Light of Remnant

Ch 2 New Friends

AN/ Hey everyone Maestro here. Just wanted to say thanks for reading this. My full note will be at the bottom. Enjoy the story.

Oh man. This hurts. It feels like someone just cracked a building over my skull. I look down to my hand the ring slipped itself on. 'What the hell is this thing? How is it doing this?' My mind races as I look at the red light shining off me.

No longer am I wearing the simple chest-piece-hoodie combo. Now I'm decked out in full on plate armor. The finger-tips of my new gauntlets are sharp like claws. Running up my arms to my shoulders is fully plated red armor. On my chest is a weird symbol like the one on the ring. I feel some weight on my back and turn to see a long flowing, tattered, black cape. (1) I can feel something warm in my coming up my throat into my mouth. I spit out whatever it was that came out to see my own blood. Except… it was burning the ground. 'Did my blood just light the ground on fire?'

A growl calls out behind me and I turn, reminded of the horde of Grimm that surround me. I'm remember how I got into this situation. I was abandoned. Left behind by the people I tried to help. The people I wanted to make amends with. I tried everything to make things right! AND THEY LEFT ME TO DIE!

When I remember that I leap out at the Grimm in front of me. In the back of my mind I know this will probably get me killed. But I don't care. I just want something to hit. I caulk my arm back to punch the nearest Beowolf in the face and punch right through its skull. Before it can dissolve I grab its two lanky arms and pull them from the already dead body.

I jump over to the nearest Grimm and shove my hands inside. I grip the bottom and top of its mouth and rip its head in half. I continue to tear through the horde one by one, lost in my rage, flailing blindly at whatever I see move.

I hear something fly overhead and look up to see a Nevermore, even bigger than the one during initiation. If I was in my right mind I would think that it may be the leader of this horde. But I'm not. All I know is that something new has shown up. Something new to take my anger out on.

While I'm distracted with the Nevermore overhead I'm struck from behind by a Beowolf. I can feel it's claws strike my back. The weird thing is though, I can't even feel any pain from it. It's almost like someone threw a pillow at me.

Still doesn't mean I'm not pissed off. I turn to the offending Grimm and feel my mouth start to heat up. I can feel the mortar blood from earlier spew from my mouth and cover the Beowolf. I watch as the blood begins to burn the beast from head to toe. I feel like it would melt into a puddle of… well… whatever their made of if it didn't already start to dissolve.

"… Wow." The first solid words I say and all I can say is wow. Trying to think straight with this ring on has been hard. Every time I feel like I gain control of myself something else makes me angry and I… I just lose it.

*CAW*

The Nevermore calls out from above as it begins to launch a rain of feathers. I try and put my hands up to block them. I think back to when I made those white projections and try again to reproduce it again. As the feathers draw closer my projection continues to fail.

'Come one you stupid piece of shit power, semblance, whatever! WORK!'

I begin to feel my rage begin to boil in my stomach. When I feel like it can't be held back anymore I feel it shoot out of my ring. A projection of a shield finally appears, except this time it was red.

The feathers bounce harmlessly of the projection and the storm of feathers passes. I drop shield and look into the sky to spot the overgrown bird circling around.

(With blood and rage of crimson red)

A voice, low and raspy echoes in my head.

(Ripped from a corpse so freshly dead)

The voice continues, only this time it was louder.

(Together with our hellish hate, we'll burn you all)

"That is your fate."

The words spill out before I realize what I'm even saying. Where are these words coming from? I'm cut off from my train of thought as the Nevermore makes another pass. This time I'm ready. If I can make a projection of a shield, why not something else?

I imagine a sniper, long barrel with a scope and bullet in the chamber. If I'm right then this should work. I take aim at the overgrown bird and fire a round, clipping it's right wing. The Nevermore begins to lose control with its wing damaged and falls into a tail spin, crashing onto the ground.

I make my way over to the crash site and see the beast trying to recover. It screams at the sight of me and tries to flap it's other wing and me to no avail as it's pinned under it. I use the opportunity to finish it while I can.

I race up towards the downed bird and stop in front of its giant beak. It caws at me again but this time before it can close its mouth I put my foot on the bottom jaw and push up with my hands on the upper jaw.

Unable to close its mouth the Nevermore flails about, desperately trying to shake me off. But it's too late. My plan's already in motion. I feel the mortar blood rise to my throat and erupt from my mouth. Straight down the creature's gullet.

It flails more as the molten liquid enters its throat, but it soon dies out as the fire courses through the rest of its body. Stopping my attack, I step out of the jaw to let it close and inspect my work.

Looking down the rest of the body I notice that half of it is dissolving, while the other half is going up in flames. I look to the perimeter of the crash site to see the remainders of the horde looking on.

I expect them to try and jump in and mob me, but all they do is turn around and run. They must've realized they couldn't beat me. With the Grimm taken care of I walk over to a nearby stream to get something to drink. And maybe stop this burning sensation.

