'Where am I? Why is the world shaking?' Neo's eyes slowly open to green grass below her and combat boots? Making sure that what she's seeing is real Neo closes her eyes and shakes her head softly. When she opens her eyes again the same sight greets her.
'Oh my Gods… I lost.' The small assassin can feel her pride break a little as she tries to wrap her head around the fact that she lost to the knight. Still slightly groggy, Neo yawns and shakes off the last bit of sleepiness from her mind.
'How could I have lost? I had him dead to rights.' Neo closes her eyes and tries to remember what happened right before she went unconscious…
Flashes of a broken sword and an almost blindingly white shield suddenly fill up Neo's mind, weapons sparking off of one another as the boy barely catches her weapon in time.
Memories of the fight flash once again, Neo now standing across from the boy. Both combatants stare each other down as they try to think of a plan to deal with the other. She can almost see the cogs turning in his head as he thinks. The boy makes the first move giving the girl a slight pause as she wonders what he could possibly be doing.
'He put his sword away? Why?'
Neo's question is answered quickly as the boy grips the weapon with two hands. A small hiss comes from the heirloom as the sheathe slides up and locks itself into place creating a large sword with two tips that makes the weapon look similar to a snake's tongue.
'It didn't do much good for him, did it though?' The girl cracks a slight smile, her mind going back to what happened right after…
"AGH!" The boy screams in pain as Neo's heeled boot comes down hard on his hand.
'Not very willing to part with his weapon… I understand that.' raising her foot up she stomps on his hand once again, eliciting another pained cry from the knight. Yet his will keeps up as his hand is still tightly gripped around the sword.
'I guess I'll have to just hit him a little harder…' Neo thinks before driving her foot back on the boy's hand several more times. Finally Jaune lets go of his sword but not soon enough as Neo gifts the knight with one final attempt at crushing his hand. An 'innocent' smile plasters itself across the girl's face as Neo kicks the weapon away and pretends she didn't know he already let go of the sword.
'Now… What should I do with hi-' Neo's thoughts are interrupted by something lightly hitting her in the face. Looking down at the boy in disbelief Neo wonders for a moment if the boy was actually that stupid.
Jaune mumbles something under his breath that Neo can't quite make out. Deciding quickly it was probably something dumb, Neo decides to give the boy a response with the language she's most proficient in. Violence…
After making herself abundantly clear about how she was feeling Neo looks down on Jaune and is surprised to see the boy still breathing after her assault.
'He has a hell of an aura if he's only knocked out and not dead.' Neo acknowledges Jaune's aura, almost impressed 'Now… what should I do with you…'
'I had him, damn it. I should have killed him when I had the chance.' Neo curses her past self before her memories continue to her sitting on top of the boy, her scroll pressed in his face.
"
I kept you alive because I think you might have something I want.
You're probably wondering what you have that I could want. I want to know where Ruby Rose is.
If you tell me I promise to make your death much quicker than if you dont"
Neo fights the urge to smack the boy once again as he reads her questions aloud.
'That idiot doesn't even realize he's talking, does he?' Neo thinks, said idiot continuing on with her reading her list.
"
If you can lead me to them I would like that. I've seen how much they care about you and it would probably hurt them a lot more if I killed you in front of them.
6. Whether you help or dont I WILL kill you
7. There is no negotiating. You are just here to help me."
'I should stab him in the throat' Neo considers momentarily but quickly realizes if she did he would die and she might lose her best option at finding Red.
'I should have stabbed him looking back. I hate you past me.' Neo momentarily imagines choking her past self to death, before snapping back into her memories.
"For your first, second, and fourth question I can answer that." Neo celebrates for a moment before Jaune's next words immediately kill that little bit of happiness with no remorse. "I don't remember exactly where ruby landed but I can probably lead you to the general area." The happiness returns momentarily. "For the third point, I would prefer not dying."
'Well that sucks for you'
"It seems like you're missing number 5." The knight points out much to Neo's irritation. The girl glares at the boy, her threats not even needing to be spoken.
