Well folks, I hope that my last cliffhanger caught you offguard. Yes, in this fic, the non-Faunus inhabitants of Remnant are not Humans, but a species of Humanoid alien (of which Faunus are a very close relative).
If you're wondering why the Commonwealth is bothering with an infiltration mission when they can just invade (which fits their AI personality of Hegemonic Imperialist), I'm going with the idea that contact with the United Nations of Earth brought new ideas into the Commonwealth. While happening very slowly thanks to the Commonwealth's deeply entrenched militarism and xenophobia, the ideals of freedom and equality are making their way through the Commonwealth's citizenry and government. At the moment, the current Grand Marshall of the Commonwealth of Man believes that Humanoid xenos should have Resident Citizenship within the Commonwealth as opposed to slavery.
While steeped in the pseudo-scientific idea that the Human form is the best possible one for sapient lifeforms, it has allowed the Humanoid species already conquered by the Commonwealth to be allowed many of the same rights as Commonwealth Humans ("Commoners"). That, combined with the cultural similarity/convergence between Humans and Remnites, had the Grand Marshall deciding to annex Remnant through infiltration rather than invasion.
I hope that makes sense, and I hope that you enjoy this next chapter. Feel free to leave a review with your thoughts, questions, ideas, and opinions. Enjoy!
Edit as of 3/1/2023: Deleted unnecessary exposition and explanations
Re-edit as of 3/2/2023: Exchanged Suppressor Pistol (Mass Effect 3) for Karpov (Mass Effect).
Arc One, Part Three
"An-an alien?" Pyrrha stared at him, incredulity battling the evidence of her own eyes.
"Yes, a Human," Jaune repeated. He silently pleaded for her to believe him, and then for her to not freak out.
Cautiously, Pyrrha inched towards him, like she had come across some new species of Grimm, curiosity now entering onto the emotional battlefield of her face and mind.
Hesitantly, she reached for his face, studying his true facial proportions. She ran a finger along his lips; Jaune felt a shiver go through him. As the surface area of his lips had increased, so too had the amount of sensory information they brought in. Jaune wondered how it would feel for Pyrrha to kiss him right now.
Her fingers moved from his lips to his nose, tracing it. Jaune was reminded of Nora's habit of "Booping" Ren on his nose.
She didn't start poking at his eyes, opting to instead lean forward and look at them closely. It was strange, having her be this close to him and instead of adoration or desire, seeing curiosity and analysis in her eyes, like he was some kind of strange insect. He let himself look into her eyes, looking, hoping, that there would be no sign of rejection in her green orbs.
Finally, she sat back and just looked at him, curiosity having won out over fear. He let out a breath he hadn't known he had been holding.
"You're…not at all what I would have expected from an alien," she said at last, brushing her hair behind her ear. "Um, no offense," she added nervously.
Jaune couldn't help letting out a laugh. "It's ok. I can see why you'd think that."
They sat in silence for a moment before Pyrrha spoke again.
"Human," she said out of the blue. "Hu-man," she repeated, slowly saying the foreign word and tasting it.
"Interesting," she finally said.
"I'm glad you think so," Jaune said. So far, so good.
"Why are you here?" she asked next, leaning forward. "Are you stranded here? Did your ship crash or something?"
Jaune huffed. "No, I came here very much on purpose. I was sent…by my government."
"So, you're studying us?" Pyrrha guessed again. "Are you coming to help us with the Grimm?" Excitement was entering her voice.
In Remnant's science fiction, aliens had one of two roles: They were either aiding the Remnites in wiping out the Grimm, or they were conquering Remnant. Needless to say, the former movies were more popular than the latter. The Grimm were bad enough without the added threat of alien invasion.
There was one film that JNPR had gone on a double date to see, Grimm Eclipse. The premise of the film was that the Grimm were an alien species, who had come to Remnant long ago to conquer it, only for their Queen to be killed by the first Huntsman. In the present day, a new Grimm Queen came to Remnant to take over the Grimm and lead them on a war to exterminate Remnites and Faunus. As such films went, the aliens were defeated and driven off Remnant. An unlikely ending, but a happy one.
"That…is the plan in the long-term," Jaune picked his words carefully. "Though, it's not our primary goal."
"What is then?" A note of worry and fear came into her voice now. "You're not…invading us, are you?"
"Not…really?" Jaune winced. "Not in the traditional sense anyway, with guns and bombs and all that."
Pyrrha cocked her head. "Ok, that's good."
"Yeah, it is," Jaune blew out his cheeks. "Though our leader, the Grand Marshall, wants to try infiltrating the governments of pre-FTL Humanoid civilizations instead."
