Divergence
Seriously, though. Some things just never change.
Eight kids up against two of the largest Grimm inhabiting the south side of Emerald Forest. Whoop-dee-doo. Starts off rocky, but they gain traction, eventually splitting into fours. One group bunkers down on the Death Stalker until tougher heads of iron, bronze, hammers, and bullets prevail. The other one plays Angry Birds before finally giving Polly the last crescent-shaped cracker it'll ever eat. Done! Shoulda been easy, coulda been fun, woulda been a cinch.
So as those very eight teens currently made a mad dash through the dense forest, several at a time nervously daring to take the occasional look above or behind them to spy out any more waves of obsidian projectiles or golden stingers, one especially bewildered blonde knight only had one thing crossing his mind...
'WHERE DID I GO WRONG...'
five minutes prior...
"Great! The gang's all here! Now we can die together!"
As he glanced up at the Nevermore circling them from the air and the Death Stalker closing in on the ground, Jaune had a nostalgic... but knowingly misplaced... sense of déjà-vu.
"Some things just never change," he hedged quietly as he picked up the only other student with a Y chromosome in their group before turning to face them all, "We won't die... matter of fact, I think I saw some pretty neat-looking ruins near the cliff over in that general direction. We head there, we'll do just fine."
If three months of pinning down splits in the timeline had taught him anything, it should've been at the moment when his partner of all people stepped forward that he realized something was oh so very wrong.
"That would've been a grand idea, Jaune," Pyrrha noted, her eyes squinting at the rocky structure in the distance before quickly eyeing the oncoming scorpio-Grimm, "Until that Nevermore appeared. With it airborne like that, a dash to those ruins would be suicidal. I recommend we charge the Death Stalker in a feint to get us back into the woods before either can prepare an attack. We can find an alternate course to the Cliffs from there."
"And honestly, there's no sense in dilly-dallying," Weiss added, gesturing at the pedestals behind them, "Our objective is right in front of us."
Jaune couldn't help a small huff in unexplained frustration. It felt wrong, but...
"She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs," Jaune finally declared, nodding to the heiress who gave him a small smile in return, "There's no point in fighting these things. As long as we get to the Cliffs in the end, we'll be golden."
"Run and live - that's an idea I can get behind!"
Jaune couldn't help a grin at the crimsonette as she said the familiar line, his grin suddenly fading, however, as he watched her and Nora run to the pedestals and realized it should've been his line.
"Wait a minute..."
"Got one!" Ruby exclaimed in pride before zipping back over to the group, coyly showing the group and her partner the chosen relic with a faint blush, "A white knight, get it? Totally not a biased choice or anything, though... hehe..."
Weiss merely shook her head at her partner, unable to hold back a small smirk at the girl's reasoning that she suddenly didn't quite feel the need to argue against.
"Alll-right! Double whammy!" Nora cried out before popping up next to the group again with prize in hand, "Not only does this make me Queen of the Castle..."
Jaune yelped in surprise as she suddenly appeared beside him and snatched his chess piece out of his hand with incredibly unexpected strength, "It proves me and Juán Cárlos are on the same wavelength!"
The knight gulped. Being on the same wavelength as her... now that was a scary thought.
"You read my mind, and I can do the same with you," Nora noted softly at the blonde with a wide grin and an eerily calm tone as she slowly lifted a matching rook piece in each hand, "That means we're connected now... Juán Cárlos..."
"Eheh... Nora, the pancake thing really was a trick, you know..."
But before anything else could be said, the increasing rumbling through the ground brought the students' attention to a much bigger threat than a calm Nora.
"Time we left," Blake noted with repressed urgency, already on the balls of her feet and ready to go at a moment's notice as Jaune turned to glance at Ren for a helping hand.
But slowly coming to a realization as he noticed his usually inseparable friend giving him some space in favor of another, the stoic student merely gave Jaune a tiny shrug of mock-condolence, the knight's shoulders slumping as he got the message.
"Ren! B-Bu... You were like a brother to me!"
"Full advance to the tree line on the far left of the Death Stalker!" Pyrrha called out, pointing her spear in the direction of the charge as the group now made a full sprint to the woods, "We can force it to falter if we pass it fast enough without stopping!"
Jaune remembered the running. He could remember that the teams weren't really meshing yet the first time around, either. So aside from a somewhat overly-clingy Valkyrie, there wasn't too much needing to be adjusted to gear things back towards what Jaune recalled could be a perfect run...
Aside from the multi-ton Grimm which turned out to have the experience to adjust its course mid-charge to converge with the group.
'Welp, time to make my brain useful...'
"Yang! Nora!" the knight called out, getting the attention of the young women in question as the Grimm's tactic began dawning on the group, "You can distract it! Yang, throw some long-range shells at the eyes while Nora readies her hammer! And Nora... SMASH."
The orange-haired girl replied with but a grin and a manic gleam in her eye as Yang sprinted forward and across the group, the brawler now pulling her arm back as the beast grew closer. Letting the punch fly, eight whistling shells made violent contact with the beast, not slowing it down much but causing it to lift its claws to wave off the smoke just long enough to miss the giggling flash of metal headed right for it.
"Juán Cárlos even figured out it's a hammeeeeeer!"
The dull crunch of metal on bone echoed through the area as the hammer maiden made contact on the creature's oversized pincer, driving the appendage down into the dirt which halted the beast's advance in a fountain of gouged earth while Nora used the rebound to sail through the air and into the forest with a bright salute to the knight.
"Incoming!"
Turning his head a fraction of an inch, Jaune could tell what had caused Ren's sudden warning as dozens of whistling projectiles made their way towards the teams before directing the group, "Tree line! On the pronto! Wha-? FORCE F-"
Having made the mistake of not turning enough to see behind him with his peripherals, Jaune was almost positive that his reaction to protect himself with Aura was too late until he surprisingly saw pink Aura protecting him instead of white.