As I throw my head into the stream I come back up to notice my reflection. I already knew about the armor, but my face is a different story. My eyes are no longer the deep ocean blue they once were. Now they're red, like the deepest pits of fire you hear about in stories. Blood is dripping from my mouth, most likely leftovers from the bit I spewed into the Nevermore.

Falling back on my butt I take a moment to assess the situation. One moment I'm left behind to die, still pissed about that to no end. The next thing I know some ring comes out of nowhere and turns me into a metal looking, Grimm destroying wrecking machine.

Looking above the trees I notice that smoke is coming from the now abandoned village. Probably from the fire blood I was spewing everywhere.

"Whoops."

As I relax I begin to feel something calling to me. It's not a voice. More like somethings pulling at me. Suddenly, I feel rage flood out through my body and my ring begins to pull me upwards. Next thing I know I'm being pulled into the sky. I'm actually flying! Sorta.

The ring keeps pulling me higher and higher until I no longer see a blue sky. Now all I see is the infinite blackness of space, the stars shining like street lights in the distance. How can this be happening? I'm no science buff but I did learn that the reason we could never get a rocket into space was because Dust didn't work past the atmosphere.

Which means this ring doesn't work on Dust, but something else. Kinda fits with everything that it can do. Never heard of any Dust that made you spit fire at people. Throw it sure, but spitting it is another thing.

The ring takes me deeper into space, the lights of the stars turn into blurs as I accelerate faster than anything on Remnant ever has. I continue for a few more minutes until I spot a red planet approaching quickly.

As I break entry I notice I'm approaching the surface fast. I also wasn't slowing down any.

"Oh, crap baskets."


"You think you need a new leader, go ahead. You ask me though… you're a small enough group. You want to make a decision, just listen to everyone's ideas and pick the best one. It ain't rocket surgery."

On the surface of the planet a man in a red uniform seems to be throwing a fit to a strange assortment of alien creatures.

"God, this place sucks! Where do you even sleep?"

As the man waves his arm out to the scenery before him something crashes into the blood lake.

"… You wanna check on that Gardner? You did kill Atrocitus. Kinda makes you responsible for any newbies."

A giant floating ball speaks up from the group as the others look to the raging man to see what he would do.

"Fine! Whatever! You guys just sit on your asses while I do all the work!"

"I do not have an 'ass' actually." Speaks up and strange jellyfish-brain creature.

"Like I care!"

The angry man floats over to the spot where the falling object crashed into the lake.

"Well we got a while till whoever's in there comes out. Till then we might as well wait. In the meantime, I'll continue with my rant."


I'm sinking. In what? I don't know. All I know is that I'm in pain. Everything hurts as I sink deeper. It feels like someone's dropped me in magma. Stupid ring landed me right in this stuff.

As I fall farther into the red lake, I think this might be blood, images begin to flash in my mind. The times Cardin humiliated me in front of everyone. The times my FRIENDS gave me looks of disappointment and distain. The times my father would deny me the opportunity to train with him. An I remember watching as the Bullhead leaves, with me left behind and death marching towards me.

Every single moment fills me with pure, unadulterated, RAGE at the thought of them.

I feel myself hit the bottom and look at the floor of the blood lake to see bones and partially decayed corpses surrounding me. I panic at first before deciding to try and swim towards the surface.

As I make my way higher I can feel my mind becoming clearer. I notice that the armor I'm wearing doesn't seem to be wearing me down any. Which I find odd considering hos heavy it looks. With each stroke, it feels like the restraints on my mind become undone and my thoughts clear up. I soon see light and quicken my pace.

I burst through the surface of the lake and gasp for breath. I try and wipe some of the blood from my eyes to get a better look at the surroundings. I can see a shadow pass over head and look up to see a man in a red uniform looking down on me, floating.

"Holy hell. You're just a kid."

The man floats farther down and extends his hand towards me to pull me out of the blood lake. As he pulls me out I notice how light I feel and after he lets go of my hand notice that I'm floating too.

"So, what's your name?"

The man asks me a question but with everything that's happened recently I can't find the words to respond. The only thing that come to mind is, "What?"

The guy face palms as he shakes his head. "I said what's your name?"

I finally bring myself to the present and respond back. "Jaune. My name is Jaune Arc."

"Well Jaune my name's Guy. Guy Gardner. I guess I should welcome you to the Red Lantern Corps." The man, now named Guy, extends his hand to shake.

I grab his hand dumbly as I give a weak shake. "The Red-what-now?"

"The Red Lantern Corps. Kinda like the Green Lanterns except, you know, red."

One questioned answered and another pop up. "Who're the Green Lanterns?"

Guy seems surprised by my question as he looks at me like I'm an idiot. "You know. The Green Lanterns. Superhero's. Fly around in little green uniforms. Come on your human, right? So, you must've heard of them we got 5 of them on Earth for crying out loud. Well 3 now I guess."

