{Author Notes}
Sorry for the slow updates guys. Been a bit more busy and focusing more on homework, updates may unfortunately become slower.
But on the bright side, I am very, very, very looking forward to releasing this chapter. Hope your new year is going great! (Also I am proud of myself for actually keeping my new year's resolution so far! Whoop! I'm becoming a more socially acceptable human! Huzzah!)
"Ruby, run!" Somehow, he still heard his voice. She heard his voice over the other screams of agony from her people, the people she had promised to lead, to protect, to fight with, and to even die for over the gunfire and explosions attacking them. His voice always soothed her at times of need, but this time? It was breaking her heart.
"I'm not leaving without you Jaune!" She pulled him, almost ready to run off with him anywhere but here.
He pulled his arm away from her, which was the same thing a heavy blow to the face. "Sorry Ruby, but I can't leave our guys here to suffer. Besides, it's my fault for this miscalculation." Even then it was unfair. How he could pull of a smile even in this horrible situation. And why was it that no matter how weak it was it still made her heart ache and skip a beat?
"Then let me stay here with you!" She cried out, getting her weapon ready, ready to die with him.
He wasn't going to let hope die with her. "No! If they catch you, the resistance will have no chance at all!" He barked, reading his weapons.
"The same goes for you!" The leader of the resistance argued adamantly. "If you're going back there, I'm coming too! That's an order!"
"… Alright." He quietly submitted.
She took out her weapon and started making way, "Good now use that stubborn head of yours to make a—"
The leader fell after her trusted friend had hit one of her pressure points.
He caught her gently before she could fall into the ground and looked at her with a sad smile. "Sorry Rubes, even if you did use your semblance on the both of us, our men wouldn't have bought us enough time for us to escape without anyone to lead them…" He looked over to two shocked resistance members. "You two! Get Rose out of here! Use the sewer system and blow up the entrance after you three!"
One of them, a man wearing blue Atlas armor but an old model helmet, said, "But Mr. Arc? What about you?"
"Thanks, Ca—*Screams from outside drown the name* but I'll be fine. Now go!" Those were his last words to them before jumping back into the burning building.
The two soldiers quickly carried the leader of the resistance over to their last escape route. As they did, the soldier looked back then he heard a sinister laugh in the distance.
They had done it.
They had finally captured one of the key seven generals of The Beacon Resistance, Jaune Arc- one of the Resistance's greatest tacticians and a constant thorn in her side.
She was in charge of… 'getting information' from their prisoner. And she rather enjoyed it more than she would. Of course, the prisoner had a tighter lip than a nun's—bible, but the look in his eyes were fierce, unyielding, and strong.
She couldn't wait to break his spirit, to shatter that fierce look in his eyes.
Though it was taking a little longer than she thought it would, eventually she would break him like any other man, she just needed another method…
One of the cockier guards stumbled around. "Why don't we just cut off his manhood? That'll make the dirtbag squeal. We'll neuter him like the animal scum he protects."
The group laughed, but she didn't. Instead she smiled cruelly for a completely different reason. A very, very dark idea came into her mind and started to rapidly evolve.
"No." She said, surprising the room of 'officers' around her. "We won't do that."
The people in the room wanted to question why not, but they all thought against that when they say the dark smile on her face.
She had been going through this all wrong. All she needed to do was stop inflicting pain… and start making him want pleasure.
What was that one thing Mercury and Emerald once fished out? It was something about a chicken? No it couldn't have been a chicken. Bah it wasn't important she'd just get those really strong drugs…
The looks on their face was the ultimate ecstasy to her—well to be honest it was at least tied with the other.
"H-how did you know?!" The look of absolute hope-shattering horror was especially satisfying.
"How did I know you all were hiding in the remains of Beacon? You're 'friend' told me." She especially flaunted with a cocky flare.
"You witch!" Ahh right, the previous Mistrial Champion, the Invincible Girl seethed with absolute rage. "What did you do to him!?"
They were losing now, no escape, and no chance of survival.
She smiled wickedly at the girl. "You should have seen him. He wouldn't say a single word no matter how much I persuaded him… until I changed tactics." Then she mock-acted like a school girl: she lifted her hands to her face and blushed. "Kyah! It's so embarrassing to say~!"
