Chapter 4
Nora waved Pyrrha over to the table.
"Hey Pyrrha what took you so long? When me and Ren woke up you weren't in bed, were you doing something else? You missed breakfast, wait are you hungry? Because if you are I can get Ren to make some pancakes, do you wanna have some later?"
"No I'm fine Nora." Pyrrha replied. "I was just doing some work." She didn't want to admit to falling asleep on the roof. It wasn't very comfortable but she was really tired at the time and slept in until noon. Thinking back she remembered the fight, it was certainly something. She knew full well he would've won if it wasn't a battle of aura and now he knew about her semblance. She wasn't sure how to feel about that.
Ruby looked to Pyrrha. "Were you with Jaune? We haven't seen him all morning."
"No I wasn't with him but I'm sure he'll turn up soon."
Weiss wanting to get back on track. "So Pyrrha did you hear about the recent White Fang attack?"
—
Jaune walked into the library. Hit with the sound of talking and shouting. He missed the quite calm you'd find in the battle barge or fortress monetary. There are always so many little things you never really pay attention to until they're gone.
He has missed breakfast but didn't care. He would survive and besides, any food they served here was likely more unhealthy then he was used to. He looked and saw his friends at their usual table.
He approached and took his place.
Ruby with all her usual enthusiasm spoke first. "Hey Jaune we haven't seen you all morning, what were you doing?"
"I was exercising."
At that Yang laughed. "You? Exercising this early? Who are you and what have you done with the real Jaune."
Everyone showed some amusement from the comment.
Soon they went back to whatever topic they were discussing before, without context he had no idea what it was about. Some attack, probably from those Grimm. He had yet to face one in battle. He wondered what it would think facing a being that knew no fear.
Pyrrha, realising he likely forgot, asked "wait Jaune do you remember the White Fang?"
Jaune suddenly looked at her bewildered. "Wait what! How do you know of them?"
Everyone was surprised at this. Yang, still confused, replied"Of course we've heard of them. They've been responsible for attacks and robberies all across Vale."
The White Scars were here? How? Perhaps the Emperor sent more than just him. No wait they mentioned attacks and robberies, could this be a group of renegades?
"What exactly are the White Scars doing?"
Ren realised what he said before anyone else, "Jaune did you say White Fang or White Scar?"
"White Scars. What is 'White Fang' a nickname for them?"
Ren continued trying to figure out what Jaune said. "What are the White Scars to you?"
Jaune was now realising his mistake. He quickly gave an oversimplified explanation.
"They are a group of warriors who focus on fast hit and run attacks to win in battle relying on speed over power."
Everyone looked at each other with confused looks. Finally Blake, trying to make sense of this, spoke.
"I don't know about the White Scars but the White Fang are an faunus activist group that uses violence to try and gain equal rights."
Jaune looked confused. "Faunus?"
Blake looked surprised, probably that 'amnesia' Ruby mentioned. "The faunus are another race that are similar to humans except they have some kind of animal feature."
Jaune had a look seemingly understanding. "Ah so the White Fang are a group of mutant terrorists."
Silence. For several seconds no one at that table said a word. Finally Ruby simply asked. "Mutants?"
"Yes, mutants. They are a group of humans who were mutated through either natural or dark forces, an affront to the perfection of the human genome."
Blake was shocked at this. "Jaune how can you say that? They aren't mutants they're people just like you or me."
"People don't have terrorist organisations fighting for them."
"They aren't all terrorists. Most just want to help faunus get equality."
They both started standing up with everyone else just watching on, "And that justifies the murder and stealing of the ones who think their better than humans?"
"No of course not but it's because of people like you that they think like that to begin with! You don't know what suffering and discrimination faunus go through."
"Is that what you tell people? That because they suffered others have to as well? Do you think that is cause for killing someone? Tell me Blake, when you have to meet a child, one who lost their parents because of the violent acts of a terrorist, what will you tell that orphan? Will you defend their actions? Will you say that it was right their parents died?"
