The knight wished for this life to end, so that he would continue onto a different one that wasn't this.
What he felt wasn't emotional pain.
But rather, it was what he felt as a whole, in a single body, as a single person.
"I had wondered how it was like to die a normal person." Gilgamesh pondered as he walked circles around the laying blond.
"I wonder how it would have been for all the others as well if they had died normal people." Their crimson irises target Jaune, looking down upon him in pity and disgust. As Jaune laid there on the ground, all he could see was the blurry ceiling and the outlines of the fragments that impaled his chest. Leaking from the bottom of his vision was spurts of red. And now that he could taste it very faintly,
It tasted awfully a lot like blood.
The flashing images that were burned into his mind a long time ago resurfaced,
And it showed him the blood that was spilled from his hands.
The mountains of corpses that sat on fiery hills, impaled with broken banners and red-caked weapons.
The vast accounts of war beasts, walking armors, slaves, and innocent men.
But there was never an end to that bloodshed.
"Jaune, Jaune! Please… please come back to me!"
That voice echoed in the air, as Gilgamesh could only sigh after an irritate expression was shared to the librarian, "If only I were you, perhaps all that power could be mine. Yet… here you are, dying, suffering, haunted. Like you've always have. There simply isn't an end for you. You can never find your peaceful end- which you've been searching for, for all this time."
Gilgamesh's form blurs and then dissipates. Instead, Jaune felt something wet splat against his cheeks and then rolled off to the side. When his vision would clear the blurring by very slight, he recognized that distorted form. The brunette hovered over him, her teeth gritted, her eyes sealed shut. He could note the small drips of the darker red that tainted her bottom left cheek, some managing to even reach toward the bridge of her nose.
Jaune gave a soft cough, as he couldn't feel his body. It felt agonizingly numb.
All but his hand and the back of his head felt warm. The body that positioned beside his felt warm. Somewhere far away from him, he hears sounds of metal rings and shattering glass. Stone breaking.
"Please come back to me, Jaune…"
'That voice… I…' Jaune's half-lidded eyes tried to focus on that person closest to him- their face near to his own. A hand rose, and what he saw flying by above her was the white dots that trekked by them peacefully.
No… it wasn't snow.
But petals.
"I…" The sobbing of a young girl reaches his ears, and all he could do right now was listen to that pleading, "I want you… to come back to me, Jaune." They cried, the tightening grip around his hands becoming even more stressed.
It clicked in his head.
Ruby.
The white petals soon became the numerous counts of friction that flew overhead. His body was being lifted off the ground slightly, most likely from the hand that supported his head up and the other that was used to hold his hand endearingly.
Her face was wet with tears that came down her cheeks and transferred onto his to continue their sorrowing journey. It pained his heart- a pain that he began experiencing more intense than ever. Her cry reached his ears, reached his sights… and eventually, what triggered what he felt in his chest. This phantom pain of his.
Ruby Rose cried, and she cried over the form of the fallen blond with chunks of stone embedded into his body. In which aura would protect the individual from bodily harm, it proved hazardous for one who didn't have it. Jaune's fingers twitched, and Ruby felt it from her hand. Her eyes widened, and immediately, she rested her forehead against his as she tried to smile, sniffing and sobbing, "J-Jaune… I… why did you have to jump in the way..? Those spikes… they were just going to damage my aura. Your body's…"
The azure irises focused on the up-close face, feeling the warmth of their connected foreheads. Jaune's body was slowly turning to stone, from where the outlines of where the stone impaled him, it was the first to become stone in which slowly spread across his body, like an infectious disease. He could feel her breath wash over his lips, and he felt the air from his lungs give off weakly, "… I… won't say goodbye."
The two felt the ground tilt, and she promptly clung onto his body desperately from sliding down the adjusted platform. From the center, Cinder had injected an arrow straight into the ground, causing it to crack apart to divide the ground into four different platforms. It caused most of the platforms to shift, causing Ozpin to end up on one side to fight against primarily Guriggen, Cinder and Neapolitan.
Mercury was sent to stroll over to the remaining two, most likely to finish them off as Ruby hugged Jaune close to her and glared at the silver-headed individual. The silver assailant did naught but laugh it off as he took his time heading towards them, "Really? You think you can put up with me?" He made a shrug, "You're kidding. Your boyfriend is going to become complete stone in a little bit and the last thing you want to do before you die is to hug onto him?"
