AN: Hello everyone! This is my first ever fic so i hope you all enjoy!
This is an idea that i had in my head ever since i saw a piece of fanart, so i decided to finally put it to words!

Hope everyone has a fine day :

Jaune arc was lost. He's been lost for a very long time. For so many long years he's been stuck in the ever after with no hope, stuck in his mind.

"You were never the hero."

Jaune spun around in a flash, trying to find the voice. He recognized it all too well, for who knows how long she had haunted his dreams, even gotten to the point of invading his waking moments. Sometimes he just saw her there, staring at him with her cold malicious eyes.
"Alyx…" Was all he could say, how else would you suppose to talk to the girl that poisoned you for their own selfish desires. Or as jaune truly saw her, another one he failed.

"You couldn't save me."

No, he couldn't, despite everything he did, despite making sure the story stayed on track, he had sent her to the death. All because he wanted to be a hero in this accursed place. He was here, away from Salem and her minions, away from whatever concoction she had for Remnant. And despite how strange and terrible this place was. He felt needed. But everything came crashing down…

"I… I couldn't save a lot of people." Jaune admitted. He had failed them all, he failed Team RWBY, Penny, Alyx and Pyrrha… All of them died because of him. He failed them.

"Maybe its time for a change…" Alyx said to him, looking at him warmly. "Be the kind of man you always wanted to be." Alyx offered her hand, however Jaune hesitated. Could he just ascend like ruby was doing? Could he forget himself just for the purpose of being the hero once again? Could he really be that selfish?

Jaune found it in himself that he could. The world no longer needed Jaune Arc. They needed a warrior, a hero, someone who can fight the tide against whatever enemy he can find. They needed a brave knight, despite what Weiss claimed, he wasn't that he felt he could never achieve that legendary status.
So, with a single grab of Alyx hand, he saw the gold shimmer and everything around him changed.

He was no longer trapped in the burning smoke caused by the leaves, but instead he was in a weird green void, with orange and gold speckles of light floating around. In front of him was a single table, racks of weapons to the right and left of it, and a scorching furnace he could feel the heat from. An entity with its back turn to him was in front of the furnace, He could hear the strikes of hammer hitting metal, as he saw sparks flash out. The entire scene reminded him of the few blacksmiths he saw during his time at Beacon. The Blacksmith raised whatever it was working on, to jaune it looked like some sort of dual maces, it briefly reminded him of Cardin weapons.
Man, he was at a new low, fondly remembering Cardin of all people.

Jaune approached this new creature with caution, she looked metallic. her entire body being non-human from what he could tell. Jaune saw a tree breach that stuck out and covered the entire back, her hair was tied and supported by a blue bandana. The Blacksmith must've felt him staring at her and turned around. Jaune was met face to face by the face of a women, her eyes were empty, no iris or pupil stared at him, however this oddly didn't freak out Jaune as much as he thought it should, perhaps the warm smile from her made him just forget about her fears and worries for the time being.

"Arc, how long we waited for you." The blacksmith smiled, in one of her hands was a forging hammer the other had one of the maces he saw earlier.

"You know me...?" Jaune asked, feeling himself become ever more tired. The Blacksmith did nothing but keep its smile and sat down, the mace and hammer left forgotten by the forge.

"Jaune Arc, do you believe in destiny?"

That damned question, how it plagued him…

"I do." Jaune found himself answering. After all he had been through, everything that happened to him he could safely say so.

The Blacksmith nodded and Jaune saw it unsheathed something from it's belt, it was a simple knife that looked oddly familiar, suddenly it hit him all at once!
"Thats! -"

"Alyx's knife." The blacksmith confirmed, twiring it in her hand before setting it down in between jaune and the blacksmith, the glimmer of the forge made the knife shine like gold. He hesitantly went to pick it up but felt himself stop for some reason.