"FTL, what's-" Pyrrha began. "Wait, infiltrating?" Her voice went up a notch in pitch.
Jaune sighed heavily. "Four years ago, the Commonwealth of Man sent agents, including me, to infiltrate the governments of the kingdoms of Remnant," he said slowly. "The end goal is for the Commonwealth to reveal itself in a friendly first contact, and then for our agents to sign your planet away to us."
Pyrrha's mouth dropped open. She stared at Jaune in shock for a moment, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to find the words.
"That-that's horrible!" she finally blurted out, jumping to her feet. "Oh Oum, we need to tell the Council-you need to tell the Council about this!" she cried, pointing at him.
Jaune shook his head. "Pyrrha, that won't do any good. With the exception of General Ironwood, every member of every Council is a Commonwealth imposter. Your governments aren't yours anymore; they're ours."
Pyrrha stared at him again, and then her face twisted in anger. In a flash, she picked him and slammed him against the wall. Jaune gasped as he felt the plaster at his back deform and the weight of Pyrrha's hands against his chest. Her green eyes blazed, her teeth bared, as she stared up at him in anger.
"Why?!" she roared. "Why would you do this to us?!"
"Because," Jaune gasped, clutching at her hands. "It's what we do. The Commonwealth wants something, we take it. It's always been that way."
"I'm not asking the 'Commonwealth', I'm asking you!" Pyrrha cried out. Anger wasn't the only emotion in her eyes now. Hurt and betrayal now swirled, tears threatening to pour out. "Jaune, why would you do this to us? To me!"
"I-ow! I didn't set out to hurt you, Pyrrha, or to hurt anyone," Jaune gritted out. "I came here because I was ordered to. When the Commonwealth calls for its citizens to act on its behalf, we-Ah! We answer, because that's what we're taught to do, it's what we've always done."
He swallowed. "For the manifest destiny of Humanity," he quoted sadly.
Pyrrha stared up at him, then abruptly stood back and dropped him. Jaune just barely managed to keep his feet under him and to lean against the wall, gasping for breath.
Pyrrha just stared at the floor, trembling. When she spoke, she didn't meet his eyes.
"Why are you telling me this, Jaune?" she almost whispered. "I-we could have gone on as we were. I-I wish I didn't know about any of this." She looked him in the eyes now, searching for an answer. "Why?"
Jaune took a breath and stood up from the wall. Ignoring the ache in his chest, he forced his breathing to even out before he spoke.
"Because, I cannot stand by and let the Commonwealth take over Remnant and force you to play by its rules," he said. "Because I know how they operate, I know what they are capable of, and I'm going to try and stop them. And because, I think that you, out of all the people on this planet, deserve to know the truth about me, because I love you, Pyrrha Nikos."
Pyrrha just stared at him, emotionless, wordless, before turning and walking to the door.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune called after her. She didn't reply, didn't give any sign that she had heard him. She just opened the door, walked through it, and closed it behind her.
Jaune gazed at the door and then slumped back to the ground, back against the wall again. The world disconnected from him again, but there was no vision this time. Just the wall at his back, the carpet under him, the walls around him, and the table in front of him with two styrofoam containers full of cooling junk food. A high-pitched whine began in his ears and spread throughout his brain, becoming all that there was, and all that there would ever be. Time ceased to have all meaning: A second became an eternity, and an eternity a second.
The dissociation ceased abruptly when the pain started up again. Jaune groaned as he remembered: The red capsules were supposed to neutralize the effects of gene tailoring for about 30 minutes, an amenity provided onboard the Remnant Observation Post so that agents offworld could call their loved ones without giving them a heart attack. The last time he had been aboard, he had grabbed a couple, just for this purpose.
As his facial muscles, cartilage, and bones began to reknit themselves to match Remnite features again, Jaune curled up on the ground and hugged himself as hard as he could. Deep within his mind, a voice that wasn't his and wasn't originating from someone else's mind began speaking for the first time in years, whispering its familiar poison in a feminine voice, smokey and velvety, yet slithering and scornful.
"Stupid boy, what did you think was going to happen? You've been lying to her for four years now. That's all you are, a liar. You should have just kept your mouth shut. Things will be better for her and for the Remnites when the Commonwealth takes over: The Grimm exterminated, access to advanced tech, medicine, and increased life expectancy. Now watch: She'll say something to the wrong person and she'll be silenced, likely show up on the news as a celebrity overdose or suicide. You had everything you've ever wanted, and you just blew it. All that time, all this pain you're going through right now, and you've lost everything. And if the higher-ups learn that you told her everything? You'll be executed for treason. The final act in the life of Jaune Arc, the biggest disappointment of the Arc family, and the biggest mistake of the Commonwealth and of Humanity. That's all you are, and all you've ever been."
