I surprisingly had little input on our mission selection. Ren and Nora were both adamant about shadowing a sheriff in a nearby village. Neither of them was shy about voicing their opinions but its unusual for those opinions to be in alignment. Take breakfast this morning. Ren went on pancake making strike and Nora just about destroyed the cafeteria in protest.
What I was not surprised by was team RWBY ending up being the scouting party for the southeast. If I were to guess. Ozpin must have bent the rules for mission selection so that these four didn't have to break them. Sun and Neptune had the right idea about doing inner city detective work away from the explosion prone team.
I personally find them entertaining, like a cat that keeps trying to catch a laser, they dart around in vain while the asshole holding it makes sure they don't see the hot frying pan they are about to leap into.
That last thought soured my already unstable mood. My team's reaction to my origin story (would it be my first or only origin story on account of my reincarnation?) left me with more doubts then Jace Beleren had after I broke his mind. Plus, I admitted that I love or at least fancy Pyrrha to myself.
So now I'm just a bundle of anxiety mixed with self deprecation sitting in our dorm alone and my morbid thoughts where not helping at all.
We have a day before we head out to that little village. Each of us decided to do our own things before we had to spend an extended amount of time in each others company.
None of us asked what the others were going to do but Pyrrha and I suspect that Ren and Nora know what the other is doing without asking. This was a good thing because I had absolutely no idea what to do with myself and my scrambled human thoughts.
Wait a minute, that might be my problem.
Before any considerations could be made, I focused one the one place my thoughts could be mulled over in peace and planeswalked, leaving behind a shower of golden sparkles.
The Meditation Plane, formerly known as the Prison Realm, is a surreal place and if the plane likes you, its geography will mirror your thoughts and potential futures to an extent. The bubbles that used to lead to other planes disappeared with the Mending though. It was the first plane Ugin and later I, planeswalked to when our sparks first ignited.
It may seem strange to some that I would find comfort in what is basically my old prison cell, but I don't see it that way. If this place wasn't used to contain me, until my escape, then I would never have become Jaune Arc. Who would Jaune Arc be if my spirit hadn't entered Remnant's soul cycle? Would he have wanted to be a huntsman to uphold the family legacy? Or would he have abandoned everyone's expectations of him to follow his own mundain dreams?
Those were the thoughts that flickered through my mind as my human form slipped away, replaced by the gilded scales of the most ruthless of the Elder Dragons.
It may be a cliché but flying on your own wings is a good way to center yourself. To push chaotic thoughts aside. Meditation does not always constitute sitting in silence and hoping your mind doesn't wander. Meditation can be running, swimming, hitting a punching back or for me flying. If it calms your mind the end goal is achieved.
Once the muscles in my wings began to burn from the exertion, I landed on top of the mountain overlooking Ugin's monument, curling around the peak like a serpent.
Ugin, was much kinder than I would have expected. When he altered the plane in his image, he left the Pools of Becoming and Bolas's Donjon as they were. A small piece of comfort to wait out my inevitable end.
Naturally I took advantage of that kindness. The Pools of Becoming still remembered me and responded. When I had enough strength, I used them to form one last bubble and flew through it before Ugin could stop me. Without my spark the trip left me hanging onto life by a thread. The landing did the rest.
"I did not expect to find you back here." A familiar spoke behind me. I didn't reply.
"So, you remember." He stated not asked.
I finally turned my head to look at my twin brother.
Ugin has been described as ineffable and to some extent I would agree. Mist and light were constantly flowing off his scales. Scales that could be anywhere between blue, grey and green at any given moment. His wings are feathered and give an angelic motif to his appearance.
While my scales where smooth everywhere, his jutted out into spikes on his shoulders and hips. His head was shaped like mine. His horns were jagged and curved to the back of his head, mine are smooth and curve forwards.
We both have serpentine bodies that would not be able to stand upright without the aide of magic woven into our very beings from the day of our creation. Vipers resemble me, just as cobras resemble Ugin with that ridiculous hood of his. We truly are twins. Mirror images of each other yet with so many distinct differences that we couldn't be mistaken for the other.
"I would ask why you did it, but I already know the answer." I replied.
"Oh?"
"If I had remembered that you where my jailer and my brother, I wouldn't have trusted you to teach me, maybe even grown to resent you. Then I would create a plan to be ride of you once and for all. Bringing us back to where we started. You trying to thwart me at every turn and I doing everything I can to kill you. I cannot fault you for breaking the cycle." I spat with the barest hint of venom.