His eyes widened upon seeing the jade fighter calmly holding back the single Nevermore feather that had nearly skewered Jaune through the chest at full force with what looked like his bare open palm, only then realizing the power behind this young man as he caught sight of the pink pulsing rings of Ren's Aura emanating out of his outstretched hand from the point of contact.
"Thanks... for not pushing her away. Not many people out there willing to work with Nora so easily."
Jaune blinked at the stoic's stoic words as he turned to face him with a small smile, the two teens trading a quick nod of understanding before entering the woods...
Which were now being mowed down from behind by a rampaging Death Stalker and moved down from above by the steady rain of black feathery death.
This had not happened the first time... and as he noticed the half-disintegrated King Taijitu in the familiar clearing the group had now reached, he couldn't help a small facepalm as he realized why:
His fan-like stunt in the locker room had turned Pyrrha away, giving Ruby her favor.
Pyrrha's spear had split them up, forcing him to land away from the Death Stalker as he was pretty sure he was supposed to find the first time... somehow.
Sure, they ended up as partners in the end, but without her initial favor, Pyrrha was trying to be the one wearing the pants in this partnership.
And now they were here.
The Nevermore was never pinned down like it was supposed to be, and the Death Stalker wasn't lured to the ruins like it was supposed to be.
"Alright everyone! Split up! Short-range and melee fighters hold back the Death Stalker while long-range fighters take cover behind the Taijitu and focus fire on the Nevermore!"
And did he mention Pyrrha was trying to wear the pants in this partnership?
"Not on my watch," he grumbled under his breath as the fighters split up.
To Jaune's further chagrin, he found himself facing the Death stalker with Pyrrha along with Blake and Yang in tandem while Ruby, Weiss, Ren, and Nora were trying to gun down the Nevermore. This was not how it was supposed to be going!
And judging by the fact that the Death Stalker seemed to hold up just fine under their attacks and that all the Nevermore had to do was float up just out of range to fire another feather attack at the students... thing's weren't going well, either.
"Duck for cover!"
Thankful that the clearing wasn't too large and that the trees could somewhat hold up against the attack that turned the clearing into some bizarre pincushion, or mass feather-pen holder, Jaune checked around the tree and saw the rest of the King Taijitu carcass completely disintegrated under the blanket of punishment... as well as a stray feather-projectile that had impaled one of the Death Stalker's eight legs at the joint.
"Pyrrha, what do we do!"
"We're almost out of ammo, what do we aim for?"
"Pyrrha?"
As every desperate query rang out across the clearing, Jaune looked to his side to see a small grimace unexpectedly forming on the Mistrali's lips. His face softened upon realization; Pyrrha was the Invincible Girl... she could handle her own style, but she couldn't direct a group, each member with their own styles and tactics! Just as the realization hit him, so did the shock of the Death Stalker angrily beginning to swat down the ramrod feathers peppering the clearing that had turned it into a mini-forest that provided the students momentary cover.
This changed everything. Getting to the ruins was out of the question. There was no way to implement each student's forte in the way it'd been done originally. He would really prefer not to be killed this time around... But what more could be done? They were running out of time, and none of his friends could copy his party trick of reviving from the dead! The consternation alone was killing him quicker than the suspense!
Or maybe... it was the sound of even more Grimm approaching them through the forest!?
The knight ran his hands through his hair, each one finding a hearty tuft to pull at as his stress levels intensified, "Rrrrrrrrrrghgrghghrgrnyuuurgh... BALLS!"
The other seven students took a moment to stare at the blonde, who currently seemed to be entering the initial stages of a severe conniption, before he suddenly turned to point at each of them at a time while beginning to glow a noticeable white glow, "ALRIGHT! Ruby, Weiss! Each of you run point on that Death Stalker with Yang and Blake - you're all low enough on ammo as is and won't help for long if you use it all trying to jack that bird only for us to get mobbed by Grimm on all sides instead! Ruby, trust me, I know you can figure out what to do! Nora! Ren!"
"Yes, Juán Cárlos!"
"uuugh... YOU two run support for team RWBY while they figure it out - Nora, tank for them in case the Death Stalker gets a lucky shot, and Ren, slice down only as many feathers as they need to get a clear shot on the thing - once you do, you two rendezvous with us! Double-time, people! We got an Oum-friggin' initiation to pass here!"
"Cute and pushy... me likey!~" Yang called out with an ear to ear grin as the four girls sped towards their new target, Blake rolling her eyes as Weiss turned to her partner in question.
"What is it? Jaune asked you of all people to figure out a plan! Hop to it!"
Ruby only pouted for a moment in thought, "Team... Ruby?"
But back on track, the crimsonette glanced at her partner and nodded, unfolding Cresent Rose for battle as Ren and Nora appeared at their sides to run flank zones. Back behind the edge of the clearing, Jaune turned to face an incredibly impressed Pyrrha as the rumbling of growls and pawsteps approached.
"Alright, Nikos. Let's play a game - Who's the Better Killer. I win, you become the face of whatever team we form. You win, I take the reins instead. I know that neither of us wants the job, but we both know one of us will get it either way. You game?"
Pyrrha narrowed her emerald eyes at the knight, only to crack a wry smirk in the next moment as she admitted, "Am I truly so transparent?"
"Nah. I'm just the blockhead who took forever to figure things out. Incoming!"
Despite himself and all his memories, Jaune could still only gape as he watched the Champion remind him how she earned her name - a dozen Beowolves literally torn to shreds in a matter of seconds while he stood and watched. Yes, stood and watched.
"You," Pyrrha panted with a hint of surprise as she turned to look at the unashamedly smug knight, "You only stood and watched!"
"Well, I wasn't lying about the bit of me not wanting the job," Jaune stated airily, the smirk not leaving his face as he gave her a shrug, "But I'd rather not die today, and I don't think I'd be able to avoid the responsibility whether I wanted to or not. Besides..."