"Back. Off." Ruby hissed as she planted Crescent Rose into the ground, the gun barrel aimed out towards him as she fired. The speeding round missed as he swerved his head to the side just as quickly. The silver-eyed huntress gritted her teeth, firing off more useless rounds until the cartridge was empty, hearing nothing but clicks in the end and the laugh of the silver-haired foe.
"Ruby, Jaune!" The headmaster shouted from his end as he attempted to accelerate towards the two before being kicked back to the other side by the multi-colored girl unsuspectingly.
During his little laugh, he clutched onto his stomach for a little while before looking down to the ground, stabilizing himself from the platform beneath them tilting even more. "Woah- how about this then..?" Mercury's leg shot forward, and then right back down, cracking multiple veins into the ground before causing the entire ground beneath the two to break into small chunks.
Jaune's vision blurred every motion that was made, only to stop for a minute when Ruby caught onto his wrist tightly, her other hand used to grip onto the handle of Crescent Rose while it was stabbed into the ground. His body became mostly stone, and Ruby grunted loudly from the increasing amount of weight.
"Jaune..! Please… hang on as long as you… can!"
The blond librarian looked up to her gradually, his breathing slowing dangerously. His head rang loudly, and his eyes focused on the desperate look on Ruby's face.
She needs to live.
Not for her own sake… but his as well.
There was so much he wanted to assure her with- to say to her.
But this body failed him. His fingers slowly grayed when small slabs of rock formed over it, and he began to slip his own hand out of hers. The expression she gave was from being desperate to shock when trying to tighten her fingers around his wrist as much as possible, but the slick rock forming on him didn't provide any grip.
Once that time had come…
"Don't fall in love with me." Jaune had once said at her bedside.
… he began to descend, holding his hand out to her when his vision blackened, falling to the distant below.
All he heard from thereon was the screaming of his name from the brunette's lips.
|| :: m :: ||
Qrow hurled the nearest White Fang member at another, causing the two to tumble over as an unsuspected third one ran towards him, but somehow slipped on a banana before tumbling into a trashcan.
After making a quick 'phew', the usual drunkard eyed the flaming surroundings.
The attack came quickly and suddenly, no one expected it the most. When Qrow turned around to punch another in the face and took another examination, it came to his attention that they've destroyed vital facilities of the academy. The weapons rocket lockers for the students, the engineering bays, medical facility and secondary routes that would lead to the safety shelters.
With things that went by here, it grew drastically worse by the second.
The amount of White Fang members that invaded outnumbered the total amount of actually armed huntsmen that were trying to defend the academy grounds. Many students went scrambling about in the panic after the first explosion that set off in the dining hall. Others were afraid of the terrorism that was brought upon the place. Qrow gritted his teeth, taking out his flask in the brief moment of conflict and rose it to his lips.
Before he could take a single sip, a bullet clanged against the side of his whiskey flask, his head recoiling back and perking a brow to the canister to see the bullet that left a rather small dent in it's side. Thank the creative minds of bulletproof flasks. A smirk caused his lips to curl as Qrow glanced over to see who it was, as the White Fang-affiliate took aim at him with a rifle from afar.
"Qrow." Someone called out to him as he was pushed aside gently, causing the bullet to hit the ground instead. A slender hand placed on his shoulder, the drunkard glanced to the white-haired specialist that practically saved him a shot. Her other arm was extended out towards the affiliate and smashed them directly into the ground with an ice-composed dove. Rendering them instantly into the state of unconsciousness.
"Good to see you too."
Winter merely glared at him, then sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, completely forgetting she had left her hand on his shoulder. Soon enough, a squadron of armed individuals in white armor took security of the surrounding, rifles put to use to provide decency of defense and offense, "I hate to say this, but-"
He had a feeling that he knew what she was about to say, so naturally he went with it, speaking the same time as she did. "-I was right?"
"-you were right."
A pause. It took Winter an entire second to realize it and glared coldly at him again, "You little-"
"Love you too." The Branwen gave off a smug grin as he rose his hand to his shoulder, prying hers off him just so he could briefly give her hand a squeeze. An almost prompt response when she squeaked loudly in a high-pitched tone, jerking her hand away from his as her face fumed a red glow, "Q-Qrow! N-Now's not the time for public indecency!"