The absolute horror and shock on all of their faces was making her wish she had a camera. She knew their minds were thinking of the most dishonorable thing imaginable.
But let's see how far she can twist the dagger. She broke her façade with a dark smile spreading across her face and gently placed a hand over her stomach, "Oh, by the way… you're all invited to the baby shower…"
She loved it how a good majority of them snapped and tried to kill her. She also loved how easily they were dispatched for even trying.
This was the best day ever.
…
One of them, after subduing the raging and almost mentally broken leaders of the resistance, came up to her.
"Dang, you really are a witch. So what are you going to do about the bun in the oven? Cut it loose?" This man asked.
She actually pondered for it a bit. There was really nothing left for her to do now that everything was crushed under her foot. She then thought about it slightly more, "Hmm… having an heir doesn't seem like a bad idea."
"Well sh*t, a mini you running around? One of you is scary enough as is, but two?"
She looked at him smugly. "Two? Then what do you think of three?"
Velvet Scarlatina wearily walked the halls. She couldn't believe it, the resistance was their last hope to free themselves from… them.
And now they were all gone.
Worst of it all? She was to be a hand maid—they might have as well said slave—to one of the spawns of the witch.
She came into the room, and she was not mentally prepared to see what horrible expression could be planted on a small child. It sent chills down her spine to imagine her blood in a child of all things.
However, she didn't see anyone in the room she walked in to. Surprisingly this large and foreboding room that once belonged to some wealthy councilman was currently empty.
That was until her ears picked up something coming from under the master bed.
They were soft… like sniffing and whines…
She walked closer to the bed and the weak whimpers grew louder.
Her curiosity got the better of her and she peeked under the bed. What she saw made her eye widen in surprise.
She had heard rumors of this particular child, eyes red as the blood of all the people she had killed, hair blacker than the ash she left in her wake. The rumors foretold out of the two brothers, this one would be the scariest of them all.
Yet here was this little two-year-old, hiding and shivering under his bed. Sobbing silently as she looked at him, as if she was the one to be feared in this room.
He looked at her; their eyes met. Instantly she remembered a time so simple, so kind. … And she remembered the face of a young hunter in training who didn't even know that there was a girl crushing hard on him right beside him.
"Hey…" She said softly, trying to smile for him—for both of them. "What's your name?"
The young boy sniffed, he stopped whimpering for a second and sniffed again. "… Jared, Jared Fall."
She hated that last name. They all feared and hated that last name.
But she looked at the boy once more. Despite the different radically contrasting colors compared to his father, his bloody crimson eyes held such… fragility… such kindness in them. As if despite what they did to him, some of that kindness still survived and was passed down to his son.
"… Jared? May I call you something different?" She asked softly; all that despair, all that misery, it was slowly disappearing and she found herself giving a small smile for both her and for him.
The boy seemed curious and he calmed down more.
"… How about I call you Jared Arc?"
She thought that maybe, just maybe, there was just a little hope left in a scared a shivering boy.
While she held the young child close for warmth, someone was watching the two. However this person could not be seen, no matter how much he tried.
Resh Kolc, AKA Jared Arc, stood in the center of this room, being a phantom of what was and what never happened.
Resh finally spoke as he saw himself huddling close to the brown haired Faunus. "… This… This is my sixth future isn't it?"
[Meanwhile...]
Jaune Arc slowly opened his eyes. As he did, he needed to focus himself from whatever odd nauseas feeling that was preventing him from properly…
Wait a sec, was he on a vehicle? Doesn't that always give him an upset stomach? Why was he on a plane? The last thing he recalled was being hugged by Thalassa and seeing Hemera's frown before…
"Uuuhh… oh my stomach!" He whined before tying to somehow soothe it, but then he felt his hands chained to something.
It took his brain a few more seconds to realize that he was chained up… again.
"Monty on High, I am cursed." Was the first thing Jaune realized as his thoughts came together. Much to his dismay, he found himself chained to another pole. What was worse was the fact that Resh was actually unable to help him this time and that he was all alone.
"Hey? Hello!" Jaune called out, but no one answered. Still, at least it wasn't as dark as before.
He needed to calm down. What actually got him out of that situation was observing what type of situation he was in. Though it was really hard since his stomach was acting…
Wait a sec! His motion sickness was acting up? He was in a vehicle wasn't he?!
