Alrain: So it is time for RWBY Time-Travel story of Necros Underworld and let's just say the Coronavirus made it a bit hard for me to even recover, much less sit up straight and what was worse is that I can't go to the gym! I really hate being lazy and I am writing this from my bed, as for some reason just sitting on a chair while trying to write is making me lazy...is that normal?
Anyways, Necros has been out of touch and I tried as fast as possible to contact him right after he stopped...but he was rather quick himself so I have to start from scratch.
Chapter 1: Return to the start.
Salem's Castle.
'If they were here to see what we accomplished...best they didn't,' thought Jaune Arc as he looked from the destroyed hall of Salem's Castle to the desolate area around Salem's Castle, it was everything that represented the Grimm as not a single living thing grew or lived here, the land was purplish pink and filled with nothing but rocks and dead trees but also a huge amount of Raw Dust. But not even the most selfish jerks like Jacque Schnee would attempt to harvest it at the constant threat of being attacked by Grimm, this was their homeland and where their master lived and she would never allow any human or Faunus that wasn't loyal to her leave the place alive, even if they begged that they wouldn't tell she would mercilessly kill the people although the small chance that you would live if you were useful in her eyes. But even if you got out alive she would always know where you are and no matter how hard you tried to hide or run away she had you in her sights, because she knew the loyalty was nothing but held on by fear and that death was the only option available to them to escape her.
Jaune might have ended up in that position if he were his younger self who was easily intimidated by something as small as a mouse, but if he were to encounter something like that in his current position he would've chosen death or made another option for himself.
Not that it would come ever to him since the being herself wouldn't be there to force that deal.
Salem was dead slain by the hands of Ruby and Jaune which had been nothing but devastating and barely having defeated her, the skills, experience, and magic of Salem was terrifyingly powerful that even with the powers of Ruby and him made them doubt if they had a chance against her, it became worse as even a ton of Ruby's Eyebeams made her only flinch in pain and stalled her for a few seconds.
Not kill her as it only made her feel pain and it reminded him again of the story Ruby told him about it, she wasn't Grimm alone as she has been once human turned Immortal by the Gods.
Yet Ruby had shown so many times how terrifying her eyes could be even if it was a fragment of the power of the God of Light, a fragment that could destroy armies of Grimm with a single look, those armies would've overwhelmed any of the Kingdoms with the sheer size alone and destroyed morales of armies, facing the army head-on or trying to fight in the middle promised an inevitable death.
Speaking of the Full-Fledged Huntress she was currently sleeping in one of the rooms in the Castle that had been spared of their fight against Salem, the girl was physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted like him but far more than him as she had lost her whole team who was practically her sisters in battle, she was aware that they fought against incoming Grimm and the servants of Salem to prevent anyone else from interrupting their fight. None of them survived and Ruby could only collapse and cry into his chest as he was also the only one of his team to have survived the whole ordeal, even with Salem dead the Grimm was still present and Ruby released a giant wave of light that eradicated them all within 10 kilometers, through this he knew that the Light could vanquish those pools where the Grimm came from.
It would've saved a lot of lives...if there were any to protect as the world had turned into a chaotic one with no chance of order and where the strong could prey on the weak, like how Raven used to phrase it out that the world would turn like this but she was wrong about one part of her phrasing and that was Salem ruling. But it still would make the plan of traveling around the world while eradicating the Grimm useless even if a way was found, they just didn't have the strength anymore to continue and even carry out the plan, not even the optimistic Ruby would've given a positive answer being too tired to consider it or comment on it.
Jaune himself could only look with defeated eyes at the destruction they caused in their fight and looked back at the old memories, that everything would've been different if they had been given a bit more time and luck.
That was true and Jaune knew that as he counted out many hindrances in his teenage years gone it would make a lot of difference, each time he remembered his own faults he wanted to do nothing but punch himself in the face for being so stupid and childish at the time, he thought about if he had been trained properly it wouldn't be any different as it would only erase a few hindrances. His stupid Hero dream and inferiority-complex gone but the things like getting older would be still time-consuming to him, all that time while asking himself some of the most obvious questions with the answers in front of him but blind to it.
He stopped and sighed at himself for his self-loathing before Ruby would wake up and sneak up behind him and see through him, or him being too engrossed into this thoughts to pay attention to the world around him, Ruby would smack him upside down for his self-loathing that it was his fault and that not everything was his fault as everyone shared the blame for some other events that transpired.
