Chapter 32 - Secrets & Surprises
"Um... it's not what it looks like?" Jaune sheepishly suggested as he put out his sword, trying for a third time to get the women below him to actually respond to him.
Ruby and Sarah continued staring blankly at the room in front of them, trying to process what they'd just seen.
Jaune's sword had just been frozen, on fire, and electrified simultaneously.
Jaune had been (and still was) glowing.
Jaune had been leaping from soldier to soldier, using their bodies as springboards as he'd quickly and brutally dispatched each of them through their power armor.
And there was a slope of ice that led up to the catwalks in the middle of the room. Ice. In the Capital Wasteland. In a room of concrete and metal. That had sprung up as Jaune had stabbed his sword into the ground. That Jaune had then used to run up to the catwalks.
As Jaune slid down the ice wall that he'd created, and descended down towards the pair, Sarah instinctively raised her laser rifle, and aimed it at Jaune.
Jaune froze mid-step. He wasn't worried about the danger the laser beams posed; even if his Aura levels were below half, the slow-firing laser rifle couldn't possibly hope to break his Aura before he got to her. But he didn't want to hurt Sarah; she may have been a bit of a bitch, but they had helped each other at the radio station. Also, Ruby was next to her, and he didn't want her to get desperate and try something stupid.
In the end, however, it was Ruby who did something stupid first, as she jumped between Sarah's laser rifle and Jaune, arms spread wide as she demanded: "What are you doing?!"
"Get out of the way, Ruby!" Sarah hissed as she tried to aim her rifle over the diminutive girl, trying to make her see sense. "He's dangerous!"
"He saved us from the Enclave!" Ruby pointed out, refusing to back down. "He saved you!"
Sarah glared at the stubborn ravenette Wastelander in front of her. Why were all Wastelanders so damned suicidal?! The man she was defending was clearly not human! He'd lied to them, hidden things from them, betrayed her expectations! The Codex was clear.
The Codex...
But she wasn't a blindly dogmatic follower of the Codex; she wasn't a damn traitorous Outcast, who'd abandoned her Elder and everything he'd stood for, was she?
Her father had taught her to be a protector of the Wastes, and not just a soldier. Of the value of loyalty, compassion, sacrifice.
Well-honed paranoia and dogmatic indoctrination warred with her father's teachings, and her own personal nature.
"He's also standing right here, and can hear everything you say." Jaune remarked drily, cutting through her thoughts.
Sarah's glare turned to Jaune, but as she saw his disappointed frown and folded arms, as she searched his eyes, all she could see was human apprehension, fear, worry, hope.
Jaune was dangerous, that couldn't be denied. But she had known that ever since she'd seen him go toe-to-toe with a behemoth, hadn't she? He could have been a threat... but if he'd wanted her dead, he could have just let her become a smear on the sidewalk.
She sighed, and reluctantly pointed her weapon at the ground. She still kept it in hand though, ready to be pointed back up at any time, as she snarled: "Talk."
It wasn't a suggestion.
Jaune released a breath he hadn't even known he'd been holding. Stepping forward, Jaune offered: "Thank you, Ruby, Sarah. So... uh... where do you want me to start?"
Well, Sarah had wanted some answers; she'd just never expected it to be in this manner. She began her interrogation: "Firstly, what are you?"
"I'm human..." Jaune began.
"Bullshit." Sarah interrupted harshly, raising her rifle once more.
"Wait, wait, wait! I wasn't finished!" Jaune hastily continued. "I really am human! Just..."
"Just what? Mutated? Experimented on? Augmented?" Ruby offered, looking him over. Sarah hummed, thinking about it. It... would explain a lot, to be honest.
Sarah remembered their records on the Enclave, the Master, and the Forced Evolutionary Virus. Had someone perfected it, leading to a human with enough strength to match a behemoth, to drive a sword through advanced power armor?
But that wouldn't explain the glow around him, that seemed to block laser beams. Unless what Vargas said about reactive armor had been true. Perhaps his skin cells were modified similarly, to generate and store energy, like a Pre-War electric eel, before releasing said energy upon receiving a strong impact?
The sword and the giant wall of ice was a bit harder to justify, though. Maybe the people who'd made Jaune, had also given him some secret experimental weapon? But he said he'd made it from the bones of a giant lizard he'd killed...
Jaune listened to Sarah's wild theories, and looked at Ruby, who quietly pled for answers. He sighed; it would be so easy to just go along with what she was saying. But Ruby had jumped in front of Sarah's gun to protect him, and Sarah had ultimately lowered her weapon and agreed to hear him out. At the very least, they deserved their trust to be reciprocated.