"Well that's something at least," Jaune whined as he felt his stomach in turmoil. "Aww man. At least open a window for crying out loud! I'm gonna be sick! Hurmph!" Jaune blanched.
By the horrible way his stomach was acting up, he must really be in for a bumpy ride. It could have been turbulence from the air ride, or they were currently on a bumpy road of some kind, either way, he was going to have to work through this with his motion sickness.
"The things I do for other people…" Jaune moaned as he tried to survey the area once more. The room looked metallic for one, and the more he unfortunately felt the vehicle move, the more he was starting to think he was in a ground vehicle due to the fact how bumpy it felt. But then another realization hit, the way this place still looked surprisingly spacious… there was no way this was a regular Van and looking back at the walls, it almost felt thick, and hardened. Was he in a military grade vehicle?
If he was, what did team ETHR have to do with…
"Oh Monty, can't take it any… more! HURRRGH!"
"Uhh!" Ephesto lurched as he watched the camera feed from the front of their stealth rover. "Guys? Remember how I said he woke up? Well apparently he has motion sickness."
"Oh what?" Rhea asked, looking away from her Scroll and playing the card game, SoulRock on the screen by North Pole gaming company then hearing a specific sound. "What No! That is seriously Imba!"
"Rhea, please stop playing that game." Hemera told her before standing up from her seat.
"Where are you going?" Thalassa asked as she saw the blonde girl walk towards the back.
"To Ja—the Descendant." Hemera spoke out.
"Why?"
The blond dual swordswoman paused as she heard a fifth different voice ask that question. She looked back seeing a man with two different colored eyes, his right being black and the other one green.
"Sir Whaitiri, I simply wish to ease his ride. I'm sure no one wants to go into the room after it sticks up upchucked lunch." Hemera spoke a little meekly.
The one driving turned back to the front view of the vehicle as he sat on the driver's seat, which was currently set to autopilot. "Proceed. There should be some motion sickness medicine we have among the first aid kit."
Hemera bowed to the older man. "Yes sir."
Jaune was not having a good time.
"I'm not having a good time!" He muttered with a bitter after taste in his mouth. "Oh Dust, I knew I shouldn't have had tacos last night."
It was at this moment, he noticed a door opening. Hemera sighed as she entered into the room and locked eyes with Jaune.
"He-Hemera?" Jaune asked before he recalled what had happened before he blacked out. "W-Wait! What's going on?! Let me go!" His stomach made a rather unsettling noise. "Ooh and please make my stomach pain go away."
"… Well, it's really really complicated Jaune…" She kneeled down nearby the tied up boy before taking some pills out to her palm. "But first I have some medicine for your motion sickness. I don't know how exactly this will work since you're supposed to take it before, but it should still work during the ride…"
"They make medicine for this!?" Jaune cried out in shock.
Hemera stared at the blonde boy in a very dumbfounded manner before putting on a sanitation glove in one hand. "Jaune, I heard from Thalassa, who heard from Pyrrha, who even heard from you that there are a few percent of people who have Motion Sickness as a problem, yet you didn't know that there was medicine for it?"
…
Jaune looked at the pills before his stomach churned. "Oh Monty! Just give it to me already, I might barf again!"
Hemera complied quickly and gave Jaune some water after he swallowed the pills of her gloved hand. He seemed to calm down and sigh in relief despite still being chained.
"… Did you really just accept that?" Jaune gave a confused look to his blonde captive. "There was a possibility of me just giving you more drugs to knock you out or more poison for you, and you just took it without a second thought?"
Oh right, in hindsight, probably forgetting that he was captured and chained to another pole in an empty but moving room was something Jaune would get scolded for by literally everyone he knew. But as his mind processed it, something didn't quite fit.
"Umm oh right…. Seriously Hemera, what's going on? Why am I trapped here? Where's Pyrrha? Why are these types of things always happening to me!?" He blurted out on accident.
The girl blinked before kneeling and sitting on her legs. "I'm not sure I can answer that last one. As for Pyrrha, she's safe and unharmed. But Jaune… do you know about the story of Dagarud?"
He seemed to ease a little, hearing that Pyrrha was alright, but why did she just let him get into this situation in the first place? However, the question she last asked about sounded awfully familiar. "Isn't that the old fable and short poem? We went over it a lot when I was in third grade. But what does that have to do with anything?"
