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[RWBY] Thy Rusted Knight Chapter 1
🕑 Added 2023-10-30 16:36:49 +0000 UTCFire.
All he could see was the fire all around him.
"Nora!!! Ren!!! Noooooo!!" He screams as he sees colors of green and pink burn together while embracing each other.
A house collapses behind him and he sees flames burst out of the broken windows.
"Blake! Yang! Hold on!" He yells running towards the place he knew them to be.
Yet he is knocked off his feet when a flaming pillar falls in front of him. Dazedly struggling to stand up, he sees streaks of blues and whites from the corner of his eyes. Turning to the out of place color in this burning hell, he sees Weiss burst into flames
"Weiss." He cries out softly in agaony before punching the ground.
He hears a rustling and crackling sound in front of him and promptly sees Ruby with her back toward him.
"Ruby, don't go. Please don't leave me alone." Jaune whispers with tears in his eyes. Reaching out his hand to reach her, he is too late when she turns around and says those damn words.
"I'm sorry."
Suddenly, he isn't seeing Ruby anymore. Green emerald eyes framed by red hair stare at him sadly before turning into ash.
"PYRRHA!!!!!"
The Rusted Knight screams into the waking world, disturbing his loyal steed's rest beside him in the process. He grabs his sword beside him and jumps into a stance, ready to leap into action. It takes a moment before he is able to calm down.
"I'm sorry, Juniper. It's just you and me now." He says forlornly, soothing his loyal mount as he sheathes his broken sword.
Looking around him, he sees the remains of his only refuge ever since he fell to this gods-forsaken world almost two decades ago. Broken furniture from his rage and outburst because of his failure. Holes in the walls from when he punched them in frustration. The doors smashed in with their frames in pieces just to let Juniper in.
Slowly walking outside to the open air, he looks at the remains of the Paper Pleaser's Village. Juniper joins him as she manuevers her way across his broken house. Together, Jaune feels a bit calmer and he reminisces the events of last night.
He doesn't know how it started but he woke up in the middle of the night to find the Paper Pleasers' Village on fire.
It didn't end there of course. He tried to save everyone. When that became too hard he settled for trying to save at least some of them. And when even that became impossible he tried to save just one, but even then he failed.
It all ended with the tower of pebbles falling into the dam and releasing all that water to extinguish the fire and wash him away. He only survived because Juniper did her very best and carried him to safety.
Staring at the remains of the Paper Pleaser's Village, the sight that greets the Rusted Knight is a newly-formed lake with bits of burned wood and paper floating on it.
He failed again. After all these years he still can't be a hero. He knows he should feel devastated, angry, or sad, but instead the Rusted Knight just feels tired. All the tears and anger were already spent when he destroyed his own house during his breakdown. He feels nothing but the crushing emptiness of the world which has left him alone again.
He doesn't react. He doesn't move. He just watches as debris floats on by the shore. He looks as if he is used to the sight of this. And maybe he is and it just took this long for him to remember the feeling of failure.
"Just another failure to add to the list." He sighs to himself as he lets the quietness of the area wash over him.
A whine disturbs him from his somber mood, reminding him of the presence of one who has not left him in this wretched place. Juniper, with her bright yellow eyes looking at him, pleading him not to forget her.
"I'm sorry girl. Just a lot on my mind, I guess."
Or maybe nothing is on my mind alone.
He apologizes, rubbing her head affectionately and massaging her ears to comfort the animal.
"Come on, girl. Let's take a look at the market."
Turning around from the remains of his last refuge, the Rusted Knight picks up his things and walks beside his trusty steed to safety.
"What do you think happened?" He throws out absentmindedly, thinking of ways how the fire could have started to take his mind off of the crushing silence of the world.
"I think I can answer that."
And with that silence is shattered by a familiar voice. At the same time, the empty feeling he had earlier? It's gone now, replaced by something more potent, fury.
"You." He says flatly as he clenches his fist and looks at the tree above him.
"Hello, old friend." The Curious Cat greets him genially, as if they haven't been enemies ever since Alyx left.
