Revenge And Justice

By: darkwarriorthecursedhero

Assisted by: FireKitsune1

Chapter 1: Artifact of the Cursed Hero

Heroes…those who fight for the sake of others.

Villains…those who fight for their own sake.

For countless eons these two groups of polar opposites have clashed in endless combat for what they believe in. Many believe that there are only two lines that one can follow; the white line that heroes follow and the black line that villains roam. But what most people don't know or understand is that there is a third line, one that heroes nor villains weren't meant to walk, the gray line.

This grey line exists in-between the boundaries of the white and black line in which only one type of person can truly call their own, the antiheroes. These antiheroes walks a fine line that allows them to make their own choices that are not restricted to good or evil, black or white. They follow their own path, whether it leads them down the path of the mighty heroes or the ways of the sinister villains. They are truly the masters of their fate.

This path between black and white is where our story begins.

-Remnant, in Team JNPR's dorm room-

The four members of Team JNPR were sleeping peacefully in their dorm room, having pleasant dreams that made them smile. The peace was soon ruined by Nora Valkyrie, who suddenly woke up and immediately smiled with her signature wide grin as she climbed out of her bed. She tiptoed to her bag, opened it, and pulled out a megaphone she bought not that long ago.

She turned towards her teammates and turned it on before lifting it close to her mouth and inhaled.

"GOOD MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORNIIIIIIING!" Nora yelled into the megaphone, which magnified her already loud voice to epic proportions. The effect was immediate as her three friends propelled themselves off their beds in fright and landed onto the floors painfully on their backs and rear-ends.

Her teammates were shell shocked as they tried their best to calm their racing hearts.

"Nora! What in the name of Oum are you doing!?" Pyrrha exclaimed as she picked herself up while rubbing her sore butt.

"I wanted to make sure that you all were ready for the big day today!" Nora explained, pumping her fist in the air in excitement.

Ren sighed. "What are you talking about Nora?" Ren groan in annoyance.

If Nora noticed her childhood friend's agitation, she hid it well as she turned to grin at him, her eyes sparkling.

"Didn't you hear the rumor?" Nora questioned the magenta eyed male.

Pyrrha approached Nora curiously. "What rumor?" Pyrrha asked, wondering if this rumor was worth waking them up in such a loud and horrible manner.

"The one about Professor Oobleck discovering an ancient temple where two tall, living statues protect a very valuable relic silly!" Nora then proceeded to poke Pyrrha with a resounding 'boop'.

Ren face palmed, his face clearly saying 'it's too early for this'. "For Oum sakes Nora, that sounds completely ridiculous. There is no way that statues could come to life." Ren told her.

"Yeah, but you have to agree that sounds really cool." Jaune argued.

"Jaune, please don't encourage her." Pyrrha told Jaune in a no nonsense tone, knowing how enthusiastic Nora can be.

Ren ignored them and headed towards their shared dresser. "Well since we're all already up, we should try to get ready to class." Ren suggested as he fished out his school uniform. They all agreed and took turns taking a shower then got dressed in their uniforms. When it was time to go to class, they left to go to their first class of the day, which was Professor Goodwitch's battle class. They entered the classroom and hoped that the day would be great.

Unfortunately for them, things can't always be what you'd hope them to be. As they were waiting for their turn to spar, the intercom system screeched into life.

"Would Team JNPR please report to Professor Ozpin's office? Team JNPR please report to the office." The announcer said before the intercom turned off. The team gave each other confused and worried expression before getting up and leaving the classroom.

As they headed towards the Headmaster's office, the team couldn't help but wonder why they were being summoned to see Professor Ozpin's office.

Pyrrha leaned towards the blonde leader. "Hey Jaune!" Pyrrha whispered into her crushes ear. "You don't think that they found out about the 'you know what' do you?"

Jaune felt his heart drop into his stomach, knowing that she was referring to the fact that he forged his entry papers so he could come to the academy. "I...hope not." Jaune said as they stopped in front of Ozpin's office door.

They entered the room and were shocked to see that both Team CFVY and CRDL were already waiting in the office in front of Ozpin's desk.

The team approached Ozpin and the other two teams.