"What if I told you that story was real? That there was a being named Dagarud who sealed away a powerful beast in the moon?"
Jaune raised his brow. "Wait, wait, wait… I don't think I understand what's going on…"
Hemera looked at him with sad eyes. "Jaune… it's going to be hard to explain without showing you."
"Well can you at least untie me?" Jaune motioned to the chains tying him. "I mean why am I tied up?!"
Hemera seemed hesitant before looking towards one of the corners of the room. "If I do, you have to promise me something Jaune: you will not try to escape."
"I don't even know where I'm going! Seriously, where are we going!?" Jaune cried out again. This was all starting to confuse him.
"Jaune I'm serious. There's a lot at stake here. In order to explain it all… you need to… t-trust…" The words started to have problems coming from her mouth. She almost seemed to be choking as if remembering those words had more meaning to them than anyone thought. "You need to trust me." She weakly finished.
Ephesto looked to Rhea, "Can she do that?" He whispered softly.
Rhea just gave a confused look as the two continued watching the video screen.
Thalassa was looking through the monitor when something blipped on the screen she was stationed near. "Sir, Nergal?" She called out, catching everyone's attention. "Radar shows there's an odd signal moving quite fast at 300 clicks—what!?" The blue themed girl shrieked as her eyes traced back to the radar before she leaned on it, moving closer so she wasn't hallucinating at what she was reading. "185 Clicks!? Wait— 63 clicks!?" Every time the radar scanned every few seconds, the blip in the screen was covering a large amount of distance in very little amount of time.
The large man turned to the girl with alarm. "Everyone get down! Ephesto, call back Heme—!"
Everything shook violently.
Jaune thought that this was all moving too fast for him. Where was he? Why was he kidnapped by Hemera of all people? Was Pyrrha in on this from the beginning?
And most recently, why did the entire car shake so violently?
Before Jaune could process what Hermera was trying to do, the wall beside them literally ripped apart by being pulled by something.
Whatever thick military grade wall the young knight in training was staring at was immediately replaced with the image of a vast forest due to the fact said wall was tossed aside giant metal claws all seemingly connected to something above the roof of the now stopped vehicle.
Oh, and they were actually up in the sky.
Yes, they were being lifted by whatever aircraft hit them.
Despite his body feeling sore from being suddenly jerked with great force, Jaune looked over to see Hemera had tripped and fallen nearby, but he was still tied to the pole.
It was at this moment Jaune heard several heavy thuds landing on the open hole missing from the vehicle.
He gaped.
There were robots looking straight at him. Not the Alteasian Paladins—the AK-200's—that he had heard was coming, but these looked like some of the older looking models. But something was off with them. They looked clunkier, lankier, and maybe even earlier prototypes than the usual AK-130's he's seen every once in a awhile. Yet what stood out at these older looking designs was the fact that despite them looking more like stick figures, there was this odd symbol of a crossed out third eye on their forehead.
Surprisingly, out of the ten robots that jumped into the door, another cloaked figure jumped behind them. But the bright, shining, sharp green eyes stood out despite the being wearing a hood. Along with some of the metallic and sleeker looking hands coming from the sleeves of the full body black cloak.
Jaune mentally noted that the last person to be fully cloaked was a powerful Semblance user, who was this guy?
"Imperative: Locate Aurora Ionic Kinetic Converter." One of the robots exclaimed as he stepped forward and seemingly scanned the area with a large red light. As it scanned the area, the red light passed over Jaune and afterward, something in his pocket was glowing blue after the light scanned the area.
"What the?" Jaune looked at his Pocket and recalled that he had put Resh's Armaments in that pocket! Wait a sec, it was still there?
"Declaration: Target found, acquiring target…" The leading robot stepped forwards towards the chained boy before quickly side stepping a blast of light that would have hit him straight in the chest.
Hemera was the one who fired that blast, and looked quite surprised at this circumstance in front of her. "What the heck!? Where did you all come from?! We we're using anti detection gear!"
The door opened, making the rest of Team Ether, and a large, dark skinned man with piercing different colored eyes wearing a black suit and tie appear running through it.
"Hems!" Thalassa cried out as they all primed their weapons.