"And how do you feel about that?" Was he really asking me this?
"I rarely bring colour alignment into an argument but you brother, embody colourlessness quite well. Everything you do has some sort of logic to it. Like a construct you carry out your directive without concern for the well being of those around you unless that is your original goal to begin with."
I paused but Ugin made no move to speak, to defend himself. That made the cold ember of rage in me burn.
"The Ineffable they called you, like you are some sort of deity. Maybe to some you are as good as but to me you are just a ghost of the brother, I thought I had. A spectre that refuses to leave me be even when I stay away from your precious multiverse. No matter what I do I cannot be rid of your meddling and arrogance!" I bellowed shaking the mountain I sat upon.
Again, he didn't reply giving up I huffed a plume of smoke from my maw and turned away from the annoyance I once called kin.
"Letting you live on Remnant was not a logical choice." He finally spoke.
I turned my head back towards him.
"The logical choice would have been to bring you back here; burn your body and cripple you mind so that you would die and fade in this prison like I had originally intended."
"So why didn't you?" I asked, still not trusting his words.
"Because for the first time in millennia I had hope. You accuse me of being detached and you would be right. I had accepted my fate. Doomed to wander the multiverse without my twin. Your spark igniting was my greatest joy, the reality of your rage my greatest sorrow. I could learn all the secrets of the multiverse, but it wouldn't matter if I had no one to share my discoveries with."
Nice try. I am not so easily fooled.
"Even when I had decided to end your tyranny, I couldn't kill you. I was going to wait for you to die here of old age because I was in no rush to return to a world that I would outlast. People that would die while I remained just the same. Two fates awaited me, either I became so unfeeling that there would be no distinguishing me from our animalistic cousins or I finally died because I couldn't care enough about my own life to preserve it."
That shook my indifferent front. Did Ugin just admit that he would destroy himself in his grief over me? No, just more lies.
"Then you escaped, and I found your soul in the body of a human babe, your body in a mountain range. As you grew, I kept watch waiting for some sign of Nicol Bolas, but it never happened. So, I took a chance and lead you to your dragon bones. Even when Bolas tried to subvert who you had have become, I still had hope. I helped you relearn your magic and control your memories. I taught you the secrets to colourless magic because I trust you and despite everything, I still believe in you."
I could see it in his eyes. The raw and desperate honesty held in those draconic irises. I want to believe him. I truly do, but I can't. Not after all the lies and manipulations.
"So, you condemned me to a fight for my very identity. A fight that I am still waging, just so that you could have some facsimile of your brother back? And they call me the evil one." I whispered, the need to fight having left me.
"Angry that I am cold and detached, angry when I act on my own desires. There is truly no winning when you are involved."
"You took the words right out of my mouth." I replied.
"What a pair we are."
"Indeed." I snarked.
"But I don't think you came here to argue with me so what is it that troubles you?"
"I thought you would already know considering how much you like to spy and manipulate me." I hissed.
"I told you I trust you now. I don't stalk those I trust only prey." Ugin replied.
I considered remaining silent but if he truly did not know then I should be able to surprise him and then I will know if he speaks the truth and hasn't been spying on me.
"I've fallen for the daughter of Liliana and am unsure on how to proceed." I spat.
For a single heartbeat there was silence. Then a rumble that turned into a sound I had never heard before.
Ugin was laughing.
He almost fell out of the sky he was laughing so hard holding his midsection with his talons like he was trying to keep his innards from spilling out. If I was human, I would be blushing. As it is my wings were shaking in agitation.
"You're telling me that Dominaria's most ancient evil, the Elder Dragon who fancied himself a god, loves a human woman? And not just any human but the daughter of a necromancer that he taunted and tortured before killing her lover?" Ugin wheezed.
"It's not that funny."
"Oh, you have no idea how funny it is. I never could have devised such a predicament in my most fevered dreams." He teased.
At least I know the nuisance was not lying about not spying on me.
"Not, helping." I ground out.
"Fine, fine, tell me about the majestic creature that stole your stone-cold heart." Ugin asked sarcastically.
Were to begin, do I talk about how she moves across a battlefield like a wingless angel from the Flight of Goldnight?
Ugin snickered.
"I said that out loud, didn't I?" I asked.
"Yes but go on."
I hissed at him in annoyance even going so far as to stick my tongue out like an agitated snake.
"I guess the most intriguing aspect of her is how caring she is." I relented.
"Oh?"