"Shut the fuck up," Jaune snarled, his eyeballs expanding in his head, forcing his eyelids to stay open. "Shut up, Cin, and don't come back."
Years of practice in telling the voice of his adopted sister to stuff it did their work, and she disappeared back into the recesses of his mind. Concentrating on breathing, Jaune powered his way through the pain, knowing that it would eventually end. Somehow, without Pyrrha there to hold him, it was so much worse. He allowed the tears to flow, both from the pain and from the sorrow.
When it finally ended, Jaune lay gasping for a few moments before sitting up. A quick examination of his face confirmed that his Remnite features were back, for what little good that did. Getting to his feet, he stumbled back to the table and slumped into his chair with a groan, holding his face in his hands.
He let out another loud groan, letting his hands slide down his alien face. When his eyes fell upon the container of food in front of him, he was reminded of how hungry he still was. Grabbing it and his fork, he began shoveling the food into his mouth, attempting to bury the newfound sorrow with deep fried calories. When he was done, he picked up Pyrrha's abandoned food and walked over to the window to look out over Beacon while he ate it.
His stomach was beginning to protest about the amount of food he was stuffing into it when he spied Ozpin making his way across the campus. Out of habit, Jaune reached out with his psionics, but froze. Setting up mental communications with others became easier over time, akin to setting up a speed-dial as opposed to typing in someone's whole number.
His psionics were telling him that Ozpin was above him, out of sight, likely in his office. The man who was crossing the plaza, who appeared to be Ozpin, down to his suit, round glasses, and cane, was a complete psychic stranger to Jaune.
Once again, the fork fell from Jaune's fingers, followed by the container, whose contents spilled out over the carpet. That wasn't Ozpin, down in the plaza, walking with a deadly focus towards the lobby of the CCT Tower and the central elevator. It was Ozpin's assassin, and his replacement.
Jaune was out the door in the next instant and down the hall before it had even closed. He shot down the halls as a blur, running on the walls when making a turn, jumping over those who happened to be walking down the halls themselves, giving them a good scare as he passed by. At one point, he briefly made eye contact with Glynda Goodwitch as he vaulted over her. Upon landing, he broke into an even greater burst of speed to avoid her wrath for running so recklessly through the vaunted halls of Beacon. He heard her call out his name just before he made it to the stairwell door; she didn't sound happy in the slightest.
In the stairwell, he ran less on the stairs themselves and more on the railings, ascending in seconds. On his floor, Jaune shot down the hall and just barely stopped short of plowing through the door of Team JNPR's room. Inside, he found his and Pyrrha's bags waiting for them on their beds.
He grabbed his duffel bag and quickly located a secret compartment on the side. Opening it and reaching in, he took out a Karpov pistol, the standard issue weapon for the agents of the Commonwealth's intelligence agencies. He checked the Kinetic Coil and experimental Suppressor mods to ensure they were properly installed, and once satisfied, he grabbed his backpack, duffel bag, and Crocea Mors, and shot back out the door.
At the central elevator, he pushed the button to call the elevator. Hopefully, he could surprise Ozpin's imposter at the ground floor and take him out there. Glancing up at the elevator indicator, he froze and then swore.
The elevator was a couple of floors above him, and heading up. He threw his psionic senses forward and then quickly withdrew them to avoid detection. Above him and ascending higher was the psionic signature he had picked up from the would-be assassin; Ozpin's doppelganger had beaten him to the elevator and was headed straight for his target.
Thinking fast, Jaune reached out with his telekinesis and grasped the elevator doors. Clenching his fists, he made a motion like he was wrenching something apart and the elevator doors separated, screeching in protest.
Without hesitation, he leapt into the elevator shaft. Rather than falling down it, his body froze in midair and then began to ascend upwards, his eyes glowing purple. Jaune levitated upwards as quickly as he could, having to stop periodically when he began reaching the limits of his levitation and grab ahold of a ledge. All he needed was a moment to catch his breath before lifting off again.
As he ascended, Jaune used both his hearing and his psionic sense to figure out how close he was to reaching the top of Beacon tower and Opzin's office. He could hear the machinery of the elevator up above him, and he could sense Ozpin's familiar psychic signature getting closer and closer.
When he heard the elevator stop above him, he knew he was almost out of time. Reaching out to Ozpin, he attempted to send a telepathic message to the headmaster and his mentor. He felt Ozpin's mind open up to him, then a sense of surprise and astonishment before the connection abruptly cut off. This only spurred him on faster in desperation.
