Parallel

"Ruby, it's your turn next." Summer said as she placed her arm atop her shoulder, three groaning teens behind her, each clutching their chests in pain.

"Um, Uh, Arthur, help…" Ruby pleaded not wanting to go through the same pain.

"Actually, Summer. Ruby, doesn't need to do it." Ashe explained earning confusion from everyone not currently writhing about in agony, except Yang who has had the most amount of time to heal from having a contract grafted onto her soul.

"And why is that?" Summer asked

"She already has a contract with Arthur, and one of a much higher order than just a simple silencing contract." She explained, getting confusion from Ruby and Yang and a slight amount of understanding from Summer.

Seeing the two confused individuals Ashe took it upon herself to explain in more depth "Basically the effects of the Sperata contract supersede those of the Silencing contract, nullifying their effects, oh should probably also mention, the Silencing contract cannot be removed, ever. This is something you will live with for the rest of your lives." Finally getting a semblance of understanding from the two.

"That actually makes more sense than it should." Weiss said through her laboured breaths "How did you get through this with only chest pain?" she asked as she looked at Summer.

"You get used to the pain as a huntress." She bluntly stated.

"Well, team RWBY, it was nice speaking with you, but your lessons start in T-minus six minutes" Ashe's words froze the four girls who quickly looked between each other, Weiss picked up her scroll, seeing that lessons did indeed start in si- make that five minute. As quick as Ruby using her semblance Weiss disappeared as the fading sound of "Not again!" could be heard from the hallway.

The rest of team RWBY looked between themselves and just as quickly disappeared, but not before getting lodged in the doorframe causing them all to fall forward into a pile that milliseconds later disappeared into blurs of black, red and yellow.

"Run forest, Ruuuunnnn!" Ashe shouted out giggling as she watched them disappear through the doorway.

"What do they have now?" Arthur asked

"Technically you do as well, but you have been granted permission to be absent for the day. And it's Combat with Glynda Goodwitch" Summer explained

"Geh, I'm suddenly really happy I'm injured…" Arthur muttered, getting a slap to the back of his head from Summer and a book to the nose from Ashe.

"Ow! Could have not gone for the nose Ashe!" he said, not minding the slight sting on the back of his head.

"Never be happy about being injured! Do you know how dangerous that is!" Summer berated getting exaggerated nods from Ashe.

"I know, I know. It's was a joke, poor taste maybe but it was still a joke."

"Doesn't matter if it was a joke or not, as a huntsman you can never be happy to be injured, you can be happy to have learnt something from your injuries, but you can never be happy to be injured. Especially when you have ones you care about, when you come home with injuries, life threatening or not, it damages those relations, sometimes, those wounds don't heal. Not just for you, but for them as well." Tears began welling up in her eyes "So never! Never! Be happy about injuries, no matter how minor."

Arthur seeing Summer on the brink of tear from his supposed to be innocent joke… no at that point it wasn't it a joke, it was experience. Arthur could feel it oozing off of her, she has experienced this, she knew the pain that came along with injuries, wounds of all types, he had seen glances every now and then, the small scars that dotted her hands, to many to count, to 'deliberate' to be accidental, or even from combat.

"Torture…" he absentmindedly muttered his body beginning to shiver at a certain memory, the same happening to Summer as she to remembered something that had plagued her mind for more years then she ever wanted her eyes began to blur and she hugged herself slowly rocking herself back and forth.

Arthur closed his mind forcing those memories to the back of his mind, yet still there, waiting for his next words. He lifted his arms and wrapped them around Summers head pulling her into his chest muttering softly "It's okay, your safe, come back to us, they are gone, it is only a memory they can't hurt you." His soft caring words slowly calming her down as her eyes became less blurry, yet still moist as tears ran down her cheeks as she began to sob.