"Means we can always try some time later." He replied subtly and turned around, drawing his sword and pocketing the flask, "Eitherway, we got some trouble here. We have several hours to try and hold our ground the best we can until Ironwood gets here." Qrow lowered the edge of his sword down by his side, eyeing the mass of White Fang members that began to approach them from all sides.
The Schnee 'hmph'd' and drew her saber, her chin raised as the smallest of smiles crossed her lips, "… yes. Maybe." She muttered, leaving the raven-haired hunter to glance over and perk a brow. Winter's grin flattened into a thin line the moment he turned his head. She briefly gave a light cough into a fist and nods, charging forward, "I'll hold you to that, Qrow."
Qrow ran forward with her, ducking as a bullet whizzed over his head. The rest of her squad took follow with their hybrid weapons. Again, he perks a curious brow to her, "Hold me to what now-"
The Branwen, Schnee, soldiers and even the White Fang stop everything as the look up to the massive dragon that flew overhead and headed towards the top of the tower.
|| :: o :: ||
"Where'd all these White Fang guys come from?!" Yang slammed her fists together after decking someone in the face.
"I don't know, but there's too many of them! There's not many hunters that are available to fight right now if they don't have their weapons!" The faunus of RWBY shouted, colliding blades with another White Fang member to keep them at hold. Her foot thrusted forward to kick them away, "Where's Ruby?!"
A loud gasp was heard as ice was injected into the ground, freezing multiple individuals in a thick casing of ice. Weiss turned around with widened eyes, "Ruby! She went to the headmaster's office the last time I heard from her! Quick, maybe she's safe with Headmaster Ozpin!"
The rest of the team nod, quickly taking down those that were around them to turn and run towards the elevators that would lead them to the Headmaster's office.
Only to be stopped by the massive machine that crashed into the ground before them, as the trio watched it stand up and gaze menacingly at them. The red lights flash on, giving off a beaming glow of crimson from across the Paladin's visor, and the gatling guns and swords mounted to its arms whir ominously.
Too shocked to move reactively to the oncoming mechanical fist from the war machine, the three braced for impact when it came curving in on them. Their arms would raise to cover their heads, closing their eyes and waiting for it to come. Yet, it never came.
A magenta aura pulsated from beside them, creating some kind of hexagonal barrier that rejected physical contact between flesh and metal. It defended them like a force field, as the one casting this was one who held his palms outwards to take on the force. The black-haired man with a pink highlight in his hair gritted his teeth, "Nora! A little help here!"
"Nora?" Yang questioned until hearing an explosive maniac's laughter coming from a girl falling straight towards their position.
Soon enough, Blake followed up with the answer to that as her face seemed just as dumbfounded. Her amber eyes tracking someone signified with pink descending, "… Nora."
Weiss gave no response other than a nod.
WBY of the team duck as a pink explosion set off right on the machine, combined with a loud metallic clunk that most likely meant heavy metal meeting heavier metal. It triggered a second explosive as a ginger flew right past them, landing and sliding backwards on her feet as the team was introduced to a hammer-wielding grenade maniac. A mischevious grin crosses that girl's face as she winked and waved, "Nnnnnnooora!"
"Nora!"
"Oop- coming Ren!~" She skipped forward to the black haired teen afterward, leaving the trio to blink several times and stare at the duo. Never have they met a pair like those two. And at the same time, help was help, as Nora managed to leave a dent already in the top plating of the Paladin. It had staggered back after the heavy impact, sparks of lightning visible from the top.
"Thanks for coming to help." Weiss said as she stood to the side of the two newcomers.
"No problem. We thought we'd visit to see what was up. Didn't expect a bunch of fighting though." The teen named Ren whisked his hands out to his sides, two bladed SMGs in green unfolding into his grasps.
Nora hoisted Magnhild over her shoulder and smirks, "But hey! If it means we get to break legs, then let's break legs!"
On cue, the Paladin rolled forward swiftly, causing the group to leap off to both sides and open fire upon the war machine. With constant bullets and rounds of grenade canisters meeting the armored shell, the Paladin flailed about briefly before drawing out a crimson-edged blade that had been proportional to its size. It swung outwards, attempting to cut down the hunter/huntresses.
