in horror at the fact that his devastated arm was now dislocated, immobile, and useless.

"Great…" he angrily and sarcastically growled as he used his one good arm to return the knife back to its rightful spot in his pocket, then picked the urn up from the ground.

He finally managed to escape the condemned hell-hole that was once his camp, but the monstrous beasts soon followed him in pursuit.

It was the beginning of the most eventful night of Jaune Arc's life.

(Present)

Jaune tried once again to get back on his feet to try and gain more distance between him and his pursuers, but he slid back onto the ground with a silent yelp of agony as he stepped on his sprained ankle. He was not used to running on uneven terrain and accidently collapsed and tumbled down an unexpected hill after he escaped the camp. The durable urn remained intact without losing its lid and spilling (what he assumed was inside) the ashes, but his ankle was not as lucky and was injured badly. He spent the next few hours trying to run from the monsters that were tracking him down, but now his strength had finally extinguished, leaving him vulnerable to his pursuers.

It was only a matter of time before they located him, finish him off, then take their prize.

Of course, that was assuming he didn't die from blood loss before they find him.

Evidently, escaping was not an option, which left Jaune only one last choice: fight.

With a determined growl, he set the urn beside him and unsheathed the sword from its sheathe that was fastened to his hip. There was no conceivable way that he could hope to fight off a pack of Grimm with no energy, but refused to allow them to have their way with no resistance.

If he was going to die, he was going to do so like his comrades and commanding officer: fighting.

"Interesting…"

Jaune jumped in surprise at the sudden and unexpected comment. He shot his head in every direction in a panicked frenzy, trying to identify where the source of the voice was, but it was proving futile. He couldn't find the actual source because it sounded as if the ethereal voice was echoing throughout his mind, and this both confused and intimidated him.

"You're completely incapable of fighting, your enemies grievously outnumber you, you've already lost the impending fight. And yet, despite these hopeless circumstances, you still find the strength to raise your blade and fight. Heh heh heh, what a brave little soldier."

The dark, noticeably feminine voice giggled chillingly in delight of the boy's predicament, sending shivers down Jaune's spine and making him sweat more than he already was.

"Or perhaps, maybe it's not a matter of will. Maybe you're just fighting blindly because it is your only option left. Maybe you're a spineless coward jumping into the jaws of death because your instincts and lack of options demand it so, not because your will encourages you to. Tell me, which is it?"

Jaune, in all honesty, was terrified by the reverberating darkness laced within the voice's tone. It was not the voice of a warm and loving angel; it was the voice of a sadistic and icy mistress that found cruel pleasure in his suffering. She was toying with him, he knew this well, but against his better judgment he decided to entertain the dark woman.

"Both." Jaune wheezed painfully as the perspiration developed from hours of running dripped down his body and aggravated his already stinging wounds.

The voice's giggles escalated into melodic laughter in response to his unusual answer.

"Is that so? What an honest, yet paradoxical, answer." The voice replied in amusement. "Would you care to elaborate?"

"I'm terrified…I want to keep running…but I'm not scared of dying. I'm scared of failing my captain." Jaune answered truthfully before his lungs gave in and he started coughing violently, sprinkling the ground below with drops of blood. "Even if I die fighting, I'll die doing my best to fulfill his last order."

"Hmm…interesting indeed." The woman hummed inquisitively. Jaune could almost picture the faceless woman stroking her chin in thought as she hummed and giggled.

"Stand." She commanded with a no-nonsense tone that left no room for arguments.

"What?" Jaune asked in confusion, not at all understanding the intent behind her command.

"I said stand; get off of your ass and prove your bravery to me, little one." The voice mockingly, yet eerily affectionately, goaded in a challenging manner.

Perhaps it was indeed his lack of options that instigated his next action, or perhaps the man inside of him refused to back down from a challenge putting his bravery into question, but his vigor was renewed and gave him the strength to make another attempt at rising from the ground. With a strained and prolonged grunt of effort and determination, he dug his sword into the ground and used every last drop of his revitalized energy to push himself up.

"That's right…show me your will. Stand and fight, like a man." The voice growled in support, egging him on to continue his efforts to succeed.

It worked.

