The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Privacy

The world around me darkened even further as I felt my power flow and it took me a moment to realize the reason why. It should go without saying that holding an arm up against Bianca's light did little to stop the majority of it from slipping past the limb and scorching both my skin and the ground around me—but as I unleashed my new attack, all of that changed. The destructive light swirled around me, seeming to bend away from the ground and spiral up my legs, chest, and arms. Even beyond that, light seemed to flow into me, dulling and changing colors as it went until the pressure of the attack seemed to almost vanish. I stretched out my hand, feeling something scorching and burning as it coursed through my body, and…

And then there was light. A tremendous amount of pure, focused light, brighter than anything I'd ever seen before—and while I wasn't sure how anything managed to look bright against the background of Bianca's assault, it did. For a moment, I thought that the attack was somehow pushing Bianca's beam away from me, but it only took me a second to realize how ridiculous the mere idea of that was and see the truth; it wasn't pushing anything away, but rather still drawing light in. As Bianca's light met mine, it dimpled and narrowed and swirled around it, drawn into the thin cylinder that flooded from my hands, starting with the part closest to me but growing quickly to encompass the rest.

In moments, the entirety of Bianca's attack seemed to writhe in the air as if trying to fight against the pull, but it couldn't escape as it was twisted again and again into the almost smooth shape of my attack. Even as it did, the sky seemed to darken further, day turning to night in the midst of the attack as my power called to the light around us and swallowed it whole. As the source, it felt more like I was holding onto it than anything else, but…I could feel it. I could feel Bianca's attack flow into mine and the light of the Sun follow suit, driving the attack to greater heights as pieces became part of a whole—but underneath all of that, I felt the power that came from me. The additions made the attack's power swell, but even that seemed relatively minor in comparison to what I was barely holding in check.

Because beneath everything else, beneath all that power, it was me. It was my light that was drawing in everything else, swallowing everything less than itself, and that light came from me in a way that I could only loosely grasp. It was more than just physical illumination, the same as Bianca's was, but as different from her attacks as I was from her—because this was me and that was her. The light of our souls in an exceptionally literal sense, given form and power and purpose. It tore through everything, making my illusions unravel and the light of my Aureola spring forth, and then that too flowed into the attack that gave shape to everything I was, because it was everything I was. Just as white was the result of merging all the colors of Dust, light was the result of merging the Elements—and of combining everything I was.

This was why the skill was called Unity, I thought again as the world seemed to freeze for a moment.

And then the moment passed. My light—my Lux Aeterna—split the same darkness it had plunged the world into. For the briefest instant, we were the only things visible in the night I'd made of everything near us; a blindingly bright line that connected my sister and I, flowing from my hand into the luminous portal she'd made of her body—

But then everything was back to normal as the attack ended and more light streamed down from the sky. At once, I was back to standing in the middle of a melted crater and Bianca was high in the sky, features completely hidden within the light of her altered form, no longer attacking. Slowly, she lifted a hand and rested it just below her ribcage, holding it there for a long moment.

"Ow," She said at last, the tone of her voice a touch surprised. "I actually felt that."

Slowly, she lowered herself to the ground, and though her face was gone, I felt sure her eyes were on me. Abruptly, I realized I was sweating and that I felt tired, two things I hadn't felt in quite a while, so as Bianca landed, I gestured at myself and allowed Xihai to pull the sweat from my skin before healing myself and brushed away the touch of exhaustion. A lot of my MP was gone, but that would sort itself out soon enough, so I turned my attention back to my sister.

As her feet touched the ground, Bianca's form changed, seemingly random patches of cloth and flesh bubbling up to the light's surface, returning her to her normal state. She was smiling at me even as she lifted a hand to touch the same spot as before, seeming uninjured despite her words.

"What was that?" She said, quirking an eyebrow.

"A new skill of mine," I answered. "Called Lux Aeterna, apparently. I just made it now. I didn't hurt you too bad, did I?"

She hummed once, tilting her head to look up into the sky as if to see it again, and I took the chance to Observe her carefully. She's taken some damage, but it was relatively minor and her Aura was already working on it. I'd heal her in a moment, but there didn't seem to be anything physically wrong with her.

"I'm not sure," She admitted. "It felt pretty weird…and familiar. Not quite like my stuff, but…"

"I know," I nodded. "I felt it, too."