"Ren!" Nora shouted over with a gleeful expression, and Ren merely nods to her when holding both palms behind his sides.
"Yang!" Blake called out, the busty blonde smirking and held out her arm behind her, palm faced towards the sky.
Weiss flipped out of the blade's trajectory, waving Mytrnaster in the air and causing two white glyphs to form in front of both Yang and Ren the moment they had jumped into the air, narrowly avoiding the massive sword.
Blake placed her foot upon Yang's hand, drawing Gambol Shroud back and leaned forward.
Nora hopped several inches away from Ren's front with the soles of her feet directed to him.
Simultaneously, Ren and Yang launch their partners through the acceleration glyph and caused the two to become nothing but a blur, mixing between black and pink. The Faunus accelerated straight up into the air, spinning horizontally parallel to the ground way below. The other was sent straight towards the mech, slamming the front of Magnhild straight into its shell again and left another dent, but this time, deeper and more of an impact. On the recoil, Nora sprung straight up into the air, using Magnhild as a momentum-booster when flinging upwards.
Blake tossed out the hilt of Gambol Shroud, the ribbon wrapping around the waistline of the ginger and pulling her back, using the elastic properties to blur Nora behind her, "Weiss!"
The Schnee nodded, "I'm on it!" Her hands clap together around the hilt of the rapier, and the cartridges would turn rapidly to the point it looked as if it were overheating, glowing bright red before clicking to a complete halt, the heat transitioning from the cartridge to the blade itself. Stabbing the tip of Mytrnaster into the ground, fire began to trail towards the direction of the Paladin, stopping three quarters of the way there when causing a pillar of flames to erupt from the ground and occupying the sky with fire.
Multiple white glyphs completely sphere around Blake, as Nora passed through every one of them, no matter the curve or angle. Each glyph—an accelerator. And as every motion was made, it would double.
It spend to the point that it was nothing but an atom-like design. Where the rings were pink, and the core was black. The Paladin's head began whirring to look up, met with the absurd sight of what abomination cooperation had made before being suddenly struck in the side by some blinding pink streak of light. Then another. And another.
Pieces of plates came off, and electricity sparked out from where the impacts were made. Dents, numerous amounts of them. Nora sped across the flaming pillar, her hammer taking the very head of the fire and dragging it with it as the fire serpented and coiled around the standing armor shell. Lightning began to mix with the fire as it spread across the circuits.
It overboarded to the extent that the pilot of the Paladin was forced out, screaming for their life as they fled, and the machine was beaten, battered and broken. Left as rubble and debris to cling in the air. But most importantly...
"Leeeet's break their legggs!"
… that.
The legs came off like a piece to a jenga puzzle. Blake and Nora would land on the ground, fist-bumping each other very briefly before standing up and reuniting with the rest of the group, each one smiling at one another, despite having just met.
"Woah." Yang's eyes widened at the dragon that flew to the top of the tower... as did everyone else eventually.
|| :: o :: ||
Jaune—once again—stood in the world of black. Not a single light seeped through, and his body was the only visible thing within this darkness of his.
This cold feeling of being alone and rejected was already something familiarized with. For once, he could consider this to be the paradise to his own mentality. Every other time he had been here, it had always been the re-occurring nightmare of a deserted barren battlefield filled with nothing but violent aftermaths.
"What is it that you sought for, dear Jaune?" The royally garbed man inquired when sitting on an aged, rusted throne no longer meant to be sat on upon by a king. Yet there he was, sitting on it. Funny. "You are haunted by your promise, just as you are cursed by your wish."
"I know that, Arthur." Jaune hovered there for the passing moments of which felt like an eternity, his body drifting within the void he found himself in, "I... sought for something I yearned to be years ago." His eyes squinted slightly, staring at the pitch black void that swallowed him whole.
"I feel as if... I've forgotten a crucial part of myself. What made me who I was back then."
Jaune was sitting on a wooden chair by then, as he stared at the darkness. Raising his head slightly, he eyed the man in complete bandages aside from his upper-half of the head. Crimson eyes glared into him, and the golden runes on their bandages emanated faintly. He props his head on a fist, elbow planted onto the arm rest of the golden chair he laxed upon. A replacement to who originally sat there, the king that was in royal garbs.
