A/N: New cover update, SWhoPG originally edited and added a few things from the cover that was made by me, and I tweaked a few things from said edited (just made it a little more darker and made the shining light balls have more shine)
AFoS - Chapter 2
Unspoken Truth
Unknown Place
"Hello there." A man that looks like he's around his early thirties said, he has short black with dark green highlights, his eyes are dark green and his pupils are like that of a predator with its vertical slit
Arcene looks around only to see pure darkness, a sense of familiarity fills her, which just confuses her 'I've been here before... But I would have definitely remember a place like this...'
And additionally, she felt like she should be panicking, after all, being presumably teleported into a place full of darkness would probably cause panic to any normal person, but she's oddly calm about this
"Who... Are you?" Arcene asked, despite his voice being familiar, she doesn't really remember him, or anything about him
"I... Am... Salvation." The man said with some pauses between the words
Arcene blinks, twice, thrice, and then asks "What...?"
"Just kidding, anyways, it's time to give you your memories back." The man said
Memories suddenly enter her mind... Or is it unlocked? Or whatever word to describe that
"Also, I can't give you all of your memories due to multiple reasons, but most of what you would consider important things are given back to you along with some other things." The man said
"... W-What...?" Arcene said, still trying to process everything
"I'll give you some time to process everything." The man said, disappearing into nothingness leaving Arcene alone
True to his word, no noise came from him for a few minutes as she tried to process everything... 'So... I died... And got reincarnated... Yeah... I didn't really liked my life... That was before I got reincarnated to be exact, but I already accepted that fact long ago, being reborn isn't really the worst outcome I could think of, but of course I just had to reincarnate to RWBY, but eh, could be worse so I wouldn't be complaining too much.
'RWBY is a mixture of Fantasy, Modern and Sci-Fi and my wishes actually works to my advantage here, I could maybe avoid becoming a Huntsman to avoid any conflicts... Wait... Conflicts, shit I didn't accounted for Historical settings, a good thing that I didn't reincarnated to that setting cause I don't really know a lot about history the more farther back it goes.
'I'm getting sidetracked again, anyways... Yeah, I could avoid becoming a Huntsman. While I haven't watched anything beyond Volume 3, I know some bits and pieces here and there from memes, fanfictions, the wiki, AMVs, etcetera, and to add on to that, I have not been in RWBY for a few months before my death so my knowledge has a lot of holes to say the least... Maybe I could change some things, but I might just make things worse for the long run, especially since like I said, I have a lot of holes in my knowledge of the plot of RWBY, so the consequences of my actions might do more bad than good...
'Not to mention, let's say I did decided to change things, I somehow stopped the Fall of Beacon, what would Salem do in retaliation? What if she plans something worse than that? Maybe stopping the Fall of Beacon would do more good, maybe it would do more bad... I don't know... Damnit!' Arcene thought to herself, getting more and more annoyed as time passed, she wants nothing more than to just destroy some things to reduce stress.
But that wasn't the first time she got annoyed to that level and she knows how to calm herself down, after a few seconds, she successfully calmed herself to a manageable level but the annoyance lingers on. Frankly, that was what happens practically everyday to her in her past life... Or is it him?
'Another thing...' Arcene thought to herself as she looked at her body 'I just had to be reincarnated as a girl, didn't I?'
She just eventually sighs 'Doesn't matter right now, I still need to figure out what to do, I'll just deal with it when the time comes.'
"You done?" A voice behind Arcene asked cause her to jump back in shock, though she did recognize the voice, it was the man from earlier
"Jeez, do you really have to do that?" Arcene asked in a slightly tired tone
"You haven't answered my question yet." The man said, dismissing her question
"Hm... Yeah, more or less." Arcene answered after a moment of thinking
"Alright, do you have any questions before I send you off again?" The man asked
"Was teleporting me here really necessary?" Arcene asked, deciding that this should be her first question as there might be some unforeseen consequences for doing this
"I didn't teleported you, I just took your consciousness to this place, your body is still in your room laying in your bed." The man answered
"Oh..." That was what all Arcene said in response to the information
After a few seconds, she thought of another question "So why did you took my memories in the first place?"
"One, do you think you could act like a somewhat normal kid if you have your memories with you?" The man answered it with a question
"No." Arcene answered immediately as she knows her acting skills is slightly above average at best, while she could lie as good as breathing, acting is a different matter entirely and acting as something she has no intimate knowledge of would be difficult
"And two, do you think a baby's brain could hold years of memories?" The man continued
"... No." Arcene answered after a moment of thought as she remembered that she herself thought of the exact same thing before when she was still planning on her story
She then started thinking of another question to ask "So... Why did you reincarnate me as a girl?"
