We Are Eternal

Chapter 7: Silver Eyes

Ruby gasped loudly. "Jaune! Bad Word!" She scolded as she pouted and pointed at him. Xìngzhì however was more subdued in her shock as she simply had her eyes wide.

"Castigar?" She said with shock covering every syllable.

"Rightly so!"

"Who?" Ruby said in confusion.

"No..." Xìngzhì said, her shoulder's releasing tension. "Just a weak imitation."

"Bold words from the one who allowed this to happen," Castigar said, venom coating his voice. "He listened to you. If you talked about it, he wouldn't have gone to that extreme! Now, you're stuck here! Like the animals!"

"Hey!" Ruby said in offense.

"Marchand, listen!" Xìngzhì said. "Listen to me! You were surprised weren't you? Your mind, for but a moment brought you back, right? Back to The Golden City. Your mind used one of their powers in that instant, right? Usually that'd be fine, but you have true guilt too. You couldn't stop it." She said as she started to walk forward. As she spoke, the black flames seemed to calm, shrink back.

"I..." Castigar started, Jaune's voice becoming more dominant. "I'm me... I'm Castigar..." He said, the other voice overcoming Jaune's, yet still wavering.

"You, Castigar, are a personification of Marchand's guilt. You were imprinted into Marchand's mind when our fathers gave him your powers as punishment... along with a duty to watch over this world, all seven of us did. Marchand, you feel too much to be impartial. To be simply a watcher. You see the powers not as a gift to be better, but as an eternal remind of your mistakes. Mistakes you can never run from."

"Stop..." Castigar said, his and Jaune's voice intermingling together, like two snakes wrapping around each other.

"You're trying to run from your mistakes, but the only thing you can do is face them!"

"Stop it..."

"Move forward, learning from your mistakes!"

"The only mistakes we made was letting it go too far! The rules were unjust and unfair, and everyone was fine with it! Well not me! I refuse to let myself be disrespected like that!" Jaune spat out, Castigar's voice retreating in silence as the flames surrounding him rose in equal measure.. "I... I refuse to let anyone be disrespected like that..." He added, his voice going soft, losing it's anger as the flames died, yet the sword stayed ablaze. His grip loosened on the blade and spear and they fell to the ground, the flames quickly fading into the soon cold blade. He fell to his knees.

"It's okay..." Xìngzhì said, slowly walking forward. "I know how it feels-"

"Know how it feels?" Jaune interrupted, Castigar's voice creeping back in as he glared. "You sat idly on the sidelines, you know nothing of how I feel!"

"They were my brothers and sisters too!"

"And you didn't have to take their lives!" He yelled out, his hand grasping the hilt of the sword, quickly swiping out towards Xìngzhì, causing her to fall backwards. At the touch of him, bright flames engulfed the blade, but it quickly turned black, corrupted by the power of Castigar.

Ruby quickly unfurled her weapon, it's blade segmented as it curved to create one long, curved blade, a long shaft rolled out into its hilt, all of it coming together to create a red and black scythe that was two times the size of her. Crescent Rose. As Jaune swiped at Xìngzhì once more, Ruby swiftly using her semblance to seemingly disappear into rose petals which shot forward, and Ruby reappeared in front of her Grandmother, using her scythe to parry the blade. Jaune growled at that.