"I should have known it was you." He replies flatly. He doesn't draw his sword or throw his shield. He's learned enough to know that the Cat won't be caught off guard by moves like that.
The Cat only grins at his inaction from his perch above the tree.,
"Me? I didn't do anything. It was all them."
"Lies! The Paper Pleasers were predictable! They had a schedule! Nothing on that schedule was a surprise fire in the middle of the night."
"Oh? Maybe they learned?" The Cat says sarcastically.
"What did you do?!"
"Why, I just gave them some knowledge. They were so eager to please that I felt I should repay them with something."
"You gave them death!"
"It's Ascension."
"Ascension is death!"
"Please, contrary to what you might think, Ascension is not the death you think it is, Jau-"
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" He snaps, seething at the Cat's words.
"....I apologize. But don't believe me about Ascension? Here, read this." The Cat apologizes after a pause.
With all it's whimsical grace, the Cat throws out a piece of paper which floats down to his hand gracefully.
Reading it out aloud to push back the crushing silence, he clenches his fist as tears start to form in his eyes.
"To our hero the Rusted Knight. Please do not blame yourself for our Ascension. Know that we will be forever grateful to everything you have done for us. We love you and hope to meet you in our next life. Signed. Paper Pleasers."
Taking a pause to get his breathing under control, he looks back to the Cat hovering above him.
"What is this? What is this next life?" He says flatly.
"That? That's Ascension. Exactly what the letter says."
"The afterlife. You fed them to the Tree." He says flatly.
"Well it is after this life so you're right about that. But the Tree? Ha! You don't even know what it is!"
"Then tell me what it is."
"Oh no, you won't believe me even if I told you. If you really want to know what it is and what it does, then come back here in a few hours and you'll see."
"I have no time for your games." The knight replies, knowing he'll be back here regardless of the Cats advise or not seeing that it is his only home here.
"Oh this isn't a game. You'll see." The Cat whispers as it watches the knight ride off.
---
In the dark void of the Great Tree, a being of metal and magic looks on at the lands it has authority over. The Ever After. A place of magic and imagination where the impossible becomes the possible.
"Hmmmm."
The being hums as it sets it's sights into one particular knight arriving at the Garden Acre.
---
Arriving at the market inside the Garden Acre feels different now that he isn't rushing to meet schedules in order to protect the Paper Pleasers. It feels....freeing in a sort of empty way. Purposeless. That's the word he's looking for.
Without the Paper Pleasers to protect he doesn't have anything to do anymore other than laze around and wait for....for Team RWBY. The thought jolts energy into him for an instant only for it to bleed away. He'll wait for Team RWBY and then what? He'll drag them down again? It's not like he's found a way out of this nightmare.
The realization forces his mind deep into darker thoughts. Looking downwards to his hands, the knight thinks of his failures. Penny, Pyrrha, and all the people he failed to save in Mantle.
He is so deep in his thoughts that he doesn't realize that the market is being covered in darkness. He only notices the change when the darkness washes over him and suddenly he is being blinded by bright yellow light.
Clang!
A sound of hammer hitting metal catches his attention. Turning to the sound with his arms raised to cover his eyes, he sees a glint of bright green coming from a nearby wall. The source? A bright green metallic blade that freezes the knight's body to his core.
"Does that interest you?" A melodic voice calls out just as he reaches his hand to the blade.
Clang!
The knight flinches at the sound, holding the green sword by its hilt and aiming it at the source. What greets his sight is a being silouheted by a bright light casting shadows dark enough to obscure its face.
"I...uhh..thought this was lost forever. How do you have it?" He answers hoarsely, internally overwhelemd by the object from a distant past.
Clang!
"Nothing, no one is ever truly lost forever." The being chuckles as it hammers an object lying on the anvil.
No one is lost forever, huh? Tell that to the list of all the people he has failed.
He thinks to himself just as he sees a reflection of Penny on the sword. He flinches at the sudden sight of blood on his hands only for it to disappear when he opens his eyes.
"You disagree?" The being asks, still not turning towards him.
Clang!
"It's just that I've lost a lot already. Its hard to think otherwise." He answers as he sets the green blade down on the table in front of him.