His legs wobbled and shuddered under the pressure of his efforts to rise to the challenge, and it sent waves of crashing down every inch of his body with every breath, but his tenacity eventually paid off and allowed him to stand on his feet.

It was extremely painful, but it was invigoratingly fulfilling that he succeeded in his efforts.

"Very good…open the urn."

Jaune's eyes widened at her next command as he slowly looked towards the urn at his feet. A mind-shattering conclusion came to fruition in his head as he finally realized where the voice was coming from; the urn. It didn't sound possible at all, but there was no other feasible possibility that he could think of. The urn, or whoever was inside the urn, was speaking to him telepathically.

"Why?" Jaune skeptically questioned, not trusting her in the slightest.

"Because if you don't, you will fail in completing your superior's final order: keeping me out of your enemy's grasp. You know you can't fight them, it's taking every last drop of your withering strength just to stand. However, I can combat him and drive him off."

As much as Jaune didn't trust the woman, there was undeniable truth in her words. If he didn't do something now, then the urn was as good as there's. But there was always the possibility that the entity inside would turn on him. Captain Peach wanted him to keep the urn out of the enemy's hands because he was afraid that they would use it to harm the innocent, but he wasn't too certain that she wouldn't do the same when free.

Did he really want to take that risk?

He was brought out of his doubtful thoughts by the growing sounds of barking and roaring in the distance, and Jaune flinched in fright as he immediately recognized the bestial sounds.

The Grimm found him, and they were closing in on him.

"You're running out of time! Do it now!" The voice shouted.

Jaune answer to his personal dilemma was clear when the sounds of Grimm grew ever closer.

Wasting no more time thinking about it, Jaune painfully dropped to his knees and grabbed the lid of the urn with his one useable arm and pulled. It came undone effortlessly, much to his surprise, and he grimaced at the suffocating smell that permeated from the inside. Just as an urn should, it was filled to the brim with ashes. However, the ashes matched the shade of the urn that contained them; a lightless and foreboding black that looked as if it could devour any light that dared touched it.

"What now?" Jaune asked breathlessly, still exhausted by his previous efforts.

"Spill them."

Jaune did as he was told and tipped the urn over, allowing the ashes to pour onto the ground in front of him, and he did so quickly, motivated by the fear of his enemy's impending presence.

"Now finally…burn them." She instructed with obvious tension in her voice, leading him to believe that she could somehow sense the Grimms' getting closer.

Normally, Jaune would have panicked due to the fact that there was no way that he could hope to start a fire with only one arm. However, Lady Luck finally found it in her heart to bestow a blessing upon him.

His hand shot down in his pocket to retrieve the gift that his friend Ruby had shoved down his throat, not allowing him to leave the protection of Vale without it: a pack of matches.

If he got out of this alive, he was going to give Ruby the biggest, most heartfelt hug she will ever receive in her life.

He pulled the pack out and immediately ripped a match out to light it, but it was proving to be twice as difficult with only one arm. He tried to increase his chances of a successfully lit match by placing the box on the ground and striking it, but it was still rather difficult.

"Make haste! They're here!" the woman shouted.

"I'm trying!" Jaune fearfully screamed in response, striking the match against the rough strip on the box even more frantically.

He looked up from the box to see just how much time he had left.

The answer momentarily paralyzed his heart: none.

The cloaked figure was sprinting towards him from afar, followed closely by the Grimm under its command.

"HURRY!"

Jaune screamed in effort as he fruitlessly struck the match again and again and again with panic and hysteria fueling his efforts.

They were closing in; only seconds away from killing him.

"COOOOMMMMEEEE OOOOOOONNNN!" Jaune screamed with one final strike against the box.

At long last, the match was finally set ablaze.

"NOOOOWWWW!"

The cloaked figure stabbed at Jaune's head with the intent to kill, only centimeters away from ending his life.

But not before Jaune managed to drop the lit match in the pool of ashes.

Jaune was sent flying back into the tree by the explosion of fiery Aura that erupted from the ashes in a miraculously destructive orange light. It not only sent him flying a considerable distance away from the ashes, but also his enemy and its Grimm underlings as well. Where the pool of ashes once rested, a raging inferno that climbed to unimaginable heights roared and flared in a hauntingly beautiful fury that obliterated much of the plant life surrounding it. Jaune could feel his skin blistering from the suffocating heat, but his discomfort was nothing compared to the painful destruction many of the Beowolves and Ursas suffered. Their leader stood unharmed and alert behind them, somehow managing to avoid the blast, but the Grimm that were on the front lines were not as fortunate and were agonizingly set aflame. They were reduced to ashes in mere seconds, and this both amazed and intimidated Jaune as he stared at the beautiful geyser of fire.