Jaune just sadly shook his head, and opted for the truth: "No... I'm fully human... but I come from another dimension, another world, where humanity progressed differently.
"I came from a world called Remnant, a world that is... very similar to this one, though there's a few differences, like the fact that our moon is broken.
"Anyway, for as long as we can remember, our world has been plagued by monsters called the Grimm. They're creatures of shadow and darkness, and their bodies disintegrate into smoke when they die. But they're also killing machines that are attracted to negativity, their numbers seem to be limitless, and they've overrun most of the planet.
"We've been barely able to hold the line, throughout the centuries, thanks to Huntsmen and Huntresses; Aura-enhanced fighters who train to keep them back. Aura is... honestly, I'm not so sure myself, but my partner told me it's supposed to be the manifestation of our souls. What I am sure of is that it does shield us from harm, and I can channel it into weapons to make them more dangerous, or into other people to heal and protect them.
"I was... training to be a Huntsman, when the school was attacked, and, well..." Jaune trailed off, unsure of how to continue. How in Oum's name was he supposed to explain about the dragon, or Semblances?!
There was a pregnant pause, following the utter revelation that he'd dropped.
Finally, Sarah spoke up: "That is... the single most unbelievable thing, I have ever heard. So, what, you died, and now you're here?"
"Come on, why would I lie about this!" Jaune protested, walking over to his shield, where it lay discarded on the floor, and transformed it back into it's sheath form. "Have you ever seen another shield do that?"
Ruby blinked, as she stared at it, trying to process everything she'd just heard. Jaune had showed her his shield before, how it had transformed into a scabbard, but he'd just said it was a family heirloom... which didn't necessarily have to be a lie, did it?
She'd thought it was just another one of those things about the world outside the Vault, but she really hadn't seen anybody else with a sword and a shield, had she?
Little things began to flash through her mind. Jaune's complete lack of experience with guns, his unfamiliarity with caps being currency despite having been outside before her, the ease at which he tore through enemies...
His story, it was just so crazy and unbelievable! So crazy and unbelievable, in fact, that she knew Jaune could come up with much better lies. If he was telling her something so absurd, it had to be true...
Well, as her father had always said (she fought down the pang as she thought about him. There would be time to mourn later...), science was about verification and reproduction. You needed to be able to verify your results and reproduce them.
Looking up at Jaune, she asked: "You said Aura can protect and heal people, yes?"
"Yup." Jaune nodded. "That's why all the stray shots that hit me just bounced off."
"And you can channel it into people, right?"
"Yup." Jaune was still unsure of what she was getting at.
Without hesitation, Ruby bit her thumb, drawing blood. She then held it up in front of a shocked Jaune and Sarah, and said: "Prove it."
Jaune didn't waste any time in rushing up to Ruby. His hands gently gripped hers, fingers cupping around her thumb, and he closed his eyes and channeled Aura into her.
Sarah watched in amazement, as the bleeding wound glowed a faint white, before rapidly closing itself up. Within a second, there was no trace that the wound had ever existed, save for the blood around it.
"Incredible..." Sarah breathed. Even an undegraded stimpak, a Pre-War cocktail of drugs, nutrients, and reagents designed to stimulate the body's natural regenerative process, wasn't nearly as fast or effective! And those had to be injected into the body! Jaune had just healed someone with his "Aura" with just a touch!
Ruby, meanwhile, could only gasp in shock, and focus on the warmth flowing into her. She didn't know why, didn't know how to explain it, but it felt like the warmth was alive, and as it slowly engulfed her, wrapped her in its presence, she felt its emotions. Comfort. Hope. Reassurance. Protectiveness. Apprehension. Fear. It wanted to comfort her, to let her know that everything would be alright, that things would get better, that it would protect her and keep her safe. At the same time, she could feel the fear of rejection tinging it, worried that she might push it away.
Complicated and indescribable emotions welled up from deep within her. She ignored them, pushed them down next to the emotions from watching James die. There was a more important thing to focus on, after all.
"You're really telling the truth, aren't you..." Ruby whispered, staring at her first Wastelander friend in a new light.
Then the dam burst.
Ruby was basically a blur as she ran circles around Jaune, firing off words so fast that his eyes were spinning in opposite directions, poking and examining him, until Sarah finally got over her shock and stepped in.
"Ruby, give him some space." Sarah chided gently, though she shared her amazement. "Jaune, when we get to the Citadel later, we're running a blood test on you.
"It's not that I don't trust you." Sarah quickly added, before he could retort. "But I am interested in seeing whether, genetically speaking, you really are human as we know it. Also, you know, trust but verify."