"Here I was, thinking that you would never even try to find yourself. It disgusted me that you were just so capable, yet so... fragile." Gilgamesh sighs, shaking his head. Jaune's eyes lower to the 'ground', his hands folded together, "Remember." The bandaged man said lightly, a semi-glare fixed upon the blond librarian, "Recall every single agonizing curse that is branded into your body—your every ambition. Your very being."
His image fades, and all Jaune saw next was the white fur of the Beowulf that now stood before him, staring down upon him with absolute silence. Jaune stared in sadness back to the Beowulf, "You always did seem to understand." He said, as the Beowulf shook its head.
"I understood, because I was the very monster that my own home feared in the end." It said, as it turned around to walk away, "Just as your home was sent asunder, and your world was torn apart, this story of mine—or the others—would never compare to yours and what you needed to endure."
Jaune frowned, and stood up from the wooden chair that slowly turned to ash. He looked at the back of Beowulf's head, "I'm sure that all stories would have had a happy ending if I wasn't around."
"You simply did what you had to—because no one else was willing to. Do you remember my blood on your hands from that day, Jaune?" It turned its upper-body halfly, the golden eyes focused primarily upon the blond, "Or... do you perhaps remember yourself?"
The elder white Beowulf faded.
And once again,
She was there to try to save him.
"… Can you finally let this go, Jaune?" The red-headed warrior asked as she walked up to him, letting her leather-gloved hands rest gently on his cheeks. Those haunting emerald eyes stared into the azures, and that of a sympathetic smile of an old comrade was shared to him, "Our promise was already accomplished from so many years ago. You've done what no man, Grimm or being could have ever done, and took it upon yourself."
"I still cannot find myself at peace, Pyrrha. It's been... long. Everywhere I turn... I only find myself burning. The smiles that I've cherished to see when I've saved them, they become bloody and pale the next second."
She... was sad. Her expression was clearly written with such thing. Pyrrha took a step back as her hands lowered from his face. Pained, clearly. Her emerald eyes travelled down to his hands to find the blood that stained his entire arms. It dripped bitterly from the ends of his knuckles, as if it were still as fresh as the nightmares.
Closing her eyes, Pyrrha rose a hand to her chest. Her head lowers, and a tear begins to slide down her cheek, "I'm... sorry, Jaune." Her teeth grit as she fades, "All I ask of you... is to please remember. Remember what and who you are..."
Gone, and Jaune stood in the dark silence. A sigh leaves his mouth, and he closes his eyes, wanting to sleep.
Opening them, he felt the rush of the cold breeze wash over him. Snow covered the ground around him, and the dead trees about are covered by snow in this forest.
The blond librarian raises his head slightly to follow the track of footprints that lead up ahead, accompanied by a bloody trail that it left behind.
By the time he reached the source, Jaune's breath hitched, his eyes wide.
...
He remembers now.
Because what she left that day was colder than what the winds could bring him from the winter environment.
He felt something thump harder within his body-
-Not sadness.
He felt the thunder that roared within his mind-
-Not the apparitions.
He felt the day that he would one day hate the world-
-Not himself.
"I..."
Jaune's teeth gritted together, his eyes narrowed into a glare upon the body of a woman with a white cloak, who laid upon the ground, curled up on her side like a ball as blood pooled from her wound.
Looking up, he was met with the very eyes of a world that would bring him that forgotten piece of him. The golden eyes of which the dragon burned into his body.
For what he forgot was...
|| :: n :: ||
Ozpin panted heavily, cornered and beaten while kneeling to the ground, blood coming down from the multitudes of cuts, gashes and bruises he's sustained since the battle began. There was still three hours before the general of Atlas would get here to save the city and Beacon. But that amount of time now seemed to be too long to bring any kind of hope from.
Before him stood Ruby Rose, holding her scythe with anger wreathing from her being, yet she was just as beaten. Her spirit merely rejected to accept the defeat. The four assailants across the room from them took their time. Guriggen stood in front of the huntress-in-training, a coy grin on his face as his tail smashed into Ruby's side, causing her to recoil and cough out a small amount of her blood.
