(A/N): Hey everyone, YAKOM here for another chapter of 'Rubrum Mors'. Man, how long has it been? Obviously too long, but still, I need to write. I apologize for those who still care. And now, 'Loss'.
Jaune stood his ground, grimm falling before his mighty blade. Its glow illuminating all around him. All around him was in a blaze, and it tore through Beacon. He stood in a classroom surrounded by multitude of terminals, many of them shattered and broken. He looked over the horizon - an opening in the wall having been torn open - the sky a blood red. Yes, this was real, this was happening. Beacon has fallen, now he must join the fight to save all around him. He stepped over the rubble of the wall in ruin, crossed the threshold of his destiny. This was his calling. He looked to the blade in his hand: the almighty grimm-slaying sword. The tool he would use to shape the world. He looked over the war zone that was Beacon. He sighted in on his partner.
"Pyrrah! Cover me, I'm making a break for the CCT. We need to call for help, and Blake reports that the other com rooms are down."
"Of course Jaune. Don't hurt youself."
"I'll be fine, let's go!" With that, Jaune charged forward. The Monado cutting through everything in his path. Jaune's path was blocked off by two alpha beowolves. He skidded to a stop before activating the Monado. He roared as the aura around him came forth as a grimm dragon.
"Buster!"
Jaune awoke with a start. Oh, just a dream. He sat up on his bed, looking out to the morning sun. Its warm colors splashed across the sky, only obscured by the clouds, of which added to the sky's beauty. Oh how he wished he could bask in its light for the rest of his days.
"You're awake, good," Pyrrha spoke from the bathroom door, dressed in only a loose button-up shirt that stuck to her wet skin. Her slender legs exposed to the world. Her hair wet from the shower she just finished. "Prof. Ozpin needs you in his office, bring the Monado too."
"Yeah. I'll do that. Hey, before I leave-"
"Hm?"
"You've been slacking, both Krono and Lauren are kicking your ass on the leader-boards, and Icarus and Lust are hot on your tail." Jaune cracked a shit eating grin to Pyrrha.
"Y-yeah!? Well you can talk to me when you actually get on the leader-board at all!" Her cheeks puffed like a pouting little girl, before her and Jaune both started cracking up. "You should get out of here."
"Yeah, I'll do that." Unsure of what he was to do, Jaune dressed himself in his new armour he got after his discovery of the Monado. It was heavier than his last set, and protected much more. The breastplate was aqua-green and silver colour, as well as the rest of his armour. He also had an aqua-green cloth around his waist that stretched out like a wide tail behind him. The arm-guards when only to just above his elbow where it was then replaced by white cloth running down the length of his arm. Upon his head were two horn-like entities. Overall, the armour looked more ceremonious than anything else.
He took the Monado into his hand, picked it up and examined it closely: the weight, multi-layered glass interface, the grip trigger. This was his weapon now, quite strange. He looked to his Crocea Mors and frowned. He never needed it, but he was still upset that it was just collecting dust, and not the spectacular kind. Still, he doesn't need it. It never felt right.
He gripped the door handle and twisted it open, pushing the door aside and walking into hall. He was greeted by a small entity latching on to his back. He reached up and patted the small girl on the head.
"Hey Ruby." Jaune greeted, pulling her off him.
"Hey, Jaune! Where are you going?" She questioned.
"Ozpin's office. More Monado training."
"Cool, but you know what'd be cooler? Cookies with me in the cafeteria!"
"I don't know Rubes, you know how Ozpin gets."
"Come on! Please?" She hit him with some heavy puppy eyes. He couldn't resist! Maybe in some other parallel universe he has several sisters and an eventual immunity, unfortunately, he did not.
"Fine." He smiled at her glowing face. Worth it.
"So, I do a lot of thinking in the shower. Last night I had a thought: we are who we are today because of events that transpired in the past. So say if people that exist now, didn't exist in some other universe. Imagine how fucked up everything would. Or maybe even more mind blowing. If someone existed here that isn't supposed to be!" Ruby waved her arms wildly.
"Yeah, like team KILL. They always seemed out of place," Jaune reflected on her words. "Whoa, what if Yang was your sister in another world!?" Ruby cackled at his words.
"Her puns would kill me in the first week! You remember Winter Schnee?" Jaune nodded. "What if instead of being Weiss' sister, she was her aunt instead?" Jaune decided to continue that train of thought.
"Yeah! And she totally fucked your uncle and had a kid!" Ruby's face scrunched up.
"God, you're disgusting!" They laughed.
They continued tossing up hypothetical situations around. What if Pyrrha had a sister? What if Ozpin and Goodwitch had a kid? Krono sounds like Cronus, what if he was some kind of god? It also sounds like chrono, like in chronometer, what if he could control time. What if Goodwitch was a bitch and not Ozpin?
