"Ahh, I love that universe. It's so fun to watch. Anyway, I need to bring in some more people for this next universe. Another pop was heard as four people stumbled into the room
"Professor Ozpin! Ms. Goodwitch!" Weiss exclaimed at the group, looking a little relieved that some sane people were here now.
"Uncle Qrow! Dad!" Yang and Ruby said, getting up to greet the two
"Girls! It's great to see you! Now, please explain what's going on." the blonde headed Taiyang said, hugging the two.
"Huh, I should not be drunk enough to be hallucinating." Qrow said, looking at his flask. Orb floated to present himself in front of the four newcomers.
"Hello. My name is Orb. I'm an orb, as you can see. I have brought you here to view alternative jaunes."
Ozpin only hummed in his coffee, while Goodwitch looked confused.
"Who's Jaune?" Taiyang asked, confused
"He's a friend of ours. Tall, Skinny and blonde." Yang responded as her family sat down next to the rest of her team. "Dad, this is the rest of my team. We have Weiss, my partner, and Yang's partner Blake."
Weiss shook Tai's hand while Blake just waved. Orb and Glynda sat in the back, conversing with Ozpin. Orb merely explained what was happening to the two.
"Ah, Pardon and hate to interrupt, but the next showing is about to happen." Orb called, floating to his back row corner. The theater got quiet as the screen started with some Narritation
"War. "
"Holy shit, is that cardin?!" Blake asked, Yang and Weiss only nodded. Ozpin grimace, knowing that emotion that plagued his voice
"We were not prepared for it." From here it showed a burning house, the resident's corpses smoldering in front of it. It shifted from this scene to a field of dead soldiers in armor, swords sticking out from the corpses.
The students' faces blanched. The adults could only grimace.
A horse hoof ran past the camera, pounding as the rider rushed through the carnage. The camera cut to the horse running up to a castle, the rider looking dead tired. An armored individual met him at the gate. While his face was obscured by a metal helm, the gold double crescents of Arc were visible on the white and blue tunic he wore. "Halt! Who passes by the gate of the Keep?" Jaunes voice rang out.
"Man, Jauney looks good in armor! I wonder if I should offer to upgrade his when we get back." Ruby muttered, considering what the armor should look like if she did.
"Ah… An… The Army is coming…" the messenger breathed out. "Less… than a day's march… Over a hundred…"
The visible stiffening of Jaune showed his worry. He turned to another soldier. "Alert the Cardinal and the Rose. we must prepare to evacuate the keep." he turned into the gate and strode inward. "We must prepare quickly."
"Soo, Vomit Boy is a knight in this?" yang asked, elbowing Ruby with glee. Ruby rolled her eyes and pushed her sister away.
"Not quite what I thought at 'Knight in shining armor."' Pyrrha muttered, looking at the armored knight, noting the knicks and dents in the metal
"WARDEN!" Cardin yelled, rushing up towards Jaune in the hallway.
"Warden? What does Warden mean?" Ruby asked, unfamiliar with the word
"It means appointed guardian or defender." Ozpin said, considering the implications of making Mr. Arc a warden of something. Having designated defenders for the Maidens is not a bad idea after all.
"Sir Cardin. We must act swiftly. Tell me, how are our defences? How is our evacuation going?" Jaune asked, striding down the hall.
"Half of what I hoped for. I've taken the initiative to send Rose out to cause some trouble, but I doubt it will stop Fall's Army. At best we buy ourselves a day. A little less. The rain should help as well with buying time."
Jaune only marched onwards, the piercing gaze from under his helmet clear as day. "It will not be enough. Cardin."
"Yes Jaune?"
"Prepare the men. We are to march to meet them."
"What? Why would they do that? They have the defensive advantage. Why would they go out to meet the enemy?" Weiss flabbergasted.
"Because they have to evacuate the city, and if they are besieged, they can't do that safely, Ms. Schnee." Ozpin said, recognizing the tactics behind the decision.
"Jaune…" Cardin started, concerned.
"I am not risking their lives en mass, Cardin. I fully intend to meet them, skirmish and retreat backwards, to retreat to the keep fully once the women and children are safe."
A breath of relief came from the knight as he visibly relaxed. "I will alert the men of the plan. We leave imminently?"
"Of course, old friend." Jaune smiled, placing his arm on the fellow knights shoulder
"Wait, what?! Cardin hates Jaune!" Pyrrha screeched, not sure of what to make of this.
"Not in this universe. The two of them were trained together, and have the "strongest of brotherly bonds", according to their teacher." Orb explained with something of a sigh.
The scene cut to dozens of men with bows and leather armors walking through a forest as a rapid, timed pace. Jaune and Cardin made it at the head of the pack. A figure in robes and leathers stood in front of them waiting, a short sword and dagger at her sides.
"Rose. It is good to see you."
"Warden, Conqueror. I wish that the meeting was at a better place. Like a pub." Rose said with a laugh
"It's Ruby!" Tai said with a grin. "I told you Qrow that it was her." Qrow only rolled his eyes before handing over a small fist full of lien to his brother in law.
"Yeah. I do owe you a drink. Or several. Anyway, how large of a force are we fighting?" Cardin said, resting for a moment.
"Almost a hundred fifty. There was more but an unfortunate avalanche in the mountain pass thinned their numbers." she said gleefully, not even hiding the blatant hint that she had caused the rockfall.