Right now it was the time.
"Jaune?" came the voice of Ruby who had come out of her room with a blanket wrapped around her body not that the cold bothered her, it was simply to try and get rid of the cold inside of her that was caused by the negative emotions she wasn't showing.
"Ruby, did you sleep well?" asked Jaune not looking up from his position as he was working on something very important after a week of rest.
The fight of Salem may have sounded in his head that it had just ended a day ago but in truth, it was longer than a single day as it had transpired after 3 weeks of rest, no training, no sparring, no fighting, just simply resting their souls as they had to recover from battle and 3 weeks wasn't a lot of time for them to recover from their scars.
"I did...but it would've been better if you stayed a bit longer with me," replied Ruby coming over to Jaune and hugging his back.
"I'm sorry," said Jaune letting some emotion flow into his voice that it wouldn't make him sound cold and robotic and returned the hug to Ruby who snuggled herself into his chest that wasn't covered in armor, he was just a bit taller than her and pressed his head into her long flowing hair that reached her back.
"You better be," muttered Ruby looking up at Jaune giving him the sight of how beautiful of a woman Ruby had grown into, yet the difference that made her beauty one step away from being perfect was how empty her eyes were that were once filled with life, now it was empty like it was staring at the eyes of a dead fish. "Is it done?"
Jaune nodded knowing what 'it' was and carried Ruby into his arms in bridal style knowing she was still tired and made her look at what Jaune had been working on the past few weeks of rest, the open hall of Salem's castle wasn't filled with holes anymore nor scorch marks and no hints of debris were present, everything was clean and nothing different from an ordinary hall. This wasn't one as in the middle of it was something very weird that you would never find in a hall...not in this timeline perhaps but that wasn't the point of it all.
In the middle of the hall was something that was akin and best described as a magic circle but very big, but can be called small at there were other 2 magic circles that were similar like the one in the middle as hundreds of symbols were drawn around them, formulas and numbers are drawn on it as well as some things like runes attached to some devices with Dust in it.
The middle circle did contain a few things on it and it was metal suitcases and in total there were over 18 of them and they were of average size, nothing special in design at all except that they looked a bit durable but overal nothing special about them at all.
But what did those 3 magic circles and the weird devices have to do with anything at all?
"Project Time Travel is done," answered Jaune gesturing to all in front of him and the plan he had been working on for 3 weeks.
"How did you do it so quickly?" asked Ruby knowing herself that everything that was done here wasn't as easy as it looked, the preparation done here may look simple and all but she knew that it was anything but simple, all of this was one and all hard work by Jaune as he was now anything but doing things simply, each symbol, rune, formula, and the numbers had a meaning to small things that were attached to each other to form something this big.
"As much as I hate to say this, Salem helped a bit," said Jaune but not directly referring to the Grimm Queen herself as she was dead but the resources she had at disposal that he had used. "Her library is filled with the knowledge of the Lost Era where magic was common, ranging from common to lost books of the arts of magic, there was some foreign elements I don't recognize but the books made it luckily clear with what I was experimenting with,"
The God of Darkness had taken away all magic except for Salem, Ozma, meaning there was still magic left on the world but he never took away the books about magic and Salem who lived longer then any human could collect them all and study them, the knowledge that allowed her to perform many arts and devise many plans to make humanity fall to her obedience.
"It is terrifying that such powerful things existed before Aura and Dust and I am not exaggerating this since this...is something that you would only find in a game," said Jaune and Ruby could hear Jaune's change of tone and she knew that he would never praise that easily anyone or himself, he was a harsh critic though she has never heard it once directed at her, overall Jaune who improved his swordsmanship to master degree always tried to learn something else that could be useful.
Him being so open and praising the abilities of those ingredients and resources Salem possessed was simply terrifying that those resources are truly powerful.
"Example, please," asked Ruby.
"Ren told me about myths of ways how to strengthen the body through some ways which we discovered that Aura can do the same thing if the technique is given, but also about myths about Legendary Herbs that permanently strengthen the body...well, I found some of them and know how to cultivate each one of them and the most terrifying part is how truly they are easy to produce..." muttered Jaune loud enough to hear for Ruby who could detect the small amount of fear in his voice and the frustration, she knew the latter was about how he wished they had still grown and could be used in the fight and the chances of them surviving.