With each passing second after the initial explosion, the inferno slowly began to climb back down and recede, and slowly began to take a rather unexpected shape.

Jaune could only stare frightfully with a gaping mouth at the figure that soon took the place of the inferno.

Standing amongst the hellish flames dancing sporadically on the ground as they consumed whatever they touched, was an immaculately enchanting and hypnotically beautiful woman. Her long curly hair swayed back and forth with even the smallest of her movements and radiated the darkest of blackness that one could lose their selves in just by observing. Her perfectly flawless skin was paler than the mid-night moon and equally matched its luster and magnificence. Her attire consisted of a pair of gleaming black high-heels faultlessly framing her small feet, a black anklet comprised of rubies that wrapped around her right ankle, a black choker that was comfortably tightened around her delicate looking neck, and most noticeably, a crimson colored dress covered in intricately designed yellow lines that extended along her arms and ample bosom, and snugly hugged her gorgeous figure, doing very little to conceal her long slim legs.

She was extravagantly attractive, Jaune could not deny this, but the most eye-catching part of her appearance was not her excellent, almost unrealistic, beauty.

It was the expansive and majestically captivating dark angel wings protruding from her exposed back.

The cloaked figure that previously tried to take Jaune's life recoiled and shuddered in unparalleled horror at the sight of the entity before it. The Grimm surrounding it were no different as they hesitantly looked towards one another, fearing the destructive force that was menacingly grinning at them, like a tiger bearing down upon a defenseless mouse.

The figure waved its hands in a silent command for the Grimm to attack her as it took a few steps back in preparation for an escape. Most of the creatures of darkness did as they were told and ran at the woman patiently waiting for them to get closer so that their leader could escape, while others were still paralyzed in fear.

They didn't stand a ghost of a chance.

Half of the remaining Grimm charged at her ready to engage, but before they could even raise a paw to attack the grinning woman, she extended the palms of her hands out to them as the designs of her cloths pulsated and glowed. Their deaths instantaneous and painful as they were completely incinerated by the fiery pillars that exploded upwards from under them, reducing their bodies into dust and striking even more fear into the non-existent hearts of the Grimm that stayed behind them. Seeing their brethren so easily disposed of, the surviving Grimm abandoned their orders and attempted to follow their master's trail to escape with them.

They spun around and sprinted on all fours away from the monster that far outclassed them, but before they could gain a significant amount of distance, the woman sultrily chuckled as a menacingly wicked looking weapon appeared in her right hand in a flash of fire.

It was a piercingly sharp sword, made completely out of black Dust.

In a streak of red and black, she speedily flew at them with her wings extended and slashed through all of them in a single swipe of her dangerous weapon. They gave one final groan of pain before they became completely disassembled and fell to the ground in halves before beginning to disintegrate into nothingness like their kind was known for when they died.

The merciless woman stared into the distance to see if her cowardly opponent was still in sight, but they were not.

It mattered not, she was free now and chasing them blindly would accomplish nothing at the moment.

There was, however, the small issue of the boy's knowledge of her. The attacker obviously knew what she was, she couldn't change that, but she could make sure that the boy didn't spread the word about her in the most efficient way possible.

Dead men told no tales, after all.

She turned towards Jaune with an eerie smile that did not inspire calm feelings in him, and gave him a clear view of her glimmering amber eyes that observed his scared face.

She was about to set him ablaze with a slight twitch of her finger, but was surprised to find that her power was beginning to wane. She observed her body for analysis, and her eyes widened in momentary fear as she noticed her body slowly begin to shrivel back into ashes.

She mentally cursed in anger as she realized the cause of her steady disassembly. The boy who had awoken her did not possess the ability to utilize Aura, thus making her revival temporary. There was only one way she could survive indefinitely at this point.

It was all up to the boy.