He paused, Pyrrha walking up to his side to follow his line of sight to the soulless bird of prey trying to find a clear shot on the covered group from above, "I gotta save my strength for that oversized hell-canary up there. As soon as I think of a plan."
"Jeez! It's still as pissed as ever!" Yang growled in frustration as another volley of Ember Celica shells went wasted on its carapace, Blake's running slice attack along its body proving to be equally fruitless.
"It's body's even tougher than it looks!"
"Rubyyy?" Weiss called out in more of an exclamation than a question as she momentarily caused the creature's pincer to draw back in pain with a fire blast from Myrtenaster, "Plan!?"
"I'm working on it!" the hooded girl called out through gritted teeth as she and Nora weaved around another pincer-strike in tandem, the girl ducking underneath the blow as the hammer maiden leapt over it with a carefree laugh and volley of grenade blasts to the creature's face.
Watching the Dust cloud actually causing the Grimm to falter for just a second, the little bells in the girl's head went off as she noticed it stagger to the side along its crippled leg - a leg pierced by the Nevermore attack, "Got it! Our blades can't pierce it, and we don't have enough ammo to break through either! The only thing strong enough to pierce it is a weapon from its own kind!"
Leaping back to put some space between herself and the massive Grimm, she turned to see Ren slicing through a few feathers to give Yang and Nora room for evasive maneuvers against the wide pincer-swipes and unpredictable stinger-strikes.
"Ren! You think you can slice a few of those without breaking them completely?" A brief glance in question from the stoic, but a subsequent nod of confirmation nonetheless. "Great! I need at least four feathers prepped on your side, stat!"
"You call that an offensive strategy!?" Weiss countered as she leapt back from a stinger swipe to land beside her partner, only earning a smug smirk from the crimsonette.
Ruby held up Crescent Rose by the barrel and loaded the next few rounds with a satisfying double-click from the loading action, "No. I call this an offensive strategy: do you have enough Dust to make one of those ice-thingies for me!?"
"Glyphs, you dolt!"
"That's what I said! Just make one in front of my gun and wait for my mark!" Ruby cried out before calling out to her sister as Ren finished his task, "Yang, fire the last of your ammo into its face at my mark!"
"But it won't do anything!"
"Just do it!" she repeated loudly, having to clear her throat after all that raspy shouting. This plan stuff was gonna be tough, she'd definitely have to shorten commands if they made it through the test.
Maybe shorten combo attacks down to cool names?
...Oh yeeehhhh...
Done!" Ren called out, Ruby immediately turning to her sister.
"Yang, now!"
POPOPOPOPOW!
The salvo of whistling shells going of in a one-two combo to the creature's face from above, the Death Stalker gave out a roar of furious pain in its momentary cloud of blindness before Ruby turned to her partner, "NOW!"
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Three shots fired from the barrel of Crescent Rose, the bullets passed through Weiss' bluish glyph to sail like comets into the base of the Grimm's pincer and tail joints, freezing them all in place.
"Blake! Pin it! Use the feathers!"
Quickly glancing back and forth between the objects, the ravenette understood the idea. Launching Gambol Shroud at the head of the first feather, Blake fired a secondary bullet to yank it off its broken stalk and give it the momentum necessary to fling it above and over herself before slamming it down into another of the creature's leg joints. To their relief, the point of the feather came down through the shell and into the underlying mass of dark flesh with a resounding crack, causing the immobilized beast to lurch to the side as Blake fired at a second feather head.
BAM! "Hiyah!" Crack BAM! "Hah!" Crack BAM! "YAH!" CRACK!
With a screech that could only be compared to the scream of a dying lobster, the Death Stalker hobbled to its side uselessly, Ruby giving Ren the go-ahead nod to join Jaune and Pyrrha with Nora before turning back to her partner, "Weiss, care for some hash-slinging slasher action?"
A blank stare from the heiress until Ruby pointed at the dangling tail, Weiss then rolling her eyes as she charged up her sword with pale-green Dust, "You could've just said so..."
SLASH!
With a wide arc, Weiss' subsequent slash sent a glowing razor wind to slice off the stinger from the tail, Ruby zipping over as it fell onto the head of the creature with a dull crack into its thick cranial shell and placing her weapon in rifle form into the top of the stinger. Like a funnel, it had provided the perfect silencer-like extension directly into the brain of the beast.
Locking in her final bullet, Ruby smirked at the wailing Grimm, "Adieu, my crustaceous friend."
BLAM!
And just like that, the Death Stalker became quiet in instant death as the young girl hopped off, silently approached by the ravenette who had her finger raised in correction.
"Technically an arachnid... but okay."
"That's what I said," Ruby noted with a toothy smile before turning to the girls, "C'mon, let's see what Jaune's up to."
"What exactly are you up to?" Ren questioned as calmly as could be warranted in a situation where your childhood friend was poising her meat-smashing giant hammer underneath a stranger's buttocks in a test swing.
"I told you, Ren," Jaune noted with an ill-hidden huff, "It'll work. Nora, you think you can make the shot?"
Jaune paused as the orange-haired girl fixed him with the most serious deadpan glare he'd ever remembered seeing her give. In any timeline.
"Ask me that again, Juán Cárlos, and I will break your legs. Got it?"
Never doubt a girl with a giant hammer. Got it.
"And what is it you need me to do, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked with no small measure of doubt at the blonde knight.
"Well, that thing you did to your weapons when you found me in this clearing... can you do that to my armor?"
An unsure glance at the two strangers at the prospect of possibly giving away her trump card, Pyrrha noted in a low tone, "Y-Yes..."
"Good. Cuz I'll need all the stability I can get and my Aura bursts take a huge chunk of fight out of me... and I'll need to save all the fight I can get."