Her wails of grief filled the room, slowly dying down after what felt like days, of pent up emotions, locked away within, a fragile glass chamber, already cracked and falling apart, only to suddenly shatter releasing a tidal wave of fears and insecurities for both Summer and Arthur, who was faring only slightly better as tears ran down his face, with the only semblance of his sobs being the trembling lip that he bit onto in an effort to control his emotions.

Ashe, had long since disappeared, letting the Tome rest listlessly against the nightstand. Not wanting to interrupt the emotions that had burst from the two.

"Summer, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made such a joke, It… was my way of hiding my own grief. And I guess, I didn't have them as tightly sealed away as I thought." He said with a horse trembling voice, slowly letting Summer rise from his now tear sodden chest.

Wiping her tears away, Summer said with red, puffy eyes "It-it's alright, I-I thought the same thing."

"No, it's not. Summer, I, we, no. Summer, what do you think about me?" he asked

"Huh?"

"What do you think about me? Or when you look at me what do you see?" he specified.

"What do I see in you?" she replied as she began to think. "Sadness, sorrow, fear, death yet also bravery, kindeness and a warm heart."

"What I see… I see a boy, who has been broken, your eyes, they are empty, they shine, yet are empty of emotion, no matter how much you smile or joke, all I see is a boy hiding away from the truth. Yet I also see a kindness in you, a warm heart open to others, a boy… a man willing to stand up for others and put himself in danger for others. I see tragedy, yet also hope. I see… myself." She explained surprising Arthur as a small yet sad and knowing smile crossed his face.

"You… are right, and wrong at the same time." He said, pausing slightly as he began to explain. "You are not wrong about me being broken. I have seen, experienced thing that would make even Ozpin breakdown. I have 'died' more times than I can count…" he was interrupted as Summer stuttered out "D-died? As in you have actually died and come back from the dead?".

"What? Oh, no. metaphorically 'died'. I guess you could say the first time I died was when I was born, the only day I ever knew my mother, she died minutes after I was born. She is the first person I 'killed' I guess you could say." He chuckled, mocking himself "the next time would be when I found my sister hanging from ceiling by a noose, days after her fiancé had been killed. I was five, and I witnessed both of them. God I miss her…" tears began pouring down his cheeks once again, not noticing that his Tome had opened and was currently showing the various memories he had of the incidents.

Summers lip began to tremble as well as he kept speaking. "After that was my father, he started drinking, gallon upon wretched gallon of empty beer bottles littered the house. The stench of rotten food soaked into the wood and carpet. This went on for two years, before he got drunk behind the wheel and crashed into a family of four, a mother a father, and two twin new-borns barely a year old. I was eight. I-I saw everything, everything, all seared into my mind, a curse of memory I can never forget. I was born with an Eidetic memory everything I have seen, everything I have experienced, every scar, every bruise, every shattered bone and every corpse. Each child I have seen, their eyes slowly fading into lifelessness. And yet I can never forget. Not a single one." His eyes had turned blank, like when he had been in the auditorium the day before initiation.

"Arthur…" Summer began but was quickly stopped as Arthur held his hand up. "Summer, I-I am broken. I can never be fixed. This-this is something I have come to term with. But please let me continue." He said as he listlessly stared towards his own hands clenching them tight, turning them white.

"When, I was ten, I was abducted by a terrorist organization" Summer gasped "They-they called themselves Parallel, they believed themselves to be the side of the world running parallel to our own, the side we never get to see, the side where the monsters roam free, the true monsters, not Grimm, but man."

"You see, they had heard stories of a child, a child blessed by death, a child that could call upon death and bring reckoning upon others at will, be it innocent or otherwise. This child went by many names, Shinigami, death god, the cursed child some even called him Satan. Yet to them he was known as Pandora's box." He let his words sink in.