"Hey Professor Ozpin, why are we here?" Jaune asked the Headmaster. Ozpin took a sip from his coffee mug then placed it on his desk.

"Everything will be explained after Team RWBY arrives Mr. Arc." The grey haired man calmly assured him. "But before then, why don't you and your team sit down by Team CRDL?" Ozpin gestured towards the four seats that were next to Cardin's team. They silently took their seats, resigning to their fate to wait for the last team to show up.

Luckily for them, mere moments later the four members of Team RWBY entered the room and stared at all of them in confusion.

Jaune glanced at Ozpin and saw that he was smiling. "Team RWBY, nice to see that the four of you were able to make it. We were just about to get started our discussion." Ozpin explained as he took a sip from his coffee mug. After Blake asked Ozpin why they were there, the Headmaster politely asked them to sit before he told them the purpose for being summoned.

As Team RWBY made their way to the seats beside Team JNPR, Pyrrha leaned slightly towards Jaune. "So what do you think he'll tell us?" Pyrrha asked the blonde warrior.

"I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the rumors." Jaune theorized.

"I doubt it." Ren replied from besides Jaune.

It was at this point that Ozpin took another sip of coffee. "Alright then, as I'm sure you are aware by now, there is a rumor going around about an ancient temple that was discovered by Professor Oobleck during the last weekend and what could possibly be found inside." Ozpin told them.

Jaune looked towards Ren to gloat about being right, pausing abruptly when he noticed the glare that adored the normally calm Ren that said 'Say anything and you will feel it in the morning.' Jaune did the smart thing and looked back towards Ozpin.

"To put those rumors to rest, I'm here to tell you that the rumors are in fact true." The four teams started to mutter to each other in shock and confusion before being silenced by Ozpin raising his hand "The reason that I brought all of you here today is simple, I'm assigning all of you to investigate the temple and the artifact that is hidden within."

"Why are you asking us to look at some old, crumbling temple?" Cardin demanded, not seeing a reason for them to go.

Ozpin turned his attention towards the bulky team leader. "We have reasons to believe that the statues that attacked Professor Oobleck are protecting something potentially dangerous. Therefore it may be in our collective best interests to investigate and make sure that it isn't dangerous. And who better to send then out top four teams we have available." Ozpin explained.

Cardin looked at the Headmaster for a moment before nodding in understanding. "Alright, I get that. But there's no way I'm working alongside an animal like her." Cardin stated with a sneer as he pointing towards Velvet who looked down sadly with a hurt expression.

Team JNPR collectively narrowed their eyes at the buff bully.

"Why can't Cardin just leave Velvet alone?" Jaune asked in a low voice.

"I've been wondering that myself." Ren stated, having witnessed Cardin signal her out among the other faunus that went to this school.

Pyrrha scowled. "I wish I could teach him and his team a lesson." Pyrrha admitted, wishing to have a repeat of the time she took down his entire team signal handedly in a sparring session.

Nora didn't say anything on the manner as she stared at Cardin's legs with a malicious smile, imagining the sound it would make when she breaks his legs.

Everyone else that wasn't part of his team glared at him, including Ozpin. "Need I remind you that she is a year above you?" Ozpin asked, narrowing his eyes at the Faunus hater. "You will treat her with respect and as an equal. No exceptions." There was no hint of negotiation in his tone as he gave Cardin a look that unnerved the brunette.

Cardin huffed. "Whatever." Cardin told him and went silent, causing Ozpin to nod. After a few tense moments, Jaune raised his hand. "So how are we going to get to the temple anyway?" The blonde boy asked, making Ozpin smile. "The same way you got to Beacon in the first place." Ozpin told him.

Jaune gave an uncomfortable look. "Oh crap."

"YEAH!" Nora yelled excitedly as she leaped off her chair and jumped up and down.

-Airship, three hours later-

Jaune Arc was currently throwing up in a bin that was nearby while Pyrrha soothed him by rubbing his back.

"Why…did it…have to be…an airship?" Jaune said in between throwing up, mentally scolding his mental sickness for acting up so easily.

Pyrrha gave him sympathetic looks as her leader continued to throw up.