"Anyone else with her accomplishments would be arrogant myself included. Yet all she wants is friends. Gideon shining through no doubt, but I've let slip that I am a reincarnation of an ancient evil, care to guess what she said?"
"What?" He asked.
"She said I was already a better person because I feel guilt and that she was proud of me. I didn't realize how heavy the guilt weighed on me until she dispelled it by saying that."
"Hmmn, truly fascinating however I am failing to see what your problem is. With the way you describe her I would assume you would have gone through whatever customs Remnant abides to make her your bride. What's stopping you from deepening your relationship with her?" He asked while pointing a taloned paw at me like a human would to silently ask for an answer.
The moment of truth. Do I reveal the root of my insecurity? Nothing to lose, I guess.
"I regaled my friends of the tale of our origins but not my identity in the fable. They all hate Nicol Bolas. Pyrrha though was afraid that the monster that took her father would come for her. I had to lie to her. Assure her that the fiend she fears is dead and gone when in reality she is laying bare her fears to the object of those insecurities. I am a liar and no different then Bolas." I spat at the end of my rant.
"You are no liar." Ugin replied evenly.
"What?"
"You are not a liar. When I look at you, I see someone else wearing my brother's scales. It is strange at times to see all the little tells my twin had absent from his form, replaced with new ones. Open ones. The Nicol Bolas of old is dead and gone. You are the seed that grew from his ashes. Sure, you two may share some similarities but the core of who you are is fundamentally different. I wish he could have become you without all the pain and death that seemed to be required."
"I do not believe Pyrrha will see it that way." I countered.
"If we could convince everyone that our way is the best way then Jace Beleren would have resealed the Eldrazi on Zendikar before impaling himself on an Eternal's spear. All you can do is tell her the truth and leave the decision to continue your courtship in her hands. If she is anything like her mother, then I have faith she will make the right choice."
For a moment I was silent. Baffled by Ugin using Liliana's choice to turn on me and drain my spark with zombified gods as evidence to her daughter's ability to make good decisions. I turned my thoughts away from that confounding conundrum.
"I do plan on telling her, eventually. Just not right now. Not when things are starting to go my way for once." I whispered.
"So, when do you plan on telling her? Next week? A month? A year? Just before your married by Remnant custom? Or perhaps you will wait until your first-born pops out with gilded wings? Or are you going to wait until the child starts to mature and grows horns like you? Killing Liliana from the shock." Ugin lectured.
"I see your point Ugin. I have no intention of waiting that long. Better to carve out a piece of her heart before she has given up any of it."
"That was both incredibly dark and romantic." Ugin replied smugly.
"You had thousands of homunculus kids on Tarkir via alchemical storms and no female involved what would you know of romance?" I countered.
"I may be called the Ineffable, but I have never been called celibate and if I was it would be a lie." He spoke. His toothy grin growing impossibly wider.
Even my supernatural intellect paused to process what was happening before me. Ugin, a twenty-five-thousand-year-old dragon of near incomparable wisdom and knowledge was proudly telling me he wasn't a virgin like some teenage human scholar would to a warrior in training. I had to stop thinking about it lest my mind fractured again. I was however going to get answers to certain questions before I return to Remnant.
"The foul thought of you fornicating aside do you really think my kids will have wings and horns?" I asked, switching to a more human linguistic halfway.
"How would I know? I'm just an eternal virgin with only homunculus offspring to call me daddy." He answered, also switching to human slang, and shrugging his shoulders in that infuriating way an ass would.
"You'll be saying uncle if you don't answer." I snarled while pouncing from my perch towards his still floating person. The burn from my earlier flight healed with barely a thought from my aura and semblance.
What proceeded was a flying game of cat and mouse that did more for my worried mind then our strange conversation ever could. When was the last time we were not at each other's throats? Twenty thousand years? If we could start the journey to reconciliation after so long, then maybe there was hope for Pyrrha and I. Only time will tell, right now I have an annoying flying reptile to catch and squeeze information out of like the infuriating pimple that he his.
Hi guys and gales, sorry for the long wait. While it took over a year to get to this story for an update, I have not been neglecting writing as a whole despite the pain in the ass this last year been. In fact, if some you haven't already found it, I recently posted a new crossover story between My Hero Academia and MegaMan Starforce 3 called the Black Ace of UA. If you're into either of those two and like my sense of humor then I highly recommend you read it and if you can, leave a comment in either of these stories I would greatly appreciate it. Your words of appreciation are what keep my confidence in my writing up and the constructive criticism helps me improve. I hope you enjoyed this short and long overdue chapter
Justus3138