Jaune couldn't fault her for wanting a final piece of evidence. After all, despite his superficial and biological similarities to the Nords of Skyrim and the people here, he did wonder if they were all human, biologically speaking, or if they were all simply three different species that happened to look the same, eat the same food, and speak the same language by complete coincidence.
"Jaune?" Ruby's speech finally slowed down to coherent levels. "Why didn't you ever tell me you were from another dimension?!"
"Would you have believed me, Vomit Girl?"
"Wait, why do you use a shield and armor if you have Aura?" Sarah asked, looking down at his scabbard.
"Well... Aura isn't infinite." Jaune explained. "Sure, it recovers, but it can be worn down. It also doesn't really stop the force behind a hit. Remember how the behemoth managed to slap me aside when it took me by surprise?"
Sarah nodded in understanding.
Ruby, meanwhile, was salivating at his sword as she poked at it. "So... did you make that ice wall?"
"Yup." Jaune admitted sheepishly, drawing his sword and activating it. "It takes me a lot of concentration, though, so I can't really use it on the spot..."
"How is the blade on fire and frozen at the same time?" Sarah interjected, her curiosity peaking. The ramifications of Jaune's very existence were enough to blow her mind... so she'd leave that to the Scribes. As a soldier, she'd just focus on what she knew. "And how does it have electricity running through it? I thought it was made of bone."
"Magic." Jaune said bluntly.
"... of course your world has magic." Sarah just threw up her hands and rolled her eyes. "You guys have soul forcefields, why should I even be surprised about magic?"
"Well, my world doesn't really have magic..." Jaune rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.
"Soul forcefields and flaming swords don't count?"
"It's... complicated... I know most of the other students could make something like this, but it'd need Dust and wouldn't be nearly as sharp."
"Students? Dust?" Sarah echoed, before remembering what he said about a school. "... were you a teacher?"
"Oum, no! I was a student! And one of the bottom in the class, at that!" Jaune forced out a chuckle.
Sarah was at a loss for words, trying to comprehend the idea that Jaune was one of the worst students in his class.
"So, what is the giant lizard whose bones you made this out of?" Ruby piped up, refusing to be left out of the conversation. "And can you teach me magic, too? Can you make a sword like this for me?"
Jaune couldn't help but pinch the bridge of his nose, and wonder just how the hell he'd explain dragons and Skyrim as well as Remnant.
-EVERNIGHT CASTLE, LAND OF DARKNESS, FIVE MINUTES INTO THE TRIUMPH-
As Ruby and Pyrrha raced through the shaking fortress, and the ceiling and walls shuddered and trembled with every step, Pyrrha found herself once again missing Jaune, though this time it was for his ability to adapt and improvise on the spot (as opposed to every other waking moment since the Fall).
The morning had started out so well, too. Pyrrha had woken up to find their camp still undiscovered, safely hidden from the Grimm patrols that roamed the Grimmlands. Ruby and Yang were still there, having kept watch together that night. And they still had the Relic of Creation.
Once everybody had woken up, Ozpin (through Oscar, as usual) had gone through the plan once more. And as was usual for one of Ozpin's schemes (as she'd learned ever since he'd called her into his office and asked her to become the new Fall Maiden), it appeared deceptively simple, but ultimately relied on everybody fulfilling their roles to an absurd degree of precision.
Salem, of course, knew they had the Relic of Creation, and she knew they used it to create portals. It was, in fact, why her forces were spread so thinly throughout Remnant; each and every attack was bait, as her Grimm threw themselves unrelentingly in all-out assaults against the Five Kingdoms, intended to lure them out and pin them down so that she could bury them in weight of numbers. And if they never showed, well, each destroyed village or ruined town was one less spot for them to hide in.
Of course, she was also no fool. She'd have to have known they could try portalling directly into her throne room. And so, she would have also kept her best forces around her; Tyrian, Neo, and Emerald, along with whatever Gtimm and Atlesian robots they could spare.
The first phase called for the survivors of Ace Ops to simply carry out a direct frontal assault with everything they'd had; every bit of Atlesian weaponry they'd been able to save, before Atlas had fallen into Mantle. It was insane. It was suicidal.
It was the last thing she (or anyone for that matter) would have ever expected (according to Ozpin).
And that was exactly Salem would fall for it, and dispatch the forces around her to react to it (according to Ozpin).
Just to sell the illusion that the frontal assault was the main attack, Ozpin would be leading it.
Once Tyrian, Neo, and Emerald were accounted for, it would have been time for phase two. Qrow and Winter would keep Tyrian busy, Ren and Nora would handle Emerald (who wouldn't be able to resist the chance to kill a member of Team JNPR, who she blamed for Cinder's death in Haven), and Blake, Yang, and Weiss were tasked with distracting Neo.