"Hmmm. And how about you? Are you lost as well?"
Clang!
"What? No...I'm...I'm not..I don't know."
"Hmmm....then perhaps you are actually currently lost. You seem to be carrying a rather large burden with you."
Clang!
"I guess you could say that, yeah. But I don't know what to do anymore."
"Then perhaps you could lay your burdens and choose any of these you like."
Clang!
"What? But I already have a weapon. Though its been broken since a long time ago."
"And yet here you are. Searching for something you don't even know. Perhaps you'd like to get another weapon? Or fix what you currently have?"
Clang!
For some reason, those words land heavily on the knight. Unable to discern the hidden meaning of the question, he looks around his surroundings and notices he's in a weapons shop. Eventually his eyes land on something that freezes his heart and cools his blood to ice.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The hammer keeps falling as he stares into a bronze sword and shield.
..-une, jaune, JAUNE!
And suddenly he is being surrounded by a bright white light! The next thing he knows he's laying down in the ground with Juniper worriedly nudging him with her nose.
Instincts born of years in this world has him leaping into action and scanning his surroundings.
He sees himself back in the middle of the market while the Afterans do their business as usual with none noticing his sudden lapse of consciousness. Perhaps it is a testament to how much bullshit he has been through that he only sheathes his sword and sighs as he continues his day.
As weird as that encounter was, it changes nothing for the knight. He's still lost in this world. The Paper Pleasers are still gone. And he still needs to get supplies and furniture to replace the ones he destroyed last night.
"Come on, Juniper. Let's get what we need." He pats his loyal companion and continues on with his day.
------------
In the dark void of the Great Tree, the being of metal and magic watches the knight through a shining portal as green orbs float around it.
Clang!
"Hmmmm. Perhaps you're not as lost as you think you are just yet."
There's a pause before a singular orb flits up to its view.
"Now, what do I do with you?" The being asks as it holds a hand up for the orb to land on.
No reply was communicated to the being but an answer was still reached.
"Something more durable then." It chuckles as it lays the orb down on its anvil before raising its hammer.
Clang!
----------
"What the fuck?"
It is a testament to how shocking the sight he is currently looking at that it managed to surprise even the Rusted Knight.
The last thing he expected to see after coming back to the ruined village was a freaking crystal palace standing on top of the lake.
"What is this?" He whispers in awe as he drops a sack to the ground.
"This is Ascension." The Curious Cat appears and hisses from behind him.
"No..." He whispers softly, awe starting to turn into horror.
"Yessss...You know what you've done, what you've been doing." It whispers maliciously circling the knight in order to avoid the jackalope behind him.
He flinches at the silent accusation but before he could reply, he hears a somewhat familiar voice.
"Hello there, brave knight!" A dark purple star-shaped gem approaches him.
His heart gets stuck in his throat at the familiar call. He looks at the being so familiar to one he interacted with just yesterday. His hopes that they remember him are dashed by its following words.
"You look like a brave knight! Do you need some assistance?" It asks cheerfully.
"What are you?" He asks hoarsely, trying to stop himself from crying.
A red gem approaches from the other side to answer his question.
"We are the Genial Gems! And we've arrived here to clean up this beautiful land and create something beautiful and pleasing!" It says proudly as the knight sees a yellow gem wade through the water and pick up the remains of the Paper Pleasers.
"You understand, don't you?" The Cat asks with obvious glee in its voice.
"...This is them....They're back..." The knight answers, tears in his eyes as he sees a glowing light from the gem's hands form a house made of crystals.
"You appear to be upset. Would you be so kind as to tell us how to help you?" A blue and white gem asks kindly.
The knight falls to his knees at the question, blood pounding in his ears.
"Poor Rusted Knight. You tried so hard to save them only to stop them from becoming what they needed to be!" The Cat coos at him, slowly gaining in volume until it is almost shouting at him in the end.
"I...I.-"
"You held them back! You aren't a hero! You're a fraud! You just wanted the rush of rescuing someone!"
A harsh wind blows only for the gems to hunker down and not get blown away.
"N-no!"