"Weren't you the one who liked Gender Bender?" The man asked back
"Just because I liked Gender Bender doesn't mean you should make me a girl..." Arcene said in a matter of fact
The man just snickers in response "Yeah... Any other questions?"
"I assume you're not going to answer it...?" Arcene asked with a raised eyebrow
"Sure." The man just said, Arcene looks at him blankly as that isn't an appropriate answer to the question, but let's it go anyways
"Hm..." Arcene thought for a moment "Didn't you gave me two wishes and then I picked two powers for it? Where is it now?"
"I didn't think the you before you had your memories back could hide it, so I didn't gave it to you yet. Obviously now that you have your memories back, I'll also give it to you." The man answered and then explained
"But what about the Faster learning muscle memory? I could understand why for the... *Sigh* being able to know what happens around me thing ('I definitely need to name this.'), but what about the faster learning muscle memory?" Arcene asked
"I would've granted it if you started training or anything like that before you got your memories back, but you didn't, so I also didn't." The man answered "Any more?"
'That doesn't really answer the question...' Arcene thought to herself as she sighs in exasperation, she just decided to let it go knowing that the trend of not answering properly would continue, she then just asked "Why RWBY?"
"Why not?" The man once again answered it with a question of his own
Arcene only sighs in response 'As I have thought before, it could be worse.'
"So... Is that the last one?" The man asked
"Hm... Yeah, I th- Oh wait, I do have one more." Arcene said
"What is it?" The man asked, a bit curious
"What's 1 plus 1?" Arcene asked jokingly in an attempt to alleviate some of her annoyance
"Eleven." The man answered, also in a jokingly tone
"Though seriously this time, why specifically me?" Arcene asked
"You should specify what you ask before I answer." The man said
"I know you know what I meant." Arcene said while slightly frowning, but ultimately decided to just do what he said to not waste any time "Why kill me specifically? You tried to kill me three times and the last one was literally hurling a very large meteor at me... Why go to that length just to kill me specifically? Especially since I'm not really someone that special."
The man smiles hearing her question, after a few seconds of silence, Arcene sighs
"You're not going to answer me, aren't you?" Arcene asked with exasperation, and just as she predicted, the trend of not answering properly did continued
"Don't worry, you'll eventually know the answer in the future." The man said
"I have another question then, are we going to cross paths again?" Arcene asked
"Yes, why ask? Gonna miss me?" The man answered and then asked with a joking tone
"No, just in case I have more questions to ask you in the future." Arcene answered
"Alright, is that all?" The man asks
"Yeah... That's the last question I could think of for now." Arcene answered and then nodded
"Alright, just before I send you off, a word of advice: The true extent of the multiverse is beyond comprehension of almost if not all beings that exist, this clusters of multiple universes alone is already very vast, and this is not even worth a drop of the ocean that is the multiverse, with that said, anything and everything you could think of could exist somewhere in the multiverse, it's a practical guarantee that somewhere in the multiverse, someone is writing, reading and/or watching this exact conversation we're having, that's just how wide it is." The man said
Arcene blinks at this information, she thought of something almost the same before in her past life, while she isn't really someone especially special, she would certainly be considered weird if compared to her peers, heck, she could still remember the time when she stared at a glass of water as pondered if life is a dream, then if it is then what if the 'reality' that I wake up from was also a dream by a higher me? And that thought continued on from there, and that slight existential crisis happened when she was around seven or eight
She admits, she was a weird person in her past life, but she's getting sidetracked here again "So... Why say that to me? And how is that an advice?"
"I think you could figure that out on your own." The man said, Arcene frowns and furrowed her eyebrows in response but just sighs and decided to let it go
"Anyways, it's time to send you back." The man announced
"Finally." Arcene said with a slightly relieved tone
"What? Are you that eager to leave?" The man asked with a slight twitch of his lips
"Talking with you is just plain annoying." Arcene said bluntly
'You don't really answer most of my questions properly, but I guess this is better than just suddenly getting my memories back out of nowhere and getting no explanations whatsoever.' Arcene thought to herself as she looks both at the good and bad parts
"I know, I do that intentionally after all." The man said while smirking slightly and amusement dancing in his eyes
Arcene's eyebrow twitches as she is filled with annoyance once again, but she just pinches her nose and lets out a sigh
"Anyways, just before I send you off, the answer to your first question is: My name is Xelnaga." The man -Xelnaga said
Arcene's eyes widen in pure raw shock as she recognizes that name
"You-" But before she finishes what she's about to say, her vision turns to black as she becomes unconscious
February 18, 47 - Room
Arcene's eyes snaps wide open as she looks around frantically only to see her room, she tries to slow down her heavy breathing and tries to calm herself down
After a minute or so, she manages to calm herself down
'Of course, of fucking course, my own character killing me for his own amusement, definitely makes sense, though can't say I'm that surprised.' Arcene thought to herself
'Come to think of it, why am I even panicking over that? Sure it's quite a bit of shock but after literally reincarnating, my mind has started to actually consider some of my wild imagination as having some sort of semblance of truth... Then, did the shock of my own death finally caught up to me? Probably, though, I don't actually mind dying even in my past life. Heck, there are times I prefer dying, so maybe that's not it...
