Hello everyone! If you're reading this, I'm guessing that my first chapter was enough to pique your interest. I'm a bit nervous with this next chapter for reasons that'll be clear by the end of this chapter. From the reviews I've gotten so far for the first chapter, it looks like nobody sees what I've got coming, and I'm looking forward to your reactions.

I would like to thank Utruk Doomhammer for betareading this chapter. Feel free to leave a review with your thoughts, opinions, and ideas. I love hearing those, and reviews are great incentives to keep writing and to keep improving. With that, let's start chapter 2!

Edited as of 1/23/2023: Deleted communications watch.

Re-edited as of 2/28/2023: Deleted exposition and did minor corrections

Re-edited as of 3/6/2023: Changed ship and more minor corrections

Arc 1, Part 2

Oum dawned over Vale, its yellow light chasing away the darkness and bringing warmth and light. In the distant part, Oum was the name of the God of Light, who had created Remnant and every living thing in it. His greatest creation was the sun and it was for this reason that it now bore his name when the number of his and his brother's worshippers had shrunk to a minority of Remnant's population.

Clad in a robe provided by the hotel, Jaune stood on the balcony of his and Pyrrha's hotel room and looked out over Vale, welcoming the dawn. He had long grown used to Oum's yellow glow, just as he had grown used to Vale and had come to love it and the people that lived in it.

Taking a moment to bask in the sunlight as it burnt away the night's chill, Jaune let out a sigh before turning back to the hotel room. Pyrrha lay on the bed, wrapped up in the blankets and still peacefully asleep. She murmured in her sleep and rolled over, her hair cascading over her face.

Jaune reached over and gently brushed her hair behind her ear, smiling at the pleasant memories of the night before. He and Pyrrha hadn't gotten much sleep, and he doubted that most of their friends had slept much after retiring to their hotel rooms for the night.

Pyrrha shifted again, and her eyes blinked open. Her gaze fell upon Jaune, and a smile spread across her face.

"Hey," Jaune greeted her with his own smile.

"Hey," she said back, yawning. "Been up long?"

"Only a few minutes," Jaune lied. He hadn't slept at all after Pyrrha had dropped off; too much on his mind. "Sleep well?" he asked.

"The best," Pyrrha answered, stretching luxuriously.

"Any regrets about getting the room now?" Jaune asked jokingly.

"Nope," Pyrrha said, a la Ruby. "None at all."

"How about I clean up and get us coffee from StarDust?" he asked. "My treat."

"That would be glorious." Pyrrha closed her eyes and snuggled deeper into the bed. "Be up in a moment," she murmured.

Jaune leaned over and kissed her on the forehead, earning another smile, before telekinetically retrieving his clothes and disappearing into the bathroom.

When he re-emerged, dressed in the rumpled suit he had worn the night before, Pyrrha was up and going through her morning stretches, without a stitch of clothing. Jaune found himself admiring her form as she went through her repetitions. Pyrrha felt his eyes on her after a few moments and glanced up at him. Seeing his expression, she blushed and looked away.

"It's nothing you haven't seen before," she said, embarrassed.

"Pyrs, I will never not look at you and wonder how in Remnant you fell for a guy like me," Jaune said, meaning every word. Pyrrha's blush only got worse, starting to match her hair.

"I'm the lucky one, Jaune-Bear," she said, breaking out of her pose and walking over to him. She pulled him into an embrace and kissed him hard on the lips, to which he reciprocated with delight. When they pulled apart, they were both breathing hard.

Jaune cleared his throat. "As much as I would like to keep going with this," he said, "I'm not going to beat the breakfast rush. You want the usual?"

Pyrrha made a grumbling noise and kissed him again, but let him go. "Yes, please, and one of those little cinnamon things, if you don't mind."

"Of course, milady," he said, not letting his eyes off her until he shut the door.

The day was beginning for the citizens of Vale as Jaune exitted the King Ozma Hotel and began the short walk to his and Pyrrha's favorite coffee place. A few cars rolled down the roads, their drivers either starting work early or just hoping to avoid the morning rush hour. Store owners were opening their shops, while a few, like From Dust Till Dawn, were closing their doors. Jaune waved a good morning to the Shopkeep, who waved back as he locked up.

