Disclaimer: I hereby declare that Roosterteeth studios RWBY production crew may freely use any ideas, characters, or events written in this story free of charge and without any threat of lawsuit for any production, though it would be preferable to inform me of the use of the idea if used.
Temple of the spirit Dragon ch 5
Lan's eyes flickered open, he couldn't tell how long he had been asleep since the sky was still filled with dark smog-like clouds.
"You are awake." Said the spirit as it perched above him on his pillow. "The children are quite charming when they are asleep."
Lan looked to the left and right and found Ruby and Jaune on either side of him. Ruby was curled up into a ball and snuggled up by his ribs while Jaune had placed his head on Lan's stomach and was producing a puddle of drool there.
Quick as a flash, Lan slipped out of the sleeping bag, and placed pillows under Ruby and Jaune's heads so as not to wake them.
"So what now?" whispered Lan as he pulled a gas stove out of his backpack and began making breakfast.
"I believe the best course of action would be to find another group of those nightmares" said the spirit "They were obviously taking the souls somewhere when we found them. If we quietly tail them this time instead of catching their attention…" it gave Lan a sharp stare "Then we may be able to find where the Dream eater has nested…Also" it looked at Lan and Ruby "We should find a safe place to put the children. It will be too dangerous to take 2 who cannot protect themselves into such a place."
"…Yeah I guess so" said Lan who cracked some eggs into a mixing bowl. The boy was rather sad that he had to send them off, but knew that the place they were going to would be a death sentence for them, especially since they had no way to defend themselves. A short while later, the smell of eggs, bacon, and pancakes with syrup filled the area and woke the two young sleepers. After they were all seated in a circle with breakfast securely in hand, Lan addressed the two of them.
"Ok, now that we've all had a good night sleep, I think it's time that I let you two know the situation." The two children scooted forward and stared at Lan with wide eyes while they shoveled their food into their mouths.
"Right now the four of us are trapped in some kind of dreamworld." Said Lan "What trapped us here is a scary monster called the Dream Eater. From what the spirit has told me I think it's trying to eat people, so we are going to try and stop it…Unfortunately it's too dangerous for us to take you two with us. So, we're going to try and find a safe place to put you two."
"What!? No!" said Ruby with a large frown as Jaune let out a sigh of relief.
"I'm sorry but this is for the be—"
Before Lan could finish, the auto turret behind him began firing into the forest. The four of them looked up, and saw dark shadowy nightmares, slowly lurching towards them from the tree line and were completely unaffected by the gunfire passing through them.
"How did I not sense them" thought Lan, as he quickly swallowed the rest of the food on his plate.
"Protect them for me" said Lan to the spirit, as he got up and synchronized his energy with the earth and air. He then bolted forwards, throwing an essence blow into the nearest nightmare. It dispersed while screaming as the blow dissipated it, but many more nightmares were converging on their location. Lan fought them off as best he could, darting back and forth across the field to make sure none of them got close to Ruby and Jaune, but by the 10th blow he was breathing heavily and his aura and spiritual energy were greatly depleted. His vision blurred for a moment, causing him to temporarily lose awareness of his surroundings. In that opening, a nightmare wrapped a tendril around his ankle.
"Crap!" he yelled, as he was thrown into the air and smashed into the turret behind him. The impact bent the turret and shocked the ammunition inside of it, causing the whole turret to explode. Jaune and Ruby hunkered down and squeaked as the Spirit puts up a crystal barrier to protect them from the debris and shockwaves.
"We no longer have the luxury to protect the children!" shouted the spirit "Merge with me now! We must see if my abilities can affect the nightmares!"
Grunting in acknowledgement, Lan grabbed the spirit and merged with it. He quickly began firing off a medley of concussive sphere and crystal daggers at the nightmares around them, but was quickly dismayed as he saw all of the attacks pass through them harmlessly. He quickly switched back to essence blows and delivered one to the nightmare closest to him.
""AGGHHHHHHH!"" came two screams from behind him. He whipped around, and saw that Jaune and Ruby had been captured by nightmares and forced into cages made of weaved shadows. Lan leapt in their direction to try and save them, but before he could reach them, four shadowy tendrils shot forth from the mass of nightmares around him and wrapped around each of his limbs. The nightmares that caught him then began to move in different directions, attempting to pull Lan's limbs apart. He let out a scream of pain as a fifth nightmare wrapped a tendril around his neck. He could her Jaune and Ruby screaming nearby, but he couldn't move to help them.