"Jaune Arc!" Speaking of bitches. "I requested you in my room an hour ago! What were you doing!?"
Jaune raised a hand with a cookie in it. "Cookies!"
"And that is more important than our meeting?" Jaune paused for a moment to collect his thoughts.
"Yes." He said with much conviction.
Ruby then chirped up. "Ooh! What if you didn't have the balls to do stupid shit like that? Or if you always made the correct decisions and didn't have to correct your mistakes in hindsight?"
"Bitch did I ask you!?" The two laughed until a loud thwack sounded, silencing the room.
"Ah fuck, I can't believe you've done this." Jaune sounded to Ozpin.
"My office, now."
"Yes sir." No more jokes huh?
Blood. So thick on his skin. He trembled and shook under its weight, transcending form. It was rather a figurative weight. He clutched the girl's blood stained hair, looking back at his friend. His green robe had been torn by debris landing on him. His pink eyes wide in panic.
"Ren!" Nora screamed. She pulled and tugged away from Jaune, but to no avail. "Let me go!" She broke Jaune's grip and crawled to Ren.
She lost feeling in her left arm, crawling only with her right arm. Two rusted segments of rebar jutting out of her back: one between her spine and left shoulder blade, and one just above her pelvis. Jaune could only watch on in fear. How could this have happened? It was so calm, but peace does not last. On his way to Ozpin's private lesson when the bomb went of in the terminal room. He looked outside, the White Fang was behind this, and now they were releasing grimm into the school.
"Ren are you okay?" She said quietly, sobbing with Ren in her arms.
"Nora. Nora, I can't feel my legs." Ren said in a panic, stumbling over his words.
"It's going to be okay. I promise." Nora said, becoming increasingly quiet. The light was fading from her eyes and her blood was pooling on the floor. She tumbled onto her side.
"Nora!" Ren yelled, crawling to her side.
"Ren, I don't want to die."
"No, you won't! You can't!" Ren yelled. His hands running over her cheeks, yet trembling.
"Ren, I love you." Ren's eyes widened, then softened in realization.
"I-I love you too." Nora simply smiled in response. Her hand slowly moving up to his nose, tapping it lightly.
"Boop."
Grimm flooded the room he was in. His Monado cutting through the Beowolves and Ursai. He fought until he emptied the room. All around him was in a blaze, and it tore through Beacon. He stood in a classroom surrounded by multitude of terminals, many of them shattered and broken. He looked over the horizon - an opening in the wall having been torn open - the sky a blood red. Yes, this was real, this was happening. Beacon has fallen, now he must join the fight to save all around him. He stepped over the rubble of the wall in ruin, crossed the threshold of his destiny. This was his calling. He looked to the blade in his hand: the almighty grimm-slaying sword. The tool he would use to shape the world. He looked over the war zone that was Beacon. He sighted in on his partner.
"Pyrrah! Cover me, I'm making a break for the CCT. We need to call for help, and Blake reports that the other com rooms are down."
"Of course Jaune. Don't hurt youself."
"I'll be fine, let's go!" With that, Jaune charged forward. The Monado cutting through everything in his path. Jaune's path was blocked off by two alpha beowolves. He skidded to a stop before activating the Monado. He roared as the aura around him came forth as a grimm dragon.
"Buster!"
The grimm evaporated as the blade's light flooded into them. However, he stood and looked about, dissastisfied with how many grimm were still around. He needed to up the ante. Alright, let's go!
"Monado! Enchant!" Jaune shouted. He jammed the Monado into the ground, its glow blinding all around him. Through the multi-layered glass center, a ghostly figure emerged. It was a translucent Deathstalker tail! Jaune lifted his arm and flexed it beside him, and the tail stung him. He took in the stinger's venomous steroid, and his muscle mass increased armour cracked under the pressure before it snapped off, underneath, his figure was a lot more defined, but not quite that of a body builder.
Jaune rushed through the gardens of Beacon and to the front courtyard. There he found Blake fighting off a multitude of high-class grimm, but alas she was not strong enough to finish them and was quickly knocked to the ground.
"Blake!" Jaune shouted. He charged forward, cutting through the grimm quick and easy. "Are you okay!?" Jaune approached Blake, cradling her in his arms. She had been knocked into the fountain, her now wet clothes clinging to her body, and her wet hair coming together into a curtain that cascaded into the water.
"I'm fine, where's everyone else?"
"Pyrrha is in the gardens, Ren was just evacuated. Weiss and Yang are clearing out the back rooms and courtyards."
"What about Nora?" Jaune flinched and Blake had come to a definite conclusion. "What about Ruby!? Tell me she's okay!" Jaune's eyes quickly widened in shock.
"We have to find Ruby!" Jaune yelled, he pulled Blake up. "Can you fight? No, nevermind. I'll look myself." Jaune turned to leave.
"Jaune! Wait!" Blake called.