"Know what? Not important." Jaune replies quickly fear filling his eyes.
'Smarter than I thought'
"Now onto 6. It feels kind of redundant."
'I hate you'
"And finally 7…" The boy pauses, confusing Neo as the girl waits for his answer. "I think I have more room than you believe."
Neo's last thoughts consisted of one word: 'What?' Then her world went black…
'I can't believe that's how I was beat.' Neo huffs. Annoyed Neo starts thinking about how she even ended up in this place…
'Right… Cinder.' Neo frowns remembering how the fall maiden betrayed her and landed her in a place like this.
'After I kill Red, and her friends, I'll go after Cinder and her lackeys. I've always hated Emerald so killing her wouldn't be too bad. That girl is always so eager to kiss Cinder's ass, and getting butthurt if I even said something even kind of negative about her. But she can wait for another time. I still have a knight to kill…'
Neo's mind snaps back to the present and she realizes that she has to get out of Jaune's grip to be able to kill him. Neo thrashes wildly as she tries to flip herself off of Jaune's shoulder. The boy grunts as he struggles to hold on to the girl with one arm. Neo feels something hard hit her on the head and disorient her, stopping her movements momentarily.
'When I get out of this I'm going to peel the skin from your body layer by layer.' Neo silently promises both Jaune and herself as she tries getting out of her makeshift restraints
"Am I stupid?" Jaune questions seemingly no one after smacking Neo.
'The stupidest fucker I've ever met' Neo tries to shake herself off her captur again. Gaining a little bit more wiggle room before a new voice makes itself known.
"Come to me…" A voice whose words are so powerful she can't help but listen and the world around her blurs a bit as the only thing she can see is Jaune and the tree .
'What is that?' Neo questions silently trying to look around from her perch on Jaune's shoulder to find the source of the noise
"Your destiny awaits. Come to me and find it." Neo realizes the tree itself is what is speaking.
Jaune slowly creeps forward once again towards the tree and the voice gets louder to the point where it feels like it's speaking directly into Neo's soul.
"Why did you bring her?" The hairs on Neos neck stand straight up as the voice mentions her.
"She isn't supposed to be here." The voice takes on a tone of confusion and slight irritation at the girl before addressing her directly.
"Why are you here Girl?" The voice questions around the assassin completely fades except the tree in front of her. "Answer me or I will make it so you never existed in the first place."
Neo's jaw drops. The girl panics and tries to choke out words to the voice to explain her situation and how she ended up in this place. But only pained rasps come out.
"You do not have to strain yourself. I can hear what you need to say without you opening your mouth. Now tell me… Who do you think you are to change fate?
Neo does her best to explain to the tree through her thoughts before being shut up once again by the being.
"A victim of circumstance?"
'YES! I got captured by this idiot, and now I'm here.' Neo screams mentally. The tree starts to exude a dark aura at Neo's insult of Jaune.
"I do not like the way you speak about HIM." The voice booms, its presence immediately becoming twice as suffocating as before.
'What else would you call someone who did what he did?' Neo doubles down on her statement about Jaune.
"I would say that it was an honest mistake from a good person trying to help someone else."
'GOOD?! He tried to kill me!'
"It doesn't look like he tried killing you?" The voice once again takes on a confused tone, and its grip on Neo lessens slightly as she feels invisible eyes roam over her. A strong urge to curl up into a ball and cover herself washes over her as she feels the watching 'eyes' of the thing search her.
"I can't seem to find any injuries on you. It looks like he even healed when he hit you with that rock." Neo's heart freezes as she wonders how something like a tree would know that Jaune hit her.
'What are you?'
"I am nothing but an avatar for fate. My only job is to start Jaune's journey and make sure there are no interferences." It didn't take a change of tone for Neo to get the meaning of what the tree said.
'Why am I here then?'
"You are here because Jaune brought you here? I thought you knew that already?" The feeling of overwhelming confusion washes over Neo once again after the tree's question.