"Well maybe if faunus were just treated as equals there wouldn't have been killing in the first place!"
Jaune merely laughed. "I see through your words, you defend them not because you support their actions but because you support their goal. You support the end but not the means. You hope they can change, no you want them to change and then you defend them because of that. It's people like you that let these organisations continue, people who are yet to see a lost cause because they are blinded by ignorance and hope. The blood of innocent people is on your hands, you are barely any better than whatever creature pulled the trigger!"
Everyone else at the table looked on in stunned silence. Jaune's stone face showed no emotion, meanwhile Blake was unable to reply. It was safe to say this wasn't exactly what anyone expected to occur today.
Pyrrha acting quickly to prevent any further escalation stood up and spoke to Jaune. "I think you should come with me." Before quickly pulling him away from the table.
—
The table watched Pyrrha and Jaune leave. Presumably to talk about what just happened. A couple of spectators went back to their original actions leaving the table in silence.
"Hey don't let it get to you Blake, I'm sure Jaune's just a little confused."
"Thanks Ruby" While she wouldn't say it out-loud, Blake wasn't sure Ruby entirely understood what Jaune said. She had heard plenty of comments about faunus before but this was different. She was appalled he would call faunus mutants but what somewhat scared her was everything else he said.
What he said about the White Fang… she didn't want to admit it but he wasn't entirely wrong. Blake always thought it could change, that as long as good people were in it there was hope but what if she was wrong? The thought was unnerving.
Finally breaking the quiet Ren asked "Has anyone else ever heard of the White Scars before?"
Nobody said a word.
Everything about Jaune just kept getting stranger and stranger.
—
Pyrrha and Jaune entered the room. She stood there silent as she had no idea where to begin.
"Jaune, you have not been awake for even a full day yet you have surprised me and everyone else again and again. You wake up having forgotten everything, somehow become one of, if not the best swordsmen I've ever seen and your personality has completely changed.
She looked him dead in the eyes. "I don't know how it happened but you aren't the same Jaune that was here before and I want an explanation as to what happened to him."
Jaune could already tell this was going to take a while. Whether he lie or tell the truth he was taking a risk. Admittedly he had agreed to the girls proposal last night but he didn't expect he'd have to go through with it and agreeing afterwards was simply a momentary thing. Still he knew it was inevitable a situation like this would arise but he could've had more time to think about who he should inform and more importantly what did he should tell her and what should he leave out.
He wasn't going to say everything, that was certain, but he couldn't get caught in a lie here. Pyrrha had the potential to be a great asset for his mission and would help him answer numerous questions. Right now he didn't know what his objective was but he was sure the Emperor will reveal it when the time was right and until then he should amass allies and gain valuable connections to aid him.
For now it seemed the best course of action was to get people to help him and gain knowledge on Beacon and the rest of Remnant. Pyrrha would be the perfect test for training being both already used to combat and, compared to the others, seemed the best suited mentally for possible Psyker training. It would be most beneficial if he could have another Psyker to aid him and it would allow him to answer many of the questions related to aura.
In this situation he should tell a half truth, it would make it easier if he explained more in future and wouldn't be as hard to explain. Though most importantly he wanted to avoid the mention of space travel or the scale of warfare, such a thing was too much to comprehend and he didn't know how she would take such information. It was an unnecessary risk.
Pyrrha tired of the silence. "Fine if you wish to be unco-"
He cut her off, "Sorry I was thinking, I am willing to explain my… predicament however I will tell you, there are still many questions I haven't found an answer to myself. I also request you do not tell the rest of the teams."
"What? Why not?"
"It's… complicated but if you can guarantee that you won't speak a word of this without my permission, I will tell you."
Pyrrha was silent for a minute before replying "Fine, if I have to. Now then tell me what happened."
"What you ask is a simple question but the answer is an enigma of confusing answers and conflicting memories. What I can say though is that one way or another I was brought to a different world."
