Chapter 12 - The Truth Comes Out (Not That It Was Ever Hidden)


"Any idea how we're going to find a Moth Priest? Skyrim's a pretty big place." Serana asked Jaune, as the trio left Fort Dawnguard, before pausing as she registered the look on their faces. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"... why are you asking us?" Jaune replied, utterly bemused. After all, he'd been operating under the assumption that Serana had a plan.

"Uh, because my knowledge is slightly out of date?" Serana pointed out, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Jaune and Yang shared a look. Finally, Yang reluctantly answered: "Neither of us are local to Skyrim..."

Serana blinked, staring at the pair, before slowly admitting: "Okay, I can kind of see it with Jaune-"

""Hey!""

"But I was sure you were born and raised in Skyrim, Yang. Since, you know..."

Yang ground her teeth together at the jab, but restrained her anger. After all, she knew they needed Serana (for now), and no matter how much Yang may have disliked Serana for having them go to Castle Volkihar, she knew what the stakes were. She could be professional... as long as Serana was first, of course.

"Yang's actually from... Cyrodiil, right? Wherever Bravil is..." Jaune quickly interjected, seeing a muscle twitch under her eye. "But her mother was from Skyrim, and she's well-versed enough in current affairs (compared to me)!"

"Why don't we just follow Isran's suggestion?" Yang said, keeping her voice level. "Check with innkeepers and carriage drivers?"

"Unless you have any other ideas?" Jaune followed up, desperate for ideas. After all, second chances to fix mistakes didn't come often; he would save the world and stop Harkon, whatever the personal cost. It was really the least he could do.

Yang saw the resolve on his face, and sighed, but decided against commenting. At worst, it would be a glorious death worthy of Sovngarde, after all.

"Well, back before I... you know. The College of Winterhold was the first place I'd think to go for any kind of magic or historical thing." Serana suggested, after some thought. "The wizards know about all kinds of things that people shouldn't know about."

"... does the College still exist, Yang?" Jaune asked. "Because, if it does, it sounds like a promising lead."

"It does, actually. It's probably the last landmark still standing in Winterhold." Yang confirmed, before adding with a frown: "Not many carriage drivers or inns in Winterhold, though."

"Should we split up, then?" Jaune suggested. "We'd cover a lot more ground that way."

"I'm not leaving her unattended." Yang said matter-of-factly, pointing to the vampire. Serana rolled her eyes, too used to Yang's attitude to even bristle, but as Jaune pouted at her, she explained: "Even if I did trust her, which I don't, her father would be a fool not to have search parties looking for her and the Scroll. And he had enough vampires to destroy the Hall of the Vigilants."

Jaune nodded in understanding, but a smirk crept up Serana's face, and she countered: "Well, what if he goes with me to Winterhold, and you ask the innkeepers and carriage drivers?"

"Over my dead body." Yang snarled without a moment's hesitation. "There is no way I'm leaving him alone with you.

"And don't even suggest going alone to the inns and carriage drivers by yourself." Yang spun around and jabbed her finger in Jaune's chest as he opened his mouth. "I am not leaving you to wander Skyrim alone."

"Why not?" Serana spoke up curiously, looking between the pair.

"Even if he knew anything about Skyrim, with his luck and attitude, he'd probably trip over a fourth world-ending conspiracy or revelation, or find a few dozen villages that need saving."

Serana stared at the matter-of-fact way Yang had said it, as well as an embarrassed Jaune's lack of response. Then she realized something, and asked: "By the way... why is Jaune's knowledge so poor?"

"What do you mean?" Jaune replied, confused.

"I mean, when it comes to explanations, especially on local stuff and recent events, you always seem to defer to her, and she explains for you, even though I know she'd rather chop my head off than talk to me. But I know you're not dumb; you seem pretty good at coming up with plans on the fly..."

"Well..."

"Like I said, he's not from around here." Yang said firmly, trying to put a stop to the subject.