And yet more questions. "Listen man, I don't know what's going on, but I've never heard of this Earth place. So, unless it's some kinda remote village outside the Kingdoms I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Wait wait wait. You've never heard of Earth?" I shake my head in response. "But you are human, right?"

"Ya I'm pretty sure I'm human. What else would I be?"

Guy just stares questioningly at me for a moment. "What planet are you from?"

I can almost feel the tick mark pop out from my forehead. "If this is an insult I swear- "

Guy puts his hands up in defense as he tries and calms me down. "Not what I mean. I meant what's the name of the plant you live on?"

My turn to answer a confusing question I guess. "Remnant. Same as you. Duh."

Silence passes between us for a second before he bursts out laughing. "Oh man. That's rich. Oh man, only in this universe." He continues to laugh for almost a minute straight before he takes a second to catch his breath. Before he starts up again.

"Hey, Rankorr, get over here! You gotta hear this!"

"What the hell are you on about? What's so funny?"

Another voice calls out behind me. This one had an accent on it that I could place, but it sounded familiar. I turn to see the new figure. This one was wearing a similar uniform to Guy. Except for one important difference.

"Holy carp man, YOUR HEAD'S ON FIRE!" I panic at the sight of the newcomer whose HEAD IS ON FIRE!

I feel a hand rest on my shoulder and turn to see Guy standi- floating behind me. "Calm down kid. It's a side effect of the ring on him. It's nothing to worry about."

"He's right. Ever since I put on the ring my hairs been like this. Doesn't feel too bad actually."

That's it. I think my brain is gonna shut down. I swear if anything else weird happens in the next 5 seconds I'm gonna flip.

"Gardner! Are you guys done getting the new guy informed?"

Don't turn around. Don't turn around. DO NOT TURN AROUND! DO NOT- crap. DAMN ME AND MY CHILDLIKE CURIOUSITY!

As I turn to meet the other new voice I see not one, not 2 or 3, but 4 strange looking creatures of varying appearances. From left to right I see a giant brain jellyfish, a goat man with burned skin, a woman with bone wings, and… "Is that a giant testicle with teeth?"

I point at the last of the new group that's joined the 3 of us. Guy and Rankorr let out a small laugh at my remark at the ball shaped… person, in question.

"Glad you guys could join us. Jaune meet Ratchet, Skallox, Bleez, and the 'giant testicle' is Zilius Zox. They're the other members of the Red Lanterns. Consider them your new coworkers and bunkmates."

Guy introduces the new arrivals to me as I take a moment to process all of this.

"… You know what. I don't even care anymore." I turn to my new 'friends' with a wave. "Name's Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you."

They remain silent for the most part. Though I do hear the one who I assume is female, Bleez, scoff at my introduction.

"Great. Another Earthling. As if we didn't have enough with Gardner and Rankorr here. If we get anymore humans I'm gonna have to have some series words with someone." Her tone was harsh and I could tell she held no love for humans from the sound of it.

"Actually, he's not from Earth, though he is human." Guy explains to everyone.

"Wait, how does that work. I thought Earth was the only place humans came from. We don't have any space colonies, at least to my knowledge. How do we know he's not lying?" The one with the flaming head, Rankorr, spoke up from beside me.

"I did a ring scan when the rest of you came up. He's 100% human."

This conversation just keeps making me more and more irritated. "You know, how about you guys don't talk about me like I'm not here. Would make me feel a lot better at least."

Seeming to actually acknowledge my existence as a person now they return their attention to me.

"Well would you look at that. This little pup has some bravado in him after all." This time it was the goat man, Skallox, who spoke up. "Might wanna be careful with that tone though. You're still a pup. Better watch out before you get into some trouble."

He's now in front of me. He's a few inches from my face as he glares down at me. "You better back of goat breath. Before I rip out that stinking tongue of yours."

Skallox leans back a bit as he continues to glare at me before he smiles, at least I think he does, and he gives a short laugh. "Ha. I like this one. He's young but he's got some guts."

The floating ball, Zox, Guy and Rankorr share a laugh with Skallox while Bleez and Ratchet watch with mild interest. After their short laugh Guy floats forward, clapping me on the shoulder as he pulls me into a hug.

"Well at least we know he has the temperament for a Red. I think that clears him for entry. I said it once but I'll say it again." He let's go of me as he floats over to float next to the others.

"Welcome to the Red Lantern Corps."


(1) Think of Guts' Berserk armor except with no helmet.

AN/ Hey again to those who stayed around to the end. For those of you concerned about how angsty this story might be don't worry. It'll seem like that in the first few chapters and later when Jaune meets up with his team and team RWBY again, but I will try and make it more realistic than just Jaune bashing them. Well, emotionally at least. That's all so far though so goodbye for now.