"Can't die here" he thought, as he closed his eyes and struggled against his bonds "They need me!"
There was a bright flash of light and Lan felt the tendril on his right arm disappear. Using the opportunity, he quickly dealt an essence blow to the other tendrils binding him, causing the nightmares connected to them to dissipate. Falling to the ground, he rubbed his neck and looked in the direction that the bright flash of light came from. Standing there, were Ruby and Jaune who were wide-eyed and staring at what they were holding in their hands. Jaune was holding a sword and shield…and was somehow back in the dress he had been wearing in the beginning. Ruby was holding a large gray scythe that seemed to be made of interlocking blades and her new belt and hair clip had disappeared. Behind them, the trisected body of a nightmare was fading out of existence.
"You two" said Lan, amazed "How?"
"I don't know!" said Jaune who began shaking violently "I just saw them hurting you and I just wanted to save you, then all of a sudden I'm holding my great great grandfather's sword and shield"
"Yeah!" said Ruby, who hugged her scythe "I didn't want to see them hurt you, I wanted to help you, just like a hero in the fairy tales that I always wanted to be. And now I'm holding uncle Qrow's Harbinger!"
"Me too!" said Jaune "I wanna be a hero too, just like the rest of my family."
Lan stared at those two, quickly thinking as the nightmares began to close in on them again.
"Those weapons were able to kill the nightmares, from what I can gather they were formed from the clothes that I made for them" thought Lan, as he edged backwards away from the approaching nightmares "It seems they managed to change their shapes with their will, but how were they able to hurt the nightmares? The turret that I made from the dream synchronization didn't scratch them at all. Perhaps it has to do with the ideas and thoughts that went into making them. Think! What did the weapons they make have to do with?"
Lan, Ruby, and Jaune were standing back to back as the nightmares surrounded them. Ruby and Jaune were trembling as they pointed their weapons at the approaching shadows.
"They said that they made those weapons since they wanted to protect me" thought Lan "And they said they wanted to protect me…since they both wanted to be heroes!"
The answer finally dawned on him, and a smile spread across Lan's face.
"Of course" said Lan, as he held his palms together and began to warp the dreamscape between them "The natural enemy of nightmares…are Dreams!"
Lan also wanted to be a hero when he was grown, but he still hadn't created a strong image of what kind of weapon he would be holding in his hands at that time. Luckily, he had many different small images holding the many different weapon ideas locked in his brain. He quickly brought up the blueprints for a weapon that he lacked the materials and skill to make in reality, and with a flash of light he was holding a large shield in one hand and a laser lance that he had seen in a manga he was reading in the other. He pointed the lance at a nearby group nightmare and pressed a button, making the tip fold back and reveal a muzzle. He fired a laser blast, and the moment it struck the nightmare, the nightmare screamed and dispersed.
"My firearm aim is good here!" said Lan, in a delighted voice "And weapons made based on dreams work. WOOOOOO!"
With a quick barrage of blasts, he cleared out all the nightmares on one the side of the field where they were thinnest and turned his shield towards the rest on the other side.
"Ruby, Jaune, get behind me!" he said, moving backwards while blocking and stabbing. "You two will need to watch my back for me! Deal with any nightmares that slip past!"
Jaune swallowed while Ruby, whose cheeks were slightly puffed, gave a determined yet adorable nod.
With a loud battle cry, Lan pressed a button that transformed his shield into a large flail and swung it in an arc ahead of him, clearing out the nightmares directly in front of him. He then returned it to its shield configuration and continued to stab and blast and nightmare from behind its cover. Unseen to him, one nightmare detached itself from the rest of the group, flew back into the forest, and circled around to the back. It then darted outwards, formed its tendril into a sharp spear like conformation and attempted to stab Jaune, who was holding up his shield while Ruby who was behind him was firing at nightmares with her little Harbinger which was now in a rifle-like configuration.
Before it could come close, however, it was blasted with a beam of light. Seeing this flash, Lan turned. Floating in the air, was the spirit, with his full body.
"I dream of one day regaining my original strength" said the spirit, who help up a glowing hand and began letting out energy blasts.
"Cool" said Lan, who returned his attention to the enemies in the front, but frowned as he felt a stiffness in his arms. "These weapons are too bulky. Time to change!"