And he really didn't want to die. But Jaune didn't actually say that out loud, partly because his new friends probably wouldn't understand the notion - and utter tediousness - of timeloops in general, and partly because his control of fate at this point was kaput due to his placing so much trust in others, whose actions were variables he couldn't precisely control.
"If you say so..."
"Um, what are you doing?" Weiss began promptly as the four girls met with their group only to receive a winning grin from the knight.
"Right on time! Glad you girls could make it, we were just about to implement an idea I got from an old friend once..."
"Um, you had friends who would launch themselves through the air at flying Grimm?" Ruby noted with a light cringe as she put two and two together, making Jaune's grin go impossibly wider as he settled into position on a nearby boulder above them with Nora at his side.
"Heh... you said it yourself," he replied before turning to give the command, "Swing away, Nora. Swing away."
Deeply shaken to his core by the manic gleam in Nora's eyes, Jaune barely remembered to squeak out his command as her hammer began its motion, "force field... meep!"
PONNNG!
And in the next split-second, Jaune felt the rush of wind against his face as he was suddenly airborne, his force field having been enough of a dampener to transfer the momentum from Nora's swing into his vertical trajectory without busting open any important internal organs. Well, his appendix probably wasn't important, right? It was probably a psychosomatic injury, anyway.
"Now for the fun part," Jaune mumbled as he realized the Nevermore was too preoccupied scouring the Death Stalker for any clues as to the whereabouts of its undoers to notice his frankly brain-splatteringly fast ascent, glad to sense his armor keeping him from spinning out of control at noticing the subtle blackish glow surrounding it.
Reaching out his sword, and hoping to Monty he didn't miss, Jaune waited for just the right moment to stab out and at an angle to anchor himself on the massive bird at the apex of his aerial trajectory, just like he had with the tree trunk. With a loud yell, Jaune did just so, Crocea Mors leaving deep gouge marks along the Grimm's back as he slowly skid to a stop along its broad back. If it didn't notice him before, it definitely noticed him now if that angry squawk of pain was anything to go by.
"You, monster, have offended me," the blue-eyed Auramonger stated with a Samuel Jackson-like crazy-glare as he walked up to the base of its neck, the only weak spot he'd ever seen a Nevermore that size have, "There is only one ruler of the heavens. AND THAT'S ME! My sword will conquer the land! My will is the will of the people! I WILL BE- NYAH!"
Thrown back by the sudden increase in velocity of the Grimm, Jaune was only able to hold on by handfuls of feathers as the Nevermore quickly made away with its newest victim.
"That's... not good," Ren noted simply as the students' heads followed the receding Grimm and its third passenger of the day that they could just still hear screaming rather effeminately at the top of his lungs from its back.
"It's headed for the ruins!" Ruby cried out in realization, spurring her peers to action as she began to move, "Time to go!"
Jaune had heard stories about the Hunters of old. Legends really, who had fought all manner of adversaries in heroic feats of valor and strength. He even recalled one instance when a famous Hunter fought off an entire pack of Ursae on the back of a soaring Nevermore... and at this moment, he was now sure of one particular fact when it came to those stories.
"WHOEVER CAME UP WITH THOSE LIES MUST'VE BEEN HIGH AS FU-WAHHHHH!" Jaune cried out as the beast banked a hard left and he held on for dear life.
One could barely hold on to these things when they flew at full speeds... how on Remnant could anyone stand on them in mid-flight, much less FIGHT on them!? It was impossible!
Forcing out the air from his lungs in labored breaths against the gale-force winds trying to force air into them with the sheer speeds of unprotected flight, Jaune inched his way back towards the neck of the beast with every passing second. He knew he had to move quick - every moment wasted was a moment more it had to really hurt his friends. And he'd stopped keeping track of what was being said and done in this timeline long ago.
This really had turned into quite the disaster.
But thankfully, Jaune was able to catch a glimpse of the seven students racing towards the ruins in the clearing right before the bridge he'd remembered fairly well as the Nevermore banked hard in their direction again, thinking ahead of them as best he could to figure out what they were going to do now. It didn't take long for him to come up with a pretty decent guess, his eyes wide in realization.
"Of course..."
Now, to give them the opening they needed.
"Pyrrha!" Ruby called out as the seven students stopped just short of the bridge, the Mistrali facing the crimsonette to give her full attention, "You take Nora and Ren and stay here, distract the Nevermore while us four go ahead!"
"What's your plan?" Pyrrha asked as the three students immediately began loading what they had left of ammo.
Ruby looked over at the ruins in thought, making an L-7 square frame around two of its sturdier-looking columns with the tips of her thumbs and index fingers before turning back at the Champion with a wide grin.
"Borrowing an idea from Jaune's crazy friend!"
The speed of air along with the sudden bouts of ascent and descent to avoid the incessant gunfire causing Jaune's ears to pop for possibly the hundredth time, he laughed a tired laugh as he finally reached the neck of the beast.
"Aha! Gotcha! Now that I gotcha, I'm gonna steer ya!"
Would it work? Likely not. But Jaune had realized something... that there was nothing that could jog your life memories quite like almost dying.
And this hadn't just triggered a memory from his original timeline... but one of his first timeline. His eldest sister. Had to be.
Her name was Arturia.
It was a simple memory, but it was enough. As little kids, her and her younger sisters tickling him on the neck. When they tickled the left side of his neck, his body jerked left. When they tickled its right side, his body turned right. It was a crude theory, certainly one that had never been tested on a Grimm. But it was enough.
For those he'd lost and those he still had, it had to be enough.
Holding on tightly with his right hand, Jaune expanded his shield and made sure to securely strap his left arm into it before triving the tip of the shield deep into the meaty part of the bird's shoulder. Satisfied with its stability, the knight fought against the rushing wind and blonde locks in his face to reach up behind himself for his sword with his right, hanging on as best he could with his left before driving the sword down into the Nevermore's spine as deep as it could go with a loud yell.