"Jaune,"
"R-Right, as I said I am done so we are ready to go back any time right now but before we do that, Ruby, when we get back I want you to open the case with your symbol on it," said Jaune and Ruby didn't ask why knowing she would get a straight answer from him knowing that she didn't like it how secrets were hidden from her, Jaune hated that too and he would never hide away secrets or things from her as he wasn't the slightest bit selfish. "There are some things we can consider to do, it is unavoidable that we will change the timeline once we get back so we can change things like saving Summer Rose,"
Ruby's eyes widened at that plan Jaune proposed to save her mother Summer Rose and while most of herself was happy and would agree to the idea, but a small part protested against the idea of saving her mother as her military training that had been hammered down on her knew the side-effects of it. Salem was the one who killed her mom and if her mom survived then it would do a lot of things that could hinder their plans to destroy the future, it was a cruel thing but Ruby was in an internal struggle and fight between saving her mother and be a bit selfish while risking the world, but letting her mother die for the sake of the world would be seen as cruel and something she didn't believe to be capable of doing that.
But Jaune read her mind and answered before she would actually consider making that choice of hers.
"Ruby, if we are going to change the future than changing the timeline is unavoidable, and I know about the thought of keeping things the same but we can't as you know how long it took for us to get this amount of skill," answered Jaune reassuring that the choice of saving Summer wasn't one they would regret, the choices that would be made after manipulating time itself.
"But Jaune, won't time-traveling itself not disturb everything else too? You know with those shockwaves and such things," Ruby didn't bother delving too detailed in it knowing Jaune thought everything thoroughly, she knew that Jaune was very smart thanks to the efforts of Weiss and General Ironwood teachings after showing leadership like herself, she just wanted to hear it out of his mouth to feel safer and more confident about the idea.
"I thought of that and to prevent that speed and precision is the thing that I will prevent those waves from coming, cutting is the only option and those small waves they emit will be held back," replied Jaune answering to Ruby as he had been very carefully studying this project and that was that cutting was the only option available to them, to not interrupt the timestream with their attempted time-travel as the formulas, symbols, and numbers coordinated and mixes of magic and science.
"Can you explain it in short?" asked Ruby and while she understood the complicated scientific words as they were necessary to upgrade Crescent Rose.
"This Magic Circle will cut through space and time allowing us to go back in time but that cutting will also send ripples through it, so the Gods will have a play in this as I will use their energy to prevent those ripples from surging through space and time, timeline unchanged and safe time-travel as those Gods have created this whole world," it was that easy and he didn't know if the Gods could manipulate time and space but Ruby told everything from her perspective, the God of Light was capable of manipulating space, curses, and creation and the God of Darkness had power enough to destroy all of humanity and break through the Moon with no effort. "The only thing left is to use the 4 Relics...but there is a slight problem with the time-travel...our bodies will be back in our young ones,"
"I already saw that coming," said Ruby not caring that much about becoming a child again which was a small price to pay. "But I get to keep my-!"
"Yes, you get to keep your Maiden Magic," answered Jaune back to Ruby who nodded and was back to quiet and let Jaune continue explaining the plan and the execution behind it. "I did everything I could and that is that your current amount of Aura will be added to our bodies which means you get twice the amount of Aura you have, but in return, you have to train even harder to get control over it especially me who has to do it,"
Ruby could only give Jaune a sympathetic smile knowing that the amount of Aura that Jaune possessed was amazing and a bit jealous to look at, but the greater amount did have it's downsides too and not only advantages as power never came without a price as cliche as it sounds. Jaune who possessed a great amount of Aura granted him the ability to stay longer active in combat if carefully handled, reducing the amount of pain and force from an attack, more potential development of attacks that went beyond the standard enhancing body techniques. disadvantages were that his amount of training had to be far longer and harsher than anyone else, combined with his semblance of what it was capable of Military Training was put on him and it was the best training that could improve control of both.
And to add that those training days were definitely worth a lot of years and shame of it that it was years of training with little rest.
"And is there something else that I need to know that you have prepared for us?" asked Ruby wanting to know more as the more Jaune told the more she wanted to know.
"It is all in the suitcases as the more I talk about it the more I remember," replied Jaune and his eyes told her that they needed to go now before their resolve would crumble.