Pyrrha was immediately doubtful "A different world?"
"Yes, perhaps before I came to Beacon, perhaps during the coma you mention. I cannot say myself. Whether I am originally from here I still do not know but ultimately I was still, at some point, in another world. It was both very different from Remnant and yet similar all the same."
"You must be joking."
"Believe me, I am anything but."
"Then what was this world like? How does this explain your improvement at duelling and why you've changed to much."
"Understand that as I mentioned this world is similar yet different. All of humanity was under one Empire, the Imperium of Man, surrounded on all sides by xenos, mutants and heretics who wished nothing more than its destruction."
"Again with the mutants, Jaune why do you hate faunus so much?"
"I do not hate them, we did not have faunus on my world but they are still a disgrace to mankind's perfection and anything that puts itself over humanity does not deserve its life."
"But that's just the White Fangs, what about the ones who just want equality? Can you base your opinion on them entirely off one group? Especially one which many faunus, including Blake, have opposed."
Jaune seemed surprised for a second but his face quickly went back to neutrality.
"While that may be true you cannot deny they are mutants and if some of them can rebel all of them can."
"Surely in this world of yours you don't shoot everything that's slightly different?"
"I suppose some groups such as ogryns or ratlings as allowed to serve alongside humanity as abhumans."
"Then wouldn't the faunus be … 'abhuman' then?"
"Abhuman is a title reserved for those who are untouched by corruption and can be of use to humanity."
"But the faunus have helped us on numerous occasions. They have pushed technology, they have saved countless innocent people and we have fought side by side with them against the Grimm for years."
Jaune seemed to ponder this for a moment "If it will stop further arguments then I will consider it. If they do indeed prove useful to humanity they may be worthy of being abhumans, I will be the judge of that. However I refuse to call the White Fang anything more than they deserve, they are mutants scum and always will be."
Pyrrha sighed internally. Well it was a start, perhaps in time he would learn to respect them but still baby steps.
"What about those 'xenos' you mentioned earlier, what are those?"
"They are what you might call aliens."
"Wait aliens? Were they from space?.
Realising his slip up Jaune needed to hide his mistake. "Space? No we never even tried flying out to there, too busy fighting. We probably just had different meanings of the word alien. To get back to my point before, they all wanted humanity dead however we weren't simply defenceless. I was given the honour of becoming one of the Adeptus Astartes, a sp- a marine, of the Blood Ravens chapter to be specific."
"Were your versions of huntsmen and huntresses?"
"You could say that. However I would say we were far superior."
"Are you saying you could take on a senior huntsman?"
"In my current form? I doubt it, I don't have the experience with aura you or anyone else has."
"Wait did your world not have aura?"
"No or at least we didn't know how to access it. Though I am grateful to have it, even with aura I am a shadow of my former self."
"Really? How could you have gotten so much worse?"
"Before I was more than a normal man. I was one of the angels of death, a hero of legend, a being augmented beyond normal human limits, someone made by the Emperor to defend humanity from all those who would threaten it."
"The Emperor?"
"Right! Of course, you wouldn't know of him. The Emperor is the master of mankind and the greatest man to have ever existed. He reunited humanity in its hour of darkness and led it on a great crusade forging the Imperium. However his son betrayed him and he was mortally wounded, ever since he has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Terra, always watching over us."
"He's your leader then?"
"He is the leader of the Imperium, he is seen by most as a god and, while others rule in his stead, everyone's loyalties are ultimately to the Emperor."
Pyrrha processed that information, so some supposed god in-charge of an Empire which he made?
"Is he really a god? He seems more like some dictator."
Jaune was outraged by this. "You dare speak I'll of him? He is the saviour of mankind and quite possibly the very reason I am here! I have spent centuries fighting in his name and I won't let you slander his image."
She was taken aback by this sudden outburst, he certainly believed in this Emperor. Wait a second did he say he served for centuries?