"Neither are you." Serana pointed out, refusing to be deterred.

Jaune put his hand on Yang's shoulder before she could retort, calming her down. She raised an eyebrow, asking if he was sure, and he shrugged. After all, it wasn't like it was a big secret, or that Serana knowing it would really change much. Facing Serana, he repeated: "Like Yang said, I'm not from around here."

Serana blinked, trying to figure out the meaning behind his words. "What, like an even further province?"

Blank stares and pointed looks were her only response.

Serana tried again: "Even further? What, like a different continent? Atmora? Akavir?"

"Try again." Jaune encouraged her, even as Yang rolled her eyes. Atmora had long since frozen over, and the last known person to have gone to Akavir was the Nerevarine, who'd never returned. To be fair, though, the truth was even more unrealistic than there still being Men or Mer in Akavir.

"..." Serana thought long and hard. There was only one other place she could think of, that sentient races still existed, but the idea was ludicrous! Eventually, she half-jokingly said: "I don't think you're from Oblivion; you don't reek of the daedra..."

"Close enough." Yang answered, savoring the look of shock on her face. "He's from a different dimension, one beyond even Oblivion."

"What?!"

"Well, different dimension, different reality, different world; I don't know the proper term for it..." Jaune clarified sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "But I come from a place called Remnant."

"... you're joking, right?" Serana asked skeptically, studying Jaune. Nothing about him suggested that he was from another world; he looked, smelt, and sounded exactly like a Nord! "I expect shit like this from Yang, sure, but not you."

"Was I this skeptical when you told me about Remnant?" Yang murmured to Jaune.

"I don't remember, since I was still trying to get over my death." Jaune whispered back with a shrug, before addressing Serana: "Well, it doesn't really matter if you believe me, but why would I lie about this, let alone tell such a tall tale?"

"I don't know!" Serana snapped back, even as her mind raced. He raised some good points, sure, and sometimes it did seem like he'd been living under a rock, but the idea of a person coming in from a dimension beyond Oblivion raised so many questions about cosmology! Scholars said the sun and the stars were holes in reality drilled by Aedra who escaped being tied to Nirn; the tales never mentioned where the escaping Aedra drilled to! But still... "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, Jaune. As much as it would explain, I need some proof."

Yang rolled her eyes and punched Jaune before Serana could react.

To her surprise, instead of Jaune being sent flying, or getting his bones broken by the blonde barbarian, a bright flash blinded her sensitive eyes, and her vision returned only in time to see a shimmering white field surround Jaune.

"Aura." Jaune stated, rubbing his arm while pouting at Yang, and as Serana cautiously approached it and started prodding at it, he explained: "It's something we had, in Remnant, to allow us to fight monsters. My... former... partner and friend, the one who unlocked it, she told me it was the soul."

"Amazing!" Serana exclaimed, as she explored the field with her extra senses. "It's like a ward and a protection spell in one, but I can't feel any magicka in it!"

"There's no magic in Remnant. That's probably why you can't feel any magicka." Jaune added helpfully, as Yang stopped Serana from poking Jaune any further.

"No magic? And you mentioned monsters? How do you survive?"

"We have technology instead. Weapons, transports, and everyday devices powered by elemental crystals called Dust." Jaune shared as much as he could without going into the specific principles behind them; not only was he not nearly as well-versed on things like weapons or Dust as Ruby and Weiss, but even he could probably guess that sharing the ideas behind guns with a medieval society probably wasn't the wisest idea.

"Like his shield-sheath." Yang spoke up, knocking on his shield, and he flicked it back into its sheath configuration easily.

"Yeah, my shield only does that." Jaune explained, as Serana gawked at it. "My partner's sword could turn into a javelin and a... well, I guess the closest equivalent would be a crossbow."

"HOW?!"

"Mecha-shift technology. And before you ask, no, I don't know how it works either." Jaune forestalled her questions. "This was a family heirloom."