"You will obey my commands, so when I say turn right, you turn RIGHT! now SUB-MIT!"
Hearing the subtle cracking of tendons and cartilage underneath him, Jaune felt the entire beast surge to the right, inevitably dropping in altitude as it was against the airflow keeping them airborne. Laughing incredulously in a surge of elation, Jaune focused on his embedded sword with a burst of aura and a wide grin.
"Now turn LEFT!"
CraKABOOM!
His face immediately went blank as the entire beast jolted as if under extreme impact.
"Oops. Hope that wasn't important."
"DID THAT IMBECILE JUST TAKE OUT THE BRIDGE!?" Weiss exclaimed in disbelief as she watched the Nevermore leaving the scene of the crime, "That's our only escape route!"
"Easiest escape route," Ruby corrected, seemingly unfazed, "I'm sure there are other ways off this thing. And whaddaya mean imbecile? The bird or Jaune? It's not like he's driving the thing."
"True, but still," the heiress muttered as Ruby took a few final strained steps into position against an incredible force, "My dolt-senses are tingling... and they're never wrong... Like with this thing! You KNOW you're crazy, right!?"
Ruby leveled her partner with an innocent smile before catching Blake's thumbs-up in the distance signaling that her makeshift slingshot band was at optimal tautness, "Oh Weiss, you have no idea. Just focus on making the shot, 'kay?"
As a glyph locked the crimsonette into place, the heiress waited with angry mumbling under her breath until finally crying out, "That mindless maniac is still moving too erratically to aim ahead of it! We need something to stall it in order to get a good shot!"
"Once again... talking about the Grimm here... not Jaune..."
"Meh. No worries, I got it," Yang stated as she walked up to their side loudly cracking her knuckles, her younger sister cocking a brow in question.
"Um, aren't you out of ammo?"
"Baby sis, you best learn I'm never out of ammo," the brawler noted with an idle grunt as she bent down to pick up a small stone, looking back at the trio of gunners across the broken bridge before scoffing with a smirk, "Sometimes, ya just gotta do things yourself..."
Winding her arm back at the ready, Yang ran forward as the Nevermore came in front of them, making a little triple hop on one leg at the apex of potential energy before letting the stone fly with the sudden launching sound of a small cannon. Its aim was true, bashing the bird right in the side of the skull and forcing it to flap up into a vertical stall with widespread wings of what could be confused as a mockingjay. Though it obviously wasn't.
"Weiss, now!"
TWANG!
Just as the Nevermore began slowing to a stop at the apex of its ascent, Jaune's eyes went wide as he noticed the red blur headed right for him, killer scythe at the ready.
"Look ooouuuuttt!"
"...that crazy, little-"
But giving himself no further reprieve, Jaune used what he had left of his momentum to disengage and leap up from the neck of the beast with a burst of Aura, timing his leap a few dozen feet over the beast in midair with Ruby's approach. Making eye contact for the briefest of seconds, both leaders-to-be grinned mighty grins as each immediately understood the other and they held their blades out at the ready.
"Haaaaahhhhhh!"
"Yaaaaahhhhhhh!"
Slashslashlslashslashslashslash...!
The students on both sides of the bridge, and the students in the forest, and the Professors on the cliffs, could only watch in muted awe as Jaune propelled himself down to the neck of the beast just as Ruby met it as well, both blades making contact and carving deep as their wielders used centripetal momentum to swing them selves once, twice, thrice around the bird's neck in midair at blinding speeds. And just a quickly, the head came off completely with a violent snap, sending Ruby hurdling into the air over the nearby cliff and Jaune downwards into the abyss.
But their gasps of fear quickly turning into gasps of stupefaction, they all watched as Jaune, eyeing the vulnerable girl in the air about to start falling as well, sheathed and stashed his weapons before letting out four plumes of Aura from his hands and feet. Slowly decelerating until downward motion became upward motion, Jaune came up to catch Ruby in midair, landing on sure ground cliffside before letting her down.
The six students waved back and gave thumbs up as Ruby flashed them a V hand-sign for victory, her aura almost melding with Jaune's into what looked to the ground students like a flurry of cherry blossoms due to the whitened rose petals coming off of them.
That is, until Jaune fainted.
"Jaune, Jaune!" Ruby called out, immediately crouching down over Jaune's head as she scrambled to figure out what'd just happened, "Are you okay?"
"F-Fit as a fiddle," he retorted weakly, trying to crack a smile despite being a little paler than normal, "Just a little low on Aura..."
"Well duh! What'd I tell you!?" she quipped in reply, smacking him on the shoulder as she did so but immediately regretting it when he groaned in response, "I-I'm sorry!"
"I-It's okay... it's just pain..."
"D'ooohhhh," Ruby mused in worry, quickly looking the knight up and down as she thought up a remedy, "C'mon, dumb brain, think. Think! Ah, Uncle Qrow showed me this Aura trick once to help out a person with low Aura!"
Quickly reaching over him despite his protests, Ruby placed one hand on his chest and another on the side of his head before assuring him, "Don't worry, you won't feel a thing!"
Jaune's only consolation as he watched the girl's aura glowing a deep red as his began to glow white as well was that she turned out to be right about things in the end - he didn't feel a thing.
He was knocked out cold.
Finally waking up, he saw several faces over him, checking to see his reaction until a mumbled male voice caused them all to stand and give him some space. Jaune tried his darndest to curse at the man smirking at him behind his mug of coffee, but only a few garbled syllables came out before Yang spoke up.
"Well," the brawler noted, leaving a hand on her hip as she glanced down at the knight and back up at her sister, "That was a thing."
hours later...
"And finally: Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"
The cheers were loud, and the applause great, as the fanfare for the first-year team that had helped defeat not one, but two, high-class Grimm on their first day continued even after the team hopped off the stage to join their peers.