'If then, then where the heck did the panic came from...?' Arcene thought to herself, getting more and more frustrated as she sighs through her nose in annoyance
'And that 'advice' of his... How is that even an advice? And yeah, I already thought of something like that before, especially the last one where somewhere in the multiverse, this exact same scenario might be being watched, written, or read by... some... one... Wait...' Arcene's thoughts trailed off as she puts multiple informations together and connect the dots
'I was planning on rewriting Silver Light... Didn't I...? And Silver Light's premise is about a man being reincarnated as Summer's twin sister... And I'm Summer's twin right now... And not to mention, I was planning to change the MC's name since 'Silver' is very bland... And Arcene is one of the candidates for the replacement name along with Arianell, Eirian, and Ariana... This is my own doing... Isn't it? Or at least, another version of me in another universe...
I mean... All of this is definitely the type of something I would've done... Hm... Let's try that theory, shall we?
My name in my past life was Arv-' Arcene's thoughts screeched to a halt when a large piece of paper suddenly appeared right in front of her face, and not the kind where it floats- no, it was quite literally on her face, and add that to the fact it's large enough to cover her whole face
"Huh!?" Arcene said in shock but tried to make it as low to not disturb anybody, she remove the piece of paper from her face and then see something written in it
"Ey, do me a favour and shut up." Is what's written in the paper with dark green lines scattered around the paper
'I guess that's theory confirmed…' Arcene thought to herself while also looking at the paper with a blank look
(A/N: I have a drawing (colored) for this one scene, but unfortunately, FFnet (this site/app) does not allow to add images mid chapter, so I will just put up a link of said drawing that I published in DeviantArt
Link: https/x3lnaga/art/Note-of-a-Naga-926201693
Also, this is a collaboration with SWhoPG, more information could be found in the bottom A/N so I wouldn't create too much of a block mid chapter)
'Definitely something I would've done in my story as a sort of mix between an attempt at humour and protecting my privacy.' She thought to herself, she was always the type of person that if given the chance, will kill two or more birds with one stone
And then she realizes that the surrounding area around her is a bit… Dark
'Oh, it's still night…' Arcene thought to herself as she looked out the window 'The moon is quite bright tonight huh?'
'How come I didn't notice this earlier?' Arcene thought to herself as she looks back at the paper she'd holding while furrowing her eyebrows 'While I admit, I'm not the best in terms of spacial awareness, especially when I'm thinking very deeply just like what I was doing a moment ago, but I'm quite sure I would've notice that it's night time even with that.'
But she wasn't able to ponder upon it further as the paper she's holding suddenly bursts into black flames out of nowhere
"Wah!?" Arcene let out a noise of shock as she lets go of the paper and was surprised by the suddenness of it, she tried her best to not make it as loud but only achieved half of she wants, she was sure that it wasn't heard by anybody outside of the room but anybody inside would've definitely heard it
She then sees the paper she let go was just floating around in the air as it gets slowly dissolved by the black flames
'I thought black fire wasn't possible…?' Arcene thought to herself as she blankly looks at the burning paper, after all, she herself has thought of adding black flames to her story, but because of how she wants everything in her story has some sort of semblance of realism, she researched practically everything that she plans to add, black flames included
Black is the absence of light, and fire always emits light, maybe if you mix in some chemicals you could make a fire that looks black, but it would not be true black
Arcene stared blankly at the place where the now dissolved paper has once been 'Not to mention, it's floating. How is that even possible? Oh yeah, fantasy bullshit, probably. This is my new reality now I guess, it doesn't matter if I'm some text on a screen or being drawn up in a different universe.'