"It could have been worse." Pyrrha said in an attempt to comfort the blonde.

'I beg to differ.' Jaune thought bitterly as he took a few deep breaths and threw up again.

While this was happening, Ruby and Weiss were talking to each other.

"Soooooo." Ruby said with a wide grin. "It looks like we got to go on that treasure hunt after all." Ruby told Weiss who simply nodded. "Looks like it, but I still don't believe that the statues really came to life." Weiss stated with a matter of fact type of tone.

Ren, who was sitting next to the two along with Nora, decided to add his two cents. "Who knows whether or not the statues are alive?" Ren stated with a shrug. "I'm personally more interested in the statues themselves then I am about if Ozpin said was true or not.

"Yeah!" Nora suddenly said while poking her head over Ren's shoulders to stare at Ruby and Weiss. "And besides, if it's true then I get to smash them both up into pieces." The others couldn't help but smile at Nora's enthusiasm.

-Five hours later-

The air ship finally landed a few miles away from the temple.

The four teams left the temple and trekked through the thick forest. After thirty minutes of walking, they finally stumbled across the temple that the rumors were talking about.

"Wow!" Jaune stated loudly in awe as he glanced at the large temple. "This place is huge!"

"No kidding! This place is bigger than Beacon academy!" Yang said as she whistled at the size of it. Ren nodded in agreement. "We should be careful; we don't know what could happen in there."

When Ren said that, everyone went into high alert as they crossed over a bridge that was above a deep chasm, unaware that one of the statues at the front of the temple turned its head to look at them. The statue was a dark grey color and had a helmet on that had a V shaped visor. The statue silently pulled it's sword from its back and prepared to slice the four teams before they realize that it's alive.

As they walked towards the temple, Jaune raised a very important question.

"So what do you think the relic is?" Jaune asked out loud.

Ren shrugged. "I have no idea, but whatever it is, it must be pretty valuable to be put in a place like this."

Nora, who was walking beside Ren and Pyrrha, grinned. "Oh oh oh, maybe it's a crystal sloth." Nora answered hopefully.

Pyrrha shook her head. "How did I know you're going to bring up?" Pyrrha asked

At that point, the statue was a second away from swinging its stone sword at them and knocking them off the bridge. Luckily, with her sensitive hearing, Blake was able to hear the slight creaking that the statue's joints made when its arm was moving.

"LOOK OUT!" Blake yelled as the statue swung its giant blade.

Blake's warning alerted everyone of the appending danger which allowed them to dodge the stone blade before it could kill them where they stood. The large group recovered, they looked upon the statue in shock.

"The statues are really alive!" Weiss stated with wide eyes.

"And it looks like it has a brother." Ruby added as she spotted another statue walking towards them. This statue had a similar design as the one that attacked them, but this one was silver instead of dark grey. When the statue was close enough, it stopped and drew its own sword, prepared to fight them alongside its fellow statue.

A moment of silence passed before the two statues charged towards the four teams, starting the battle. The Silver statue swiped its massive sword at Yang as she dodged it and jumps on its hand. She rushed towards the statue's head and tries to punch it with her Ember Celica equipped, hoping to deal enough damage to bring it down only for the statue to smack her off its shoulder with its other hand. When she collided with the ground, she was knocked out from the impact and out of the fight.

Ren then tried shooting at the silver statue, only for the dust bullets to prove ineffective as they harmlessly bounce off its stony exterior. The statue kicked Ren aside as Jaune charged at it and swings at its leg, managing to cut into the stone leg. But to Jaune's horror, not only did it do nothing to harm the stone creature, but his sword ended up getting stuck in the leg. As he attempted to pull it out, the silver statue bend over and grabbed Jaune by his shirt collar as he struggled desperately to get loose.

The silver statue held Jaune close to its visor, as if staring at his very soul. To say this unnerved the blonde would be an understatement. The others didn't dare attack in fear of inferably hurting Jaune. Luckily for him, his predicament didn't last long when the dark grey statue stopped fighting Ruby and Blake.