"Oh..." Serana felt disappointed. Sure, she didn't really use weapons, but she couldn't help but be fascinated by the knowledge of a whole new branch of technology (not to mention a whole new reality), just waiting to be discovered! Something else caught her attention, though, and she asked: "What was your family like?"

Yang surreptitiously leaned in closer, hiding her interest in the change in subject. She hadn't brought the subject up with Jaune beyond asking if he'd had any older siblings, not wanting to remind him too much of home (of what he'd lost), but he'd been in Skyrim for almost a month now. And if he took it poorly, well, she wouldn't be the one he held responsible.

Jaune, for his part, shrugged and smiled softly, having made up his mind when he'd run away from home before Beacon had started. "Oh, growing up with seven older sisters was definitely... memorable. Always there to do whatever they wanted... but never a dull moment. I wouldn't have traded it for anything."

"You loved them very much." It was a statement, not a question.

"I still do." Jaune said without any hesitation.

"Did something happen to them?" Serana had noted the way Jaune had phrased his sentences.

"Oh, no... I don't think anything's happened to them." Jaune quickly replied reassuringly. "It's just that... I left home, left everything behind, to chase my dreams of being a hunter, a hero."

Yang's eyes widened behind them. She knew he'd been training to be a "Hunstman", but she hadn't known he'd left his family behind, for the sake of a dream. At least his was more noble than her goal of finding (and punching) Raven Branwen. Silently, she gripped his shoulder, and he leaned into the contact.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know..." Serana tried to apologize, but Jaune waved her off.

"It's okay, it was a while ago." Jaune fought down the nostalgia of being dressed up and having his hair done by a mob of older sisters, and idly wondered if his fraternal sister had grown taller (or gotten over how much taller he'd grown compared to her). Of family camping trips, of long nights in blanket forts on the couch watching horror movies, of comics and chips and conflicts. Petty squabbles over meaningless things.

He didn't regret going to Beacon (Teams NPR and RWBY made it all worth it, even Cardin), but that didn't mean he didn't miss his family at times.

Yang frowned, noticing the expression on his face, and felt uneasy, though she didn't know why.

Serana missed it, however (not having seen anything like the look on his face, in her dysfunctional childhood), and instead continued her interrogation: "So, how did you come here?"

"I died." Jaune shrugged nonchalantly. "A dragon led by some woman with fire powers attacked the academy I was at."

Serana's eyes widened, and she echoed: "Died? Dragon? Fire powers?"

"Remember the monsters I mentioned? Remnant's infested with monsters, creatures of darkness and shadow, made manifest in the shape of nightmares. We call these bone-masked monstrosities the "Grimm", and they range from werewolves to bears to giant scorpions. Apparently, there was also a dragon Grimm, sleeping under the mountain."

"... and the fire powers? I thought you said Remnant didn't have magic."

"We don't... I think... what we do have instead are Semblances, reflections of the soul. I knew a hyperactive girl whose Semblance was super speed, for example, and my partner could control metal at will."

"And that's not magic?" Serana asked, skeptically.

"I said the same thing myself..." Yang murmured under her breath.

"Well... everyone only has one Semblance?" Jaune weakly explained, though it was starting to sound hollow to him. "And it's unique to each person?"

"If you say so..." Serana dropped it, though she clearly didn't see the difference herself. After all, there was something more pressing. "And what do you mean... you died?"

"I got stomped on by the dragon before taking an arrow to the chest. Next thing I knew, Yang here was waking me up."

"Then you threw up on my boots, Vomit Boy." Yang added fondly, unable to resist the jab. Reminding him of better times would surely be better than letting him dwell on how much he'd lost, right?

Serana clearly didn't share the same sentiments, as she ignored Yang's teasing and instead asked: "Do you... do you ever miss your old life?"