She allowed her flames to calm down as to not endanger the potential instrument to her survival any further, and calmly strutted towards the downed soldier lying fearfully against the tree. She would have found great hilarity at how much she frightened the boy if the circumstances were any different, but there was no time entertainment at the moment.

She bent down to Jaune's level and observed his body as he breathed heavily and sweated nervously.

"You're dying, and no amount of medical attention is going to save you. You know this, don't you?" She asked bluntly without any amount of sugar-coating.

Jaune lethargically nodded his head, suffering from overwhelming dizziness combined with the difficulty to breathe.

The woman smiled warmly at him, confusing him greatly as to how something so destructive and intimidating could appear to be so friendly.

"What if I told you that I could save your life?" She asked, enjoying the spark of surprise that flashed through his cerulean blue eyes. "Interested?"

Jaune nodded his head again, though with a tad bit more vigor than last time.

"I can heal all of your wounds, remove all of the infections that you are currently inflicted by, and I can replenish all of the blood you have lost…for a price." She cryptically added.

Jaune's eyes did not leave hers, even though they swayed back and forth from vertigo, letting her know that he was listening clearly.

"What's the catch?" he breathed lowly, but audibly enough so that she could hear him.

The woman grinned in anticipation of his reaction.

"You must become a Huntsman. You must become my Huntsman…among other things. Neither of us have time to discuss details."

Jaune's dizziness was provisionally wiped away by the shock and confusion that stemmed from her terms.

A Huntsman?

A true Huntsman, just like he always wished for?

The offer was deliciously enticing, and if anyone else offered such a boon, he would have immediately accepted their offer without a second thought.

This woman, this angel of perpetual obscurity, did not inspire confidence in him. He didn't fully understand what she meant by "her" Huntsman, and he didn't like how she added "among other things" so cryptically, obviously enjoying the confusion she instigated within him.

But then again, death was slowly creeping up on him the longer it took for him to decide; he could feel its cold grasp grow tighter with every passing second.

"Do you accept the gift I offer?" she questioned with sinful delight flickering in her glowing eyes.

She grinned even further as the dying boy nodded his head slowly as his eyes began to cloud over.

"Good boy." She sultrily complimented as she gently grasped his face by his cheeks with her silkily smooth hands.

Almost done.

"My name is Cinder Fall." She greeted warmly as she soothingly caressed his face. "What is yours?"

Jaune swallowed saliva in an attempt to hydrate his itching and scratchy throat.

"Jaune…Arc." He wheezed as he tried his best to keep his eyes open.

Cinder's eyes extended and almost shot out of her skull as she heard him say his name, and this surprised Jaune that she was so alarmed by his name. His surprise was substituted with bewilderment as the angel began to chuckle darkly as her gaze descended towards the ground.

What did he do to amuse her so?

Her chuckles boomed and exploded into full-blown evil laughter as she rose her head to the sky and her eyes screwed shut with tears of entertainment began to leak from them. As Jaune gaze at his would-be savior, her amusement sparked incomprehension within him, for he could not understand exactly what she found so hilarious.

"Well then, it is certainly a pleasure to meet you Jaune Arc." She politely said with amusement still heavy in her voice.

Her face grew ever closer to his, making him wonder how exactly she was going to save his life.

"Jaune Arc…" she hummed as the name tickled the tip of her tongue.

"My Huntsman…" she breathed as her face closed in on his.

What was she doing?

She completely rocked his world with her next utterance.

"My Husband."

Jaune's eyes expanded not only at her declaration, but also at her next action.

Grasping his face more tightly and less gently, she closed the short distance between them and invaded his mouth with her own, locking wet lips with him and engaging him in a forceful and passionate kiss that sent violent vibrations of unadulterated pleasure throughout his body.

After his sense of self returned to him as the angel's tongue explored every inch of his mouth, he progressively began to give in to his body's demands and kiss her back, but he didn't get to enjoy it for long.

Unconscious began to consume him as he somewhat unwillingly enjoyed his kiss, and there only three things that he was able to comprehend before fell into a deep sleep.

The pleasure raking its way throughout his body.

The heat that slowly began to rise from within his chest as the kiss progressed even further.

And the blinding white that enveloped them both as their lips finally parted.

I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter. Any comments, questions, or concerns? Let me know in a review!