"Your heart…is pure." The statue told her with a deep, gravelly voice. "You…are…worthy

Ruby simply stared at the talking statue. Suddenly she yelled out. "YOU CAN TALK!?" Ruby exclaimed, causing the others, including the silver statue that had picked up Jaune by his collar, to stop what they were doing. "Indeed I can." The dark grey statue told her with a nod. "We both are capable of speech." The statue looked at its silvery counterpart.

Brother, would you kindly release that human?" The silver statue nodded and slowly lowered Jaune down to the ground and released his collar.

"There you go." The silver statue told Jaune, who shakily walked towards his team

Pyrrha immediately dashed towards Jaune and clamped her hands on his shoulders. "are you all right Jaune?" The Spartan asked the blonde.

Jaune shakily nodded his head. "I'm fine, but I think I'll avoid statues for awhile." Jaune admitted.

The silver statue plucks Jaune's sword out of his leg and gives it back to him "If it's any consolation, your heart is exceptionally pure." The statue told Jaune.

"Thanks...I guess." The shield and sword wielding hunter-in-training said. The silver statue nodded before standing by it's twin.

"Please allow me to introduce ourselves. We are the statues of the great Dark Warrior and Light Warrior. I am the statue of the Dark Warrior while my brother is the statue of the Light Warrior." The Dark Statue told them. "We were created long ago to protect this temple and the artifact within, waiting for someone worthy to seek it. For you see, we are able to read hearts."

While everyone was listening to his explanation, Ren walked toward the dark statue with a small frown on his face."So why did you attack our professor if you could read his heart?" Ren inquired. The statues looked at each other as if nervous.

It was the statue of the Light-Warrior that answered. "You don't happen to mean that bizarre green hair man? He was running so fast that we were not able to confirm whether or not his heart was pure or not. So we decided to attack just to be safe in case he was not pure of heart." He explained.

The members of the four teams nodded in understanding. Professor Oobleck really needed to lay off the coffee.

"So what is the relic anyway?" Blake asked them, voicing the question that everyone was pondering since they heard of it. Luckily, the statue of the Dark Warrior was more than willing to answer her.

"The artifact that you speak of is a scale that connects two worlds together. This one which is inhabited by humans, faunus, and the Grim alike while the other one is inhabited solely by humans." The dark grey statue answered, earning a scoff from Weiss.

Nora's normally cheery face frowned. "So it's not a Crystal sloth?" Nora asked sadly.

Ren sighed. "Sorry Nora, but it's not." Ren gave her the bad news.

Nora looked down in sadness and disappointment. Ren gave her a sympathetic look and patted her on her shoulder.

That's completely absurd!" Weiss told them. "That is completely impossible." If the statues had eyebrows, they would raise them at her remark. "And yet your here right now, talking to two moving, talking statues and saying that having two different worlds connected together is too farfetched?" The Silver statue asked her with amusement, causing her to pause for a moment. "Good point." Weiss said with a blush, clearly embarrassed.

"Wait, you said that you two were the statues of the Dark Warrior and Light Warrior?" Velvet asked them. "Who are they?"

Ren nodded, wanting to know that as well.

The twin statues turned to stare at each other for a moment before turning their attention back to the group. "We will explain who they are once you retrieve the artifact." The Dark Warrior statue stated.

Coco lowered her signature shades. "So you're going to let us through?" Coco asked them as the statues nodded.

"Of course, from what we were able to see, you all seems to be worthy of it. Except those four right there." The Light Warrior statue stated as he turned towards Team CRDL as if glaring at them.

The team looked surprised. "WHAT! Why aren't we allowed to go get it?!" Cardin demanded with a scowl.

"We saw nothing but hatred and cruelty within your hearts, especially in yours Cardin Winchester." The Dark Warrior Statue stated, earning nods from the other teams and a shocked look from Cardin.

"H-how do you know my name?!" Cardin asked them, feeling slightly unnerved by the fact that they knew his name.

"Our ability to read people's hearts also allows us to read their memories as well so we know everything about you. And to be honest, I am disgusted at how you treat others." The statue explained.

"So you know everything about us?" Fox asked them. The silver statue nodded. "Yes, and we even know things about you that you don't even know about yourselves." He explained. "But enough about that, you have proven yourselves and shall be allowed to pass." The two statues moved out of their way as they started to move passed them, With Blake carrying the still unconscious Yang along.