'I knew that already, and I blame that idiot more than enough. I meant why are you talking to me? Why not send me back and let Jaune deal with whatever you have planned for him yourself? Why bother yourself with me?'
"The main reason I'm speaking to you is so you do not interfere with what is about to happen. The other reason…" Neo can feel the suffocation take over her once again as the voice takes on a sinister tone. "I plan on punishing you for your unkind words towards both Jaune and I… Yes I could hear what you were thinking about me as well"
'What do you mean, punish?'
"You'll find out soon enough" With those final words the Tree's grip on Neo loosens and the world comes back into focus around the girl…
"Come my have a destiny to fulfill" It's definitely the same voice but it almost sounds unrecognizable as it speaks to Jaune. The suffocating feeling still fills the air around the two but it seems like Neo is the only one able to hear the voice as Jaune just keeps on walking towards the tree completely unfazed.
Jaune eventually reaches the tree and the whole forest seems to vibrate excitedly. "You shine as brightly as ever. Drop your weapon and take what I give." Jaune drops his sword with a thud, and freezes momentarily. The sound of his weapon dropping, knocking the boy out of his stupor.
"Do not hesitate, young knight. Your destiny lies right in front of you. Take it and let your heart guide you the rest of the way." The voice knocks Jaune right back into his state of hypnosis. Neo can feel the Arc's body shift as she starts to slide halfway off of his shoulder onto the boy's arm. Adjusting her body so she can see what's happening the girl looks towards where Jaune's other arm is reaching.
'A clock?' Neo silently questions her eyes glued to the small object Jaune is reaching towards. A pit in her stomach starts to form as slowly Jaune's hand wraps around the fruit.
"Do it." The tree's voice hisses excitedly.
Jaune starts to pull the small fruit away slowly. The being laughing as the clock is pulled away from the tree small creaks sound out where the branch has bent down from Jaune's tugging. Everything around the two goes silent before one noise breaks it
SNAP!
The sound is almost deafening compared to the moment of silence that preceded it. Neo can immediately feel something is wrong and Jaune must be able to as well as he looks down at the object in his hand in shock before looking back at the tree.
"Why isn't it ticking?" Jaune thinks aloud
The boy gets his answer quickly as the clock in his hand starts spinning violently backwards, The rest of the clocks including the one on the trunk of the tree follow suit. Jaune's head tilts back as he looks at the sky which is now rapidly spinning as well.
Neo starts to fall off Jaune's arm completely, and hits the ground hard, knocking the breath from her lungs. Neo rolls over and looks at the sky as well. Neo sees four falling stars in a color combination she would recognize anywhere rise back up into the sky. Neo growls silently knowing that her plan to get Red just had a major wrench thrown into it. Neo's eyes widen as she sees two stars that she doesn't recognize fly back into the sky popping out of existence.
Neo's head starts to ache from staring at the spinning sky. Neo finally peels her eyes away from the spinning and onto Jaune who is busy trying to get the clock in his hands to stop.
"It's now up to you to guide your fate." The tree speaks for a final time as it rapidly shrinks back into nothingness.
Jaune doesn't hear the voice and still only hears ticking. finally coming up with a new plan that isn't shaking the clock like a magic 8 ball. Jaune throws the clock at the ground hoping to break it. When he sees it doesn't break he grabs his sword from the ground and drives it through the small clock. The clock shatters and the sky stops spinning, at last the world looking almost identical to how it was when they first entered the clearing. Jaune cheers for a moment after finally breaking the clock but soon slumps to the ground as what he just did finally hits him…
"WHY DO I ALWAYS MESS UP!" The boy screams at the sky before his voice lowers and cracks as he starts to cry. "Everytime I think I'm doing the right thing. 'Hic' It always has to bite me in the ass."
Neo takes the opportunity of the distracted knight to really try to get out of her restraints. Neo stares at the back of the knight seeing his body shake as he sobs. After a minute of struggling Neo finally breaks out of her makeshift restraints, with a little snap. Neo cringes slightly as she realizes any element of surprise she might have had just went out the window.