"Yes! You did what you did for selfish reasons! And even then you failed in what you wanted to do! Look at them! They don't need you anymore!"
A small fire is extinguished once a gem waves its glowing arm at it.
"Poor Rusty, you fail at succeeding and only succeed when you fail." The Cat mocks slowly and finally.....finally succeeds in breaking the knight even if only for a moment.
For even the strongest would crack when they discover that they have fought for the wrong reasons.
"I...I'm sorry!" He cries, ugly sobs invading his speech as tears drop from his eyes.
"Finally...I waited for so long. Who knew all it would take i-hrk!" The Cat stalks forward with a predatory grin, only for it to be stepped on by a gem.
"You made the brave knight cry! Go away, you meanie!" The red gem shouts as it bonks the Cat away.
"What?! Do you know wha-OUCH!" The Cat replies in fury only to be trampled and kicked away by the jackalope.
All of this happening goes over the knight's head as his vision turns blurry due to the tears the continue flowing as he repeatedly apologizes.
"I'm sorry! I'm so so sorry! Ple-" He apologizes again and again only to be interrupted by a hug from the blue and white gem. For a moment, Jaune could pretend that it is an old friend embracing him. Weiss Schnee covers him in a comforting hug.
"It's okay, brave knight. I'm sure you did your best. But even the best fail sometimes." Weiss embraces his neck in comfort.
"I'm sure you were strong and brave." Dark-purple like the starry night, Blake hugs him from the other side.
"You can depend on us for a while." Bright yellow like the sun, Yang pats his back comfortingly.
"Here, drink this. It will help you relax. Let us handle things for a while." Red like roses, Ruby holds up a teacup gently to his mouth.
Overwhelmed by the mental strain and the subsequent comfort he has been exposed to, the Rusted Knight takes a sip of the tea. Slowly but surely finishing it, he could already feel its effects on relaxing him. The Gems move to support his body as he slowly lays down on the ground.
The last thing he sees before the darkness are roots slowly covering him.
------------
The last thing the Rusted Knight expected was to wake up in a dark void to the sound of hammer striking metal.
Clang!
Lethargically standing up to face the sound, he sees a familiar figure.
"Uhm...Who are you?" He lazily asks the figure, only noticing that it is made up of metal.
"Hmmmm..." The figure hums, stopping its earlier motion of striking an object with its hammer.
"Are you just gonna hum there while you look at me?" The knight slowly responds with a confused tilt to his head.
"Hmmm..Jaune Arc, I've been waiting a long time for you." The being answers in its own melodic voice.
That actually gets him to widen his eyes.
"How do you know that name?!" The Rusted Knight asks in shock. As far as he knows only the Cat should know about his name in the Ever After.
"I've been watching you, you know? I know who you are. Who you were. What you've done." The figure chuckles light at him.
"What...are you?" He asks warily, anyone who can watch him as this being claims is someone to be wary of.
"I am The Tree. Or at least an Avatar of it. You may call me the Blacksmith." The Blacksmith nods as it stands to its full height.
"You! You will not ha-" He steps back in panic, all laziness and lethargy in his body gone. He raises his hands into fighting position in order to protect himself from any attack.
"Peace, Rusted Knight. I do not seek to harm you." The Blacksmith raises her own hands in a placating manner.
"Ha! As if I'll believe that. I know what you did to Lewis!" He snaps back hysterically, knowing that Alyx sacrificed her own brother to return to Remnant.
"I sent him back to Remnant."
Out of all possible replies that's probably the most unexpected one she could have ever given him. He falters for a moment before putting his guard up once again.
"Lies! Alyx sacr-"
"Alyx stayed in the Ever After."
"...What?" He asks in confusion, because really, it isn't every day that what you thought as true for years is suddenly refuted by a being in front of you in a casual manner.
"Alyx...wished to stay. She wanted to make things right with you."
"That's not right. The story....She wrote the story The Girl Who Fell Through The World."
"I suppose the story is what Lewis wished what would have happened."
"He wrote the story in honor of his sister....But then what happened to Alyx?"
The Blacksmith is silent at that, only looking at him sadly.