Jaune reached the elevator doors to the floor right under Ozpin's office and balanced himself on the ledge, looking up at the elevator just above him. Before he could begin to figure out how to get by, it shuddered and then, to his horror, began to descend.
Cursing his past self for having called the elevator back down, Jaune focused his power on the elevator doors across from him and wrenched them open. He floated across the gap, tucking and rolling to avoid the descending elevator, just barely making it into the second-to-highest floor of Beacon Tower. The elevator descended down the shaft right next to him, scraping against the material of his backpack, before disappearing out of sight.
Not pausing to process just how close he had come to getting sheared in half by the central elevator of Beacon Academy, Jaune got to his feet and ran towards the window. Raising his pistol, he fired two shots at the window, causing them to spiderweb. Without pausing, he reached out with his hand and threw out a blast of telekinetic force at the window, shattering it completely.
Jaune leapt out of the broken window and levitated up to the level of Ozpin's office and looked through the large clock window inside. The good news was that Ozpin wasn't dead; the bad news was that if Jaune didn't act fast, he would be soon.
Inside, Ozpin was on his knees in front of his desk, struggling as his doppelganger strangled him from behind with a garrot, one foot pressed against Oz's back. It was the perfect weapon for killing Huntsmen, slipping past Aura as it would shields. He wasn't using his psionics for some reason, and he couldn't use his Aura-enhanced strength or his Semblance to save himself because of the position the assassin had him in.
Raising his hand, Jaune reached out towards the window he had just blasted out and pulled telekinetically for anything large and heavy. Fortune was on his side; the second-to-highest floor of Beacon just so happened to be office space for the administrative staff, and a big printer shot out to him.
Grinning, Jaune wound up, took aim, and threw the whole printer at the window. The glass shattered as the printer went through and into the room, slamming the assassin full in the back. Ozpin was spared the worst of the impact, collapsing to the ground to wrestle with the garrot while the assassin was sent flying into the office along with the printer.
Jaune zipped through the air towards the newest hole in Beacon's window, aiming his gun at the downed agent. Just as he was approaching the window, a surge of energy rippled through the air outwards from the agent. Jaune felt his psionics vanish, like a limb had just been amputated, and gravity take hold of him, pulling him down.
He was just able to grab ahold of one of the clock's hands, slamming into the face of it with a pained grunt. He was able to get a leg over the hand's side and pull him up before the assassin peered over the edge at him, smirking as he aimed his own Karpov. A used nullwave transmitter was in his other hand, the psionics equivalent of an EMP grenade, which also explained where Ozpin's psionics had gone.
Good news: If the assassin had psionics, he had just knocked out his own abilities along with Jaune's. Bad news: Jaune's psionics were knocked out.
The assassin's smirk disappeared as recognition flashed over his face. That instant of recognition was all Jaune needed.
While he couldn't use his psionics on the man, Jaune was far from defenseless. Making the most of the man's surprise, Jaune went into action. Moving almost faster than the Human eye could see, Jaune got his feet under him and then lunged for the ledge, catching ahold of it and pulling himself up despite the broken glass trying to break through his palms. Drawing his arm back, Jaune threw every ounce of strength he had into a punch that landed right between the man's legs.
With a high-pitched squeal, the assassin lurched backward, trying to hold his gun and family jewels at the same time. Getting his legs up on the ledge, ripping holes in the knees of his jeans, Jaune aimed and fired twice.
Inside the gun, a grain was shaved off from a block of metal, deposited into a chamber, and then accelerated via powerful magnetic accelerators. It exited the barrel at a fraction of the speed of light, crossing the distance between the gun and its target in a near-instant. The process was repeated when he squeezed the trigger a second time.
The first shot was enough to break the man's shields, courtesy of the Disruptor ammo mod. Disruptor ammo was perfect for shredding through robots and through shields. It was also more effective at draining Aura than ordinary ammo, though not by much and not as good as it was at taking out shields.
The second shot impacted flesh, bone, and then brains. The assassin's head snapped back and his body collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Jaune set down his gun and finished pulling himself up and into the office. "Ozpin, are you alright?" he called out as he got his bearings.
"I'm fine, Jaune," Ozpin replied with a cough, a hand massaging his throat as he got to his feet, the garrot lying on the ground. "Thank you, very much," he had to take breaks between words to catch his breath, "for that timely interruption."