With another flash of light, the lance and shield transformed into two scythes which he used to cut apart a few nightmares in front of them. He then connected them at the hilt, formed them into a bladed bow, and fired a few arrows into the crowd. They destroyed the nightmares little by little, with Lan changing his weapons every now and again into another blueprint that he had devised. However, the tide of nightmares that came out of the forest didn't seem to cease.
"This place" thought Lan as he looked at the dead horrifying trees around them. "It's like a breeding ground for nightmares…in that case:"
Lan brought up an image to his mind, of a place he had never been before, a place that he had seen once long ago in a dream. He then synchronized his energy with the air and the earth and once again, but this time he spread the synchronization outwards and began warping the dreamscape around him. Lan slammed his fist into the ground, and from the impact site a shockwave spread that changed the immediate forest around them. The ground became covered in shining crystals of many colors, the trees wound together and produced glowing orbs from their branches, and wispy mists of shining ether began to flow upwards from the ground. The nightmares screamed, as the recoiled from the light that now surrounded them.
"They're on the ropes!" shouted Lan, who materialized a 10 foot long Odachi. "Finish them!"
He and the spirit charged the remaining nightmares, while Ruby continued to take inaccurate shots at the nightmares and Jaune slashed at any that came near. With a single synchronized attack, the last nightmare dissipated, and the four of them stood there in the clearing, breathing heavily. Almost at the same time, all four of them collapsed onto their backs, with their weapons and the spirit's body dissipating.
"Okay 'pant' new plan" said Lan "We all go fight the Dream Eater together."
"Awww Yeah!" said Ruby, pumping her fist into the air.
"…Okay." Mumbled Jaune.
"'sigh' twil be a long night" grumbled the spirit.
A couple hours later
"Feel the might of my blade!" shouted Ruby as she swung down Harbinger in sword mode.
"Ahhhhh! Ruby stop!" shouted Jaune, who blocked the sword with his blade "This is not a safe way to train! Lan tell her to stop!"
"Ruby stop trying to bisect Jaune." said Lan, as he continued looking down while sowing a garment in his hands.
After resting from the fight with the nightmares, Lan decided that it would be best to leave as quickly as possible in case the nightmares knew where they were. He wanted to conserve the spiritual energy and aura he had recovered in case of an emergency, so he decided not to conjure up a brand new backpack. Instead, he had gathered what he could from the destroyed backpack, including a smaller emergency backpack which he kept just in case, and was currently using the leftover cloth scraps to slap together a quick garment for Jaune so the boy could change out of the dress that he was back in. They were currently traveling through the magical forest that Lan had created, searching for unawares nightmares that they could follow back to the Dream Eater.
"Done!" said Lan who handed Jaune a pair of jeans and a surcoat made from backpack canvas.
"Thanks" said Jaune, who took it and went behind a tree to change.
"I really like this forest though" said Lan who looked around the clearing. "It's strange, but it feels like I'm recovering faster here." He passed his hand through a wisp of ether that was rising up from the ground."
"It seems the synchronization that you made with the dreamscape is causing a kind of positive feedback, and is allowing you to pull strength from the energies of the dreamscape around you" said the spirit.
"I'm back" called Jaune who returned wearing the custom made clothes and scratching himself. "It's kind of itchy though."
"You can always wear the dress underneath it" said Lan, who shrugged "Come on, we have to continue searching for nightmares."
They then continued down the direction they were originally going.
"So Lan, how did you get so strong?" said Jaune, who jogged up to walk by Lan's side.
"Yeah, you were awesome!" chirped Ruby, who popped up at his other side.
"Well, that would be thanks to my grandpa's training." Said Lan chuckling "That guy can make a master out of anybody."
"Oh! Well…do you think I could, maybe, get some of that training?" said Jaune while fidgeting awkwardly.