Jaune's shaking stops upon hearing the noise and the knight raises himself to his feet using his sword as a brace to make sure he doesn't fall over while getting up. Once he's standing Jaune turns to face the girl on the ground, his eyes hidden from view as the suns to his back cast a shadow on the upper half of his face.
Neo scoots away from Jaune to give herself more room to work with. Scrambling to her feet she looks at the boy as he tilts his head up and stares the girl down. His bright blue eyes visible even through the shadow take on a dangerous glint as they lock onto her own. A sneer stretches his lips thin before he raises his sword taking a fighting stance. Neo can almost feel the emotions radiating off of him, as she tries to think up a plan to deal with the knight.
'He has every advantage.' Neo closes her eyes to get a feel how full her aura is, surprised to see it already at half capacity; she knows she will only be able to use her semblance once or twice. Seeing no other option she raises her fists and hopes for the best before sprinting right at Jaune hoping to catch him off guard.
The boy doesn't hesitate and instead takes up the challenge and races towards the girl, meeting her in the middle of the clearing. Swinging with all his might trying to cleave the girl in two. Neo, seeing the attack coming, rolls to the side and launches herself back towards Jaune as he resets his stance.
Jaune deflects the incoming punch from the girl with the flat of his sword, spinning the girl around. Neo uses the momentum to once again create distance between Jaune and herself. Eyes roam over Jaune looking for something she can exploit before her eyes lock onto his hip.
'Hush… If I could get Hush, then I would have a better chance.' Jaune must have seen where she was looking because he shifts his body so that the parasol is harder to reach from the angle Neo is at.
"I'm not that stupid." the boy growls at the girl before rushing back at her. His next swing isn't as telegraphed as the first and Neo just barely dodges leaning back escaping the full brunt of the attack, but unfortunately the blade still connects with her arm. Aura stopping the appendage from being taken off but not stopping the pain of the strike. Neo hisses in pain as she reaches for her arm that was struck. The lack of her arms helping her stay supported at such an angle causes her to fall completely, the girl crashing onto her back.
"Just give up. I don't want to fight." The boy says pointing his sword down at the girl.
'Ironic coming from the guy who started this.' Neo kicks her legs up, knocking the sword away, and surprising Jaune. The girl gets off of her back and seeing an opening she lunges for hush once again but instead of her hand wrapping around hush a bigger hand wraps around her arm and pulls her up into the air.
'What?' Neo thinks as her wrist is painfully held in the knight's hand. Jaune raises the girl to eye level while she struggles to free herself from his grip and looks her dead in the eye. Neo's struggling ceases as her eyes meet his. Jaune's deep blue eyes remind Neo of the sea, and give her a slightly calming feeling despite the situation she's in..
SMACK!
Neo is flung out of her thoughts suddenly by a stinging on her cheek and the feeling of blood pooling in her mouth. 'He hit me?' Neo is stunned and so is Jaune as she sees the blood drain from his face and his eyes widen to the size of dinner plates. Neo recovers first, spitting the blood that pooled in her mouth in the knight's face, before planting her feet on Jaune's chest, launching herself away twisting his wrist at a very uncomfortable angle and knocking Jaune over.
Both of the combatants get back to their feet quickly, Jaune wiping his face of Neo's blood. Both now take the fight very seriously knowing whoever loses dies. Jaune takes up a boxing stance to make up for his lack of weapons, his right hand hanging limply. The knight looks down at his limp wrist before flooding it with as much aura as he can, a very dull white glow spreading to the injured limb trying to fix it. Jaune's aura flickers and sputters before completely disappearing, his hand now functional but his wrist still an ugly shade of purple. The boy grits his teeth to try and ignore the pain and he distracts himself by focusing back on Neo..
'He doesn't have any aura left.' Neo smiles seeing a new advantage…
Neo makes the first move sprinting towards Jaune and leaping to kick the boy in the head. Her foot connects with Jaunes arms driving the boy back and causing him to grunt in pain. Jaune responds in turn with a right hook that sails over Neo's head as she ducks and gets in close. her hand once again reaching for her weapon.
