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Darkvampirekisses - vampire *not a loli* extraordinaire, and

Vucsiros

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"Jaune, I… I… I want you to know that I…" As always he froze when the video reached that point, sword lowering as he turned to look at the Scroll, propped up on a log on the ground. His breath hitched as always, but he knew what he'd hear as she said it. "I want you to know that I am just happy to be a part of your life."

"I'll always be there for you, Jaune." He mouthed the words, but didn't say them, and yet he stiffened at the echo of them from behind him and spun into a familiar stance, drilled into him by Pyrrha before and after death. Shield raised high and angled so that blows would glance overhead or to his side and sword held back and vertically, so he could stab or slash as need. But then he froze, eyes wide, as the stranger chuckled and added, "But that wasn't true, was it, Jaune?"

"P-Pyrrha?" His shield lowered and his sword trembled in his hands at the woman leaning against a tree, arms crossed under her bust and smiling pleasantly. Then his eyes narrowed suspiciously and his weapons stilled, and he asked, "Who are you? What are you?"

"I'm Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune." The creature said politely, blinking in apparent surprise at his suspicion. Her arms, pale and veined in black where her bronze armor - armor he now wore melted into his own - didn't cover. Her eyes dark orbs with irises of red to match her hair, searched him as she spoke, "What's wrong, Jaune? I-I thought you'd be happy to see me. I know I'm a bit different now, I know this, but-"

"Whatever you are, you aren't my partner!" He shouted, and gods if his voice didn't crack on every word. Sliding a leg back warily, he asked again, "What are you? Some kind of mimic Grimm? Did that woman send you? Why?"

"Woman… You mean Cinder, I suppose?" The creature laughed at it, like it was a joke, and gods his heart broke again at the sound. Just like her, down to the way she covered her smile almost like she was ashamed of it. "No, Jaune, no… Cinder didn't send me. That woman," she snarled the word, "has no power over me. There's only one woman in the world who does, now."

"Then who does?" He asked quietly, glancing left and then right for more Grimm while he had the chance. "Salem, I'd bet, and that means you're here to kill me. Aren't you?"

"No! No, Jaune, I'm not… Please, Jaune, I don't want this. I'm not here to hurt you, please listen to me." She took a step towards him, holding out her hands and smiling stiffly, almost seeming desperate. "Salem saved my life, Jaune! Cinder beat me, wounded me almost to death, and then… Then I woke in a strange place with a strange woman, and looked like this!"

"Let's pretend I believe that." He said, and Brothers if he didn't want to, but he knew better by now. "Why would Salem save your life, after Cinder killed you? And how? Ruby saw Pyrrha, the real Pyrrha, die in front of her!"

"I don't know!" The Grimm shouted in a voice full of something Jaune had never heard from Pyrrha Nikos in her life. Anger and pain. She swept her arms around the clearing as though gesturing at everything around her at once and continued, "I do not know how, Salem wouldn't tell me how! But I breathe regardless of the not knowing how I come to do so, Jaune, I… Please, Jaune, please listen to me."

"Tell me something." He said after a second of the silence of the dark forest, heart beating as he dared to let himself hope… "Something only Pyrrha could know. Something only the real Pyrrha could know about. Tell me."

"I-I…" Her mouth worked for several seconds, eyes searching his face for something over the edge of his shield before she seemed to seize on something. "The reason I fell in love with you, Jaune. Do you remember it? I told you, the night of the dance so long ago."

He stiffened at the memory and the words, and she smiled in response, "I… Do not think that you knew it as such, but… I loved you then, because of everyone in my life, you were the only one I came to who saw Pyrrha Nikos the girl, rather than the champion." Her voice lowered, almost wavering, "That was the only night I danced with someone, you know… I treasure the memory more than even my own life."

"Why?" He choked, tears threatening at the corners of his eyes. He sucked in a breath through clenched teeth and forced himself to calm, "Why did you knock me out and go fight Cinder by yourself? We could have taken her together."

"My memory is flawed, I know, Jaune, but…" She gave him a confused look, brows knitting together the way they always had at Beacon when he confused her or she had to focus. "I did not knock you out, I put you in a rocket-locker and sent you away after we… After I kissed you."