"Sure, why not!" said Lan, "I can help you get started too! First we begin with intensive 8 hour training sessions with reduced meals to begin breaking down your muscle fibers. After your muscles have been sufficiently broken down, we begin 12 hour a day training sessions to improve your muscle strength, flexibility, and endurance while also training your overall stamina, got to eat a lot of protein during that time, grandpa thinks that getting it's best to get it from a variety of different sources…just don't let him make you one of his custom protein shakes 'shudder'. Anyway, after that it becomes less time consuming since we start training combat sense and technique! To start with, we train you to get a sense of life and death, so grandpa will usually tie a bunch of meat to you and drop you into a ravine with wolves and have them chase you until you pass out from exhaustion, and after you start being able to outrun them, we switch to Beowolves. After that we—"
Lan stopped as he noticed that Jaune and Ruby were no longer beside him. He turned back and saw them hiding behind the spirit's small orbal form while staring at Lan with great apprehension.
"…So, no training?" asked Lan.
""No please."" Said both of them at the same time.
Lan shrugged and returned his attention to the front, it was then that he noticed a slight glow combing from the front to the right.
"Everyone, stealth mode" said Lan, who lowered his stance and began moving forwards silent as the grave. He ignored the fading sounds of grunts and cracking twigs as Jaune and Ruby attempted to emulate him and closed in on the light. As he got closer, he took to the trees to give himself some elevation to survey the area, and finally arrived at the edge of a clearing. Inside the clearing were dozens of what appeared to be cocoons made of soft shining strands of light, each of them woven around glowing orbs of many colors. He quickly recognized them to be souls, he was about to go down and investigate, but stopped himself when he realized that he was at the edge of the mystic forest he had made, and that with the exception of the side he was on, the clearing was surrounded by the dark dead trees that were natural to this dreamscape. He was still contemplating what to do when he heard a crash below him, and looked down to see that Jaune had tripped on a tree root and face planted into a tree.
"OWWWWWW!" said Jaune who pulled his face off the tree and covered it with his hands, obviously in great pain "Oh, come on!"
"Careful now" said the spirit as it floated a giggling ruby over the same knot of roots that had tripped Jaune.
"Why are you only helping her?" asked Jaune, with a miffed harrumph.
"Because she is younger than you, a lady, and I had not noticed the roots until you tripped on them" said the spirit.
"Quite down you guys!" whispered Lan as he dropped down from above. "I just found some weird cocoons and I don't know—"
"Yang!" shouted Ruby, who burst out from the treeline and ran over and hugged a cocoon with a golden sphere inside.
"Wagh! Ruby stop!" said Lan who darted forwards, while looking left and right "We don't know what those are or what's hiding here!"
"I know what this is" said Ruby, who looked at the orb in the cocoon she was hugging "It's my big sister Yang!"
"…Wait, how do you kno—" started Lan.
"I can feel it!" said Ruby with a smile.
"Uh, that doesn't really answer—"
"I can feeeeeeeeeeeeel it." Said Ruby with a slight hiss as she stared at Lan with great intensity.
"…Okay then" said Lan, "Well, at least it doesn't seem to be dangerous here right now."
"I will check on the cocoons" said the spirit "My spiritual form should make it easier to check the contents."
The spirit then began phasing in and out of the cocoons while making brief interactions with the souls inside. After a while he nodded and floated back to Lan.
"It seems as if all the spirits within these cocoons are from children" said the spirit "All of them are still asleep, currently wrapped within the confines of their own dreams."
"Huh." Grunted Lan, who tapped on one of the cocoons. "Any idea why it's only kids here."
"I hypothesize that the dream eater is still weak from its long imprisonment." Said the spirit "It is likely that devouring the life force from a large number of stronger more complex souls would be too difficult for it at this time, so it is currently attempting to regain its strength from devouring children who generally have more simple thoughts and wishes."
"I see" said Lan, his hand on his chin. "I guess we can't leave them here can we?"
Lan counted the number of cocoons, and estimated that they wouldn't fit in the smaller emergency backpack so he decided to use some of the energy he had to create an empty version of his original one.
"Jaune, Ruby" he called as he began to materialize the bag "Can you two help me gather cocoons?"
""Ok!"" shouted both of them. Ruby wrapped her arms around her sister's cocoon and lifted with all her might while Jaune did the same with a cocoon near him. But sadly, all the resulted from this were the two of them going red-faced while shuffling their stubby little legs around trying to lift them up.
"Ok, that's sad" said Lan, who finished creating the bag. He then turned towards one of the cocoons and reached out to grab it. The moment he touched it, however, a shadowy tendril shot down from above and wrapped around his wrist.
"Of course" he glumly thought as he looked up. Descending from the dark smoke above were countless nightmares.