Neo's fingers graze the familiar handle but that's as far as she gets as a knee comes up and connects with her gut driving the wind from her. Hands instinctively shoot back to her stomach trying to protect herself from further damage.
Neo falls over and tries sucking in air to no avail. Slowly choking on the ground as she tries her hardest to breathe in once again. Jaune looks down at the squirming girl before he walks over to his sword a short ways away and tries leaning down to pick up the heirloom before collapsing to one knee.
Neo finally catches her breath and gets up to her feet looking at the knight who is now slowly getting back up himself with the help of his sword and turning to face her. His face contorted in pain and a growl escapes his lips as his hands grip tightly onto the sword.
Slowly walking towards the girl, Jaune's back straightens and he gets ready for another round against the mute assassin. Neo prepares herself, squeezing her own hands into fists and using the last of her energy to blitz the boy.
Despite his injury and lack of aura Jaune still manages to swing Crocea mors at near inhuman speeds. Neo barely manages to catch the blade and holds onto it for dear life, dropping her weight hoping that it might hinder Jaune. For a moment her plan works as she feels her feet dig into the ground and the motion stops.
Neo cracks a smile while looking up at the frozen knight. The young arc looking back down at her, anger and determination filling up his eyes. Jaune's grip on the sword tightens even more and he screams in pain. Neo's eyes widen as she feels herself get lifted off of the ground.
Jaune swings his sword as hard as he can, the mute still hanging off of it. Jaune spins around trying to gain as much speed as he can before planting his own foot in the ground and stopping his movement entirely. Unfortunately for her, Neo doesn't stop and she loses her grip on the weapon, causing her to fly off the sword and to the opposite end of the clearing.
Neo hits the ground hard and feels her aura flicker slightly, a sign that it's running low. Knowing she won't win this battle without aura, Neo takes the best course of action, using the last of her aura to create a glass statue of herself before running as fast as she can into the forest.
A multi-colored cat sits on a tree branch at the end of the clearing, a large grin stretching from ear to ear. "These new visitors are quite… Curious"
Best Seat in the House (A short chapter focusing on the Ever After's resident feline)
The Curious Cat knew exactly who the boy that walked into the clearing was as soon as he entered. The boy's face looking a bit younger than the last time he saw him, but still immediately recognizable to the feline.
"The knight" the cat hisses slowly watching from his perch in the tree, his eyes roaming the familiar figure before spotting something that he was pretty sure the knight didn't bring with him the first time he showed up. "A new guest? How interesting…"
The cat watches the knight as he freezes momentarily lost in thought before continuing on towards the tree in the center of the clearing.
'So this is how it happened…' the being thinks while watching its rival reach the Ticking Tree. 'I wonder what will happen to the girl?'
The boy finally reaches the tree and the voice of the tree begins to speak loudly even reaching the multicolored cat watching intently from its side of the clearing.
"Come to me…" The curious cat scoffs as it realizes what the tree is doing to the boy.
"Your destiny awaits. Come to me and find it."
'What a cheap trick… Drawing him in like that. I can't believe I never tried that on him."
The tree goes silent to the cat and the girl on Jaune's shoulder starts to squirm slightly.
'Ahhhhh. It must be talking to her. I wonder what it's saying?'
Jaune starts to wake up from his trance, and the Cat thinks things might get interesting before the voice of the tree rings out and the boy's eyes become vacant once again.
"Come my have a destiny to fulfill"
'Not if I can help it.' the cat thinks to itself before feeling a pressing weight upon its body.
"NO!" The voice yells out at the cat, its head ringing from the sudden outburst. "You… are not supposed to be here yet."
"Why not?" the cat responds
"You have a much more important role. You should be focusing on that." The Curious Cat's eyebrow raises silently questioning the Ticking Tree.
"I have already said too much to you." The tree finishes hastily before turning the brunt of its focus back onto the knight.