When Jaune entered StarDust, the Shopkeep, now dressed in a barista's uniform, offered a good morning and congratulations for graduating Beacon. Jaune thanked him and returned the good morning before ordering his and Pyrrha's favorites along with a couple of the cinnamon bites.

As the Shopkeep bustled around behind the counter, Jaune reviewed his memories, trying to find an opening where the Shopkeep could have beaten him walking from his all-night Dust store to StarDust. Finding none, he could only conclude that the man did indeed possess a cloning Semblance like Flynt Coal's, but much stronger.

While he waited for his and Pyrrha's order, Jaune sat down at one of the booths and looked around. He had beaten the morning rush, so there was only a handful of people: Four teenagers taking up a booth, one of them a deer Faunus, all gulping down coffee and trying to keep their eyes open. A businessman, Scrolling through his updates while waiting for his order. A young couple, the girl a cat Faunus, sharing a large concoction between the two of them. A woman with two young children wiped hot chocolate stains off their mouths, almost spilling her own drink.

Jaune smiled at the scene before turning his attention out the window, watching the number of passerby and cars slowly but steadily increasing. Another beautiful day had begun in Vale.

Jaune suddenly felt strange, like he was disconnecting from the world. Outside the window, Vale blurred, twisted, and stretched before returning to normal without warning, but it wasn't the Vale he had just been looking out at.

Instead of the green wreath and double axes of Vale's emblem, a red flag with a vertical black stripe and a white bird of prey, its wings spread out and dominating, flapped from the flag poles instead. Squads of soldiers in suits of armor patrolled the streets, regularly stopping citizens to ask for their papers and question their comings and goings. Most people wore a very similar style of clothing, practically a uniform, parting before those that dared to challenge the status quo with their ensemble like they were a disease.

The soldiers and a few of the more well-off civilians had peculiar faces: Mouths that were too big, noses that were too prominent, and eyes that were too small. Those with normal faces eyed these strangers with wariness, but treated them with deference and caution, especially the soldiers. The strangers walked with a confidence that suggested that the world and all that was in it belonged to them and them alone, and if it didn't, it would one day.

The world shifted again, and Jaune found himself looking at Beacon, but one as altered as Vale had become. Rather than the colorful clothing the students wore for fighting Grimm, armor adorned them, their teachers wearing military-style uniforms. Gone were the personalized, mecha-shifting weapons, exchanged for standardized weaponry. Very few of the new teams had the same rosters as the old, team configuration now decided beforehand based upon Semblances. They were trained not to be protectors against the Grimm, but elite soldiers, serving under the strange-faced officers.

Again the world shifted around him, and Jaune's friends, Team RWBY, Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha, came into view. Just as with the students at Beacon, their usual combat clothes were replaced by armor and their unique weapons with regimented firearms. They were boarding a craft, different from a bullhead, streamlined and more advanced. Off in the distance, great plumes of dark smoke rose from the ground, not the result of a wildfire, but of the mass eradication of the Grimm. It was a beautiful sight, to be sure, but now the Huntsmen were being called to fight on far more distant battlegrounds, against enemies they had no quarrel with, under the orders of masters who saw them as living weapons.

RWBY and the rest of JNPR looked up as he approached, confusion, hurt, and betrayal on their faces. Glancing down at himself, Jaune found that he was wearing armor as they were, but with the stripes of an officer. Crocea Mors was gone, replaced by firearms more advanced than Remnant could make, more familiar to him than to them.

As one, they stood and saluted him. As he saluted them back, he glanced at Pyrrha, who immediately looked away from him, her eyes the most hurt and betrayed out of all of them.

With a start, Jaune was brought back to the real world. Glancing back to the counter, he found the Shopkeep waiting for him with his and Pyrrha's drinks. He got up and quickly gathered them up, making sure to tip before hurrying out the door.

As he began the trek back to the Hotel, Jaune narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw as he made his decision. For a while now, he had wrestled with these thoughts and feelings, squashing them down in the beginning as he had been trained to do. Now, they had graduated into full-blown dreams and visions, and he could no longer ignore them. He had to act now, or it could be too late, maybe even already too late.