"Pyrrha…" He sank to his knees, resting on them and looking at her as his shield fell, shaking his head disbelievingly. "I… It's you, isn't it? It's really you!" He dropped his sword and held out his hand for her, and she smiled as she moved across the clearing towards him and fell into his arms, letting him hug her tightly and returning it, pressing his face into her hair and gasping, "Pyrrha… Gods, I can't believe this."

"And I can scarcely believe you believe me…" Her hands gripped his breastplate's edges tight and she shook in his arms as she spoke. "I feared you would hate me. Drive me away for… For what I look like. What you would assume I must be, for my appearance and what it would say to you of me. Please, Jaune, I know it is selfish but I want to… That is to say can we… Oh, to the Grimm with it."

She pulled away and her lips met his, cold and wet but alive in a chaste kiss just the same as the one she had given him at the Fall of Beacon as she clung to him. As before, his eyes widened in surprise before drifting shut and melting into the kiss with her for several long, almost miraculous moment before she finally pulled away and they rested their foreheads against each other for several more quiet seconds of happiness. The kind of happiness Jaune had not known for months now, lost to his own aches and pains of every kind.

Finally, he stood, smiling like an idiot and sheathing his sword at his waist as he did and then grabbing her hands and pulling her to her feet, "Come on, we have to go back to the house. The others will be dying to see you, I just know it."

"We… Can't go back there, Jaune." She said, pulling her hand free when he tried to tug her along. He turned to look at her, surprised and concerned, and she smiled bitterly, "Salem brought me back, and through her I yet live, Jaune… And that has a price, I fear."

"What…" He pulled his hand free and she flinched at the sharp movement and the way his eyes narrowed, "What do you mean, price?"

"S-She wants three things, Jaune. Just three, and please, I know that it's hard, but… But three things for everyone else's lives, and my own besides?" She laughed, a harsh sound more filled with pain and grief than any humor, and curled her hands against her armored chest. "Jaune, I have died before, and… And it hurt. So much, I… I couldn't face that again, and so I bought your lives from Salem."

"What." He growled, jabbing a finger at the ground with each word that followed, "Did. You. Promise. Her?"

"I…" Her eyes closed and she half-turned away from him, as though to shield herself from him somehow. "She demanded the Relic, Ozpin, and… And Ruby, Jaune. Cinder demanded Ruby, and with her eyes, Salem demands her too. Two lives and the Relic for all of you, and myself…"

"No…" He laughed quietly, shaking his head and smiling bitterly as a hand landed on his collapsed shield at his waist, angling it for a faster draw. "No. You almost had me fooled, but Pyrrha would never sell her friends out like that. Not the Pyrrha I know. She'd sooner-"

"Die?" She snarled the word like the most hateful slur she could imagine, waving a hand at her own face and growling. "I did, Jaune! I did die, and the pain was unimaginable in ways you couldn't even begin to fathom! I gave my life once already, lest you forget, and risked it again in fighting Salem to swear to your protection and the others! Do you think I value my friends so little? Truly? After I paid such a price once already? I love them all dearly!"

"Then why would you sell them out!" He demanded, pointing through the trees towards the direction the house was in. "If you love them, love me, why would you throw them away like this, Pyrrha?"

"The life of a base stranger that tricked me and cost my life, and a relic that on its own is nearly without power is a short price, Jaune. But..." She explained, grimacing and looking to the ground after that, avoiding his eyes as he stepped away from her warily.

When she spoke again, her voice was low and hoarse, pained, "Ruby's life is… A steep price indeed, but… But Cinder would not sway, and so Salem could not or would not. I am but a means to an end, she said to me, and if I fought for more then I would lose all and my own life with it."

"The Pyrrha I knew-"

"Died!" She shrieked again, voice high and shrill as red eyes burned into blue. "Just like all I hold dear would have done if I had not agreed to pay this price! You, Nora, Ren, Yang, Blake- Everyone! Dead, and me with them! One life for a dozen is a price I was willing to pay, and I believe Ruby would to, if she knew the way the cards had fallen!"

"I won't let you." He swore, taking another step back towards the log his Scroll sat silently upon. Drawing his sword and shield, he raised the blade to point at the broken looking Grimm-woman. "Pyrrha or not, I… I won't let you put this onto them. I won't stand for it, do you understand me?"

"I remember when we danced, Jaune… It's a precious memory of mine." She said quietly, smiling sadly as she pulled her own weapons from her back and cast aside the thin strips of leather that had held them there. Black-steel sword in hand, she raised her shield and choked as she spoke, "I will not kill you, Jaune. I promise that. But I will wound you, and… And in time, pray you forgive me."

