If you could change fate... would you?

I took some time to think on the question. It's not so obvious a thing to answer, especially once the rules become clearer.

If you could drop everything, remove yourself from the existence you've always known and tried to do something completely different? Maybe. Maybe sometimes you wished to leave the mundane.

But then you think about leaving behind everyone and everything you know and trying to do something completely different... in a world completely different, and from what you know, way more hostile and way more lethal than the comforts of modern Earth.

And those are just the questions of your life. What about the one you replace?

What's the morality of plucking someone else from their comfortable existence and putting them in an unfamiliar world? How does someone from Remnant learn to deal with things like... state taxes and electricity powered by nuclear fission and generated by water moving through the turbines of a dam? How do they live in a world with hundreds of nations rather than four kingdoms and a few dozen scattered settlements? Can they even comprehend such a thing?

It took me a long time wrestling with the question. Fortunately, it seemed I had the indulgence to think. The moment I would arrive in remained static; frozen in time.

And it was fortunate to be so, because I was again paralyzed by an entirely different question: if I did... who would I become? Where would I go?

When you could be anyone, anywhere in the world...

There were obvious answers. I could be the wizard, one of only two men in the remnant still possessing the magic of the world before.

I could be James Ironwood and be the leader of the largest military on Remnant, and -more even than that- be poised to make the greatest change of all to improve conditions in the world.

I could be Ghira Belladonna, living relative peace and stability in my own island nation... and be married to Kali Belladonna. That took some considerable effort to see past.

I could not. I could stay as I was. For all the faults of the world I live in, if I were to accept this offer I'd have to become someone... well, I do not think myself mundane, but I do not think my life to be exceptional. And the lives I'd take instead would be grand... and dangerous.

Would you change fate? Or would you try to be content with what you had? That was one of RWBY's lessons too... the one given by the first Fall Maiden.

The Fall Maiden... if there was anywhere the world turned...

No...

That life... that would be the greatest risk of all. Unlike so many others, I knew his fate already. I knew there was no happy ending for him, unlike so many others.

But I also knew there was no one better poised to change the course of history. And I remembered the lessons of my own world: even a pawn could become a powerful player if he reached the end of the board.

I took one last look at my world. I wished only time enough to speak to my loved ones before I took the step.

Then one moment more to draw breath, and speak the name.


Comfortable slumber. A nicer bed than I'd expected, given his means.

He sleeps better than I do. And I swiftly see why: someone rests beside him, her hair a tangled mess - she probably tossed and turned in her own bed before climbing into his, where she found her peace.

I take a moment to glance around. I flick my arm to his nightstand. Lights still switch on and off like they do in my world... now I just need to learn how one...

...

Huh.

I know how the Dust works. How it installs in a crystal and slowly corrodes, and how often it must be replaced... how it illuminates with the flash of electrical discharge...

I know so much more than I did before. So much about a world before I could only speculate on...

And something else too... a new language I had never known, but now is as clear and practiced to me as English.

I'll need it soon. My stirring has woken her.

I wave my hands, clumsy at first as I search my memory for the word... soon, faster, more precise, like I'm typing on a keyboard rather than drawing words in the air.

I bid her good morning. She blinks her mismatched eyes and smiles.

Neo...

I lean over and press a hand to her cheek. Her skin is as warm as any I've ever touched. I can hear her breathing kick up ever so slightly, and see her reach up to adjust her messy hair... not with the stiffness of a computer model, but the fluid motion of a person... a real girl beside me.

I take a moment to savor this. To remember the real life and bond I've inserted myself into... and not dwell on my mission.

I hold her a bit longer. Just a small indulgence before I climb up, stumbling to a bathroom, to a mirror... to confirm to myself I am who I sought to become.

Red hair. Green eyes. I've never had either...

Roman Torchwick. A man fated to die... but also a man poised to hold the fate of the world in his hands, without ever knowing it, because his master kept him in the dark of her plans.

The Fall Maiden... Cinder Fall...

I look back at Neo climbing out of bed. I see... things I never could've hoped to through the lens of an animated series with a teenage demographic. I remember this is a real life, with all the foibles and the... mundane, just like my own world.

But this man...

Mountain Glenn. The Breach. The Fall.

Roman Torchwick didn't know what would happen. I do.

And I can change fate. I can do something truly incredible... and write a new story for the world of Remnant.

So now I have to ask myself...

...would I?