"When it hit me, I felt like it was trying to twist me up and draw me in, like it did with the rest of the light," She continued. "It felt pretty odd, I'm not gonna lie. Still, it sure looked cool, didn't it?"

I smiled brightly at that and nodded.

"Maybe I should get you a suit like mine," She mused, taking a step back and looking at me with one eye closed. "For your birthday, I mean; you're getting to about the age where you'll need one and after that show, well…you deserve it. The oldest and the youngest, making our lightshows."

"I'll think about it," I hedged, shrugging a shoulder. "We're done, then?"

"Seems like as good a place to stop as any," She smiled, coming over to put a hand on my head and ruffle my hair. "You took a decent shot from me without flinching and threw back one of your own, so why don't we call that your win? I was just going to test you for a bit, but I'd say you've exceeded all expectations, so there's not much point in going further right now, is there? It's plain to see that you can take care of yourself."

I snorted quietly and smiled a bit wider at the praise.

"Thanks," I said, making myself sound causal. In response, she just ruffled my hair a bit harder.

"I mean it, Jaune," She whispered, meeting my eyes. "You've done really well. Dad would be proud, knowing that you're strong enough to keep going, no matter what happens. That you'll be fine, even though he's gone."

I was silent for a moment at that, before nodding slowly, returning the seriousness of her expression.

"We all will, right?" I returned.

"Of course," She answered. "Everyone knows we're all amazing. It's why everyone loves us so much."

Chuckling, I looked around at what was left of Vale. I wouldn't say there wasn't a brick left atop another, but…well, they were pretty rare, all things considered.

"Maybe," I acknowledged. "But do you ever get the feeling we're like those kids in school who make a lot of noise, party too hard, and ruin things for everyone who's trying to study or whatever? Because, uh, this place is kind of trashed."

"Nope," Bianca replied promptly. "Everyone at Beacon agreed I was perfect, beautiful, and a general joy to be around. It was in the yearbook and everything; I can show you."

"Did you make them say that?" I asked, smirking.

"No, no, of course not," She said, shaking her head—but her lips twitched as she did. "Well, maybe."

"Wow. We're already down to maybe?"

"Possibly." She shrugged. "What matters is that everyone loved me and will fondly remember me always."

"Well," I tilted my head. "As long as there's that."

This time, it was her turn to chuckle.

"I guess we should find the others," She said. "Shouldn't be too hard, what with everything in the way gone and all."

"Really, when you think of it like that, it's flat out convenient," I agreed. "I already know where the others are, though, and Violet and Olivia are right there."

I jabbed a thumb towards the slowly approaching pair, watching as Olivia's territory adjusted to bring them closer.

"Oi, you two!" Violet shouted as soon as they were close enough. "What the hell was that!?"

Bianca and I looked at one another and promptly decided not to tell her.

"I'll go get everyone else," I said, rising into the air again.

"We can talk about whatever you wanted to once we get everyone back home," Bianca promised.

I nodded again, smile widening as I rose high above the mess we'd made, the city we'd destroyed in our father's honor. Looking over it all and seeing my sisters smiling below…it made something within me relax for the first time in a week.

Yeah, Bianca was right. No matter what happened, we'd all be okay. And I…I'd make it through all of this and find a way to figure things out. I'd save mom and then I'd save everyone else, no matter how hard it was or how long it took.

So…goodbye, Dad.

I'll handle things from here.

A few hours later, after a round of showers, another meal, and a traditional toast that wasn't quite celebrating and wasn't quite mourning, I found myself at the foot of the stairs, waiting silently. No one said a word about it, but my sisters made themselves scarce, going off to the living room or their bedrooms to give us privacy.

I felt her approach long before she arrived, but didn't say anything about it until I heard the stairs creak behind me.

"Are you free to talk now, Bianca?" I asked, the words coming more easily than I expected as I looked steadily forward into the street. I thought this would be hard or at least painful, but…it wasn't. Whether because of the sendoff we'd had earlier or just because of the Gamer's Mind, it wasn't.

"Yeah," She said, taking several more steps before taking a seat beside me. "The others will leave us be, but we can take about this in that barrier of yours, if you'd rather."

"Don't worry about it," I shrugged. "I already turned on my privacy settings."

She turned to face me, brow furrowing lightly as she glanced me over. If she was looking for something on my face, she didn't find it—but then, that face was nothing but an illusion projected by my mind.