"Look at that, got your own team and stuff!" Nora stated with a wide grin - and bone-crushing hug - at the more blue than crimson crimsonette before letting the coughing and gasping girl go with a pensive expression, "But wait. RWBY? How come Ruby gets a team name that sounds just like hers? How come we didn't get a team name like that? Team JUAN would've sounded great!"
"Firstly, our name acronyms don't spell Juan," Ren supplied with a small smile at his friend.
"And second," Jaune butted in with much less tact in his deadpan at the girl, "That's not my name."
"Meeehhhh... can I settle with JC?" Nora asked with an expectant smile, Jaune gazing at Ren who was giving him an impossible to read neutral expression and then at Pyrrha who merely shrugged.
"Well, Jaune Arc starts with a J and ends with a C..."
Jaune pinched the bridge of his nose before sighing in defeat, "Eh. I'll take it."
"YAY! JC's a great name! Hey, why don't we call ourselves team JC!?"
"Not enough letters, Nora..."
"Heh, that was pretty Weiss-like of you," Yang noted from aside the group, making an exaggerated show of pinching her nose with an overacted sigh which caused Weiss to narrow her eyes at the brawler with a huff.
"Yeah well, I'd say I actually picked it up from her if anything," Jaune noted idly before catching his mistake, "I mean..."
"But... Weiss has never done that in front of you guys," Yang drawled with a brow raised in question.
Too late.
"Uhm..."
"Hey, Jaune!" Ruby chirped, breaking the tension in the group with her bright expression but quickly regaining his suspicions as her demeanor seemed just a tad too bright and sunny, "Mind if weee... have a word? In, private?"
"Um, Ruby-?" Yang began in suspicion of her own despite the rest's ignorance of Ruby's habits, but didn't get the chance to continue before the girl snatched Jaune and zipped them both away to a more secluded area behind an amphitheater column.
"Phew, thanks for the save there, Ruby," Jaune began gratefully before noting the girl's speedy pacing back and forth a few feet in front of him, "Uh, Ruby?"
No response, just more pensive pacing.
"Uh heheh," he chuckled weakly, scratching the back of his head while finding a way to ease the tension growing here as well, "Y'know, I'm not gonna lie. You sounded more like Yang than ever when you asked to speak to me over there... everything ok-?"
"That," Ruby stated sharply, pointing at the knight as she stopped her pacing and pointed at him before facing him directly, "That right there. Jaune, I like you. Really, I don't think I've ever not become a mess of craps and giggles in front of a guy I'd just met before... heck, in front of anyone I'd just met before! But we've only known each other for a day... a day, Jaune. But you talk as if you've known me since like, forever! Not that I mind that, cuz that'd be nice! I mean, like knowing you a long time... not that it isn't now, cuz you're really cool and all but... darn, now I'm losing my train of thought..."
Jaune wasn't quite sure what to do in the face of a girl that had slowly deflated from being flushed in the cheeks from emotion to flushed in the cheeks from... some other emotion... but decided to try and placate her anyway, "Ruby, look... I-"
"But that's not even the problem!" Nope. Back to emotion-type-number-one. Window of opportunity has been closed. "How, Jaune. How'd you know."
"How'd I know what?"
Catching a strange expression from the girl who seemed to be just as surprised of the young man who honestly didn't seem to know what she was talking about as she was suspicious, she conceded with narrowed eyes, "You said Team RWBY back in the forest. Not my name. Team. How did you know..."
Aw, crap.
"Well uh, heh, World's... Best, Guesser, rememb-?"
His statement was cut short by Ruby's action of placing to fingers on his lips, the girl unable to make eye contact with him before finally letting out a sigh.
"Like I said... I really like you, Jaune. I bet there isn't a world out there where we wouldn't get along..." but looking up at him with a strange and almost forlorn look in her eye, Jaune felt a small crack through his heart as she stated with much more steel in her voice, "So if there's something you don't wanna tell me, that's cool. I get it. We all got secrets. But you don't get to treat me like I'm a little kid; enough people do that already. I'm a big girl... so Mister Jaune Arc, I'll let this slide. But let this be the last time you use that excuse on me, got it?"
He blinked. And blinked again.
Had he ever seen this side of Ruby before?
Jaune then began lifting his arms in a show of placation, but was stunned to say the least when Ruby apparently took it as an invitation to a hug and sped over to squeeze him in a surprisingly vice-like grip.
"You had me worried sick up there at the cliff," she muttered into his hoodie, Jaune finally deciding to lightly rest his arms along her small shoulders, "Don't just waste your Aura like that... I know people I care about who died doing that kind of thing, and I don't want you to be one more name on that list, okay?"
"...Okay."
Finally releasing herself from the hug, Ruby made only the smallest of sniffles, but not giving Jaune enough time to wonder just who was on that list before she looked at him with a stern, but warmer, expression, "So, two things. Don't treat me like I can't handle the truth. And don't die on me. Capisce!?"
Finally getting some sense into him, Jaune raised a hand while placing the other over his heart with a small smile, "Scout's honor."
He was glad to see a small smirk beginning to crack on Ruby's face until it grew into a short chuckle, the girl shaking her head at the knight with mirth... though he knew not exactly why.
"You're silly, Jaune; sweet, too," Ruby began as she turned to walk back into the amphitheater, her small frame swaying back and forth with every step as she called back over her shoulder, "But you might wanna read up on Hunter-training history - there haven't been any Scouts on Remnant since before the Great War!"
Jaune stood there and stared. And stared. And continued staring, long after Ruby had disappeared from view.
Back on the platform, however, Ozpin stared at the student body as well, a placid smirk on his lips despite the much murkier emotion hovering just beneath them.
"Hmm," Glynda noted, walking up beside the Headmaster with a video playing on the screen, "Looks like some of our newer students couldn't help sharing our initiation's climax with the rest of the world."