Tai and Qrow's faces pailed a little at the idea of their innocent Ruby killing people like that. Yang was too engrossed in the story so far to comment.
Jaune only sighed in distress, looking at his own three dozen or so men. "Sir Cardin, Rose, set the men up for some bow work on the edge of the forest. They will pass through the road, and we will strike them from there. We must strike swift and hard, knock and rip them apart. Understood?" Jaune said
"Oh no, he's gone leader mode." groaned Ren, rubbing his temples.
"Leader mode?" Ruby asked, intrigued
"It's something he does whenever he has to start commanding us. He goes super stern and confident and strong and…" at this, Pyrrha trailed off on her explanation, a creeping blush rising on her cheeks.
"Yeah, we get it. You love the dolt, it's not that hard to see" Weiss said rolling her eyes. "Why or how I don't even think I can ever understand, however."
Pyrrha just sputtered that her 'secret' crush on her leader and partner was just so brazenly thrown out into the open. Nora only snicked. "Did you really think that we did not notice? Jaune only doesn't know because he's as dense as a brick." the ginger giggled.
Ren only rolled his eyes, patting the spartan on the shoulder. "It's ok."
"And what will you two be doing? Warden, you can shoot a bow to save your life." Rose said, sarcasm.
"I can sure as hell swing a sword." was the only response they got. Silence reigned between the three of them. Jaune sighed and walked off, organizing some men along the roadside.
"He's going to get himself killed one day." Cardin sighed, prepping for the ambush. Rose just shook her head.
The small army sat there for more than an hour, then the marching invaders came into view. Jaune held up a hand, signaling that they waited to fire. Once only a few had passed the last archer, the hand flew down. A hail of arrows flew from the treelines, striking the ambushed army. The battle continued well until it suddenly did not go so well.
"This is not good." Qrow said, seeing what was about to happen. There were simply too many enemies for only a couple dozen arches to fall.
"Fall back to the next point! Retreat!" Jaune yelled, drawing his sword. "Rose! Cardin! Cover them!" he lept into battle, putting his metal to the test.
His longsword came out of a soldier's back. His blade found the shoulder of another, ripping through his collarbone and into his ribs.
At this, most everyone winced at the brutality that Jaune showed. Qrow took a longer swig of alcohol than he normally would. While he loved sword and gritty combat in movies, this was just a bit too real. The crunch of the bones, the way the bodies folded under his blade.
As he waded through bodies, an enemy soldier struck at him from behind. Jaune noticed too late, and turned to block if possible.
THUNK! Cardin's shield struck the blow aside, and his chained mace found a nest in the attacker's skull.
"Thanks for the save." jaune said, striking another down.
"There are too many of them, Jaune. We cannot stay here." Cardin said, smacking one with his shield, before the follow up killed him
"The soldiers are not out yet. We must stay until then." Jaune snapped, blocking a strike from the side. "Switch!" The two knights exchanged sides on the back to back, facing new enemies.
"Then we will die damn it!" Cardin yelled as he stumbled from a spear that passed his shield. Jaune leapt forward, striking the spears wielder in two.
"No. you won't die here." jaune said, reading his blade once more. Realization dawned on Cardins face. "Jaune…. No. Vale needs their warden!"
Jaune turned to face Cardin, pressing something into his hand. "And they shall have their warden."
"What's he doing?" cried Ruby, the emotional scene getting to her.
"He's sacrificing himself." Ozpin said, partially under his breath. Glynda could only turn to look at him before returning her attention to the screen.
Pyrrha and Nora were on the verge to tears, as was Yang interestingly enough.
"I never took you as a crier Yang." Blake smirked as the blonde started to pull tissues out of a newly created box.
"Sh-shut up." she sniffled. Ruby leaned over to whisper loudly "she got it from mom. They would both always cry during sad parts of movies.
Cardin opened his hand to reveal a metal disk that rested snugly in his palm. On it was a castle in front of an embossed W. Cardin looked up at the armored blue and white figure of Jaune charging the enemy.
"No." he whispered first, pocketing the signal. "NO!"
The scene cut to jaune wading through the enemy force in slow motion, his sword about to impact the neck of an enemy.
Another cut showed Rose and an unnamed soldier dragging Cardin away, who was struggling to fight with his friend
A cut showed a tired Jaune standing on a hill of corpses, heavy bleeding from his arm. A backshot showed the opposing force charging at him one last time. Church bells and a mournful quire could be heard, replacing all sound. It faded to black
"We won the fight, in the end. The army of Fall never even made it to the keep." came Cardins cracking and sad voice over the screen
It cut to Cardin and Rose poking through a burning field of corpses. "Sir Cardin! We found something!" Rose yelled, lifting something up from the ground
It was Jaune's helmet, covered in ash, the blue and white paint chipped and dented. A large vertical slash held over the left eye of it.
"But what we paid was a heavy toll indeed."
The scene cut to a statue of Jaune the Warden, standing tall and proud. A plaque carved into the base read "In honor of a mighty soul indeed." underneath was the name Jaune Arc, Warden of Vale. the screen cut to black with the small sobbing of Cardin Winchester playing in the background
By this point, Yang, Nora and Pyrrha were freely crying together. Ren was doing his best to not, but failing. A sour and mournful aura had enveloped the theater.
"Hey, Orb?" Weiss asked, voice careful, as though if it portrayed any emotion it would break.
"Yes?"
"Could we have a happy one next?"
"Of course. Why don't you guys take ten?"