An obvious rip off of AoT and, maybe, the greatest anime speech ever.
Jaune sat on a rock in the shadow of Vale's once great wall, now nothing but a fractured relic. Jaune bowed his head to rest on the pommel of his sword as if in prayer. He was just out of sight of a group of young hunters who shuffled nervously and whispered amongst themselves. For this reason, alone, he allowed himself a moment of weakness—a moment where he did have to hide his shaking knees and wet eyes.
"Jaune?" Ruby called quietly and laid her hand on his shoulder, feeling his shaking through the layers of coarse fabric.
Jaune looked up and met her silver eyes; for a moment, he was back ten years in time. When he first met those eyes in one of Beacon Academy's many courtyards, that moment didn't last long, though they were still Ruby's eyes that no longer sparkled like they had when Jaune first met her. Hope and laughter had long since faded from Ruby's eyes. Only sadness and quiet resolve remained.
"Do you see them, Ruby? The fallen. They're judging us, judging me. Wondering what I've done with the sacrifices they've made."
Ruby's eyes grew even sadder. She could see what Jaune saw. They were all around them; so many people, comrades, and friends. Jaune and Ruby were the final survivors of the Beacon tragedy. The de facto leaders of what remained of the Hunters of Remnant.
"Do you think they despise me for what I'm about to do?
Ruby surged forward and pulled Jaune into a desperate hug.
"I see them, Jaune, but there's no hate. They're proud. Proud to have fought. Proud to have died for what they believed in."
Jaune took a deep breath. "Maybe you're right. Maybe it's all in my head, of no more importance than a child's bad dream."
Jaune looked away from Ruby, turning his attention upward to stare at the sky. Jaune wished that such dark clouds didn't cover it. He would have loved to feel the sun on his skin one more time.
Jaune closed his eyes and once more hardened his resolve, and when he stood, his knees no longer shook.
"It's time. Are you ready?" Jaune asked Ruby, his lips pursed in a grim line.
Ruby nodded, and together they walked to where the young Hunters, barely more than children, waited.
As Jaune and Ruby grew closer, the whispers came to a halt, and each man and woman stood together, watching their heroes stride confidently forward.
Stopping before the group, Jaune looked every one of them in the eye.
"I won't lie." Jaune's voice carried over the distant braying of Grimm in the distance.
"We have two options. First, we wait here in what would be a futile attempt to defend this broken wall."
Jaune paused long enough for everyone to hear the distant roars grow louder.
"Or we charge out to meet them and die as Hunters!"
A muffled sob was the only response Jaune received as a small girl whose name he had never gotten a chance to learn fell to her knees, holding her hands over her mouth as tears fell in waves.
As her cries became louder, the spell of silence that had fallen over the group lifted.
"You...How can you…You're supposed to be heroes!" A boy called out, his voice shaking and catching in his throat. "Are you saying there's no hope?"
"No," Jaune's voice was level and strong, and though he didn't shout, his voice was clearly heard by all.
"Everything that you've done has made this moment possible."
Jaune pointed towards the line of trees 200 meters away from the wall they stood before.
"Right now, it isn't just the Grimm marching on us, but their leader. Salem has finally left the protection of the Grimmlands. She is finally vulnerable. We will be a distraction to Salem and her Grimm, and while we do that, Ruby will come from behind and assassinate the bitch."
The young man who had spoken up just shook his head as tears gathered in the corner of his eyes.
"But it's not guaranteed, is it? And either way, we're all going to die, so you're saying it's better if we at least die fighting."
"I am."
"Then it doesn't matter if we disobey you, right? It's meaningless, we're all meaningless, but at least we could live to fight another day!"
Jaune stared ahead of him and shook his head.
"Everything you thought had meaning; every hope, dream, or moment of happiness. None of it matters as you lie bleeding out on the battlefield. None of it changes what a Grimm's claws can do to a body. We all die. But does that mean our lives are meaningless?"
Even as Jaune spoke, Grimm came out of the forest, but no one paid attention, captivated by the intensity in Jaune's eyes.
"What about our slain comrades? What about their lives? Were they meaningless?"
As Grimm began to flood the plain, Jaune screamed over the thundering steps and the sound of their howls.
"They were not! Their memory serves as an example to us all. The courageous fallen! The anguished fallen! Their lives have meaning because we, the living, refuse to forget them! And as we charge to certain death, we trust our successors to do the same for us!"
Jaune unsheathed his sword as he saw the light and strength return to the gathered Hunter's eyes.
"Mankind's fate is decided now! So I ask you to charge me! To give your hearts and souls to the cause!"
Two dozen voices responded at his final call, and their war cries echoed across the plains.
'Just a little bit more.' Jaune told himself.
"Today, you become more than my Hunter's. Today you become my heroes! Charge!"
Sword pointed towards the encroaching hoard. Jaune was the first but not the last to sprint out until all, but one person was charging forward.
'I'm sorry.' Ruby silently offered as she watched her best friend run straight into hell for the final time.
Activating her semblance, Ruby vanished in a shower of rose petals to carry out her role in Jaune's desperate gambit.
On the Ground, Jaune charged at the forefront, but as he got closer and closer to the Grimm, he could feel the negative energy they exuded begin to sap his and his small army's strength. Jaune couldn't allow such a thing.
"This is it!" He bellowed out. "This is the moment of truth, your defining moment!"
The two groups were moments from clashing.
"Today, you are heroes!
Seconds away from running headlong into the first line of Grimm, Jaune called on the power of his soul, and white light began to surround him. He focused on it and connected to the twenty-four men and women around him, boosting their Aura beyond what any of them would have thought possible. As he did, each of their Aura's responded and shone with an undeniable brilliance in a rainbow of pure color.
"And my heroes do not buckle or yield when faced with the cruelty of this world!"
Jaune became lost in his world, in the maelstrom of emotion, barely aware of what he was saying.
"My heroes push forward! My heroes scream out!"
They put everything into their screams; grief, anger, fear, determination, hope, and pride. But one emotion dominated all others as Jaune bellowed out his final words.
"My heroes, RAAAGE!"
Light and dark met in a cacophony of brutal violence.
Goal of this weeks class was to practice writing emotional characters. This was written as a bit of a warm-up to get me into the right headspace. I don't love it, but I've never liked trying to write out scenes from television into scenes like this, let me know what you think.