It was time to act and Ruby went immediately to the middle circle and left her blanket on the ground while Jaune prepared to summon the Gods back on Remnant, there was one flaw he did oversee and that was that the Gods might try to escape but he thought of that too as their plans had to be flawless from now on.
"Activate the Relics!" said Jaune as he activated all the 4 Relics simultaneously and then pressed a device with a large red button and the devices began to activate, the Relics did their work and the sky was split open and Jaune could see barely 2 beams of energy rushing with terrifying speed, a speed that left several circles of air that came with the sound of thunder itself. With that speed Jaune had no doubts of the magic circles would work as the magic circles began to glow and chains sprung out going head-on with the Gods, the Gods themselves noticed this and blasts of energy that can obliterate a mountain were shot at the chains with perfect accuracy creating an explosion, a cloak of smoke covered the area and the Gods descent halted as humanity had tried to rebel itself again with no success. They broke the chains with ease...that was what they thought until the chains cut through the cloak of smoke surprising the Gods, chains ensnared themselves around the God of Darkness pulling him to the earth of Remnant, no cushions or special treatment for him from Jaune as he was slammed with a lot of force from the altitude he had been flying.
The God of Light was able to dodge the other incoming chains that seemed very, very intent on capturing him but thanks to the serpentine dragon form he had taken on he was far more agile than his brother who's body were probably in a lot of pain, but that part just amazed him whoever did this was simply a genius that is able to capture a God! Right now he had not the time to think and he would deal later with this human because his brother was in pain right now, you can't let go of family no matter what-!
Not only chains were shot into the air but also 2 beams of silver light blasted past him shocking him, his descendants were even going against him?
His brother hasn't destroyed humanity yet and that meant his brother was powerless and right now he realized his brother was also mad, mad of being pulled to the ground and yet he didn't unleash a wave of destruction meaning that those chains nullified his strength, and that meant to him that he would also be restrained from using his powers too. Snapping himself back he tried to unleash his Light to destroy it all even if he didn't like to destroy his own subjects, but halted himself once again as he remembered he and his brother fired at them and it did nothing to them.
"RAAAGHHH! RELEASE ME THIS INSTANT!" roared the God of Darkness startling the God of Light who regretted it as the 2 silver beams hit him straight into 2 parts of his body bringing him out of balance, it hurt him just a bit but enough to bring him out of balance and long enough for the chains to ensnare themselves around the God of Light and slamming him mercilessly against the ground, the ground they landed on somehow wasn't destroyed yet the surrounding area was destroyed.
More chains wrapped themselves around the God of Light who tried to fight again and once again was reminded that his powers couldn't be activated.
"It is your time to end," said Jaune as he looked at the Gods with disgust in his eyes and activated the 3rd magic circle and the Gods screeched in pain, they were now experiencing the feeling of having something of them being harvested. A blinding light covered the whole area and the screaming of the Gods died down as everything was in effect, both Jaune and Ruby felt it how their bodies were torn up and it didn't hurt but it felt weird not that they cared as their thoughts were settled on sending back in time.
Xiao-Long Rose Household.
It was late in the night for the whole Xiao-Long Rose Household as everyone had gone straight to bed and vast asleep, Summer Rose and Taiyang Xiao-Long had a nice day as both Ruby and Yang were playing games with each other, children had a lot of stamina much to the parent's minor annoyance leaving them totally exhausted.
Little did both parents know that Ruby was still up in her room to look at the starry night sky and admire the beauty of it and how many stars there were, how she was awake was simple as she ate some cookies she had hidden in her hidden stash, Yang didn't even know about it nor would Ruby ever tell Yang about it knowing she would eat everything...but then again she would do the same as well so she had no room to talk about it.
Today it was even more beautiful for some reason even if nothing much changed about the scenery but to Ruby, it felt a bit different to her and she didn't know how to explain it to herself like her whole life was going to change from this point on.
Her mother read stories about the stars being guides to the travelers on a journey to a destination they have set on, plenty of stories about great adventures in the world and places she has never seen, she wanted to see all those places together with a lot of friends and make a lot of memories to never forget them! She already had a card of Remnant in her room and used a pencil to circle around the places she wanted to go, there was a book too that told her about the places itself and the specialties of it.
Oh! She just couldn't wait and wanted to grow up right now!
That wish would be granted as a pillar of light erupted from above her freezing her completely up, her eyes wide open and unable to look above her as a spiritual form of herself came in her, but this spiritual Ruby was older and more mature and had in contrast to her younger self her eyes closed as she sunk into the tiny body.