"Give up." He told her, as the entire roof was removed from the ground. In the shock had been Ruby, Ozpin, Neapolitan and Mercury as a dragon clung to the edge of the roof, its eyes glaring upon the huntress and headmaster of Beacon, "You have no chance now... and this is my victory."
As the sun withdraws, its final light glimmers over Vale and Beacon.
The gleam of light that shone within the eyes of life began to make a final departure...
The air draws cold, and the full moon came...
Mercury hmph'd at the sight at the moon... until something dawned on him.
When had the moon ever been intact? He had never seen the pieces of the moon reforming to the main body of the moon at all. His expression fell deathly as it cracked from the center, no matter how far away the Moon of Remnant was. It didn't settle right with him.
At all.
All heard a roar that was not from the dragon that was currently there with them. It was a roar that caused Remnant as a whole to tremble—as if Remnant had the ability to be afraid of something more terrifying than existence.
The moon broke apart into complete pieces, and a silhouette the size of the moon itself caused a quarter of those flying remnants to part way. It blended in with the night sky, practically invisible to the naked eye in camouflage.
"Uh... Cinder? Guys? We-"
By the time Mercury turned around, he found the reason why no one was saying anything, or even noticing the phenomenal change.
Everyone stared in complete fear at a man who stood over Guriggen, grasping the Gorgon by the face with a single hand and pressed farther away from Ruby Rose. Nine horns. Armor. Tattered robes.
With so much fear, an individual can only give so vague of a detail.
The man wore that of a bone-like helm that only covered the upper-half of his face. Hair of black was visible from behind the cover, however, the very tips of the ends of their hair was darkly blond. Nine horns protrude from their head. A set of horns that was similar to a ram's own curled from the side of their head, tips aimed forward. Connected to the same spot were horns that curled around, but this time, curled up and aimed back. A third set, in which straightly shaped to the rear. One final set are the two horns that rose from the top of the head, leaned far back and hugged close to the head.
The ninth horn—the horn that appeared to angle straight up and most likely positioned itself from right behind the semi-helm's covering.
Scales of black and violet hug along the man's jawline corners, embedded deep from within the skin. Numerous scars were evident on their face. A scar over the bridge of their nose, a scar along the bottom left cheek, and a scar that seemed to stretch horizontally across his throat. Skin like plastic, the roughened parts of his visible lower-half of the face was seen with cracks, like you would on a wall. Cracked skin, as they would call it.
They wore robes that remained mysterious to any's knowledge, and the only armor they had donned was that of the shoulder-piece that aged and rusted. It bore a symbol that all had forgotten from how ancient it was.
Malice rushed out from this character.
And it released profusely.
It forced all to their knees, suffocating from the deprivation of air. Cinder held her throat and coughed loudly, wheezing and hacking as her eyes widened at the sight of her saliva splattering the ground from the lack of a life necessity- oxygen. Their skins inherited the goosebumps of which fear had absorbed itself from the entity that stood before all.
Ruby winced, her hands trembled, and she tried hard to breath through the blurring of her vision, trying to identify the back of the newcomer's head. They looked... frightening. Menacing. As if they were about to kill and tear without a moment's of hesitation.
The dragon that clung to the tower froze in place... as even it was afraid.
What all of Vale would see that day was a sight never to be forgotten.
As a dragon more collosal than Cinder's own appeared behind the insignificant one. With golden eyes, gold plates of armor, and golden veins trekking across its body, the ancient dragon's wings unfold, as it was wings composed entirely of golden feathers. With how close they are, one's peripheral would only reach about a third of the size of its chest.
To see it entirely would mean flattening the world of Remnant like a map... and being a quarter of the world away.
Guriggen screamed as his head began caving in under the grasp of the man, as blood began spurting out from all of his pores very slowly—from rivers to waterfalls. The Gorgon could see the eyes of the one behind that visor.
The eyes with two golden crescents glowing within it and black scleras. Their eyes were filled with an emotion that he had never thought he would fear in his life, given how gleeful he was to see others go through it in a fit.
Ruby gagged for oxygen, trying to breath as she inquired, "H-Headmaster... what... is that..?"
Ozpin's eyes widened, his irises shrunk to the size of dots in beholding of the appearance... his lack of air had very little to deal with his tone of question.
"… Crocea... Mors...?"
For what Jaune forgot...
… was the rage of five worlds pented together.