"Prepare for battle!" shouted Lan, who used essence blow to destroy the nightmare wrapping his wrist, and then manifested a musculoskeletal enhancing pair of pauldrons, rear braces, counters, vambraces, and gauntlets. Ruby and Jaune pulled out their weapons as the spirit took on its full form. They then began to fight back against the nightmares that came near them, destroying them with their dream forged gear, however it quickly became apparent that they weren't the nightmares' objective. Whenever one of them left a cocoon unguarded for too long, nightmares would begin to wrap themselves around it and begin raising it into the air. The team was able to defend them for a time but after a minute, things took a turn for the worse. Lan was able to fight off the nightmares in his area with a combination of martial arts and projectiles fired from the exoskeleton on his arms and the spirit was able to do so with a combination of crystal weapons and energy blasts, but Jaune and Ruby quickly found themselves overwhelmed. Untrained and flailing wildly with weapons they had just started using, they managed to take out a couple of nightmares each but resistance came to an end when a nightmare managed to wrap Jaune's sword arm.
Jaune screamed in panic and began bashing the tendril with his shield, but before he could dislodge it another two tendrils wrapped around his ankles and pulled him to the ground.
"Jaune!" cried Ruby, who began firing her mini Harbinger at the Nightmares holding him. So alarmed was she that she didn't notice another nightmare that had slipped right behind her. Before she could react, it wrapped itself around her like dark smoke and knocked her Harbinger out of her hands. She shrieked as it writhed around her and eventually formed a shadowy cage similar to what was holding her soul in the beginning. A similar situation happened to Jaune as he screamed in panic.
"Guys!" yelled Lan, who saw that they had been captured. The cages Jaune and Ruby were in began slowly rising into the air, where a swarm of nightmares awaited.
"Spirit, get Jaune, he's closer to you!" shouted Lan as he darted towards Ruby's cage while tearing through any nightmares that got in his way.
"I knew those children would be a liability" said the spirit as it fired beams of energy at the nightmares surrounding Jaune's cage. Diving through the air, Lan grabbed the bottom of the cage Ruby was in and ripped it open causing Ruby to fall into his arms. At almost the same moment, one of the spirit's energy blasts destroyed the cage Jaune was in.
"OHHHH CRAAAAAAPPPPPPPP!" screamed Jaune as he plummeted from the air, only to be grabbed by the scruff of his shirt by the spirit just as he was about to hit the ground.
"Oh for the love of, Stop Whimpering and Get on your feet!" shouted the spirit at Jaune, who was covering his eyes and shaking while babbling unintelligible nonsense. Jaune and Ruby had been rescued, but Lan and the spirit quickly realized that they had lost the battle. All of the cocoons had been entrapped by nightmares and had flown high into the air, beyond Lan's reach.
"Yang!" cried Ruby, who reached out her hands towards the cocoon with the yellow orb as tears formed in her eyes.
"I cannot catch up to them" said the spirit "my speed drastically drops at higher elevations."
Lan placed Ruby on the ground and made a beeline for the nearest tree, quickly scaling it and using it as a springboard and jumping high into the air. Seeing that even that wasn't enough for even the spirit to reach the nightmares that were quickly flying higher beyond their reach, Lan aimed his gauntlet at a group of nightmares swirling around Yang's cocoon. But he slowly lowered it a moment later as he realized that not only was it likely that he would accidently hit the cocoon instead, but destroying the shadows could also cause the cocoons to fall and shatter before he could catch them. He had no idea what destroying the cocoons would do to the souls inside. He fell back to the ground, creating a small crater, and watched as the nightmares got farther and farther away.
Before long the nightmares disappeared above the dark smog-like clouds, and the 4 of them were left in the darkness of the clearing. It was silent for a moment as they all looked upwards, but all of a sudden a small squeak pierced the clearing.
Ruby had collapsed onto her knees, bawling her eyes out as he arms hung limply at her sides.
"Yaaaaaaaannggggggg!" she cried, as snot began to dribble out of her nose. "Yaaaaaannnnnnnggggg!"
Seeing this, the final thread of stability in Jaune's mind also broke. He began hyperventilating and soon let out a scream of fear and despair before turning around and darting back into the shining forest Lan had created earlier. Lan looked back and forth between the two of them, beginning to panic since he wasn't sure who he should help first. Before it could get any worse, however, he felt a strong hand on his shoulder.