"You know, I… I believe you're Pyrrha, somewhere deep inside. Behind the Grimm and… And whatever else she did to you, I believe that now." He said quietly, mirroring her own stance almost perfectly and continuing in that sad voice. "You remembered how you sent me away, what you said at the dance, you even kissed me the same way…"

"Then please, Jaune…" She begged weakly, shaking her head, "Don't make me do this, please. I don't want to hurt you, not a single hair or scratch. And you know I am the more powerful fighter between us, I trained you."

"And that is why I know you're the real Pyrrha, too. If you served Cinder or were just some Grimm mockery..." He trailed off, gripping his sword tighter in his hand. Reforged with the same metals as Pyrrha's own blade and shield, and his armor with hers as well, and now drawn against the woman herself garbed in a dark mockery of the same armor. "Then you'd know how much stronger I am now, after my journey and my training."

"You aren't strong enough!" She pleaded, and he nodded with a small and bitter smile.

"I know, Pyr." She choked at the nickname, face tightening at the word, and he added, "I know, but… I will die before I live after selling my friend's lives. And I know that the Pyrrha Nikos I knew wouldn't do it either, so…" He nodded, resigned, and met her eyes once again, "This is as good a way to die as any other."

"Jaune, no, please don't!"

He lunged at her, swinging across her chest, and she met it with her round shield, almost effortlessly turning it aside so it would flow over her shoulder harmless, and stabbed in towards his face to force him back. He ducked to the side and brought his shield bottom point into her guard, hooked it behind her shield, and then slammed his shoulder forward into her chest. The blow drove the air from her lungs and pushed her back, and he followed with a downward slash aimed at the crown of her head.

She caught the sword as easily as before on her shield, ducking under a backhanded strike with his shield and spinning on her heel to sweep his leg. He leapt over it instead, and her as well, landing behind her and stabbing down at the back of her skull as she turned. The blade kissed her cheek as she rolled to the side, black ichor trickling down her cheek when she came up out of blade reach and returned to her stance.

"I thought so… Whatever you are now, it isn't Human, so no Aura." He gestured at the discarded leather straps, smiling bitterly, "I figured that was why you weren't carrying them with your Semblance like you used to."

"And my blade is made with Vacuoan Red Steel on its edges, against my will." She said, holding the blade up so it caught the moonlight that lit the clearing and glinted a dark crimson. "My strikes are half-hearted for that, Jaune. Any blow which strikes you will strike true. Please… Don't do this."

In answer, he glanced to his right, towards the Scroll, and she nodded and smiled in bitter understanding, "I see… I love you, Jaune."

"I know, Pyr. I know it better than most get to." He said quietly, feeling his heart break as he raised his shield once again. "I love you too. That's why I'm going to kill you, or you're going to kill me. Because we love each other too much to do anything but fight our all for what we believe is right. One last dance, just the two of us."

"So be it, but…" She trailed off, smiling sadly, and asked, "Permit me the selfishness, in spite of everything, I beg you. Say you love me once more, so I may remember it as whatever may come comes in this."

He did, and without another word and but a second for her to relish in hearing it, he lunged at her once more with a stab aimed for her stomach where her chest piece ended for an inch above her hips. Her sword turned it aside as she spun, her shield striking him flat across the face and staggering him to the side to cover her next attack. An attack he knew was coming, throwing his sword arm down to bounce the slash aimed at his knee off and then countering with a skyward one of his own to drive her back.

It only brought him a second of breath before he caught her blade on his shield rim and turned it aside, stabbing at her face again. She ducked back and brought her shield-rim up under his arm and into his armpit hard enough to draw a snarl of pain from him. Then she danced away, flicking her hand and extending her sword into her javelin for the reach it bought. She gave him a moment of courtesy to catch his balance before she was on him again, and this time he was on the defensive.

She danced towards him like an acrobat, feignting a stab for his chest and pulling the spearhead back at the last second as she spun and instead stabbed down at his leg. His shield fell and overextended his guard before he could think about it, and her spear shot up instead and skirted the top of his shield and bit into his shoulder just between his arm guard and breastplate and then yanked back with flecks of blood trailing while he growled at the shallow cut.