"Come my have a destiny to fulfill" The tree's voice goes back to its sickenly sweet tone as it speaks to the boy urging him even closer to it.
"You shine as brightly as ever. Drop your weapon and take what I give" The boy drops the sword and the cat sees his opening. Jaune momentarily snaps out of his trance and the feline tries taking advantage of the situation. Curious Cat tries to lunge at the boy in his vulnerable state. But its body refuses to listen and the feline stays rooted to the tree.
'Why can't I move?' The cat thinks trying as hard as it can to even move one of its colorful paws. Its efforts proving futile.
"I can't have you interfering with this like last time…" The tree answers the cat's question. The cat unleashes every curse word and threat it's learned from its time in this world at the tree. The tree chooses to ignore the cat and focuses once again on the boy in front of it.
"Do not hesitate, young knight. Your destiny lies right in front of you. Take it and let your heart guide you the rest of the way."
Jaune's hand moves on its own and grasps on to one of the many fruits. Electricity fills the air, and the tree starts shaking ever so slightly in excitement.
'Don't do it…' the cat pleads silently
"Do it."
Jaune starts to pull the small fruit away slowly. The being laughing as the clock is pulled away from the tree small creaks sound out from where the branch has bent down from Jaune's tugging. Everything around the three goes silent before one noise breaks it.
SNAP!
The cat's mind goes blank. The last thing this version of the Curious Cat ever hears is the tree's laughter…
"Where am I?"
The Cat's eyes open and it almost slips off of its perch as it stretches. Scrambling to find a grip on the tree the cat panics. As it settles back onto where it woke up the sound of screaming catches the beings attention. Looking for the source the cat spots a young man and woman fighting in the middle of the clearing.
'When did they get here?' the cat wonders watching the two duke it out. A sense of Deja Vu taking over as he looks at the blonde boy swinging his weapon. The girl narrowly avoids taking the full strike but her arm still gets hit and the cat winces expecting the appendage to go flying off. Instead of a bloody stump a flash of light and hiss of pain comes from the girl as she falls backwards. Now very interested, the cat leans forward to get a better view. The boy points his weapon at the girl before speaking.
"Just give up. I don't want to fight." The girl responds by kicking the boy's weapon away and surprising the knight. The girl doesnt waste a second and lunges right back in trying to grab the object from the boy once again. The girl falls short once again to the cat's dismay. A hand grabs the girl's own and lifts her up to the eye level of the boy.
SMACK!
The sound rings out across the clearing, and all three of the beings freeze. The cat is the first to recover, a smile stretching across its face as he prepares for what comes next. Luckily it doesn't have to wait long as the smaller girl recovers next, spitting in his face and planting her feet on the boy's chest using him like a launch pad, twisting in the air as she rips herself out of the boy's grip. His grip only falters when his wrist twists at an odd angle and a dull snap sounds out.
A grunt of pain comes from the boy but nothing else as he stares down the girl taking up what the cat can only assume is an unarmed fighting stance. The knight's hands raise towards his face the hand connected to the broken wrist hanging loosely. The boy seeing this raises his own light and the bone in his arm tries fixing itself, getting the boy's arm mostly healed before his light flickers out.
The girl's eyes widen seeing the boy's light die before her mouth twists into a small grin. Sprinting and jumping into the air the girl spins gracefully, stretching her leg out and aiming a kick for the boy's head which he blocks with his arms tossing the girl back to the ground. Not giving him any time to rest, the girl rushes the boy who responds with a new punch that sails over the girl's head. That must have been her plan though because she uses the opening to try and grab her weapon once again.
The cat forces its eyes open, scared that if it blinks it will miss something. It is proven right when the boy raises his knee at almost super speed and connects with the small girl's stomach. The cat winces as the girl coughs out all of the air in her lungs and falls to the ground. Scrunching up into a ball the girl tries drawing in breath with no avail.
The boy seeing his handy work takes a moment to catch his own breath unintentionally mocking the girl writhing on the ground holding her stomach. The boy slowly walks away from his fallen opponent confusing the cat.