"Calm down" said the spirit "It will do no one any good if you begin to lose yourself as well."
Lan looked up at it, took a deep breath, and then nodded.
"Good" said the spirit, who turned towards the forest "I shall go handle the boy, you help the girl. She will need a more gentle touch after all."
"Yeah." Said Lan, nodding as the spirit began drifting towards Lan's forest.
A moment later, Lan and Ruby were alone. Lan looked down at Ruby, who was now covering her eyes as tears silently streamed down her face. Lan knelt down meaning to comfort her, but suddenly felt a strange feeling of self-awareness. This was the first time he had been alone with Ruby, hell, it was the first time that he had been alone with a girl in almost 5 years! Well, except for those times Byakko had made Lan accompany him to certain 'districts' where the boy had waited at bars filled with overly friendly 'hostesses' while Byakko went about his 'business' but that doesn't really count.
Getting a close look at Ruby's face, Lan found that even with tears and snot running down her face she was still extremely adorable. For some reason or another, Alayna's face (his first crush that ended badly), popped into his head and he found himself unconsciously lurching backwards.
"Waaaaaaggghhhhh!" At that moment Ruby let out another loud cry, and uncovered her face causing a puddle of tears to spill onto the ground.
Seeing this, Lan grew disgusted with himself. "Idiot!" he thought, as he dealt a silent, but very powerful punch to his cheek. "It's not like that! And she needs you right now!"
He spat out some blood, took a deep breath, and steeling himself, Lan reached out his harms and gently pulled her into a hug.
"There there" he said patting her on the back "Everything's going to be OK."
"B-But Yang!" cried Ruby who was dribbling snot onto Lan's sleeve "They got my big sister, they're going to eat her!"
"Don't worry" said Lan, who held her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes, as he had done so before for many young children who had survived Grimm attacks he had rescued them from. "We'll get her back."
"H-How do you know she's still okay?" asked Ruby.
"Remember when we found you and Jaune?" asked Lan, who patted Ruby on the head "We found the two of you in cages, and you were being taken somewhere. It's likely that the Dream Eater is ordering the nightmares to take all the souls somewhere, so she's probably still alright."
"B-But how will you be able to find her" said Ruby, who had begun to calm down and was wiping her eyes.
"Don't you worry about that!" said Lan who puffed out his chest, "I am a master tracker" he jabbed at himself with his thumb "I was taught by one of the best trackers in the world. I'll be able to find these nightmares easily if I try hard enough."
"Then why were we searching for nightmares earlier?" asked Ruby as two thick long lines of snot dribbled down her nose.
"That's cause we had to find new ones" said Lan who pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket. "I'll be able to find the ones we met just now in no time" he placed the handkerchief on Ruby's nose "Here blow" he said. Ruby did so, blowing her nose with a large raspberry. "So don't worry Ruby" said Lan, as he placed the dirty handkerchief in his pocket and shook the goo off his hands. "I'll save both your big sister AND all of the other children that were taken."
"…Promise?" asked Ruby, who looked up at Lan with her big shiny, puppy dog eyes.
"Promise." Said Lan, with a confident nod. Ruby sniffed, and looked like she was about to tear up again, but then dove forward and buried her face in Lan's chest while hugging him with all of her might. Lan smiled as he looked down at her, and patted her on the head. He felt a warm feeling swell up inside his stomach, along with a very strong desire to protect this little girl. But his whole body went stiff as Alayna's face suddenly flashed into his head for the 2nd time today.
"It's not like that!" he thought, as he went red in the face as he continued to gently pat Ruby on the head "These are just emotions that one feels, when they are happy doing the right thing and protecting someone weaker!"
That certainly was true, but there were other emotions mixed in as well. Emotions that Lan had been suppressing and quashing for the last 5 years. They stayed like that for a short while, with Lan's face growing redder and redder all the while.
A few minutes earlier deep in the woods
"Where is that blasted child?" said the spirit as it soared through the forest. "This emotional breakdown is costing us precious time!"
Just as it thought this, it began to hear a faint whimpering. It followed the sound, and before long it found Jaune curled up at the foot of one of Lan's glowing trees.
"There you are you stupid child" said the spirit, who floated down to him "Why on Remnant did you run away like that? Come" it grabbed Jaune by the arm "We must return at once! It is dangerous to be here alone."