Surprisingly, though maybe not to the Deputy herself, Ozpin merely chuckled as he saw miniature versions of Jaune and Ruby decapitating a much larger miniature version of a Nevermore in midair with a sip of his coffee, "Hmhm, I'm rather fond of that part. Worry not, Glynda, it looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year."
"Hopefully, according to you," she noted as she too looked among the students with a slightly more somber smirk before adding, "Not our last."
meanwhile, somewhere in Vale...
A man in a gray mask and black hood entered a shadowy room filled with shelves and a desk in the back, slowly rolling along a trolley towards another who seemed to be finishing a rather unsavory conversation. Thanking Monty above for having been wearing a mask to hide his consternation, the masked man approached the equally sketchy man in the bowler hat, trying to avoid the puff of smoke he blew out at him through his cigar before placing a collection of Lien on his trolley.
He'd prefer not to say anything. According to his comrades, Roman Torchwick could be a complete dick towards their kind when he felt like it.
"Open it."
The masked man complied, doing so with a crowbar on the trolley to reveal the shining collection of Dust crystals within. All shapes, sizes, and colors... why did they need it? Who new, it was above this grunt's paygrade... but the added task placed on the poor chump's shoulders wasn't, the Faunus sighing before reluctantly holding out a video to the man on pause before he could reach for the crystals.
"Guys upstairs asked that you watch it. Went viral on Dust-tube all around the four Kingdoms a few hours ago."
"Ah, so they train their mutts to speak too, do they?" Roman stated with an entitled smirk at the grunt as he took the tablet, muttering in addition before pressing play, "These zookeepers really think of everything these days..."
"Oh look, Lil' Red. Still alive and swinging," the criminal stated aloud in amusement, but after a few more seconds and the very public execution of a very large Grimm, his smirk went from condescending to downright predatory, "Ohooo, my, what a turnaround to my day this turned out to be. Hey you, Fluffy..."
"What," the grunt hedged with evident restraint, Roman only further pleased with the reaction.
"Tell your keepers to feed you extra treats tonight, you've earned it. Chop chop," he continued as he shood away the increasingly miffed Faunus from the area, adding a few dog-whistles and tongue-clicks to add insult to injury, "I have calls to make!"
Picking up the phone, he waited for the dial tone to continue ringing as he leaned forward on the desk, staring at the bright red circle of permanent marker ink around Beacon before stating to no one in particular, "This changes things..."
'I was going to say the same thing, Roman dear,' a voice suddenly came through the line, Torchwick cocking a brow as he realized the person on the other end was watching the same Dust-tube video judging by the following exclamations of awe from pre-recorded kids who were likely snoozing in their brand new Beacon dorms by now.
'This changes everything...'
"Okay, Jaune, sit still."
"Ruby, for the millionth time, I'll be fine."
"No, you won't."
"I-"
"Pyrrha said you had a buttload of-"
"Uh, language."
"Ugh. A ton of Aura, and you can't just recharge all that with a night of sleep!"
With a huff, Jaune finally gave in, letting Ruby lean over him and place her hands on his chest and head as teams RWBY and JNPR watched.
"Ruby seems to have taken a rather motherly interest in Jaune, hasn't she," Blake noted flatly with a vaguely amused raised brow to boot.
"Yeah, the oddly hot chick is right," Yang began curtly, only to be interrupted by her new partner as Ruby's Aura began its process of restoring Jaune's.
"Blake."
"I knew that."
"You seemed much more keen about knowing it yesterday," the ravenette noted with slightly narrowed eyes at the blonde who seemed to watch Ruby's process with Jaune like a hawk, likely to discourage any foul play from Jaune's part.
"All valid points," Yang remarked matter-of-factly as she greeted the now-awoken Jaune with a sweet grin - whether or not it was the I-wish-you-were-waking-up-to-me-beside-you-in-bed kind of grin or the all-Hell-will-break-loose-if-you-dare-touch-my-sister grin was anybody's guess - before crossing her arms under her noticeable assets with a teasing scoff at the knight, "Though I think it's much more concerning that no one's addressing Birdrider here's usage of the word, language."
"Uhm... say what now?"
"Meh, don't listen to her," Ruby noted airily, softly placing her hand on the slightly-surprised Jaune's cheek to check his glowing features for any issues. Literally, they were still glowing. "All done! Looks like you're all topped up now!"
"Yay," Jaune noted mockingly, "And I'm not unconscious!"
A shove from the crimsonette before she retorted petulantly, "Still, even if you did get knocked out again, you'd still be having a better day than us. Got up late-"
"So did we."
"Weiss got mad during Port's class-"
"When is she not?"
"Hey!"
"But still!" Ruby persisted, adding a pout to her pity party which caused all unsuspecting viewers but Yang and Jaune to be won over in her favor.
"Awww, Ruby," Jaune joked with an eye-roll, "Don't be the crevice in my arm!"
"Crevice in your ar-? Ack! Unhand me, vile meanie! Mmf!"
But Ruby could be heard no more, now locked in a noogie that even Yang had to admit she could be proud of.
Yep, this kid was perfect.
"Now class, settle down," Glynda stated as she walked in to find the bustling thrum of students that could be expected on the first day of any combat class in Beacon Academy. And as could be equally expected, Miss Goodwitch would be sure to fix that promptly, "Settle, down."
And as if by some external force, every student fell silent and immediately sat in their bench seats with proper, rigid posture. Which Glynda just had to grant herself a small smirk of satisfaction for; after all, it was by her external force - telekinetic force, that is - that they had all complied at once as well.
Yep, she stiiiiill got it.
"Now, let's see," she noted idly as she walked towards the center of her room, letting a few more seconds roll by with every student in telekinetic lockdown to let the might of her Semblance sink in, "After yesterday's memorable initiation, I'm sure many of you are eager to begin making names for yourselves among your peers in the sparring ring as well. So with that, welcome to Combat Training One-Oh-One."