Jaune Arc promised himself that before the day ended, before he took everything he had been working for all his life and destroyed it, he would tell Pyrrha Nikos, the love of his life, his biggest secret. Above everyone else on Remnant, she deserved to know the truth about Jaune Arc.

After finishing their StarDust drinks, Jaune and Pyrrha sat down to a complementary "Huntsman Breakfast" with their friends. Jaune didn't eat much; his vision from the coffee shop kept popping into his mind whenever he looked at his friends.

Nora dove into her plate, piled high with pancakes and syrup, with great gusto, while Ren calmly worked his way through a plate of fruit and berries. Blake's nose was stuck in a book, barely noticing her breakfast, while Yang's plate was filled with enough eggs and bacon to feed a Beowulf. Sun's oatmeal bowl was almost more fruit than oatmeal, his tail curled around a banana. Weiss ate her breakfast, not a hair out of place, ever the picture of the proper society lady, though the color on her cheeks and the shit-eating grin on Flynt's face said otherwise.

When she wasn't eating, Yang was teasing Ruby about her and Penny sharing a room; Ruby was as red as the gem she was named for and denying that she and Penny had done anything last night, only for Penny to refute that and say exactly what they had done, which made Yang laugh and Ruby turn even redder.

After breakfast, they parted ways to spend time with relatives and to begin moving their things out of the Beacon dorms. None of them were in any particular rush; they had until noon of the next day to move out. A good number of the Beacon graduates were likely relaxing or doing other activities in their rooms in celebration of this milestone in their lives.

For Pyrrha and Jaune, after picking up Athena from her own room at the Hotel (Athena had protested against being set up in such an expensive place, but Pyrrha had been insistent), they had shown her around Vale. Going off the trail frequented by tourists from the other kingdoms, Jaune and Pyrrha showed her the places and curios that they had discovered on their own explorations of Vale's streets and buildings, especially the locations that had a place in their hearts. There was the little cafe where they had their first date, the park where they had their first kiss, and other such places.

After lunch at the little cafe, Jaune and Pyrrha escorted Athena to the airport to catch her flight back to Argus. The mother and daughter duo wound up saying goodbye to each other about fifty times, and both of them had wet eyes by the time they separated. Jaune couldn't judge; he and his sister Saphron had done the same thing when they had last parted.

Athena and Jaune's farewell was much shorter, but there was an understanding in it between the two of them. Athena approved of Jaune, but it was clear that if he betrayed her trust with Pyrrha, she would not be forgiving. Tonight, Jaune had every intention of proving his devotion to Pyrrha, though the proof of that wouldn't be evident to her mother until later, if ever.

Pyrrha and Jaune spent the rest of the afternoon with Nora, Ren, and RWBY, packing up their stuff and helping them get to their various destinations. Ruby and Yang were heading back to Patch to move back in with their dad and save money living with him while they got their bearings in the Huntsmen profession. Weiss was going back to Atlas to attend Penny and Flynt's graduation and to attend to family matters. Blake and Sun were going to Menagerie; Blake wanted to revisit her childhood home, and Sun wanted to see the Faunus homeland.

Their goodbyes, especially the one between Ruby and Penny, were even more heartfelt than the farewell between Pyrrha and her mother. Jaune was halfway certain that Penny would have brought Ruby along in her luggage if she could. And while Weiss wasn't being separated from her significant other, one would think she was from the way she carried on; she had come a long way from the Ice Queen of their first semester.

As they watched the last airship departing from Beacon's landing platforms, taking their friends away on a new journey, Jaune looked to Pyrrha. She continued looking after the shrinking airship, a fond smile on her lips and her eyes wet from unshed tears. She didn't take her eyes off the ship until it vanished into the distance; only then did she turn to him.

"How about we get dinner from the cafeteria, one last time?" she asked. "That is," she quickly backtracked, "there wasn't anywhere else you wanted to eat at, I didn't mean-"

"Dinner from the cafeteria would be great," Jaune interrupted, his voice breaking much to his embarrassment. "How about I check and see if our study room is free while you get the food?"

Pyrrha just smiled and took his hand in hers as they turned and walked back to campus.

The study room wasn't really "theirs" per se; it was just the one they used most often for one-on-one studying, dates, and occasionally as a make-out spot. It wasn't much, just a square carpeted room with a table, four chairs, a whiteboard, and a window overlooking the main campus plaza. It was private and the two of them had a ton of memories connected to the room.