The robots all transformed their limbs, some of their arms gave way and shot out shinny black blades, while some transformed into cannons all pointing to team Ether and the adult.
"Exclamation: Obstacles detected! Initiate battle protocol!" The old model robots exclaimed as they all primed to a fighting position except that covered robot.
That particular robot started walked over to Jaune.
"Do not let these freaks get The Descendant!" The adult screamed before he blasted off, covering himself in electricity before they all unleashed a fight in such a closed space.
It was rather hectic despite the fight being only a dozen people. The leader powerfully charged at one of the robots and punched the closest one. However, with the same uncanny speed, the robot avoided the punch whose impact blew a large gust of wind even when the attack missed.
It was then the large gust of wind blew off the hood of the robot in the back. For some reason, the robot looked human, or had a human face.
"… Penny?" Jaune shook his head vigorously after uttering that name of the strange girl he met recently. The robot's face looked familiar to Penny's down to the bright green eyes, but duller orange hair. But then again, Penny was definitely not a guy. He could pass of as Penny's twin brother, who instead of smiling and 'happy-go-lucky,' seemed very expressionless.
Despite looking like older models, the robots were oddly efficient in warding off Team Ether, mostly due to the fact the other younger members could not use their elemental powers due to being in the sky and with Ephesto unable to use his semblance being so close to everyone else.
Hemera and their commander were the only ones able to use their semblance, but the robots were surprisingly efficient in fighting… as if someone upgraded them to an insane degree.
Jaune watched as the Robots seemingly took some rather expressive looking fighting stances and were able to even fight his older seniors with relative ease. His attention was disrupted when he looked over to see the robot with a human face right in front of him. It raised his robotic arm to his chains and ripped them off.
Jaune saw this moment to run, but he was quickly grabbed and slung over the shoulder of the robot—which now that he noticed, this robot was… smaller than the other ten fighting with Team EHTR.
Something else clicked in his head.
"Wait a second!?" Jaune yelled as he struggled to free himself from the robot's surprisingly strong grip while he was slung over the robot's shoulder. Even with the struggling boy, the robot continued to easily walk towards the giant hole. "Am I getting kidnapped from people who already kidnapped me!? How is tHHIIISSS!?" His voice got stretched as the robot jumped up into the air and out of the vehicle.
"Jaune!" Hemera shrieked as the robots all backed off quickly after the cloaked robot. Suddenly, the claws dropped the vehicle, making it drop instantly back into the ground fast.
The older man looked towards the children and prioritized their safety. However, Hemera on the other hand leapt off the hole and grabbed onto one of the hooks that originally carried and ripped off the military truck they were using. The blonde girl looked up after clutching onto the retracting claws and saw some kind of strange looking jet that looked like a giant (Nighthawk Jet).
She looked back down as the truck fell something like 100 feet towards the ground, but saw a flash of lighting move out of the truck before it crashed. It was then she realized that the claws and her were being fully retracted and entered into the large (Nighthawk Jet).
The ship, seemingly having already secured its target, flew off in the distance at the activation of a sonic boom.
He was… different, a very, very good different, but he was among evil.
And evil was stronger here.
He lived in this grand, dark castle that looked eerily familiar to a place that used to be a Beacon to the world.
The boy watched his younger self in this life, how he was thought how to fight at a young age. He was basically bred for war. His so called mother, he never even saw her face, always veiled behind that strange cloak and shadows.
He was glad for Velvet though, she was the closest and only thing there to a mother, letting herself even being called Nana.
She was the few things Young Jared of this world was happy to be with and who in turn cared for him back. She was the one to teach him what was right and wrong, even though his other 'teachers' thought him different things. She was the one to comfort him when he was hurt and while everyone else in this endless prison hated him, which he didn't even understand why since he didn't know what he did and always tried to 'behave'. There was the great fact that Velvet kept telling stories to Jared, stories of a better time, a better place… and better people, specifically Jaune's Dad. Jared was rather enamored
Then there was… his brother…
"Jared! I'm scared!" Jason sniffed as he held tightly onto his five year old brother's shirt, hiding behind his back as his older brother walked aimlessly in front of him.
"I-It'll be alright… we'll definitely get back home…?" The other five year old with the same exact face said. He was just as scared and confused as his brother, but he had to be strong for the both of them.
The two were wandering a very thick forest in the middle of nowhere.