The silver statue his hand out when Jaune and Pyrrha, who were near the back of the line, tried to go through.

"Wait a moment Jaune Arc, I wish to have a word with you if you would." The Statue said.

Jaune and Pyrrha looked at each other with uncertainty. Jaune gestured Pyrrha to go on without him. She hesitated for a moment but nodded, walking away so Jaune and the statue can talk.

"What do you need?" Jaune asked.

"I have seen through your memories...and seen everything." The Silver statue told him. Jaune gave him a funny look before realizing that meant that it saw 'that memory' as well.

"You don't mean? You know about-"

"About the fake transcripts?" The statue interrupted. "Yes, I know about that."

Jaune felt panic well up inside him. "Please don't tell any-"

"And I am impressed." It told him, interrupting him again.

"I'll get in trouble and-Wait what?" Jaune asked after hearing what the statue said afterwards. "Why would you be impressed with that?" Jaune questioned.

"While you faked your way into the academy, you have shown the qualities that it takes to be a huntsman, as well as a great leader. When someone blackmailed you, you refuse to let your team get hurt even though you knew that once the secret is out you would have been kicked out. To be willing to risk everything for others surpass any hero I have ever seen and believe me, you are probably one of the best heroes I have seen." The silver statue told him.

Jaune didn't know what to say, someone that he was fighting not even five minutes ago has confidence in his abilities.

"Th-thank you!" Jaune told the statue, feeling happy inside.

If the statue was capable of smiling, it would be doing so right then and there. "It is no problem friend, and don't worry your secret is safe."

Jaune smiled for another moment before rushed past the giant statue and joined everyone else in the temple.

As the teams trekked through the temple, their curiosity about the two warriors the statues spoke of were boiling in their minds

"Who do you guys think the Dark Warrior and Light Warrior are?" Velvet questioned out loud.

"Whoever they are, they must have been pretty important to have two gigantic statues build for them." Coco answered, adjusting the strap for her handbag/mini gun.

At this point, Yang slowly started to regain consciousness. "Ooooh, what happened?" Yang moaned as she held her throbbing head.

"Um...we'll explain on the way out." Blake told her as she let Yang go so she can walk.

They eventually made it to the center of the temple and noticed a tomb with a cross on its side. "Do you think the artifact is in there?" Fox asked.

"There's only one way to find out." Nora grinned as she took out her war hammer, walked over to the tomb, and preceded to smash the lid of the tomb to pieces. "NORA!" Everyone yelled out in shock and disbelieve.

"What?" Nora asked in confusion. "You wanted it open didn't you?"

Everyone walked over to the now opened tomb to see a skeleton wearing what looked like the remains of a torn up black outfit and like a smaller, slightly broken version of the helmet that the statues were wearing. The broken helmet revealed the skeletal face of the person in the tomb.

In the clutches of the skeletal hand was the artifact that they came here for. The Scales of Light and Darkness.

Everyone stared at the scale for a few moments. "Soooo...who's going to get it?" Ren asked to everyone, not wanting to get closer to the body.

"I think that you should do it Jaune." Pyrrha told her leader. "WHAT?! WHY ME!?" Jaune cried out. "Because you're the leader and your closer to it." Pyrrha answered, trying to hide the fact that she didn't want to go near the skeleton.

Jaune gulped as he reaches for artifact, grabbed it, and yanked his arm back. The artifact was dislodged from the skeletal hand's grip, causing Jaune to sigh in relieve before realizing that the skeleton's arm was still attached to the scale.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Jaune screamed like a little girl and panics, accidentally throwing the scale and knocking the hand off.

Ruby quickly runs to the fallen scale and picks it up happily.

Jaune was quickly wiping his hands on his pants with a grossed out look. "Pyrrha, I am never doing that ever again!" Jaune told her as she walked up to him.

"Come on, it's just a skeleton. It's not like it's going to come to life or attack us." Jaune shook his head.

"Yeah well, it's still creeps me out." Jaune stated.

They then walk towards Ruby

It's so beautiful.' Ruby thought as she turned back to the others. "Hey guys, you should take a look at this." Ruby called out. Before long, everyone was crowding around Ruby and the scale.