"You see where I am from there is a myth about a woman called Pandora, she was called the 'first mortal woman' a woman crafted by the god of the forge, Hephaestus, who moulded her from the earth surrounding us. Pandora was endowed with gifts from all the other gods, one of which being a vase. A vase filled with all the evils and diseases that filled the world. Yet within that small vase there stood a remnant of light, a small almost insignificant spark of 'Hope'. "

"One day, out of curiosity Pandora lifted the lid of the vase, doing so releasing all the evils trapped within, only to quickly place the lid back on yet all she did was trap hope within. That being the only consolation humanity was granted for all the curses she had brought down upon the world, there was still hope. That is why when we die; we always clutch to hope in our final moments. Because you see, Pandora's box was not just a simple vase, it WAS humanity." Summer became enraptured in Arthurs tale about the grandmother of all humanity back on Earth, listening intently to each of his words.

Arthur now wrapped his arms around his body while his head begun to hang, his hair falling in such a way that it completely blocked all view of his eyes. "That child, the boy they called Pandora's box, they did not just want him for his ability to call death to his side, they believed him to be the actual living incarnation of Pandora's box, they believed that the boy had, like the vase in the story, was slowly being opened, letting the evils within himself to leak out into the world, the lid being remove centimetre by centimetre each year. They did not want to slow or stop the horrors the boy could unleash, they wanted to accelerate it, harness it, and force it to work for THEM." Arthur began to clench tight onto his arms causing red flecks of blood to leak through his shirt.

"They tore the lid from the boys grasp, they forced him to watch the evils he had unleashed, the boy watch fathers devour their children, children slaughtering their own family laughing maniacally, only to breakdown moments later in fear and horror at what they had done in their insanity. And yet, they were never content, they wanted more horror to fill the world, and the only way they could do that was by snuffing out hope… completely" Arthur had begun to heave as the Tome began to rapidly flash between images of the shadow of a man, mouth opened wide to an unnatural degree as he slowly lowered a small, beating heart into his mouth the body of a small boy no older than twelve at his feet chest cracked open and hollow inside. The shadow of a girl, no older than eight, the only things visible on her being the slasher smile she wore and the silver gleam of a kitchen knife soaked in the blood of the woman she was standing atop.

"Arthur! Stop! It's okay you don't need to continue!" Summer tried to stop him but was stopped when Arthur roared "NO! It is not okay! They tore my skin, they ripped the flesh from my back, they tore the nails from my fingers and ripped the hair from my scalp, one bloody handful at a time. They didn't care, they didn't ask anything from him, they just wanted! And wanted andwantedandwantedandwantedandwantedandwanted, more andmoreandmoreandmoreandmore!." Arthur had now begun clawing at his face tearing the skin around his eyes as he ignored the pain.

"Arthur! Come on! Calm down! They can't hurt you!" Summer screamed as she grabbed Arthur's wrists attempting to pull them from his face in an effort to stop him from causing permanent damage.

"Arthur!? Mom!?" Came the soft yell of Ruby as she burst into the infirmary seeing her mother trying to stop Arthur from clawing out his own eyes as she too ran up to his side and began trying to pry his arms away from his face, ignoring the specks of blood that were flying onto her face.

"Mom!" Yelled Yang coming in shortly after her sister quickly followed by Weiss and Blake, who gasped upon sight of Arthur's, blood soaked figure. Both began heaving at the sight of the loose flesh surrounding his eyes and between his finger nails.

"What is happening here!?" yelled Goodwitch as she too entered the infirmary right behind team RWBY.

"No, time. Help me! He's stronger than he looks!" Summer yelled as both Ruby and Yang came to her side and began trying to pry Arthurs torn nails from his face. Only to be given relief when Arthur stopped scratching and simply let his hands fall to his sides as Summer held his right hand to the bed frame while Ruby and Yang held his left, with Goodwitch using her semblance to tie his arms to the bed frames using numerous leather restraints.

"Cause you see" Arthur said calm and emotionless, as his hair suddenly turned black with white highlights and his eyes did the same, turning black, sclera included, with a white outline of his pupil "When all hope has been extinguished, despair reins free."

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Alternate Chapter names: {Pandora's Box} {A Broken man} {Torn Asunder} {Cracked Vase}