'Where is he going?' The cat's sight wanders following the boy's path seeing what could've caught his eye. 'Ahhhhhh. That makes more sense.'
The boy reaches his destination and collapses to one knee. He reaches down and his hand grips his weapon before using it to get to his feet. The cat too focused on the boy doesn't notice the small girl getting up herself, but he does notice the boy start walking back towards the girl, the tip of his weapon dragging along the ground. Suddenly a blur races at the boy and he swings his sword catching the girl…
'No that's not right. she caught him' The cat is stunned at the small girl's strength, both of her hands gripping onto the sword feet dug into the ground. The light shining where her hands are in contact with the blade. Another smile crosses her face as she looks up at the frowning boy, before the boy shows his own strength.
With a scream the boy lifts up the girl and his sword before spinning around as fast as he can before suddenly stopping, causing the small girl on the end of the blade to slip off and fly across the clearing. Her body lands roughly and rolls until she hits one of the trees near where the cat is resting. The girl then shocks the cat when she produces a second version of herself out of seemingly thin air before taking the opportunity to run deep into the forest.
"These new visitors are quite… Curious." the cat whispers before hopping from his perch and following the girl taking care to not be seen.
Author's notes:
Regarding the next chapter and why this chapter came out so soon:
This chapter is coming out much earlier than I wanted due to me forgetting what the date was on saturday. I will be working on the next chapter over the next two weeks when I can but I probably won't have much time which means maybe 3 or even 4 weeks before the next chapter. I will try to get the chapter out sooner than that, but I also want to make sure the next chapter is well edited and everything that I want to be in the chapter is in it, and I'd rather post quality chapters if I can.
Things I want to talk about involving content of the story itself:
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and some of the focus it put on Neo. Even though it wasn't really new stuff I wanted to show a different point of view of the whole Ticking Tree event, and speaking of the ticking tree. I thought making it into an actual 'character' would be a fun idea. I decided to make it a being that speaks as the voice of Jaune's fate since the rusted knight has to exist or else there wouldn't be a story in the first place, and having the catalyst have a more direct role felt a bit better than Jaune just keeps on grabbing the stopwatch fruit because that's what he feels like doing.
Neo and the Cat were both able to hear the tree's real voice for different reasons as you could probably already guess. Neo being a new appearance and the tree being naturally curious, and the cat because it is also a creature in the ever after. The tree scales above the cat because the Cat is a creation of the brothers while the ticking tree is a creation of the big god tree. The Ticking Tree's purpose is to make sure the Rusted Knight always exists, because that is what the big tree desires.
The reason Jaune isn't able to hear the tree is because I liked the idea of the ticking sound and the clocks being a hypnotic force to drive him in. I also wanted the last chapter to give off more of an unfocused tone when Jaune started to get near the tree, but I fear I didn't do it well and it just came off as lazy writing. (Which is kind of ironic seeing as I wrote the main scene twice just to explain a small detail about why the cat won't have any memory of the rusted knight going forward).
The Curious Cat's memories are reset upon the events of going back in time, which is why I wrote the little bonus chapter, because I thought that just making it so the cat had no memory of Jaune without explaining why or only explaining why in an author's note would be rude and I know some people skip the authors notes anyways which another reason I felt the urge to explain it in the chapter itself. As for the reason the cat was at the clearing in the first place? He went there after feeling the presence of Jaune, hoping to have an opportunity to kill the boy before he could become the Rusted Knight.
Aura doesn't protect against self inflicted wounds in this, and if it's low enough it will automatically pool around vital organs, which is why Jaune had to force it into his wrist to 'fix' it. Neo's teeth cutting her cheek after being hit counts as self inflicted technically, meaning Neo had to force aura into the cut on her cheek manually, and couldn't just let her aura take care of it automatically because her body recognized it as such an injury.
Feel free to review and tell me what you liked or disliked, ask questions about the story, or just talk about whatever. Once again I thank you for reading Rusted Souls and Shattered Hearts.