Location: Vacuo
7 Years Later
Ruby Rose, now 24 is currently engaged in a battle with Jaune Dark for the stolen Staff of Creation.
She is now almost a spitting image of her mother, minus her longer hair. She has also grown quite taller as well.
Her attire consists of black, skin-tight pants, black boots, a red belt with pouches for Crescent Rose ammunition, two silver rings on her left hand, a white, hooded cloak like Summer's, and a black shirt that covers only her chest and breasts, exposing her entire midriff.
Jaune Dark's new outfit consists of a sleeveless black tank top, black and grey camouflage pants, black boots with purple soles, and a pure black chest plate covering his upper abdomen trimmed with purple lining and similarly-colored bracers. Additionally, he wears black gloves with purple-colored metal armor plates over his fingers, as well as a grey pouch on his left side that contains ammunition for an unknown weapon.
Aside from the red sash around his waist, he is almost unrecognizable from his younger self.
Jaune Dark engages her with a variety of slash attacks with Crocea Mors MKII, which now has a slightly curved blade. They both strike each other at nigh unbelievable speeds. Before he can deliver a crippling strike to Ruby, she plunges Crescent Rose through his armor and into his stomach. Instead of reacting in shock from the injury, Jaune Dark lets out a small chuckle as black blood leaks from the wound.
"Nice shot"
Jaune Dark begins to stumble about after having been seemingly defeated. The Staff of Creation remains clenched in his right hand.
"Face it Dark, you've lost, now hand over the staff," Ruby demanded.
"You think so? What a fool. This battle was over before it even started."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Ruby said
"Why not I just show you?"
With a gesture of the staff, he conjures a blue-colored portal next to his right side, giving a view of the Land of Darkness, the Dark God's home.
"No!"
"After all these years of your futile attempts to beat me, you thought this would be the day? I honestly thought killing all your friends would've made you wiser. How pathetic."
Ruby tries to jolt herself towards him with her Semblance, however, the portal closes before she can reach it.
Jaune Dark falls about 30 feet from the Portal, it too instantly closes as he lands. As he gets up he looks at the pools of annihilation as well as Salem's destroyed castle.
"Yes, I finally made it, the birthplace of the Grimm." Jaune Dark said, walking towards an annihilation pool. Several Creeps spawn from the pool, growling when they see him.
With several strokes of his blade, the Grimm are effortlessly sliced in two. Jaune Dark looks into the pool, preparing to jump into it. He dives in headfirst. His body twists and contorts in the liquid, his arms and legs moving about in physiologically impossible directions.
Jaune Dark, covered in Grimm liquid crawls out of the pool, his skin deathly white. He opens his eyes, his irises now yellow with black sclerae.
"Whoa, what do ya know, it worked." Jaune Dark said, admiring himself in his blade's reflection.
He then creates another portal, purple in color leading into the main timeline Haven.
"Now it's time to ensure no one can stop my past, one at a time until it is done."
Jaune Dark throws the Staff on the ground before walking into the Portal.
The dinner table is abuzz as the currently present members of Team RWBY and the remaining members of Team JNPR all talk over each other indistinctly. The mood is quite cheery, with the children all smiling and laughing.
"How do you lose your map at a time like that?" Yang laughed
"Believe me, I've asked myself the same thing ever since."
Yang, Weiss, and Ruby laugh, while Jaune smiles and giggles sheepishly.
"Hey, but you made up for it, Mister Muscles! You shoulda seen this guy take a giant Grimm head-on!"
"I couldn't have done it without Ruby wearing it down." Jaune said
"Uh, me? Did you see Ren during that fight? He was out of control!"
"I'm sorry, I may have lost my temper momentarily."
"No, no! Out of control as in "awesome"!"
"Oooohhh. Thank you."
Everyone at the table bursts into laughter.
Jaune Dark manifests in the Patio outside of the house. He stretches as he gets used to his new surroundings.
"Mistral, it's so weird seeing it without all the rubble and death."
He quietly creeps up to the window, looking in to see the former heroes of his time alive and well.
"Would you look at these little blasts from the past, all still in one piece. But not for long." Jaune Dark said, walking away from the window.
Later on in the night, Jaune begins to hear ruffling noises coming from outside. Ren and Nora are awoken as well.
"What the hell is that?" Nora said.
"A Wolf maybe?" Ren suggested, looking at Jaune
"I doubt one would be up here, but I'm going to check it out just in case," Jaune said
"Alone?" Nora said
"It'll be fine, I'm coming right back."
He grabs his sword and shield before walking out the door. The outside breeze travels into his armor as he investigates the Patio. The rustling in a nearby bush catches Jaune's attention. He raises his sword as he cautiously walks to the bush. He pulls it only to see a Raccoon. It looks at Jaune, Walnuts clenched in its paws.
"Whoa, you scared me little buddy," Jaune said
As he turns around he bumps into Jaune Dark right in front of him, causing him to fall down.
"What the, what are you?" Jaune said, crawling backward, taken aback by his frightening appearance
"I'm you, or at least I was." Jaune Dark said, leering at him.
"No, no way"
Jaune gets up, immediately clashing blades with his older self. Jaune Dark attempts to slash at his head, Jaune ducks out of the way in time. Jaune performs an overhead slash at him to which he responds by quickly rolling away to the left. The two continue to strike each other intensely. Jaune swipes at him with Crocea Mors repeatedly, Jaune Dark dodges each one as he hits Jaune in the face with the hilt of his weapon, knocking him back.
"What do you want?" Jaune said, keeping a firm face as he gets up.
"What I want I already have, but I want to assure i will keep it. I'm going to make sure you turn out like me, no matter what it takes."
"Well you'll have to try forever, I'll never turn into you, never!" Jaune yelled
"Oh please, you already have turned into me and don't even know it. Just one little nudge can drive anyone crazy. Trust me it's only a matter of time "
"Well not me, not ever." Jaune said
"We'll see about that" Jaune Dark said, lunging at him
As they continue exchanging blows, Ruby and the others burst out of the front door, weapons in hand. Jaune Dark stops the fight, turning his attention to the others.
"Who the fuck are you?" Yang said
"Oh yes, Yang Xiao Long, you know in my weaker moments I missed your scathing sense of humor." Jaune Dark said, Yang forming a confused look on her face.
"Apparently he says he's my future self." Jaune said
"Future self?" Qrow said
"And the drunkard is here as well, how delightful." Jaune Dark said
He then steps back, sheathing Crocea Mors MKII.
"We'll meet again soon enough"
Jaune Dark lets out a menacing, sadistic laugh as a black smoke envelops him. He is completely gone after it clears.
"So, that was confusing" Nora said, looking at a baffled Jaune.