At that, she looked up just as she released her hold on them, giving the students a placid smile as they loosened themselves out of their pain-inducing positions or otherwise gasped for air.
"Being that there are no standings to begin with to meter out fair match-ups, we will commence our first sparring match arrangements of the day based solely on our standard and," she paused as she unexpectedly received a message on her tablet from sender OzzieP, strongly resisting the urge to roll her eyes at the short blurb which ended with the emoji of the popular 'troll-face' meme, "...completely random match-up simulator. So, to begin our first match, we have..."
"Huh. Prof's typing quite a bit for it to be a random simulation, dontcha think?" Yang noted as Glynda continued typing a storm into the device in front of the whole class, to which Jaune, whose eyes were getting more and more narrow by the second at the all-too-peaceful Deputy, shook his head in denial.
Oh but he knew. He knew the real woman prowling underneath that ambiguously-submissive librarian outfit.
"Nah, Yang," he gritted out with a strained tone and even more strained fake smile, actually drawing the concerned glances of his new teammates as they saw a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead, "Totally... just, your imagination! Heh! Heh! Heh!"
"Ah yes, there we are," Glynda noted oh so professionally before looking up at the banners behind the sparring ring, many of the students aw-ing in disappointment as they saw two faces that had already taken the world by storm overnight with internet video hits numbering in the hundred-thousands before she turned to the students in question with a smile.
"Miss Nora Valkyrie... and Mister Jaune Arc. If you both could please come to the stage."
"Um, Jaune. Are... you alright? Panting a little heavy there," Ren noted helpfully as Nora leapt up with a whoop of excitement.
"Never better, broCHAcho. Never better."
Even people outside teams RWBY and JNPR couldn't help but wonder as Jaune stood up and let two broken halves of a pencil they didn't even know he was carrying drop on the bleacher bench beneath him.
"Excellent, you both seem at optimum health," Glynda noted, smiling at the young leader whose smile was all but venomous in return.
"Oh... aren't you so thoughtful, Miss Good-Witch," Jaune replied while never dropping his smile, confusing Nora as to which half of the professor's name he was actually stressing.
"Always, you seemed so frail yesterday that I almost believed you'd have to settle with a retake of initiation!" she retorted with utmost amiability, Jaune's following expression being a mix between revelation and mild psychosis.
"Ah hah! Ha HAH! You're... so... funny!" he stated, Nora now more confused and actually slightly grateful that people couldn't hear their conversation too well from the stands.
The students of Beacon had to be utterly convinced that she was the maddest hatter of them all. Period.
"Um, wow guys. I guess you must know must've met each other a long time ago," Nora stated with a rare nervous chuckle, "You both get along so well!"
"Why thank you, Miss Valkyrie," Glynda replied with her ever-present well-meaning teacher demeanor, "I've barely known Mister Arc here for a day, though I'm sure he may tell you that he's known me for much longer... he has such a penchant for stretching the truth, the silly boy! Jokes aside, I'm sure we'll have much more time for conversation later. For now, let us focus on the match, shall we?"
"Okie-dokie!" Nora stated cheerily, though it immediately died again upon Jaune's final words, dripping with some primal rage unintelligible to the bubbly young woman.
"Oh. We shall."
Since when did he develop that twitch in his eye?
"Alright, contenders," Glynda now stated with a projected voice so that all in the area could hear, "Let the match, begin!"
"Alright, JC, ready for the Legion of Boom!?" Nora cried out with growing excitement, readying her weapon as Jaune faced her with a slow nod.
"Sure... bet you five Pancakes you can't hit me hard enough to break my legs."
"Hehe... wrong bet to make," Nora noted aloud with a ear to ear grin as she charged the knight, "Good thing you got the Aura to handle what's coming! I'll be eating maple flapjacks tonight!"
"I'm sure you will," Jaune noted with a dark smirk, doing quite the opposite as he readied his sword and charged her as well by actually turning off all aural output completely.
Screw Goodwitch! Screw Ozpin! Screw the timeloops! Jaune dickie-Grimm Arc would have the last laugh today!
That is... up until his face went flat at the realization of what a reset at this point would mean as far as having to repeat the last 24 hours...
"Uhh... maybe-"
"Heeeeeere's NORA!"
"OOOHHHHHHHH!" the audience all yelled in unison as Nora's first hammer-swing made full-on contact with his chest, caving in his entire ribcage with a sickening squelch that all could hear.
Jaune Arc died instantly.
"All valid points... though I think it's much more concerning that no one's addressing Birdrider here's usage of the word, language."
Jaune's eyes fluttered open, his vision focusing on his surroundings and suddenly blinking a few times as he realized he was not on the Bullhead like he'd expected. Glancing from the crimsonette's cute features in front of him to those of her older sister's, then over the rest of the newly-formed teams RWBY and JNPR one by one, Ren finally noted, "Um, Jaune. Are... you alright? Panting a little heavy there."
As if he never heard his new teammate, the blonde knight simply turned his shield into view, lazily noting the two golden stars on the ivory sheath before slowly letting his head plop back on the row of bleachers behind him, closing his eyes, and muttering something to no one in particular.
"Congratulations, Jaune... you've just turned one-hundred."
Not that they would've understood, anyway.
A/N: Eyyyyyyyy. That's it.
After watching Volume 5 and realizing that mayyyybe not just anyone can top up aura like that, a little voice in my head told me that I should reconsider changing the top up mechanic... but I could barely hear that little voice over a much louder little voice telling me to just roll with it. So that's that.
Easter Eggs, an attempt at drama... and more Easter Eggs. I should add more to this, but I'm at work. And I need bed. ASAP.
Gnite peoples. Fave, Follow, and Review to show your support if you like the wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff!
And Happy Reading!
Live. Die. Repeat.
TPS (c) 2015, 2018