"No!" shouted Jaune, who pulled his arm out of the spirit's grasp "Everywhere is dangerous!"
He looked up at the spirit with angry tear-stained eyes. "I don't even want to be here! I was dragged into this dangerous mess with all these monsters, and I followed you and Lan since I though you could protect us! I thought we would all be able to save the day together and be heroes! But you guys weren't even able to save Ruby's sister or those other kids! What's the point in going back if he won't even be able to protect us in the first place!" he yelled out the last phrase angrily, then sat there breathing heavily, before burying his head into his arms and whimpering "…I wanna go home".
The spirit stared at the boy for a moment. "…Protect you?" it said, the anger in its voice slowly rising "You wanted Lan to protect you!?"
Without warning the spirit materialized its full form and seized Jaune to the collar, lifting the yelping boy into the air.
"Lan did protect you, you stupid ungrateful child" said the spirit as it violently shook Jaune "When the nightmares captured you two, he prioritized your safety over that of the other sleeping children. In fact, if you two hadn't distracted him with your peril, he may have found a way to protect all the children at once! I've watched that boy grow since he was but a 3-year-old babe, and his ingenuity and decision making is among the best I've ever seen. The problem was you two! If you two had been able to hold your positions long enough he would definitely have found way! But you didn't and even got yourselves captured, but still he chose to save you both instead of focusing on protecting the souls, that is why you are still here, right now!" Jaune began whimpering as he stared into the spirit's angry eyes. "And furthermore, why in the names of the gods do you want to be protected in the first place?!" The spirit motioned to the sword and shield that Jaune had dropped by the tree "Weren't those weapons born from your desire to be hero? What kind of hero hides behind their comrades, hoping that they'll take care of all their problems for him?"
Jaune looked to the side, calming down and starting to feel ashamed.
"Tell me boy" said the spirit, lowering Jaune onto his feet "Why do you want to be a hero in the first place?"
Jaune was silent for a moment, and then slowly picked up the sword and shield.
"This sword and shield, Crocea Mors, it belonged to my great-great grandfather who fought in the Great War 80 years ago" said Jaune. The spirit nodded, it remembered reading about it through Lan's eyes once. "My family has a legacy of heroes and warrior" continued Jaune "I want to be able to live up to that, but I haven't been able to get any real training. I hope I'll be able to in the future, but from what I'm told, I'm just no good." Jaune's shoulders slumped as he said this, his gaze sullen and full of despair.
"You fool!" shouted the spirit who slapped him across the face. "You think you'll ever become a hero with that mindset? Especially if you seek the protection of others whenever things grow more difficult than expected? Look at your weapons!" the spirit motioned to Jaune's sword and shield and the boy looked down at them "Those are the weapons of a knight! A paragon of valor who does the protecting. And I should know a thing or two about them, I was a king after all."
"Wait, you were a king!?" said Jaune, his eyes wide.
"Yes," said the spirit. "The king of the long forgotten Illustratem empire. During our reign, we kings employed an order known as the Celestial Knights. Stalwart Champions and protectors of our people, they would always be there with sword and shield in hand to protect the weak, the innocent, and their comrades in arms. Such was their bravery that they were immortalized in song immemorial, and it is my personal belief that all chivalric orders in your world today were based off of relics related to them. You should strive to be such knight, a warrior with an iron will and an undying resolution to take on any challenge!"
"Y-Yeah" shouted Jaune, pumping his fist. The boy was starting to get quite pumped up by the spirit's speech, so pumped in fact that he had forgotten all of the fear he had felt a moment ago.
"I'll, I'll become a hero!" cried Jaune, his shoulders shaking with fervor.
"YEAH!" shouted the spirit.
"I'll become a guardian of my friends!" shouted Jaune, who looked upwards with his fist clenched in determination.
"YEAH!" shouted the spirit, who approved of the boy's actions.
"And when I grow up, I'll get a cute girlfriend who will love me and my confidence" shouted Jaune, who hadn't realized that the atmosphere had gone to his head a bit too much.
"…Damn Right You Will!" shouted the spirit, who didn't want to point this out and demoralize the boy. "But first we're going to defeat the Dream Eater and save all the children that it has taken!"
"YEEEEAAAAAHHHHHH!" Jaune had both his fists balled up tight, and screamed this to the heavens.