"It's so shiny!" Nora stated, earning a nod from everyone. "It's certainly looks kind of cool." Fox remarked. "What do you think it's made from?" Weiss asked.

"By the look of it, I think it might be marble and obsidian." Pyrrha guessed.

"We should probably get out of here and talk to the statues and pick up Team CRDL" Blake told them. After everyone agreed, they left the room and headed to the front of the temple where they saw the statues and Team CRDL, the latter looking bored and irritated.

Sensing that they were out of the temple, the statues turned towards the three teams. "Ah, I see that you found the artifact okay." The dark grey statue commented. Ruby nodded and held out the scales. "Yes sir, he found it without a hitch." Ruby stated with a broad smile.

Velvet walked up to the statues. "So will you tell us about the Dark Warrior and Light Warrior?"

The silver statue nodded. "Of course. The Dark Warrior and Light Warrior are-" Whatever he was about to say was silenced when something came flying towards his head and collided with it, causing his head to explode, destroying the Silver statue.

"NO!" Jaune yelled as the remains of the statue dropped to the ground.

Everyone watched in horror as the once great statue crumbled as he died. "BROTHE-" Just like his brother, the dark grey statue was interrupted by something hitting his chest and exploding in impact. Fortunately he did not start crumbling away like his brother.

Everyone gathered around the statue of the Dark Warrior who looked like he was in agony.

"Oh my Oum! Are you going to be alright?!" Coco asked him, taking off her glasses which showed her horrified face. The statue started to grunt as he tried to get up, but failed to do so as he fell back down. "I'm afraid that I will not be alright, I feel my life energy fading from me." The statue told everyone. "Who...would do this to my brother?"

"That would be me." A man's voice said. Everyone looked towards the source of the voice to see Hei Xiong or Junior as most people known him as, walked out of the shadows with his signature missile launcher slung over his shoulder.

Yang's eyes turned red as she angrily growls at him. "Junior! You backstabbing jerk!"

Junior raised his and defensively. "Now now Blondie. No hard feelings, but he was bad for business. Now how about you brats hand us that artifact you have and this won't get ugly."

Velvet's eyes widen. "Wait? Us?"

Junior smirked. "Yup, my friends and I want that artifact. Isn't that right everyone?" As he said this, more people started to appear from the shadows of the jungle.

The teams were shocked when they noticed Roman Torchwick was among the group. "ROMAN!? How did you get out!?" Ruby exclaimed in shock. Roman chuckled at her question. "Well you see Red, I had help from my lovely assistant Neo and my allies right here." Roman explained as he pointed towards Cinder and her minions.

Emerald and Mercury were wearing the same type of suit as their boss Cinder was but Mercury's suit was grey while Emerald's was green. Cinder smirked as she waved towards Ruby. "Hello there, remember me?" Ruby glared at the women who she fought while Homecoming was going on.

Blake was staring at Adam will he smirked at her. "It's been awhile hasn't it Blake?" Adam taunted. "Adam!" Blake said with narrowed eyes.

"We waited a long time for this." Melanie said. "This time, we will win." Her twin, Militia, added. Yang smirked towards them as she cracked her next and fists. "Looks like it's time for round two."

Jaune was not paying attention to the villains and the Battle that was about to ensured to happen. He silently walked towards the remains of the silver statue with a mournful expression. After a few moments, he stopped in front of the stone and stood there.

'Why...why did he have to die?' Jaune that to himself, tears threatening to . He turned his attention to the one who murdered his new friend, Junior, and the sadness that he felt was replaced with pure rage. Without thinking, Jaune drew his sword and charged right at Junior, blinded by his rage.

His rage filled charge was stopped by Ruby, who rushed right past him as she headed straight towards Cinder, who barely had enough time to block when Ruby swung Crescent Rose at her. Cinder tried desperately to hold Ruby in place as she tried to make a grab for the scale from Ruby's hand. When her hand finally touched the scale, a shining light erupted from it, blinding everyone in the area.

Then suddenly beams of light rocketed out of the scale and collided with everyone in the area. When the light died down, everyone was gone and the forest was dark once again.