"Really?" She voiced after a moment, sounding uncertain.

"No," I replied, smiling slightly. "Not really. I just used my powers to shut off the area around us and keep anyone from overhearing."

She shook her head, expression a touch bemused.

"You're power's weird enough that I've have believed you either way," She said, leaning back to rest her elbows on the stairs behind us as she stared up into space for a moment—and I could literally feel her considering something before she spoke. "Jaune…what's wrong? I thought something was, but you've gotten a lot harder to read. I wasn't sure if it was something big or something you wanted to keep to yourself, but…that's what you want to talk about, right?"

"Yeah," I mused, considering her words with a slow nod. "I suppose it is."

"Then what?" She asked. "Is it about Dad?"

"It's about Dad," I confirmed, turning to meet her eyes. "And the mission in general, really. It's…some of it's supposed to be secret stuff and there are parts I still can't tell you, but this part is pretty open. With the amount of survivors, it can't really be a secret, though they can keep it quiet, and…you get the idea."

She nodded without a word and let me talk, an action that made me wonder if I was stalling. Maybe, I thought and took a needless breath.

"It was a Pandora Shell," I said at last and saw emotions flicker across her face—and felt them far more closely through her Aura. My sister was many things, but she wasn't stupid, and I could all but feel her working her way towards the truth. I'd told myself before that it would be easy enough to do so and after the display I'd put on earlier, that was more true than ever. And though I couldn't truly read her mind, I felt the exact moment when she realized what I'd done, written in shock and sorrow and pain across the face of her Aura.

"Oh, Jaune," She whispered, leaning her shoulder against mine. She didn't say anything else—though, really, even I wasn't sure what there was to say. That I'd done what I had to? Probably. That I'd done my duty as a Hunter, even if I wasn't officially one? Quite possibly. That I'd done what my father would have wanted? Definitely. But none of that really changed things. She didn't say that I shouldn't have had to face such a thing, because she knew my power and respected both it and me, just as she knew about the lives I had been able to save. So in the end, she just leaned against me silently, the gesture simply one of support and a reminder of her presence.

Even though it was pointless to tell her what she already knew, maybe that was why I kept talking.

"When the Shell opened," I shook my head. "Well, you can imagine. It was chaos and no one else was in any condition to do anything about it. Half of the Hunters there were caught in the blast—Dad, Keppel, Carmine, and Tenne. A guy named Onyx, who was part of Dad's team, tore off a leg to escape the disease, while Tyrian and Castanea slipped into some kind of time-stop barrier thing and only came back a day after everything was over. Mom nearly died shielding us from it, though I managed to heal that damage at least. Once I'd done that, though, it was…well, we were in a bad spot. Mom tried to fight Dad and hold him off, but that left three other Hunters infected and they got to a local, too. Someone had to stop them and…well, I was the only someone in town."

She put her hand over mine and squeezed it gently, but didn't interrupt.

"I tried to save them," I continued. "Reach them, heal them, cure them…but I couldn't. I couldn't figure out any way to do it and truthfully, I was in a bit of a rush. I'd like to say I gave everyone there a fair chance, but with so much at stake and with Dad infected…I didn't. I stopped them, but they kept fighting and I couldn't risk it when I couldn't help them, so I killed them and moved on, so I could get back to Dad. I helped everyone I could along the way, made shelters for the civilians to keep them safe from the disease, but I won't lie—I was trying to save Dad. More than anything else, I wanted to save him and I tried, I tried everything, and I still couldn't. So in the end, we fought and I won and he died."

"Jaune," She whispered. "It…he was…"

"I know," I said—because I did know, better than anyone else in the world. "I know I'm not really the one responsible and I know who to blame, but I still…I failed, Bianca. I did everything I could and it wasn't enough, so in the end, I watched him die. I helped him die."

"Shh," She murmured, putting her arms around me gently. And for a moment, we just…sat like that.

"Can I ask you to do something for me?" I asked her. "Something big?"

"Name it," She said at once.

"I…" I considered my words carefully for a moment. "There's a reason I didn't want to do this in Naraka. It's empty, except for whomever I draw into it and I didn't want to give the wrong impression. After the Pandora Shell opened, though, I called Ozpin to supervise and help me. In a situation like that, paranoia is survival trait, but when nobody can trust anyone else, it can be hard to…well, to trust anyone else. I needed an outside observer to help coordinate and explain and to verify, so I knew who I could trust and people knew who could trust me. He was with me every step of the way and can tell you everything he saw and you know he still trusts me. So just remember that when I tell you this next bit, okay?"