But he paid no heed.
"Ruby! Where are you?!" Jaune called, only finding that grimm would heed his call. It seemed all was lost until he remembered where she might be.
"Pretty cool huh?" Ruby asked, nonchalant.
"Yeah, this is fantastic." Jaune said.
They sat upon the highest vantage point in all Vale: the CCT. They were on the roof, as they had snuck in and taken to tossing themselves through the window to the slanted spire on top. It was a sight to behold, the sunset over the city. The warm colours splashed across the sky, and the beautiful but foreboding darkness growing behind them. It was lovely. Here they were, eating a bar of sea-salt ice cream.
"Hey, have you ever wondered why the sun sets red?" Ruby asked, and Jaune only chuckled in response.
"No, not even a little bit. Why don't you tell me?" He replied, flicking his ice cream forward before biting into it again.
"Well. Light works in weird ways, and when the sun sets, it's always so far. But the red light works hard to be seen, it's the colour that travels the furthest."
"That's quite nice, maybe we should strive to be red. To work hard and travel great lengths to achieve our goals," Jaune softly let out. He then finished his ice cream with Ruby. "Well, it's not like it'll last forever."
"It could if we protected it."
"Doesn't matter to me, as long as you're here. I'll be fine." Ruby then tossed her body onto Jaune.
"Is that so? Nice to know I have my knight in shining armour!" She chuckled, before they both started laughing.
Their breathing calmed and they observed their position: Ruby straddling Jaune.
"Ruby-" Jaune was cut off by Ruby's finger, hovering over his mouth as she let out a small hush.
"Quiet now." She said, leaning into him. She came closer to his face and he realized her intentions and followed suite. Soon their lips touched and they kissed.
They kissed as the sun dipped under the horizon and the stars grew bright in the night.
Jaune soon made it to the CCT. Standing outside, he look for signs of Ruby. But what he found instead was horrifying.
Before him was a stack of corpses, and bt them he found the owner. It was a creature, much like grimm, but it couldn't be! Impossible! It was almost formless, an enigma. Jaune knew exactly what it was but he could not describe it. It was white, and it had ethereal glowing blue eyes. It look through Jaune, into his soul. However, it left, climbing up the tower. Jaune felt compelled to chase it, and he did.
He entered the lobby on the ground floor only to see the enigmatic grimm crawl up the elevator shaft and make the elevator plummit from summit. It was now out of order, leaving Jaune for the stairs.
Having climbed to the top, he found what he was worried about. A bloodied Ruby fighting the enigma. She fought with vigor, the blood obviously wasn't hers.
"Ruby!" Jaune shouted. It got the enigma's attention and it pushed Ruby aside off the tower, luckily she grabbed hold of the edge.
Jaune sought to kill the enigma, yet the Monado could not slice it. It was no use. It phased through the grimm.
"What? No!" He continued as best he could, alas it was not to be. He simply could not kill it.
"Hey! Fuck face!" Ruby shouted. She proceeded to shoot a volley of bullets in its direction, all useless. It knocked Jaune to the side, focusing on a more interesting toy.
"No! Don't Ruby!" Jaune called out.
But she paid no heed.
The enigma shuffled slowly towards Ruby, all bullets passing through it. Ruby's shooting became frantic as she desperately tried to kill this horror. However, her efforts were in vain.
"Ruby!" Jaune called out to her, and watched as this formless being plunged its claws into Ruby. Her body became lifeless and the beast tossed her down the side of the tower. "No!" Jaune's voice was raspy. He screamed his lungs out. His heart filled with anger, rage, hate. His aura flared and he stepped forth, Monado in hand.
He came behind the enigma, cutting through it without giving it time to react. It screeched a deathly screech. The Monado's blade strangely seemed to give the enigma form. It seemed humanoid, but Jaune couldn't quite tell as the humanoid grimm lost form and became an enigma once more. It cowered away from his blade, before deciding to take its leave.
"I'm not forgiving."
"Ruby!" Jaune called, finding her limp body on the ground just outside the CCT.
He took her into his arms and held her close. He laid a kiss on her forhead, rocking back and forth. His eys were clouded with tears that cascaded down his face. He was whimpering hysterically, reason long since lost. His mind no longer quite whole, nor his heart.
"Jaune, please," Ruby whispered. Jaune nodded, whispering 'yes' many times, atesting to his mental stability. "Before I go, I must ask you a favor," Jaune's sobbing had not stopped, and in fact had grown louder.
"Please, don't cry for my sake." Ruby smiled, tears rolling down her cheeks. Her eyes slowly drifted shut.
She had left, and with her, Jaune's tears.
(A/N): Hey everyone, sorry this took so long to do, and it's riddled with grammar errors. Regardless, I hope that 'multiple worlds interpretation' thing explained OOC stuff. Hope you enjoyed and until next time, YAKOM!