Jaune paused, for a moment. Sighing, he replied: "It doesn't matter. I'm here now, and I don't think there's any way back. Anyway, what about you?"

"What about me?" Serana was confused by the sudden change in topic.

"Yeah, tell us a bit more about your family." Jaune encouraged with a smile. "You're fighting your father, right? I can't imagine that's easy for you..."

Serana was speechless. This was the first time she'd been asked for her opinion on the topic; even her own mother hadn't considered her feelings about being dragged into a civil war between her parents, before she'd locked her up for centuries. For a moment, she felt like shutting out Jaune and his words, and instead parrot the line her mother had always fed her about self-preservation and danger. Emotions were just a liability after all, unnecessary in the grand scheme of things.

A look at Jaune's earnest expression shattered that worldview. Even before they'd become vampires, her father had been obsessed with immortality, while her mother had always been more focused with her research than being a good mother. Sure, she had some good memories of growing up, but being the daughter of a tyrannical king had isolated her more effectively than being imprisoned. Things had only gotten worse after she'd debased herself, and her father had sacrificed most of his subjects, in pursuit of vampirism.

Jaune had been the first person who'd actually trusted her, given her the benefit of the doubt. Even when he'd learned she was a vampire, even when Yang had suggested they kill her, even without him knowing much about where she'd wanted to go (or why), he'd still offered to help. He was idealistic, naive, trusting... and the only person who'd treated her as more than a tool, or just another monster.

Molag Bal help her, she simply wanted to return the honesty he'd shown her.

Looking away, Serana finally choked out: "It... it really isn't. My father's a monster, but he was still my father. I just... I hate being forced to choose. But I don't have a choice. If he got his way, he'd doom us all."

Jaune could understand, feeling like you were trapped between a rock and a hard place. He'd felt that way, choosing between his family and his dreams, then between his team and Cardin's blackmail, then when he'd seen death, been forced to take a life.

Yang could understand too, being tied by blood to an absolutely detestable person. She didn't want to empathize or sympathize with Serana, but she couldn't help it. As much as she hated Raven, she hadn't been able to stop caring about her, even if it'd just been keeping a ear to the ground so she'd know which grave to piss on. And at least Raven wasn't a narcissistic vampire lord who wanted to get rid of the sun (as far as she knew). If Serana was telling the truth (big if there), Yang could at least (begrudgingly) give her some respect for her resolve. Idly, a small part of her wondered if Raven was even worth the effort, at this point. Between being the Dragonborn, the dragons returning, the vampire's conspiracy, and that fake Dragonborn who'd sent assassins after her, her life had become a lot more complicated than looking for a long-lost egg donor. Why should she let her past be shackled to that bitch?

As Yang chewed on her thoughts, Serana coughed, and asked: "So... what do we do? Head to the College, or ask around inns and stables?"

"Why not both?" Jaune suggested, recalling the city he'd passed by on the way to Fort Dawnguard. "We can go into Riften and check in with the city's inn. If we get no leads there, we can ask the carriage driver while hiring him to take us to the College at Winterhold-"

Yang winced as she heard his suggestion, and quickly interjected: "Vomit Boy... do you remember what I told you about Riften?"

"..." Jaune's brow furrowed, as he tried to recall the lectures she'd given him on the road. History and Geography had never been his best subjects, though. Also... "Not really... you were pretty vague when it came to Riften, Yang."

"Hive of scum and villainy, full of thieves and corruption, being burnt to the ground would only be an improvement to the city?" Yang prompted, trying to jog his memory, before frowning as Jaune shook his head, only drawing blanks. But his idea had some merit, she had to admit, and she counter-suggested: "Well, we can still ask the carriage driver at the stables, but its probably for the best if we stay out of Riften."

"Sure, I trust you." Jaune shrugged, not feeling bothered in the least. Yang couldn't help but smile at his words, though it faltered slightly as he added: "Since, as we've made clear, I'm not a native, and Serana's knowledge is probably slightly out-of-date."