"Centuries?"
He sighed calming down, "Yes, I've served for about 3 centuries, give or take a decade or two."
The more Pyrrha learned the more it seemed impossible it seemed yet Jaune didn't seem to be lying.
"How could you live that long?"
"As I said, I was far beyond a mere mortal man."
Pyrrha's brain wasn't having an easy time processing all this.
"I understand if you are doubtful, I imagine it's a lot to take in, but nevertheless we should move on."
"A lot to take in? Jaune that would mean your older than the kingdoms! Just how did this happen?"
"That I do not know, I believe it may be that the Emperor sent me here to save and protect Remnant but to be truthfully I may never discover for sure why I am here."
"Could it have just been a dream?"
Jaune laughed. "A dream? Do you really think even the most over imaginative mind could have came up with this? I doubt a dream would suddenly lead to a mastery of warfare. Actually that reminds me, if possible I wish to continue our training."
Pyrrha was confused. "Why? You've clearly improved enough, you could practice using your aura some more but outside of that, what is there I can help you with? I'm still recovering from last night so another fight is out of the question.
"I was more of thinking the other way, I may be able to train you further. You are already a good combatant but you can always improve, more than that I may be able to help further the power of your semblance."
"How would you help me train my semblance? You haven't unlocked your own yet."
"Pyrrha while I won't get into it now there is much you still do not know about me."
"You unlocked your semblance?"
"If you wish to find out, join me tonight. Now we have left our friends waiting long enough. Let us return."
Jaune turned and head out the door leaving Pyrrha to contemplate his words for a moment, answering before he left.
"Tomorrow night." She paused for a second. "And are you sure we shouldn't tell everyone else?"
"No we won't."
"But why exactly?"
"You must understand that right now the only person on this planet who knows more about me than anyone else on Remnant save myself. My chapter had a saying we lived by, 'Knowledge is power, guard it well' you of all people would understand this."
"But why not tell them? They're our friends, what do you gain out of this."
"It is complicated but understand that should they, in time, prove to be good people whom I can trust, then they may be told but until then not a word of what I have told you should leave this room."
Jaune left and Pyrrha thought about what he said before following him out.
—
The group of friends were sitting in their usual spot in the library. They were split between board games and reading.
Ren saw Jaune and Pyrrha enter the library and come towards them. He turned to his friends, Team RWBY was doing their game on their table, Blake still looked on edge from earlier. If the situation got heated again it might even end up with a fight. This could go terribly, it all depended on whether Jaune was coming back with intentions to rekindle the fire or stamp it out for good.
Jaune approached the table and everyone looked at him in silence unsure of what was about to happen. Then he turned to Blake.
"Blake, I'd like to apologise for earlier." A wave of relief went over everyone, conflict had been avoided.
"I misidentified your kind as mutants when abhuman was both more accurate and respectful. I expect you to prove your kind worthy of that title when the time comes."
Blake didn't know what to think or say. He called her 'abhuman'? She hadn't heard that one before and was unsure of how to react. She saw Pyrrha nodding her head in her direction.
"Uh, apology accepted?" She was still confused but went along with Pyrrha.
Jaune would find out whether they deserved being an abhuman but right now he was getting bored and a simple solution lay in front of him. "If that's settled, how about I try a turn at that game your playing?"
"Sorry Jaune, we've already got four people." Ruby said.
"Besides this game requires a certain level of tactical cunning which I seriously doubt that you have." Weiss would later go on to regret those words.
Yang pointed out "You attacked your own naval units two turns ago."
Jaune only heard Weiss's comment, "Is that a challenge?"
"A challenge would imply you have a chance." Weiss retorted.
Suddenly a new voice spoke, "Sup losers."
Ruby faced the new person "Hey Sun"
Sun looked at them "Ruby, Yang, Blake … Snow Queen."
"Why does everybody keep calling me that?" Weiss, as friendly as always.