The privacy was exactly what Jaune needed at the moment. He quickly checked the room for hidden cameras and microphones; he wasn't too surprised to find a couple of bugs, one under the table and one in the light fixture. Taking care not to make any noise that would announce their discovery, he went out into the hall and stuck the bugs into a garbage can. Noticing the hall's vending machines, he sent off a text to Pyrrha asking if she wanted anything. While he waited for her reply, he got a soft drink and then took a small case out of his pocket. Inside were more bugs like the ones he had just disposed of, plus a number of other tiny items useful for his job. Amongst them was something that he wasn't supposed to have on his person: A number of red capsules.

Carefully, he took one out and studied it in the palm of his hand. It was such a small thing, and yet it represented years of research, and would be considered, even by the minds of Atlas' research labs, a miracle of genetics and biochemistry. To Jaune, it was the key to his biggest secret, and to his future.

He almost dropped the pill when his Scroll went off. Pyrrha asked, if it wasn't too much trouble, if he would kindly get one of the vitamin waters? He fired off a yes and bought the drink.

At the door to the study room, he took the pill back out and looked at it again before popping it into his mouth and washing it down with a gulp of pop. He let out a breath as he felt the carbonated beverage hit his stomach; he had just crossed the Rubicon, no going back now.

Five minutes later, the elevator dinged and Pyrrha stepped out, two styrofoam containers in her hands. Jaune waved and opened the door for her. As she went through, carefully balancing the containers, he reached with his telekinesis and eased her Scroll out of the back pocket of her short jeans. He levitated both their Scrolls to rest just outside the doorway as he let the door close behind them.

Without much ado, they sat down to one last dinner courtesy of Beacon Academy in their study room. To anyone without an active Aura or telekinesis, the food in front of them would have represented a heart attack; Huntsmen and Huntresses needed a large amount of calories to keep their bodies and abilities in peak condition. Normally, the meal would have been more balanced, but as a treat this time, Pyrrha had stacked the containers near to overflowing with greasy, fried junk food.

For some reason, Jaune felt like he was eating his last meal as he and Pyrrha dug in. In a way, he supposed; one life he had was ending, and another was just about to begin, much the same way when he had arrived in Vale.

A few bites into the calorie-rich mass of grease and caramelized deliciousness, Jaune felt the first signs of the pill working its magic: An unpleasant tingling sensation throughout his body. He grit his teeth and then took another bite. The good news was that it wouldn't take a long time; the bad news was that it wasn't going to be pleasant.

Thankfully, he and Pyrrha were in the midst of one of their comfortable silences, not needing to talk to enjoy each other's company. It would be far more enjoyable for him if his DNA wasn't being reset to factory condition.

A third of the way through his food, it got worse. The painful tingling increased in amplitude as his bones and muscles began to feel like they were turning to rubber. He couldn't help the groan of pain that escaped his lips.

"Jaune," Pyrrha said in a concerned voice. "Is anything the matter?"

"Just bit into something hard, jabbed my gums," Jaune lied, doing his best not to let his pain show in his voice or expression. Pyrrha didn't look convinced, but began eating again, glancing up at him from time to time.

A few bites later, Jaune dropped his fork as pain stabbed through his entire body; it felt like he was being turned to putty on the inside and his bones and muscles were now being pushed and pulled back and forth like elastic. He doubled over and let out a loud gasp, just barely holding back the rising gorge from his stomach; it was evidently being squeezed in a hydraulic press.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha dropped her own fork and knocked her seat back as she jumped up. She was at his side in a flash. "What's wrong?"

"Everything…hurts," Jaune gasped out. He grasped the edges of the table, his knuckles turning white from the strain. A few minutes earlier, he would have broken the table, now he couldn't even dent it.

Pyrrha held him, easing him as gently as she could out of the chair and onto the floor. "Try not to move, Jaune, I'm calling for help." Her hand went to her back pocket, and then to her other one. Her eyes widened and she got to her feet, eyes rapidly darting around the room.

"Damnit, where is it?" she swore, fear in her voice. "Where is my Oum-damned Scroll?!"