"What happened to her?" He asks slowly, horror slowly taking over his confusion.
"You don't want to know."
That in itself confirms to him that the worst has happened to Alyx.
Thinking back to that fateful night she poisoned him, only two others were with them. Lewis and the Curious Cat. It doesn't take a genius that if Lewis returned to Remnant and Alyx stayed in the Ever After only one other could have done the deed.
"The Curious Cat." He hisses in anger. It seems no matter what, the Cat is dedicated in making him miserable.
"...Yes." The Blacksmith answers somberly.
"What happens now then? Am I going back to Remnant? Or am I already dead? I remember the Cat and drinking a tea." The knight asks with a resigned tone.
"No, you aren't dead or dying. The only thing that could happen to you here is what you want to happen. The choices of what you become and where you end up is yours to make."
"What does that mean? Does it mean I could return to Remnant?" He replies confusedly.
"It means you could be whoever you want to be in here." The Blacksmith announces as she raises her hand and many cases of weapons rises up to surround them.
"What...What are these?" He asks in awe.
"These are the persons you could become if you so choose."
"Your question at the shop! You asked me if I wanted to try something new!" He exclaims in shock, realizing the meaning behind the Blacksmith's question back at the shop.
"I did, indeed." The Blacksmith answers with a smile.
"And...these weapons...I could be like the person who owned them?" He asks as he touches a case containing an ornate spear.
"Not like the person who owned them, but exactly the person who could wield them." The Blacksmith clarifies.
"Ascension...." He gasps in shock.
"Yes...could you feel the man who might hold it? The weight of who he is? He could be you. You could put any one of them on and leave Jaune Arc behind."
The mention of his name causes him to flinch before looking sadly at the weapons all around him. Who would ever be want to be Jaune Arc when he could be anyone he wanted?
"It's...so heavy. They're all so heavy. I'm...not enough." He answers as he looks down onto his hands.
"And how would you measure enough?" The Blacksmith asks, prompting him to look up at her.
"A hero. A hero is enough." He answers without hesitation.
The Blacksmith only looks at him silently.
"Someone who could save the day. Someone who'll be there when the going gets tough. Someone...who won't let down their friends. Someone not like me." He continues as he gets the steam rolling only to falter at the end once he remembers how far he is from that answer.
Before he could think about his answer deeper he hears a familiar voice behind him.
"You never were the hero."
"Alyx?!" He turns around to see her looking like the last time he saw her.
Turning to the Blacksmith, he notices that she's disappeared along with all the weapon cases that were just surrounding them.
"What?" He says out loud in confusion.
"Hello, Jaune." Alyx greets him.
"You...you died." He replies with a pale face.
"I know. You couldn't save me." She responds straightforwardly.
"I'm...sorry. I couldn't save a lot of people." He answers, remembering all the people he has failed to save.
"Then maybe its time for a change." Alyx states bluntly.
"...I know...That's what I'm trying to do." He replies gently.
"Not like that, Jaune." Alyx giggles at him. The sound causes him to tilt his head at her, its been a long time since he heard the laughter of a child and it brings warm feelings to his heart.
"What do you mean?" He asks, confused at her statement.
"it's time to be the kind of man you always wanted to be." Alyx says with a smile, holding her hand out for him to reach.
He raises his hand hesitantly to reach hers. Alyx never did something like this with him before, but if the Blacksmith was telling the truth then she wanted to make things right with him....Maybe this is a sign.
He raises his head to look at her face and sees an encouraging smile looking back at him. That smile was all he needed to reach her. This time...This time he could be the hero.
It takes but a moment for a light to suddenly glow around him, taking all the aches away from his body. The next thing he sees after being blinded by the light is his hand touching the weapons case of a familiar equipment he hasn't seen for a long long time.
Beyond the glass his hand is in contact with is Crocea Mors. Not the broken one he's been intimately familiar with all these years, but the one just before the Fall of Atlas.
Jaune Arc stares at his own weapon with wide eyes in open wonder. The first thing he notices is that it stands there glowing and unbroken, looking stronger than ever before.
"Good choice." A melodic voice surprises him from behind.
"What was that?" He asks in wonder.