He didn't give her a chance to continue her assault or breathe, shooting inside her range too close for her to use her spear and feignting his own slash across her chest. She ignored it though, spinning her spear in her hand to push aside the powerless strike and smacking him across the head with the side of it for his trouble. But he'd hoped for that and now with his sword overhead he brought his shield up and collapsed it, slamming the blade down to the hilt and gripping it in both hands and bringing it down as powerfully as he could as it extended into its heavier form.

Surprised, Pyrrha only managed to get her shield up to catch it, with no real guide on what to do with that. So she buckled under the weight of his sword bearing down on her and sank to a knee, lashing out instinctively at the arm holding the weapon. The spearhead, tipped with metal that cut through Aura like air, bit into his unarmored bicep and punched out the other side before she could catch herself and he staggered away as his arm fell limp and his sword dragged in the dirt. He could move it, but he knew it would bear no weight, and sighed.

"Brothers, Jaune!" She cried, watching him stagger back and only rising instead of following after him even though he was in easy distance. She brought the back of her spear-hand to her mouth and shook her head, wide eyed and shocked, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't know your shield could do that, I just reacted. W-We have to bandage that, quickly, before you bleed out."

He collapsed the sword into its smaller form and groaned, his Aura doing nothing for the wound as he threw the shield aside and raised the straight-sword at the woman, "After this fight is over, Pyrrha. Not before. This doesn't stop until one of us is dead."

"Jaune, no!"

With a bellow, he lunged in with his off-handed sword, and Pyrrha was forced to defend herself. The first strike came down from above and glanced off her shield, and she stabbed up at his face to force him back. But he didn't back away, the spearhead carving a swathe through his cheek and up the side of his head and leaving a bloody furrow instead as he turned his head aside. Shocked, Pyrrha froze and he seized his moment to raised his arm and throw aside her spear.

Shocked and driven by instinct once again by his plan, she ducked back and away from his sweeping slash across her chest. Seeing him close again she collapsed her spear into sword form and cut at the upper left of his chest once again, metal sending sparks off metal as it skated from breastplate to armguard, forcing him back through weight of strike alone and throwing him off balance and his sword high. Seeking space and room to breathe and think, she lunged at his chest to push him back under force of weight alone, but instead of dodging back he punched down and drove her stab from the center of his chest towards the ground.

It cut deep across his inner thigh, so much so he heard the scraping of metal on bone, and with a pained grunt had stabbed upwards in the same motion as he had brought the sword down. It punched under her cuirass and up, under even her ribs beneath the hardened leather, doing terrible damage as it went. He released the sturdy grip as he fell back and away, collapsing on the ground with a groan as Pyrrha staggered and dropped her weapons before she too fell.

Sinking to her knees, she watched him breathe for a second and look at her, smiling in pain and bitterness and holding an armored hand out for her, dyed red by the torrent of blood that had flowed down the nearly ruined arm throughout the fight. "P-Please, Pyrrha, I can't make it… Warn them before you… Before you…"

He fell quiet and still and Pyrrha choked, as much on blood as pain, and looked at the muddied ground beneath him. "Brothers, Jaune… Why are you so damn stubborn? Why must you always be the hero?" Trembling hands wrapped around the hilt of his blade buried in her stomach and she pulled it free, heedless of the pain and black blood that flowed, and forced herself to stand. "Fine, Jaune… Fine."

Staggering and her vision fading, she forced herself to the fallen log and collapsed beside it, firing on the video messenger and recording a simple message, "Please, track this, for Jaune and myself both… And be wary, an attack is coming at midnight tonight. I-I'm so, so sorry. Please, be safe."

Closing it, she rolled over and looked across the field, pressing a hand against her stomach with a grimace. She could live, she knew, if she kept the pressure on and help came in time, which it would. It was hours yet until the attack, and early enough that when the Scroll chimed beside her and she saw Ruby's face she wasn't surprised.

But she looked at Jaune, still and armored in white and gold, and smiled sadly, "Damn it, Jaune…" Forcing herself up, she moved back to his side and lay down beside him, lacing her fingers with his and simply contenting herself with looking at him as she felt life ebb from her body once again.

Dying hurt so much, but… She wouldn't live after this either way, because without Jaune she would never serve Salem.

So, at the least, she'd heard him say those three beautiful words.

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Just an idea I had, I wanted some tragedy in my life right now and felt it was a decent idea.