Why? They didn't know why. One minute they were sleeping, and the next thing both of them knew, they were waking up in the middle of a dark forest in the middle of the night.
"W-What if we meet Grimm? What'll we do?" Jason cried as he hunched lower and gripped tighter to his brother.
Jared was careful for both of them to get over a large tree root. "It won't happen. Keep moving. We shouldn't be too far from home…"
The younger brother looked at the back of his brother's head. "B-But Jared… we've never been out of home before…"
Jared chose not to say anything. On the bright side, Jason didn't mind the silence from his brother.
"The stars are blind my love…"
That was because something else had found them.
Jared acted quickly and grabbed Jasons hand before running in the exact opposite direction where the music was coming from.
The boy, who was only younger by a few minutes, struggled greatly as he felt his brother pull him around. "J-Jared!"
"Keep running Jason!" Jared cried before he felt Jason let go of his hand.
The young twin looked back and saw that Jason's foot was stuck in a root. He pulled on it to release the leg, but it wasn't working, somehow he had tangled his foot in vines that were connected to trees the two had already run by.
Jared quickly tried to untangle his brother's leg, but the singing was getting closer to them, and they both saw glimpses of a pale light coming their way.
The two boys looked at each other, the monster was making its way towards them and Jason was too tangled to free in time.
"P-Please don't leave me…" Jason cried softly, tears running up his red eyes.
Jared remained silent as he stared almost emptily at his brother. For a while, time itself held still between the two brothers…
"I-I won't." Jared said as he stood up and walked towards the beast heading their way.
"Jared!" Jason yelled as he saw his brother walking towards the loud singing. "Jared! Jared!"
"M-My father was a hero right?" Jared spoke to himself like some kind of little mantra to himself as he walked closer to the pale looking light behind the darkness of the trees. "H-he would have saved people right? W-Would he be p-proud of me if we had met?"
The young child tried to steel himself despite how much his nose was dripping and how watery his eyes were becoming.
The child shivered as the being came closer and closer, but he stood his ground. He didn't know what to do, but he wasn't going to leave his brother.
The strange black blobbed creature finally reached Jared and towered over the small five year old, it's eyes were glowing a pale light from its face. As it slowly turned its glowing eyes towards the boy, Jared just cried, but still stayed his ground while his entire body shook and trembled in fear.
From the side, the face turned towards Jared—
Then it was stabbed in one of its eyes by a giant sword that seemingly came out of nowhere.
Jared was surprised, but the blob like creature fell into the ground, the light in his eyes fading and its body disintegrating into the air. However, the last of its eyes connected with him and its mucky mouth opened up…
"…ing…ared…"
The Pandora fell, but not before imparting it's message to the child in front of it.
"Are you alright, young one?" A large and bulky man with short black hair, tanned skin, and pale green armor kneeled to Jared.
The young boy blinked twice, he wondered where this strange man came from. "Who are you?"
"My name is Yatsuhashi, brave one, but you may call me Yatsu." He said with a small smile.
"Brother!" The young boy looked over and was hugged by his crying brother. The younger twin sobbed madly as he hugged very tight to him.
Yatsuhashi and Jared looked back, there was a stylish woman wearing some detail looking clothes.
"Now isn't that sweet? Come on you brats, or else the real monsters will gobble you out." The woman scoffed before walking away.
Jared looked to the taller man.
"Do not take it personally. Coco has… issues..." The taller man walked behind her, making sure to pick up his blade. "Come now. This is no place for young ones."
The two brothers looked at each other. They didn't know what to do, but they trailed behind the two adults.
Jared walked along, holding his brother's hand. Against his better judgment, he glanced to the place where the Pandora was killed.
How did it know his name?
Yatsuhashi and Coco led the boys to a cleverly hidden base underground. The two boys cooed at the place, they had never seen a place so dark, damp, smelly…
But surprisingly lively.
There was music in the air as groups of drunken men sang and danced. People were laughing and lying on the dirt as they gathered around the fire, melting marshmallows with sticks or sometimes even causing others to catch on fire for cheap laughs.
"Come with us, I am sure you two are quite tired from traveling out in the forest." Yatsuhshi the others walked into an important looking tent.
A dark skinned man with copper colored hair smiled at the two returning from their patrol. "Yatsu, Coco… who are the kids?" He pointed to the twins.