She nodded, pulling away just far enough to look at me in concern.

"Okay," She agreed. "What happened?"

I took a slow and pointless breath and faced her fully.

"I was infected, Bianca," I said. "By the Pandora Shell."

To my slight surprise, she didn't recoil in shock or terror, though it may have been because her first reactions were incomprehension and then confusion. When that passed, she stiffened, as if to react, but seemed to force herself not to pull away, likely fighting against every instinct she had as a professional Huntress in the process—and all for my sake.

"You don't have to hold on to me, if you don't want," I told her. "But I'm not currently infected, if that make things any better. My power…part of it's called the Gamer's Mind and it makes me immune to stuff that alters my thoughts—even the virus couldn't get through. I remained myself and fought Dad, even when my body mutated, and afterwards I slept it off. That's part of another of my powers, the Gamer's Body; I can cure any status effect by going to sleep for a while. Even when my body was twisted beyond recognition, it was simply a matter of going to bed and waking up in a hospital later. You don't have to believe me, but I can show what I look like under a microscope or call Ozpin or—"

"I believe you," She said, slowly forcing herself to relax despite being told that the person she was holding onto was a, supposedly former, victim of the worst plague known to Remnant. "It's just…I was surprised. But what…what does this…"

She still seemed at a loss for words, but I understood regardless.

"You told me that you could see my soul, or something like it," I replied. "While the disease ran its course, I gained several skills, including one that allowed me to…sort of re-infect myself. Though the transformation itself is somewhat awkward, it carries a great deal of power with it, but I'm worried…"

"I understand," She nodded slowly.

"I've tested it carefully and my transformed state can't spread the infection, so it's safe to see, at least," I continued. "I can make a few barriers and lock myself down, too. But…I want to know."

"Okay," She said after a minute, taking a deep breath. Slowly, she stood, letting go of me and striding carefully away even as she watched me carefully. "Whatever happened, whatever happens, I trust you Jaune. Do whatever you think is necessary and I'll help you."

"Thank you," I replied, barriers already forming around me—and then I started to mutate.

Drawing up the power of Metamorphosis, I rose slowly to the fullness of my height and then most of a meter above it, towering high above my sister as plates of armor grew from my skin, followed by masklike faces and unblinking eyes. She watched me silently as long spikes rose from my back and my hands twisted into lethal claws, not saying a word as the transformation finished. It only look several seconds this time, thanks to the healing I did, and then there I stood, looking the same way I had when I faced Conquest.

"How do I look?" I asked, knowing she'd understand what I meant.

Looked me up and down, craning her head to do so, and then sighed slowly.

"On the inside, you're still the same," She said. "Stuff like this can't change who you are."

I'd have smiled if the masks allowed for expression, though I wasn't quite certain how to feel. She'd never seen me before I'd awakened my power—but I honestly hadn't had Conquest's status effect a few minutes ago, so it was the closest thing to a true test we'd get without actually infecting someone. It didn't necessarily mean anything, but it might have and it was worth remembering. If I asked, I could get her to look at Ruby, perhaps, and see if anything stood out, though I couldn't imagine what would really stand out in Bianca's eyes, nor did I know what I was looking for. But…

It was something.

Maybe.

"That's good news," I said, hiding my doubts. If nothing else, I really did feel better after talking to her about things. "I suppose I should go sleep this off, then, though I might train a bit beforehand. Thank you, Bianca."

"Any time," She said, still looking up—and up and up and up—at me. As I began to turn away, however, she stopped me. "Jaune…whatever happens, just remember you're still my little brother. Don't worry about stuff like this too much, okay?"

"It's hard not to," I mused. "But I'll try—"

I paused, lifting a finger her way as a notification appeared before me. Absently reaching into my Inventory, I drew my ringing scroll and flipped it open, quickly scanning the contents.

"What is it?" Bianca asked, tilting her head upwards at the scroll I held high above her head.

"Just a message from a friend," I answered back, considering the message. "We've been meaning to catch up so I tried to arrange a meeting. Seems things finally worked out."

"Just remember to wear your other suit if you go visiting."

"As a matter of fact," I chuckled, snapping the scroll closed. "I will, in fact, be wearing my other suit."