"Give me your sword!" shouted the spirit. Jaune did so without question. "What is your full name?"
"Jaune Arc!" said Jaune.
"Very good, now kneel!" said the spirit. Jaune did that too. He didn't understand why, but was still too pumped to think about it.
The spirit held the sword in front of him with both hands, then said: "I Veritas Anima Illustratem the 123rd, king of the Illustratem hereby dub thee Sir Jaune Arc!" he tapped Jaune on both shoulders "First Celestial knight of the Age of Remnant!" He planted the tip of the sword into he ground "Do you swear to be a bastion to thine comrades and a champion of all that is just?"
"I do!" shouted Jaune.
"Then arise sir knight" shouted the spirit, and held out Jaune's sword "Arise and take up your sacred mantle!"
Jaune did so and accepted his sword back.
The two of them stared at each other for moment. They then shook hands, bro fisted, and walked back in the direction of the clearing arm in arm.
Back in the clearing, Lan was sitting under one of his trees while Ruby slept using one of his legs as a pillow, she had tuckered herself out from all the crying and had fallen asleep almost as soon as she had calmed down.
"Calm yourself" thought Lan, who had greatly reduced the redness in his face "Not only are you too old for her, she's way too good for you. Yeah. Any girl you'd fall in love with is way too good for you."
After continuing these disparaging thoughts for a while, Lan manages to calm down, albeit with added psychological scars. A minute or two later, the spirit and Jaune walked out of the forest arm in arm.
"My My" said the spirit, with what appeared to be a mischievous smile "It seems you two have gotten closer."
"Yeah" said Lan, who had regained control of his thought "She's like the adorable little sister I never had. You feeling better Jaune?"
"Yeah" said Jaune who then took a deep breath "I think I'm OK now."
"Great" said Lan, who chucked him a lemon-flavored sucker from his backpack. "Have this and get your strength back."
"I smell sweets" said Ruby, who suddenly awoke and rose up like zombie. Lan responded by sticking a strawberry-flavored sucker into her mouth. Both suckers were, of course, naturally flavored.
"Now that that is done with, I suggest we find out where those nightmares went" said the spirit.
"I agree" said Lan, he looked upwards at the sky and said "That cloud cover makes it hard to track them once they get beyond it…I'll try to do something about it."
Lan began synchronizing his energy with the dreamscape once more, but this time instead of focusing the effects on the area around him. He then focused the energy upwards, trying to send it up as high as it would go. He glowed with the warm blue light of his aura as energy from the dreamscape pooled into an orb in front of him, then all at once, a beam of light shot upwards from the orb, knocking Lan onto his back in the progress. The beam struck the cloud cover, causing it to glow and dissipate in a widening radius from the impact point. A few minutes later, the cloud cover was gone, and what was left above them now was what appeared to be a night sky, with a meteor shower in full swing.
"Wow!" said Ruby looking upwards, with her voice full of wonder "A meteor shower."
Stars were streaking across the sky, all traveling from one end to the other.
"Awesome" said Jaune, who looked at Lan's spread eagle form with admiration.
"…Wait just a minute" said Lan, who narrowed his eyes in focus as he continued to sweat and breath heavily while one his back. "Someone bring me a telescope from my bag!"
Jaune, Ruby, and the Spirit complied, and after a diving into a rummaging around Lan's bag for a few moments found a telescope which they promptly delivered to him.
Still on his back, Lan peered into it adjusted it until he found what he was looking for.
"I knew it" he said.
""What?"" said Jaune and Ruby at the same time.
"Take a look" said Lan who tossed them the spyglass. After fumbling around with it for a minute, the two of them took turns looking into it and afterwards stared upwards with shocked expressions.
"What is it?" said the sprit.
"Those aren't stars, they're soul cocoons" said Lan "And each one of them is being carried by a group of nightmares."
Lan leapt to his feet and pointed in the direction all the stars were heading.
"Looks like we have our heading now. Let's go."
Hope this chapter was okay. I felt like there were a lot more details I could have gone into. But I don't know enough about the details of Jaune and Ruby's childhoods to do so. I have a feeling it might have been redundant too, but I hope that's just my low self-esteem talking.
Once again, I hope that you all send me any suggestions on how I can approve and I hope the Creators of RWBY will read this and perhaps even draw some inspiration (which I hope will lead them to contact me.[fingers crossed])