"How do you...?" Jaune mumbled to himself, he remembered back a long time ago how Alyx threw a hissy fit about her missing knife, saying how her and Lewis had to fight through an entire town auction just to get it. Back then it made him laugh, it reminded Jaune at the time that these were not legendary characters from a story, but actual kids who threw fits for something as simple as a knife.

But now when Jaune sees it, he feels dread and sadness. Alyx was dead…

"Just because one is dead by their body, doesn't mean they are dead by spirit." The blacksmith mentioned, seemingly guessing what he was thinking. "Alyx never made it back to your world, true…" The blacksmith stated, gently picking up Alyx's knife and moving it between her fingers. "However, her will lived on, her desires transcended beyond herself, and that is why you are here Jaune Arc." The blacksmith pointed the knife at Jaune. "Alyx final wish, was to save you, do you believe me?"
Jaune took a moment and nodded. From what the Cat said, she had a change of heart. And from what he experienced back in that forest, he felt Alyx changed, for years he always thought it was for the worst, but perhaps…

"What is it that she gifted me?"

The blacksmith let out a quiet chuckle, as if what he said humored her. "Jaune, what type of man do you aspire to be? Can you see him clearly? Do you feel the weight of who he is?"

Jaune nodded, he always knew what it was he wanted to be.

"A hero." Jaune felt himself grow evermore tired. How much people felt like he sacrifice for his desires to become that.

"And tell me, Jaune Arc, what does it mean to be a hero?"

He couldn't find himself to answer right away. This was something he questioned himself. Back when he was a bumbling oaf of a teenager, he aways thought being a hero was to get glory, save the girl and be remembered forever. Being a hero was what his grandfather and his father before him were, while Jaune own father was a huntsman, its own type of hero. But after Beacon, after Atlas… What does it mean to be a hero?

"I just want to save people." Jaune told the blacksmith, the words feeling true in his heart. "No matter who it is, no matter where… I just want to save a single person."

The blacksmith gave him a comforting smile, before swiping its fingers. Jaune felt a rush of wind behind him as he turned, he saw a golden oval door appeared from nowhere, in the center showcase a mixture of swirling colors.

"Where does this take me...?" Jaune questioned as he stepped up to the doorway, placing a hesitant hand on it.

"Not where, but to whom. It will guide you to that single person." The blacksmith responded. Jaune felt its powerful hand clasp his shoulder. "To world most familiar, however ripe for change, the goal to save a single person is most unique for me to grant, waste it not, Jaune Arc." The blacksmith smiled before it let go of Jaune and returned to its forge.

Jaune stared at the portal for what felt like hours. What will he find behind it? Can he finally save a person. The selfish desire to do so excited him, maybe if he does this, he could finally face his friends-

"My friends!" Jaune whipped around and faced the blacksmith. "What will happen to them?" Jaune completely forgot all about them, and how much it burned that he did so. Right now, they are fighting for their lives against that demonic cat, they needed him! He can't just run off and play a fairytale hero!

"To your allies, you will appear to them no more than a second later, don't fret Jaune arc, such lives you won't have to worry if you step through; I shall promise you that." The blacksmith said to him, it had begun to work again, now carving some sort of wooden figurine. "The choice is now, Jaune arc? What is it that you wish to do?"

Jaune turned back to the portal. Behind it, endless opportunities, endless redemption. Jaune took one hesitant step before fully walking, ready to face the unknown.

The first thing that Jaune felt was a sudden chill creep throughout his entire body. Fuck it's been years since he ever felt this cold. Jaune never thought he missed anything from the Ever After, but he's starting to remember those beaches a lot more fondly now. Jaune shivered to himself, his rusting armor doing nothing to protect him from the cold, in fact he felt himself lose even more body heat as the minutes drove on.

Jaune looked down at his arms and saw that the years of rust and grime had been combined with frost and snow, it reminded him back when he first got it years ago from the Jinxy Peddler. How that scam artist managed to acquire a full set of human armor, he didn't know, nor did he complain. It allowed him to perform his duties as a false hero that he wanted to be.

Jaune found a frozen source of water soon enough, using the butt of his sword, he broke the ice and was able to see himself in the reflection.