"I'd like to introduce you to my old friend."
His friend spoke. "Uh aren't libraries for reading?"
Ren had since gone back to reading and looked up from his book. "Thank you."
Nora snorted, "Pancakes!"
Sun turned to his friend. "Shut up, don't be a nerd."
"Intellectual ok? Thank you."
He turned back towards the table. "I'm Neptune."
"So Neptune, where you from?" Weiss asked.
"Haven, and I don't believe I've caught your name, Snow Angel."
"I'm Weiss."
"Pleasure to meet you."
Jaune didn't know why but a small part of him got annoyed by that interaction.
Sun leaned on the table and spoke to Blake, "I never took you as the board game playing type."
"Right. Well I think I'm done playing actually, I'll see you guys later." Blake left the table.
Jaune watched her leave and turned back to the table. "I see a spot has opened up."
—
Hephaes once again brought his hammer down hitting the blade. The room was heavy with the smell of metal and warm from the heat of the fire. A loud bang rings out as he continues to forge his newest artwork. He continued to perfect the blades edge until it was satisfactory.
He put the sword down into the water, it's tip piecing the surface causing a loud hiss. Hephaes pulled it out and left it to cool and dry. As he finished he heard someone enter.
"I'll be with you in a moment." He called out.
He looked at the weapon he had made, he gazed into his reflection shining off it. Ot would be a fine blade that would serve its wielder well. He had almost finished the days work early and had time for another customer. He left the forge and headed for the storefront.
One look at the boys clothes told him this was a Beacon student, they were uncommon as they usually had their own weapons and ways of maintaining them. He eyed the sheathed sword at his hip, might require some form of repair or needed replacing. He was about to ask what he wanted but the stranger spoke first.
"Your the one who makes weapons around here right?"
"That's me, Hephaes Mávros the blacksmith, what can I do for you?"
"How about you answer that yourself, what can you do for me?"
That caught him by surprise. He'd never before had to explain what a blacksmith did.
"I make weapons and sometimes tools, anything from the finest sword to the crudest hammer."
"And how exactly would this sword work?"
The blacksmith was baffled at that. He needed explaining of a sword?
"Well you use the sharp part to kill the Grimm and th-"
"I know what a sword is, what I'm asking is if there's anything… extra."
"If you want I can get you a gold insignia or some sort of ruby hilt, it'll cost you though."
"What would the sword be made of?"
"Why steel of course."
"Any other materials you've heard of?"
"What do you want to go back to the days of bronze?"
"And how about your guns? What are they like?"
Oh lord, don't say he'd have to explain how a gun works. If people like this were becoming huntsmen than Vale didn't stand a chance.
"You pull the trigger and bullets come out, I can't say much more."
"No what kind of guns do you make?"
"Oh I'm afraid I don't make them. I've made a few rifles in my time but they aren't my specialty."
"Of what caliber would those guns be?"
"I'm 'fraid I don't remember. It's been many years and you need to remember I'm just the one who makes the weapon, not the one who made it.
The blacksmith waited for another question but got none, he could feel them starring into him. He waited until after a couple seconds the silence broke
"I appreciate you answering my questions but that will be all."
Hephaes opened his mouth to reply but they had already left. Now he was once more alone in the store.
"Strange kid."
—
Jaune was walking around Beacon. Earlier he had visited one of the cities weapon smiths, apparently using just a regular sword was common in this world. If that was the case then how deadly could these Grimm really be? If those 'airships' he saw were as people said, a military force, then he shouldn't have anything to worry about. He thought they were civilian transports.
Unsurprisingly this place didn't have access to either ceramite or adamantium and while making a force sword out of regular carbon steel wasn't unheard of he still needed to somehow obtain a psi convector. Without any sort of psi-matrix it's nothing more than a normal sword. Fortunately he had made one before for his old force sword, unfortunately that would require Imperial components not available to him. While it might be possible to make a replacement with this planets resources that would take possibly months of work and tinkering. A Techprist would likely consider it 'heretek' but as far as he was concerned he wasn't a member of the mechanicus and wouldn't be seeing any in the foreseeable future.