The light faded away and Ruby was knocked out and fell with her back on the bed with swirls in her eyes.
The last thought of the young Ruby was that she regretted eating the cookies of her hidden stash as her mind was a mess, it was like a tornado as memories began to flow in her at such speed it gave her a tummyache. Lucky for her she was knocked out conscious before she would feel the aftereffects and wouldn't have the strength to puke, otherwise she might have slept in it.
Morning came and Ruby was still vast asleep as memories were taking place and meanwhile with Summer she was awake and she felt a bit...dizzy from last night, shaking that feeling off herself she went to the room of Ruby to wake her up which was rare for her, Ruby was most of the time the one to wake up early in the morning and then jump on the bed to make them wake up. This day rarely happened and that was one those days when she got really tired from a lot of activities, or when she ate too many cookies or ingested sugar and would swarm all over the place leaving petals behind, people did complain about it and Taiyang and herself could barely keep up with Ruby.
The reason why she limited the number of cookies that Ruby could eat and she was the only one who knew where the cookies lied, she didn't have the slightest faith in Taiyang that he wouldn't tell her knowing Ruby and Yang would work together, and they would discover the secret stash and she would berate him for falling for Ruby's puppy eyes. Because both of them would have to deal with a hyperactive Ruby for a while and have a hard time to discover her secret stash that she had hidden so well that 2 adult huntsman couldn't find it, which was a bit embarrassing and something Summer was proud off that her girl was already that smart to do that.
One thing she hoped was that she wouldn't inherit the embarrassing part of her about fussing over weapons.
Entering the room of Ruby she laughed at seeing the sprawled form of Ruby who had kicked off her covers, drool leaking out of the corner of her mouth and her face showing an expression she had slept very good...but it wouldn't be such a good morning as Summer noted the plastic covers of the cookies with some crumbles left in it. Shaking her head she would alter give Ruby a scolding not feeling like it to do it in the morning right now, sitting down on her daughter's bed she gently poked with her finger the cheek of her daughter. Ruby gave a reaction but it wasn't waking up as she mumbled cutely about something about regretting eating the cookies of her stash, and Summer deduced that the sugar-rush must have worn off and that she ate too many and might have puked but fainted before she even could.
"Time to wake up my little rose, it is a new day and one to make new memories," whispered Summer and this time she got the reaction she wanted as Ruby who was like on command by the words of her mother blinked, sitting up straight while rubbing the sleep away from her eyes she smacked her lips and looked around her room. "Did you sleep well, my little rose?"
"Awah?" muttered Ruby as she took another look around the room and focused a bit as this looked like her room before the war and destruction Salem caused, but that can't be as she knew the room she slept in was that of Salem's castle so why was she dreaming this? Was she going to have a nightmare while being aware that all these things were gone and not able to escape, or was it that she just wanted to stay like this and think it was a dream and not seen the difference between reality and dreams?
"It seems my little rose is still sweepy~!" teased Summer with a smile.
At that Ruby froze up completely which didn't go unnoticed by Summer as Ruby now looked straight in the face of her mother, her mother who she hasn't seen in years when she was a child.
She remembered exactly how her mother looked which wasn't hard as she looked exactly like her, beautiful skin, flowing red/black hair, the sun making her look like an Angel descended from heaven itself, and those Silver eyes filled with warmth, kindness, and love and Ruby let the tears flow down and tackled her mom who was surprised in a hug.
"Mommy~! P-Please! D-Don't ever leave me again!" cried Ruby as she didn't loosen one bit up of her hug.
Summer who was surprised quickly adapted her mother's look and hugged Ruby back while worried and while she wanted to ask what her daughter meant she didn't, Ruby was in a state of stress and sadness right now and her daughter's feelings were her 1st priority.
Alrain: So Necros wouldn't forgive me if I tried to make it exactly like his so I had to make it in my own version of it, sorry for the late updates and all of that as there is another problem for me now. My little sister has steam now as she decided that when her boyfriend broke up with her to play games, I know I shouldn't be talking about something so personal but then again my little sister was very blind, the guy she dated wasn't even a good one and was very spoiled.
And besides that my laptop is a very old one so I have to be careful with saving stories and it doesn't update anymore, yes, it is a Windows 7 and I don't have enough money to buy another one.
I will try to be a bit busier this time.