Prologue: Divergence Value 0.563824%
In the end, he only gets her help by bringing up the one girl they'd swore never to talk about.
Weiss rubs the flat of her palm against her thigh. "There's nothing more to say, Jaune. We've gone over this."
"We really haven't," he says. He won't be surprised if a distinct red handprint brands itself into the right side of his face for the next week, but bringing up the elephant in the room will be worth it if it finally gets Ms. Schnee to face the truth.
"Ruby's still alive."
"It's been a year." He holds up his hands in a placating gesture before she can pull Myrtlenaster on him. "I'm not saying she isn't still… out there. But what..." He gulps. "What if we could go back in time and stop the Fall Maiden? Go back to the beginning of the end of the world and stop her?"
"Not possible." There is pity and empathy in her eyes. It irritates him. "If it was, I would have already gone back to the fall of Atlas Academy, when Winter..." She abruptly turns away from Jaune and startles when Ren emerges from the shadows at the far side of the workshop.
"It is possible, but not without great sacrifice," says Ren. "Time dilation is already possible with your Dust and Atlesian technology. Haste, Slow, even Stop. Why not time reversal?"
"The future branches out in an infinite spread. The present is filled with infinite choices. All of this is only possible because the past is absolute. Start messing with that and you—"
"Only if you view the universe as a single string, a linear progression from past to present," says a new voice. Weiss draws her weapon as Mercury steps into view to her left. Ignoring her reflexive threat, he continues, "But what if your universe was more like a braided yarn? Several pathways spiraling around each other, with the opportunity to shift to a divergent timeline? If you pushed fate hard enough, maybe you could even break free from your universe. Hop into a beta universe where Remnant doesn't go to shit."
Yang immediately appears on her other side, arms tightly folded. "He's not our enemy," she says begrudgingly. "I trust him, Weiss."
"How…" Weiss's bewildered gaze bounces between the unexpected four present in her studio. "I've guards posted at the entryways. How did you get in? Him, Yang? Why?"
Ren waves a hand dismissively, as if physically brushing away inquires. "We can answer those later. The truth of the matter, Ms. Schnee, is that we have sought you out because Mercury and I have theorized time reversal to be within the realms of possibility—but not without the technology of the Schnee Dust Company. Will you lend yourself to our cause?"
The atmosphere has smoldered from bright yellow to a charred crimson by the time their project is finally completed. Fire-embroiled skies, scorched lands, dead oceans: all symptoms of their world's decay. Fitting indeed for the work of a broken Fall Maiden—all but the most necessary components of life must die so that the whole may survive an ice age's hibernation.
The world continues to turn. The cycle of seasons marches onward. There's nothing they can do; nothing short of returning to happier days, when the warm sun shone upon a world in full bloom.
"Jaune."
He turns away from the shaded window at Ren's call. Their time traveling device is rather simple because its purpose is simple: a spherical nucleus, powered with all available Time Dust, to concentrate and channel aura from four sources, four directions, representatives of four elements.
He wants to fill the silence that stretches between them. This will likely to be the last time he sees any of them in this timeline, young adults burdened to support a world falling apart at the seams. They've lost their loved ones, their friends, their everything. They've the few survivors forged by the fires of the Fall Maiden, melted down yet strong as steel. It is hard to stand before them now and bid that last goodbye.
Words can't bridge what they feel. He meets their gazes steadily. This will work, he says. We'll break through that divergence value of 1%. We will change the world. With this final assurance, his friends take their set places arranged counterclockwise around the aural nexus. Winter, fall, summer, spring; Weiss, Mercury, Yang, Ren. Time reversal as best as they can imitate it.
Jaune steps into the center of the time machine.
For a second, she imagines him floating in midair, arms spread wide and head thrown back. Blinding light forces her to squeeze her eyes shut a second later, yet she forces them open in the next moment at the resonating cry of a bright phoenix imposed upon Jaune's frame.
He's gone. The workshop falls dark in his absence. Drained down to the very last drop, Weiss slumps to her knees and drops into blissful unconsciousness for a time.
She's aroused by Yang's triumphant crow directly across from her. "He did it," Yang laughs weakly, bonelessly draped across her console. "Didya see that fire bird? He fucking did it."
Alarm rises in her chest at the sight of Mercury's ashen figure to her right. His synthetic legs more than made up for his deficient vitality in the past, but he'd openly acknowledged that he might not be able to provide the aura necessary to fuel the machine yet insisted on remaining part of the project. They may have been enemies years ago, but at the very least she can honor his sacrifice.
The other two haven't noticed yet. Ren has turned inward, lost in his own thoughts; Yang's gloats fall on deaf ears until she verbally calls his name. He comes out of his introspection slowly.
"Ren," says Yang breathlessly. "You have to tell me you saw that."
He closes his eyes. "You saw a phoenix, did you not? Can you say you saw a second animal?"
Yang glances straight at Weiss doubtfully. Weiss can't bring herself to dampen Yang's enthusiasm. "I only saw the phoenix," she confesses. "But that's a beacon of hope, isn't it? A sign that even after Remnant burns to ashes, we'll still arise anew. It can't get more obvious than that."
"There was a snake too," says Yang at Ren's expectant gaze. "It was long enough to go around all of us a couple times. And its head was right behind Weiss, so maybe that's why she didn't see it. I… I think it was eating its own tail."
Weiss's heart sinks. "Oh."
"Jaune's semblance is a fucking force field, guys," Yang declares. "He'll be fine no matter what kind of situation he lands in. The least we can do now that we've shipped him off into the past is believe in him."
"Right," she says through the doubt clouding her mind. For her friends' sakes. For Mercury's sake. It can't have been for nothing. With greater conviction, she repeats, "You're right, Yang. Jaune is going to change the world."
Ren's echo is hollow and just as meaningless.
"Yeah."
Author's Rant
Rooster Teeth was not kidding when they said this season was going to be hella dark... BUT PYRRHA NIKOS IS OKAY E'RYBODY, everything's going to be okay *sob*
While I'm elated that we haven't lost Pyrrha, here's a look at what might have happened had the world of Remnant gone to hell; a permanent Fall. Several looks, in fact - it's a time travel fic! (I pulled my terminology from Steins;Gate. Also a great show, though you have to wait six episodes before anything actually happens...)
So... about my other RWBY story, Zodiac... a slew of reviews pointing out the many, many structural and character flaws in the story sucked all the enjoyment out of writing it. While I am aware that it could be redeemable by rewriting it, I don't have the time for that. I'm two months away from graduating. But more importantly... writing stopped being fun. It became a responsibility, a chore. So give me a couple months' break; I'll probably get back to it when I forget all my previous butthurt-ness, and when I finish graduating and cramming for exams. After all, it's still a responsibility I intend to fulfill.
Destiny will be significantly shorter. That hopefully should keep it from getting itself knotted up. I'll also be able to complete it in a timely manner.
Cover art done by the lovely Dishwasher1910. His fanart is breathtakingly gorgeous. Check out his DeviantArt!