In truth basically all Imperial weaponry were out of the question. As great as a bolter would be he had neither the experience nor parts for it. Remnants weaponry was certainly far behind anything he was used to; perhaps aura could be used as a substitute. As usual he needed to do more research on it.
He turned around to see the sun dipping down as a bright orange light started creeping over the horizon; he had wasted a significant portion of the day playing Remnant: The Game, definitely not the best name he'd heard. While it was entertaining to see their false hope of victory before he snatched it away from them it was still time he could've spent productively. Then again Weiss's face after he outplayed her was certainly was a sigh to behold. Certainly worth all the irritation.
Tomorrow classes would begin again, he had already lost any expectations for them. During his days as an initiate the idea of getting two days off a week would've been laughable. Still an opportunity to learn more about this world was useful and the free time would make it easier to work towards any other goals.
He entered Beacon going back to the dorms. Before he had forgotten about how much time people spent sleeping, yet another little nuisance he would have to live with. While walking down the hall someone ran into him.
"Sorry!" Ruby said quickly.
"Ruby why are you running around the halls of Beacon this late into the day?"
"Again, really sorry I left the game in the library."
"Look where your going next time." Jaune sighed before remembering something. "Oh actually." He pulled a piece out of his pocket. "Is this one of the pieces?"
Ruby looked at the beowolf figurine. "Yeah it is, where did you get it?"
"I … acquired it on the floor earlier and didn't know where it was from. I decided to hold on to it for safe keeping."
Ruby gave him a bit of a weird look, "Thank you, I'll get the rest of it now then, bye."
She ran off speeding down the hall again.
Jaune looked in the direction she went, rose petals covered the hall. Once again, these were the people he had to work with. Still Ruby was much more bearable then the other two. He'd heard of a combat class tomorrow which would be the perfect time to see what these people were capable of. If they are weak and unfit for combat then they are useless to him. If they show skill or promise he could try to train them and mould them into warriors. Well for now he had Pyrrha as his first test, even if she was to stop believing him or even as far as to die, it would all give him valuable information for next time.
Yes his teammates were assets he could use. They did not matter but would provide him either help or information even if it came at their expense. They were tools he could use to advance his objective, nothing more.
As he walked down the hall he could hear the talking and occasional laughter coming from the two team's rooms. He looked at both the doors.
He was on a mission from the Emperor, a mission that would see success no matter what the cost may be, whether his own life or those of his team's. Even if he had the utmost certainty in this, a small part of him still disagreed.
—
Ok to start things off I would like to apologise for the 'slight delay'. Remember when I said 1 or 2 updates a week? Well it appears the universe heard that and decided to have a laugh, a long story short irl stuff got in the way. Everything from possibly getting COVID to a crippling Stellaris addiction. Not to mention that this is the longest chapter yet.
Speaking of this chapter we have had Jaune's reaction to the faunus. As a side note the White Scar bit was inspired by a previous mistake I made. I almost said White Scars in the end of the last one and only noticed before I posted it.
Pyrrha now has some idea of what happened… maybe a vague idea is a better way to put it. How will she find out about what Jaune truly faced? I have some ideas but that's for the future. There is also an actual connection to the show now. Will everything that happens here make perfect sense considering the timeline? Probably not but if you expect this fanfic to make fit within the story of the world you should've given up at the prologue.
As for updates, assuming I continue making longer chapters expect 1 update every week or two. Though I also just want to say, I have ADHD and so sometimes I could crank out a couple dozen thousand words in a day and sometimes it takes me a week to write the first line. Ok maybe I'm over exaggerating a bit but still, point is don't expect consistency here.
As always thanks for all the comments. Expect the next chapter sometime between tomorrow and the heat death of the universe.