At the same time, Ruby and Pyrrha would have used the Staff of Creation to create a portal to the top of Salem's castle, and work their way down from there, searching for the hopefully-less-defended Salem.
Sure, Ruby and Pyrrha probably couldn't kill Salem (since she was immortal), but they could still restrain her, kidnap her, take her out of the picture (and thusly weaken her influence over the Grimm) until Ozpin could come up with a more permanent solution.
As they confirmed the details a final time, the castle suddenly shook and trembled, as if an explosion had occurred from within.
The Atlesian drones manning their heavy weaponry, their cannons, their artillery, their Dust missiles, had been programmed very simply, to minimize Watts's ability to tamper with them without anyone noticing. Once the first explosion had been detected, they would fire everything they had, for as long as they could, at the designated target, until either they ran out of ammunition or were destroyed.
The expectation when they were programmed being that Ozpin and Ace Ops would open up the battle with explosions on the largest concentrations of Grimm, clearing a path towards the Evernight Castle.
As the castle continued shaking, dozens of cannons and hundreds of missiles were suddenly fired at the castle, before anybody was ready.
Nora Valkyrie simply stared for a moment, and yelled: "CHARGE!"
And just like that, they scrambled to salvage what they could of the plan.
"We've reached the main gate." Ozpin reported over Ruby's scroll, as they cleared the top few floors. "No signs of Neo, Sustrai, or Callows."
"Gotcha, Oz. Plan B." Qrow replied, as he led Winter and the rest of Teams RWBY and JNPR towards the castle. If they refused to be drawn out, well...
"Don't worry, Ruby." Pyrrha reassured Ruby, as the Scroll cut off. "This ends, today."
Ruby simply nodded Pyrrha, remembering what she had promised Jaune, earlier that morning. No more Falls. No more missing mothers or dead dorks. She would reclaim Beacon, build him a proper grave... and to do that, to stop the Grimm from attacking all over Remnant, they had to stop Salem.
Finally, after a few minutes of searching, as the castle continued trembling, Pyrrha and Ruby came across a pair of large and ornately-designed doors. They could faintly hear noises from behind them, talking, shouting. The doors were too thick, however, for her to recognize the voices, to make out words.
Pyrrha and Ruby paused at the edge of each door, and shared a look.
Ruby held out two fingers, before putting one down.
Pyrrha's grip tightened around the reforged Crocea Mors.
Ruby put down the second one.
It was time. The Fall, and Jaune, would finally be avenged today.
The two of them burst through the doors, ready for anything Salem could throw at them (since her ex-husband had briefed them on her capabilities).
"It's over, Salem! Gi-?"
They paused in their charge, as they saw a sight they hadn't been ready for - Salem's headless body lying lifelessly on the floor, in front of a cracked throne, as Yang stood over her with bloodied fists.
Author's Note: And here we go, with another sneak peek into what's going on with Remnant! And what is Yang doing in Salem's throne room when she should be with Qrow? Come on, I'm sure we all know the answer to that... it's clearly Neo wearing a Yang disguise!
Okay, I'm not going to insult your intelligence any further. Congratulations to those who guessed that DovahYang gets sent to the Triumph (i.e. this story's shorthand for the final battle with Salem). Don't expect the next Remnant section for a while though; I'm using them mainly to punctuate the end of each Act of the current Fallout arc. So for those who know how the main questline progresses... congratulations, you can probably figure out when the next one arrives.
Also of course Sarah's going to be automatically wary of Jaune. She's a soldier who's spent years fighting Super Mutants, Feral Ghouls, and Raiders. And suddenly, somebody that she thought she knew begins performing clearly-superhuman feats in combat (as opposed to the debatably-superhuman feats that could maybe be rationalized away). In that moment, all her instincts are screaming that he's a threat, his intentions are unclear, and he's approaching her.
Ruby, however... Ruby desperately wants to trust Jaune. She's lost her home, she's lost Project Purity, and she's lost her father. All she has to rely on, at that moment, is the man who's been with her from the day she left the Vault.
And in regards to the previous chapter, the problem with plasma bolts isn't that Jaune's Aura can't block the hits or heal the damage; the problem is that it costs him Aura to do so, and his Aura reserves, while massive, aren't infinite. Plasma can reach (or even exceed) the temperature of the surface of the sun, and is fired as an electromagnetically-contained bubble of superheated gases. Once it hits him, it detonates, engulfing the target in a cloud of superheated gases.