"Vomit Boy, you should know better than to mention a girl's age." Yang chided him, taking comfort in their familiar routine.

Serana rolled her eyes at the implied jab, but decided not to comment. After all, it was still the nicest thing Yang had said about her. Instead, she nodded, and said: "Well then, let's go find a Moth Priest, and get this Elder Scroll read."

-ONE MOTH PRIEST (AND AN ADVENTURE) LATER-

"Now, if everyone will please be quiet, I must concentrate." Dexion Evicus, the Moth Priest they'd rescued near Dragon Bridge, instructed the group of Dawnguard agents around him as he held up Serana's Elder Scroll, and as the noise died away, he pulled the scroll open, and began: "I see a vision before me, an image of a great bow. I know this weapon! It is Auriel's Bow! Now a voice whispers, saying "Among the night's children, a dread lord will rise." In an age of strife, when dragons return to the realm of men, darkness will mingle with light and the night and day will be as one. The voice fades and the words begin to shimmer and distort.

"But wait, there is more here. The secret of the bow's power is written elsewhere. I think there is more to the prophecy, recorded in other scrolls. Yes, I see them now... one contains the ancient secrets of the dragons, and the other speaks of the potency of ancient blood. My vision darkens, and I see no more. To know the complete prophecy, we must have the other two scrolls."

"Come on, old man. You should get some rest." Isran said kindly to the exhausted-looking scholar (to the shock of many of the Dawnguard), and supported his frail form as he led him to a guest room.

Jaune felt tempted to give him some of his Aura, to heal the old man, but decided against it ultimately. After all, Dexion was trained to read Elder Scrolls; he'd be fine from just reading one Elder Scroll, right? Instead, he thought about what Dexion had said, before paling as his mind processed the words.

Yang recovered her voice first, and asked in a disbelieving tone: "Did... did he just say we needed two more scrolls?!"

Jaune just groaned into his hands in response, not trusting his voice for much more than that.


Author's Note: God, I hate writing dialogue, so much, especially when there's more than 2 people involved...

But yeah, Serana now knows Jaune's open secret. To be fair, he really doesn't have a reason to keep it a secret; if they're going to travel together, he wants there to at least be a modicum of trust, Aura can't be replicated anyway, and its not like he's telling her how to make guns. Nor does he have any idea how to recreate mecha-shift weapons and shields. And he's not telling her how to overcome Aura, how to bypass it, its strengths and weaknesses.

And I'd like to think Serana would at least be observant enough to pick up on the fact that Yang does all the explaining, even though Yang dislikes her intensely.

As for why Serana doesn't think her mother Valerica trusted her... Valerica locked her up, rather than take Serana with her to the Soul Cairn (or even tell her daughter and co-conspirator that she was going to the Soul Cairn). Sure, from Valerica's perspective she may have been sparing her daughter from blood starvation and a life in Oblivion (and keeping her location a secret so that she wouldn't be worried as well as being basic operational security), but I doubt Serana saw it that way.

And yes, Yang does pick up something from Serana, even if she'll never thank her for it. In the same way that Serana reminds Jaune of his past life, for better or for worse (mostly for the worse, as far as Yang's concerned), and Serana gets treated like a human and someone who can keep up with her snarky sarcasm

On a side note, a part of me's tempted to just skip through most of the Dawnguard arc. Why? Because a) its really just padding and fluff to develop their relationships more than anything else, and b) I've already written a Dawnguard-Volkihar war story. It feels like I'm just rehashing my original Skyrim story.

Of course, I could say the same about this whole story being a spin-off of my own other story, but, well... I never said things in this story would be the same as the previous one, did I?

Also, feel free to drop suggestions for possible future worlds/alternate versions of RWBY characters in the reviews! Because, while I've mostly finished fleshing out the plot for Skyrim, and roughly figured out Fallout, I haven't really thought much beyond that point.