"Who cares, Fox? I'm going to bed." Coco started off as she walked away.
Jared stared at the man. These names… they sounded familiar…
"Coffee."
Coco stopped in her tracks while Yatsuhsahi and Fox stared at Jared with interest.
"Excuse me?" Coco turned back to the boy. Jared saw through her designer shades that her lens and eyes were focused on him.
"Your names sound familiar. I think heard them from Nana," Jared spoke as he recalled the words of his Nana. Among them, she once spoke of three people that she was really close with.
With bright red eyes widening in realization, the young boy smiled and pointed to them. "Coco Adel, Fox Alistair, Velvet Scarlatina, and Yatsuhashi Daichi! Team CFVY!"
The three of them looked at the boy like he was some kind of alien. His brother just tilted his head in confusion.
"How do you know that?" Coco started off, her voice sounded almost hostile.
"Nana told me about you," Jared said excitedly. "She always told me how cool you guys were and how you were her best friends!"
Suddenly, something clicked on the stylish woman. "Wait!? Nana? Is your nanny, Velvet!?" Coco's eyes widened—you could tell because her eye brows shot up above her designer shades—as she heard her long lost friend's name.
She stepped closer to the boys. "Where is she!?" She screamed before Fox stopped her.
"Coco, calm down! They're just kids!" He did not want her to threaten children.
"They know where Velvet is, we gotta get her back!" Coco stubborn argued.
"And we will! You don't need to hurt them for answers, Coco!"
"Stop," Yatsushashi spoke out loud, but did not scream. His two friends looked at the man wielding a large sword. "Something is not right. Velvet was… so how did they know where she was?"
At the mention of that, they all looked back at the children. Jason didn't know what was going on, but the air suddenly changed. There was no more music and it felt like everyone was looking towards him and his brother.
Yatsushashi locked eyes with Jared. "Young one… who are you?"
Jared blinked. He was about to say his name when the voice of Velvet came back into his mind about names and that for some reason, no one liked to say his other name than the one Velvet gave him. Should he use that name or the name Nana gave him? He opened his mouth, but he didn't say anything.
Jason was starting to panic as everyone around shifted more focus to him and his brother. He wondered why his brother wasn't talking, so he answered for him.
"He's Jared and I'm Jason Fall."
That was the second everything became deathly silent.
It was also at this very moment: Jared heard a very soft white noise coming from his back.
They all drew their weapons at the kids. Everyone started screaming at the top of their lungs as they pointed to the kids. Jason quickly cowered behind his brother's back while Jared could only hear words such as Monster, Spawn, found out, and other atrocities pointed to him that he didn't understand why. Why were they doing this? Why did all of their expressions change so much at their names?
It looked as if that no one was trying to protect them now as Coco unleashed a huge gun right in front of Jared.
"Are you really going to strike my children?"
Jared knew that voice even though he never heard it in his life before.
He hugged Jason behind him and closed his eyes tightly while covering his ears. His instincts knew what was coming somehow.
When he opened his eyes… everything was gone, even the cave they were under.
All he saw was her under the shattered moon of the night sky, on top of a pile of red bloody bodies and chocking Coco's neck in what looked to be her last moments.
Then a snap sound echoed. The older twin shut his eyes closed before opening them up after her corpse was thrown in front of him.
"And that is the last of them." She appeared nearby the two of them, Jared didn't even notice her move. She gave them a smile, it looked concerned, but Jared could not take his eyes off the blood on her face.
Even after it magically disappeared in an instant.
"W-What happened?" Jared asked.
She kept her smile, and pointed her hand towards the boy. Jared froze in terror before two small little machines flew out of the back of their shirts and floated around her palm.
"You see, this particular group of rebels has been annoying me for quite some time. And we could never find their location, yet I do recall them always bragging about bringing me to justice and saying that they would free the people. So instead of the usual excursions, why not use live bait instead? What kind of cruel and heartless person would leave two young boys all alone in a monster infested forest?" She spoke to them condescendingly, as if this was all a game to her.
"You were the one who dropped us off in the middle of the forest, weren't you?" Later on in the future, Jared would regret having a sharp mind in this world. This was the first time he would look back and regret dearly on it.