Jaune's cries of pain became a scream as he felt the bones in his head and face restructuring themselves, squeezing his eyes. Tears began flooding from his eyes, both from the pain and from the excess fluid in his eyes being compressed. The cartilage in his nose popped and cracked as it expanded, and it felt like someone was injecting air into his lips as they expanded.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha was back at his side in a second, shaking, her hands instinctively moving to hold him, but stopping just before they made contact, fearful of hurting him. "Jaune, hold on, I'm going for help."

"No!" Jaune gasped out, grabbing Pyrrha's shoulder before she could get up. "It'll be over in a minute. Just stay-AHH!" His nose cracked audibly as it assumed a strange shape.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha brushed him off and went for the door. "I'm getting a doctor!" she exclaimed as she opened it.

"NO!" Jaune said, verbally and mentally, raising a hand towards the door. It ripped itself out of Pyrrha's hand and slammed itself shut. Pyrrha grasped the handle and pulled as hard as she could. When that didn't work, she activated her Semblance and began prying at the door's hinges.

"Pyrrha," Jaune said weakly, almost blind from the fluid gushing from his eyes. "Trust me…it's almost over. Please…stay with me."

Pyrrha looked between him and the door before ceasing her Semblance and hurrying back to him. She cradled him in her arms, holding him carefully as he let go of the door and did his best to ride out the pain. He held onto Pyrrha as hard as he could, unintentionally. She barely reacted to his death grip.

After what felt like ages, the pain finally subsided and disappeared. Jaune gasped, taking deep breaths to calm his pounding heart. He blinked away tears, his breathing evening out and his arms weakly falling away from Pyrrha.

"It's…it's over," he said, wincing.

"Jaune, what on Remnant was that?" Pyrrha pulled back to look at him, cupping his face in her hands. "I've never been so frightened in all my…life."

She stared at him, eyes going wide as she looked at his face. He didn't need a mirror to know what she was gawking at. His eyes were not even half what they were before, small and beady in his countenance. His lips were thicker, and his nose was very prominent, dominating the center of his face. Against her will, a sense of unease and revulsion at his altered facial features was flooding her, her instincts screaming at her to get away, that he was something completely unlike her despite their resemblances.

"Jaune," she began slowly, trying to keep the note of fear out of her voice as she let go of him and began backing away.. "What is this? What…what are you, Jaune?"

Jaune swatted the twinge of hurt that rose in his chest from the look on her face and the fear and unease in her voice. He was looking up at her from within the Uncanny Valley; his facial features a close approximation to normality, her normality, and it wasn't comforting to see something like that, very much the opposite.

"Pyrrha, I…." he began. He paused, swallowed, and then tried again.

"Pyrrha, I wasn't born in an isolated settlement out in the wilderness of Sanus. I was born on the world of Unity, a moon orbiting a gas giant in another star system. I am not a Remnite; I am an alien.

"I am Human."

Yes, Jaune is not a Remnite in this story. He is a Human, and he is from the Commonwealth of Man. At what point in the story did that you begin wondering if that was the case? I hope that I didn't pop this plot twist too soon.

The whole idea for this particular RWBY/Stellaris crossover, one of the many that my brain has created, comes from a single idea: What if Remnites weren't Humans like most RWBY/Stellaris stories depict them as? What if Remnites were Aliens?

Another departure from RWBY canon: The non-Faunus inhabitants of Remnant are not Humans in this story, but a species of Humanoid with anime facial proportions.

I'm not certain as to what the genetic traits of the Remnites and Faunus should be. I'm thinking Adaptive, Resilient, Quarrelsome, and Deviant for both. How does that sound?

From the POV of Humanoids with anime proportions, a Human being would look to have beady eyes, a prominent nose, and thick lips. On the other hand, an ordinary Human would see the Remnites and Faunus as something like Alita from the live-action Alita: Battle Angel, their large eyes dominating their face, hence looking "bug-eyed". Considering the conditions of a world like Remnant, it makes sense for its inhabitants to have large eyes: All the better to see the Grimm coming with, my dear!

Well, I hope you all enjoyed this 2nd chapter. Things are about to get very weird for Pyrrha as she discovers who Jaune really is. Take care, everyone, and happy reading!