With Ozpin alive, Jaune turned to the assassin's body. Taking his Commonwealth Army Knife out of his hoodie sleeve and selecting its largest blade, Jaune quickly kneeled down and grabbed the man's left arm, cutting its sleeve and jabbing the knife into it. He rooted around for a moment before hitting something that wasn't flesh or bone. With a twist of the knife, the implant, a small black sphere, fell out and into his hand, covered in blood.
Feeling it starting to heat up, Jaune quickly threw it into the corner of the room. Bouncing off the wall, the implant suddenly lit up like a small sun. When the light subsided, there was nothing of it but a burn mark on the wall and floor.
"My word," Ozpin said, staring at the marks. "What was that?"
"A disintegration implant," Jaune explained. "It's meant to disintegrate an agent if they're captured or killed to keep any information from falling into enemy hands."
"That's horrifying," Ozpin said flatly. His eyes started glowing purple again, and he reached out towards his cane. It jumped up from where he had dropped it before and flew right into his hand. He leaned on it fully as he made his way over to Jaune and the body.
"And that's…disturbing," Ozpin said as he stared down at his assassin's face, a perfect replica of his own other than the hole right in the middle of the forehead. "What in Oum's name is this?"
"This," Jaune said, placing the knife back in his sleeve, "is your assassin, and your replacement. Had he killed you, he would have taken your place and become you."
"Jaune?" Ozpin's voice had lost its amazed fear and was suddenly hard. "What are you talking about, and how do you know about this?"
With an intake of breath, Jaune stood up and faced his mentor, blue looking into a darker shade of green than Pyrrha's.
Three years earlier, Jaune had stood in Ozpin's office and looked the Beacon Headmaster in the eyes as Ozpin told him that he knew that Jaune's new telekinesis wasn't his Semblance, and that he also knew about the telepathy. Along with his Huntsmen training, Ozpin had offered to also train him to learn how to use his new psionics, just as Ozpin's grandfather, Ozma, had taught him.
Ozpin was more than a Headmaster to Jaune; he was like a second father, much better than the first. And it almost broke Jaune's heart again that he didn't have the time to tell Ozpin the full truth.
"Ozpin," he began, reaching out telepathically. Oh good, that was back. Telepathic communication was much faster and more efficient than verbal. "Do you trust me?"
"Jaune, I-" Ozpin was taken aback by the question. "I-yes yes, of course I trust you."
"Good," Jaune continued, turning towards the window. "Need get out of here. Killing that man, saving your life, just ruined whole lot of powerful people's plans, going to ruin them some more, much more. Three more assassins, targets are Ironwood, Lionheart, Theodore. Warn them. Afterwards, don't trust global communications. Tapped into the CCT Network, your Scrolls. Get new ones, never let them out of sight. Also, get assassin body to somewhere only you know about, have it examined by someone you trust. Don't trust anyone on Council; don't trust anyone whose mind you can't read. Sor-sorry, but need to get go-going."
"Jaune, what are you talking about? Who is trying to kill us?" Ozpin insisted.
Standing at the shattered window, looking out over Beacon and at the shattered moon, Jaune sighed and relented.
"Called the Commonwealth, they're here to take over Remnant. Explain more next time see you, if they don't kill/murder me first. Goodbye, Ozpin."
And with that, Jaune stepped out of Ozpin's office and into the night air.
I'm not sure how well I portrayed Pyrrha's reaction to learning of Jaune's mission to Remnant. Then again, in RWBY, she did use her Semblance to slam Jaune against a wall and hold him there during a similar high-stress situation. So maybe I didn't write her OOC?
In case you're wondering, I put in a ton of stuff from other sci-fi fandoms I like. Here's what I used and where they're from:
In my headcanon, Psionics are essentially a fusion of Jesse Faden's powers from Control (2019), of the Typhon Neuromods from Prey (2017), and also a few elements from the Force of Star Wars. I'm also thinking about adding a few abilities from the Biotics of Mass Effect.
If you're wondering why the grammar of the mental communications is so janky, I decided to take inspiration from the messaging we see in Cyberpunk 2077 and Edgerunners. I don't think my thoughts in full sentences, so it makes sense that mental communication, whether it be psychic or cybernetic, would be the same way, meaning taking precedence over grammar and sentence structure.
The Nullwave Transmitter is a grenade-type weapon from Prey (2017). EMP grenades take out electronics and cybernetics, nullwave transmitters take out psionics.
The Karpov Pistol is from Mass Effect.
Along with Pyrrha possibly being OOC, I'm also worried about utilzing so much stuff from other fandoms, along with info-dumping about Jaune's cybernetic implants and how they let him mimic a Huntsmen's abilities.
So, thoughts, opinions, ideas, questions? I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! Have a good day, and happy reading!