There was an amused twinkle in her golden eyes as she stepped casually over dead limbs and bodies. "Jackson… or was it Jason?"
Jared did not say a thing and Jason was still sobbing and cowering behind Jared.
"Ahh now I remember, Jay! Wait no… Jar something… Jar Jar? No… Jared? Hmm."
"Jared…" The young boy reminded her of his name that she was supposed to have given him.
"Oh well then. Quite the observant one, aren't you Jared? But can you answer me this? What are these small machines here?"
He gulped. "T-They're tracking devices."
"Very good!" She then kneeled closer to the young one. "But did you know they double as one way radios? I could hear everything!"
"E-Everything?"
She stood back up, the pale glow of her eyes shining as she stood right in front of the shattered moon before young Jared. "That's right! Now as a thank you for helping me out, why don't I show you your father? I'm sure he'll be proud to see you…."
Jared wanted to cry, he really should have.
{Author Notes.}
Wow. Did Jaune just get kidnapped… while he was being kidnapped?
OK no one make an inception joke! *Points finger dramatically.*
… What do you mean I'm not fitting the tone of how I ended my chapter? Oh-Oh! Right… that…
Don't worry! It can only get worse from here! For both of them!
Sorry for not posting in a while, I'm even busier this year… weird…
Also, it's coming closer… (I'm really going to Stretch the Suspension of Belief to the limits! So you have been warned: one of the crazy things is coming soon!)
OK, after the Review Response, I have a short drabble to counter all the angst I tried to portray in this chapter. Hope you enjoy it.
{Review Response}
RPGPersona: Thank you for the kind words! Hope I keep up your expectations!
THE-Twilight-BlazeKnight chapter 24: OK, I had a feeling this would come up. This chapter explains why Jared bonds with Velvet and why his memory is imperfect. Velvet was the one who basically raised him as he was the son of Cinder. Nana= can mean a short for Nanny, not a name for a mom. It's also why, if you look back at that chapter, Jared doesn't know his dad. His dad was not present during his time being cared for by Velvet.
Thanks for the suggestions and I will try to put more, but they usually come with inspiration though so if I force them out they might not be as good… but I'll try none the less.
Ddragon21 chapter 4 . Jan 3: I don't know how to talk to you if you hadn't read up to this chapter.
snakeboy33 chapter 24 . Dec 30, 2015: Heheh. Let's just say… I have a reason for that. (Warning: may or may not be a good reason.)
almost stupid chapter 24 . Dec 18, 2015: Trust me I love happy endings as much as the next guy. But if I do one… let's just say I'm at least going to do something interesting.
Frnkflo228 chapter 1/24 . Dec 20, 2015: Huh they sound the same to me. You don't look drunk in your first one… does this mean your drunk all the time? *questioning look*
Panther strife chapter 5 . Dec 20, 2015: Technically they all are main characters. Don't really want the story to focus solely on one character.
ShadowKnight49 Productions chapter 24 . Dec 18, 2015: No, no, no, I mean the guy next to you, not the writer… but thanks anyway. Also, really? Wet socks are annoying. Now internet fandoms—they're something to fear!
Haseoblade-Skyking01 chapter 24 . Dec 18, 2015: I will keep that a secret.
dracohalo117 chapter 24 . Dec 18, 2015: Thank you! But then again, let see how far I can stretch that Suspension of Disbelief….
[Extra: May the Fork Be with you.]
Setting: A very familiar place.
Jared/Resh: Ozpin never told you the truth about your son!
Jaune: He told me enough! He told me you killed him!
Resh: No Jaune! I… AM YOUR SON!
Jaune: No! It's not possible!
Resh: Search your feelings! You know it to be true!
Jaune: No! NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!
Resh: Also, Time Travel was involved. I'll spare you the details but it's confusing.
Jaune: OOOOO—Wait, time travel?
Resh: Yep.
Jaune: Seriously?
Resh: Seriously.
Jaune: …
Resh: …
Jaune: …
Resh: … So… do you need a hand?
Jaune: … *Willingly falls to his doom.*
Resh: *Rolls his eyes.* Oh look… it's the same present he always gives me on my birthdays: never actually being there. And he wonders why I turned to the darkside?
{Author notes}
See? I too can ride the Star Wars hype train! (and crash it)
But now I must go! My people need me!
*Whooop*
Thank you for reading.