"A gift. When Alyx's life ended, she chose to leave a part of herself behind. A wish to fix what she had broken. Haven't you noticed anything yet?" The Blacksmith answers with amusement in her voice.
"My body! I'm young again!" He gasps, before realizing something. "Wait. This was how I sounded? I sound so whiny!"
He hears a giggle from the Blacksmith, he never thought he'd see a godly being laugh but hey, everything is possible in the Ever After.
"So what happens now? Does this mean I keep this voice if I choose my own self?" Jaune jokes getting swept by the positive feelings Alyx's gift has left him.
"Then it means, maybe you're enough." She answers gently with a smile.
He's enough...Alyx believes that he's enough. Her faith in him is enough to crack his composure and for the first time in a long while, Jaune Arc breaks into happy tears.
"Thank you...Thank you so much." He sobs as the Blacksmith lets him have this time to himself.
"Do I get to go back to Remnant now? What about my friends? Can I wait for them in the Ever After and guide them here?" Jaune continues after getting a handle of his self.
"Ah. It's not quite as simple as that. You are currently undergoing Ascension which means your current body is located in the base of the Great Tree right now. What you are here is only the representation of your soul. And the choice you make will translate into your future body which would form at the base of the Great Tree." The Blacksmith explains patiently.
"Ascension. So it is a rebirth." Jaune gasps in awe.
"In a manner of speaking, yes. But you of all people should know that to choose to be someone else here is to lay down your old self and be someone new."
"I understand. What about my friends, then? They'll land here in the Ever After too. How could I help them."
"That...is for another time after you hear my proposal to you."
"Proposal?"
"Hmmm... Yes. Those you call Brother Gods. The Gods of Light and Darkness have Ozma and Salem as their champi-"
"Wait, you know about the Gods?"
"Ah....Yes, the Ever After is the birthplace of the Gods. They were actually birthed by the Great Tree to ma-
"Wait, does that make you their mother?" For the second time in less than a minute, Jaune Arc interrupts a godly being.
"....In a manner of speaking, yes." The Blacksmith replies with all the patience a being such as her has.
"Oh...cool."
"Yes, as I was saying, they were created to maintain the balance here in the Ever After, howev-"
"Wait, if they were meant to ma-"
"WILL YOU LET ME FINISH?!" For the first time in its existence, the Mother of the Brothers raises its voice in frustration.
"...Sorry."
"No, I apologize. It is normal for a being such as you to have questions. But you must let me finish before asking. Understood?" The Blacksmith takes a deep breathe similar to how a mother does before explaining something to a child.
"...Yes, ma'am."
"Good....now as I was saying, the Brothers created secret beings that could do their roles. The Curious Cat and the Jabberwalker."
The Blacksmith sees his eyes widen and takes a pause. To his credit, Jaune Arc gets the message and mimics zipping his mouth tight.
Sighing to herself, the Blacksmith continues.
"One Brother believed that they have disrupted the balance while the other refused to consign their creation to destruction. But balance is not two forces locked into ever-lasting battle. It is an ecosystem, an organism, a living breathing thing. Thus, balance cannot be restored using forces and calculations."
Jaune sees threads of black and white originally pulling against each other before twisting together into something stronger.
"Balance will find equilibrium on its own. It needs only love and patience in order to see it through the end. "
Jaune then sees the two threads merge into one thread which merges with others before crashing into the ground and forms a blossoming flower.
"That is what the Brothers did not understand."
It doesn't take long for the flower to wilt and Jaune then sees two beings of light and dark continually create and destroy the Jabberwalker. They eventually come into conflict with each other in clashes of light and darkness.
"The Ever After could no longer burden the Brother's conflict and so the Great Tree made a special doorway into the Great Beyond to make worlds of their own."
"And thus Remnant was born." Jaune finishes in awe of the story. The magnitude of the event fully presses down onto him. The knowledge that he might be the only human in existence to ever hear the full creation story detailing the birth of the Gods is outstanding.
"And thus Remnant was born." The Blacksmith repeats, indulging Jaune's last interruption with a smile.
"So how does this matter to your proposal? What does this have to do with my friends?"