Little did Arcene know, Summer was woken up by all the noises she made
"A-Arcy?" Summer asked with a sleepy tone
"Huh?" Arcene then realizes that Summer was awake and puts two and two together and realizes that she was the cause "Oh… Sorry…"
"Is there something wrong?" Summer asked in a worried tone, now having more energy than a moment ago
"No... No, It's nothing..." Arcene said while shaking her head and then lays back at her bed
She then hears Summer standing up from her bed, Arcene thought little of it, thinking that she's probably just gonna go to the bathroom
Though, contrary to her prediction, she hears Summer's footsteps approaching her bed instead of out of the room, but she does not move at all, trying to convey to Summer that she wants to sleep
She then feels the bed shifting as Summer comes up to her bed, but before she could turn around and ask why she's gone here, she feels arms wrapping around her
"Did you had a nightmare?" Summer asked Arcene who freezes at the sudden hug but Summer didn't noticed it
"Uh..." Arcene was at loss, not expecting her to ask that and is still a bit shock from the hug, but before she could even say her answer and deny it, Summer beats her to it as she started talking
"Don't worry, I'm here." Summer said, misinterpreting Arcene's slight pause as hesitancy to answer, she then made her hug more tighter, but not tight enough to be uncomfortable
Arcene slightly flinches at the blatant display of skinship. Arcene before she had memories has experienced some skinship but because of her just recently getting her memories back, some experiences from her past life also came over to her current one and overridded any counterparts that she may have, the lack of any kinds of skinship for years before her death included apparently, or at least that's how Arcene reasons to herself, she can't really say that for sure unless she tries it out and test it
This time however, Summer noticed her slight flinch and she -once again- misinterpreted Arcene's actions and started muttering words of reassurance, Arcene wants to correct her but she was quite sure that Summer wouldn't believe her anyways and would just assume that she's trying to hide it because, honestly, she definitely would've done just that, she'd done in her past life hundreds of times before and a few times already in her current life
'It's funny how a child displayed more love and care for me in a few seconds than my parents for a few years before my death...' Arcene thought a bit disheartened, while she is certain that her parents in her past life loved her (or him), she didn't really felt that way at the time
Her father was like Arcene in her past -or even her current one- life in a lot of ways, and one of those are not being able to convey his feelings properly and usually approaches things hands off, so he didn't really managed to make her feel like she was loved, though she has no problems with that as she knows he loves her, but logic and emotions does not always go hand to hand with each other
And her mother... Well, her mother is a very complicated matter that she would rather not explain in depth, while she does manages to show her emotions much more clearly than her father, annoyance and anger is included to that and has a tendency to jump to conclusions
'And that's not counting the time when before both of them broke up.' Arcene thought to herself 'And let's not forget, there's also the matter of my stepfather'
Her stepfather... At first, he's an okay guy, but let's just say that opinion didn't lasted even a year, and the first meeting between him and her was around 4-5 years ago
The more Arcene thinks about her past life's complicated family relationships, the more sleepy and tired she becomes, and then she fell asleep before she even realizes it
*Earlier*
Summer was woken up by the constant noises that came from the other bed, she looks up to see her sister, Arcene is sitting up straight with a blank look at her face, she had seen that expression from her sister so many times now that it somewhat became normal for her to have that expression on her face
But something tells Summer that there's something different about Arcene
"A-Arcy?" Summer asked, slightly stuttering as she is still sleepy
"Huh?" Arcene then looks at her as she realizes she was the cause as to why Summer is currently awake "Oh... Sorry..."
Summer slightly frowns at this, there's something different in Arcene's tone, it's more... Sad? Frustrated? Scared? Whatever it is, she knows it's not something positive
"Is there something wrong?" Summer decided to ask as she becomes less sleepy as she is now more worried
"No... No, it's nothing." Arcene answered while shaking her head rather quickly, and then she lays down on her bed also a bit too quickly than normal
'Something's definitely wrong...' Summer thought to herself as she stands up from her bed 'Did she had a nightmare?'
That's the only things Summer could think of that could make her sister feel negative at this night, and also, she could definitely see her sister as being the type to hide that she's hurting or something like she's probably doing right now
Summer then started walking to her sister's bed, and when she reached it, she got on to the bed and hugged Arcene
"Did you had a nightmare?" Summer asked
"Uh..." Arcene hesitated, Summer took that as a 'yes'
"Don't worry, I'm here." Summer said as she remembers that Arcene the exact same thing before when she had a nightmare, and now that Arcene who had a nightmare, she would be the one who would be comforting this time around
Summer then hugged Arcene more tightly but she is sure it isn't tight enough to be uncomfortable, she then feels Arcene slightly flinches
If all of the things Arcene had done isn't an indication that she had a nightmare and she is hiding it, then this would've been the hammer to the nail
"It's okay... It's okay..." Summer doesn't really know any other words of reassurance, so she ended up repeating the same thing very little changes
But apparently, it still worked as after a minute or two, Arcene fell asleep
Eventually, Summer follows her sister as she too fell asleep
A/N: You know, I took the word 'Self-insert' literally, cause I literally interested myself into my own story, heh
Also, about the collaboration drawing, SWhoPG was the one who made the line art of Arcene and the hand and paper on Panel 1 while I was the one who added the background in all panels and also coloured it, this wouldn't without him cause I'm not as good as drawing up a character and I also initially planned to scrap it all together if not for the fact SWhoPG took over and created it, so check him out if you want
He also has a few stories that he made, two being posted here on FFnet under the same username (Azur Lane and Reincarnated as a Slime), check it out if you want
Date of Publish: August 17, 2022 (GMT plus 8)