Realizing that she just shared the Gods' origin without actually explaining her proposal to the knight, the Blacksmith has the inexplicable urge to slap her face with her own palm. Luckily, she is able to restrain herself before she shows any ungodly behavior in front of this mortal.
"It has come to my attention that since the Gods of Light and Dark have Ozma and Salem as their champion respectively, I should have one as my own."
"You want me as your own champion?!" Jaune Arc fills in the blanks on his own, he might be a lot of things but he's not stupid.
"Yes, but instead of light or dark, you will be an agent of balance. I usually let things be but Remnant has been out of balance for a long while now. It is time for a....correction."
".....And you thought that correction is me?" Jaune asks incredulously.
"Yes." She answers plainly.
"But what about my friends?"
"And here comes the important part of my proposal. You see, I can do more than just send you to Remnant. I could send you to when you are needed. You could stop your friends from falling."
Jaune's mind is blown wide open with that. Time travel. Legitimate time travel. He could do more than stop Team RWBY from falling into the Ever After. He could stop everything bad that has ever happened. He could save Pyrrha, Penny, everyone from Beacon and Atlas! He could be a hero!
Yet something stops him from immediately accepting. He has only read about time travel to Xray and Vav but even then this sort of thing has consequences.
"What about time paradox? Won't I also stop myself from falling into the Ever After in the first place if I do that?" He asks, using words and concepts he only learned reading comics.
"As the Ever After is separated from the Great Beyond's time and space, your presence here will never change regardless of how you change the past. How do you think you were able to interact with both Alyx and Lewis, people who supposedly lived and died long before you were born?"
"That makes sense." It does not. Jaune Arc is just bluffing, not willing to get another mind-boggling explanation if he admits that it doesn't make sense to him.
The Blacksmith only stares at him though, as if she knows Jaune is lying to her. Being a godly being, Jaune wouldn't put it past her but as long as she's not actually calling him out on it, he is completely comfortable in changing the subject.
"So how do I get back to Remnant now?"
The Blacksmith sighs at his blatant effort to change the subject.
"Just break the glass to your weapon and walk through the door you'll see at the base of the Great Tree." She hasn't even finished explaining when Jaune has already broken the glass and is rapidly rising upwards while being pulled by his weapon.
Sighing to herself, the Blacksmith turns to the souls just now showing themselves.
"Kids these days, no patience at all. You'd think a fairy tale hero like him would have more caution, but noooo, he just breaks the glass and jumps into the middle of things.."
Looking upwards past the void and the Great Tree and unto the Great Beyond, she sees five colors rapidly falling into the Ever After.
"He didn't even ask about his friends at the end there."
------
A/N
Holy crap was this intro long. It would've been longer but I'm actually tired right now. I know it started heavy then transitioned into something lighthearted but I hope the change in tone was somewhat believable from turning despair into something more optimistic. Jaune's psyche would be further explored in later chapters. Arkos and Time Travel soon don't worry.
Comments
Jamieoeyes
I'm sort of hoping for White Knight to get added into the mix as well since Weiss from Volume 9 really like how "Mature" Jaune was maybe past her will see that in him as well with how he acts, hell, I'm actually expecting Jaune to catch her like he did when she fell from the Nevermore only with better results and Weiss getting flustered afterwards and starts falling for him the same way Pyrrha is also wonder what sort of benefits Jaune will get with being the Blacksmiths champion.
Robert Walker
Oh nice, and personally I never cared for the Arkos ship, it's nice, and adorable in a way, but just feels meh to me. And, he just went without any hesitation, hopefully he can do better now.
LuckyPickl3
Hell, It's about time
Biggs Ringor
Thanks for the love and support! Means a lot to me.
Aritra Roy
Aye finally, a proper badass Jaune is coming to Beacon! Not that I ever had a problem with Pineapple Jam's Jaune having to actually grow into the Jaune from Pineapple, but I've seen the reviews that don't seem to understand this, or just don't like the early awkwardness of early Jaune. Didn't agree with them, but hey, they're gonna love this version. Cheers to success and frequent updates. 🍻