He saw himself in the reflection, his eyes a bit brighter, his checks a bit fuller, but other then seeming a bit healthier, he was still the Rusted Knight for legends.

That fact somewhat comforted him. Even just a little bit.

It took him a bit longer to admit that he was in Solitas, during his hour of walking through snow, snow, and did he mention even more snow? It finally seeped into his brain that he was back Remnant.

He didn't know how to exactly feel about it… he spent so long, so many years of his life to come back to Remnant, and it felt… so melancholy. He was just alone, when he spent so much time trying to find his friends and get everyone back, but now he's here alone. Given a task by an important blacksmith creature who seems to be the guardian of an eternal tree…

When did his life became so crazy?

Jaune shook his head and refocused himself. He had a job to do, find whoever it was that needed to save him, and finally prove to himself he was worthy of being called a hero.

"The best huntsman in history, they all failed but they were incredibly brave… and good. Weiss' voice rang out in his mind, it caused him to smile a bit. She knew those words were slowly being accepted into his heart. He was good, and perhaps he was brave.

But he still desired to finally save someone. Even if he had to dig through the ruins of Atlas and Mantle, he would stop at nothing to do his duty. An Arc never goes back on his word after all. So, he pulled himself up, cleared away the thoughts in his head, and made his way to Mantle.

Jaune didn't exactly have the best plan to scavenge through a ruined city, but it couldn't be as hard as what he managed to go through in the ever after.
So, as he turned the corner into the ruinous state of Mantle he stopped and saw-

It still here...

Jaune couldn't believe it, Mantle was still here, and as Jaune looked up he could see the floating city of Atlas hovering above him. Impossible. He and his friends personally saw the fall of Atlas, a failure of a plan all in the attempts to save Penny, Jaune watched it happen, he felt the quakes of the falling city himself. This didn't make sense.
Nothing makes sense!

Unless…
No, that was simply absurd. No possible way he's went past in time.

But it made too much sense. Here he was, in a city he knew he helped destroy, albeit for good reasons, a city he helped evacuated. If he squinted his eyes hard enough, he could see man and women go about their daily lives in mantle, not a care in the world that they all should be struggling in Vacuo and not back here.

Getting into the city of mantle proved to be a bit more of a challenge than he initially thought. Jaune figured out that the tree had sent him back with nothing more than the armor on his back, and the sword strap to his waist, no scroll or Lien to be found on his person.

It would've been nice for you to at least sent a welcome back package… Jaune complained to the Tree, as he walk up to the gate he found yet another problem.

Jaune, being alone for so many years and being proclaimed the hero of Ever After he was just used to simply walking in and going wherever he pleased.
However, the most terrible monster of all, immigration customs, reared his ugly head when he attempted to enter the city.
"Halt!" One of the Atlas soldiers pointed his rifle at him. "Who goes there?"

Jaune raised his hands slowly and walked up to the city gate. "Please, I'm a traveler whose home been ran over by Grimm, I've come to the city to find new a new life." Jaune figured that opening with that he's a time traveler from an otherworldly dimension sent by an avatar of an eternal Tree, and that Jaune himself was the fairytale figure that inspired thousands of Huntsmen was probably Not the way to open. "I'll comply to whatever you need." Please don't shoot me, I don't want my armor to smell like death.

One of the guards looked at the other, who shrugged in response. The guard then sighed and went behind the gate, a few moments went by and Jaune waited in silence, a sort of energy was running throughout his body. It has been what felt like eons when he's been in an actual civilization and when the gate fully opened, Jaune was able to get a much better view of the City of Mantle.

It was exactly as plain and dysfunctional as he remembered it being all those years ago when he was nothing more than a fool playing hero, The sight of the rundown city bright him some sort of warm comfort, it felt so relieving to see something of Remnant once again he didn't know why but he felt immensely happy to see this failure of a world, perhaps he was just being mushy for no reason.

One of the guards walked up to him. It was no one he recognized which he felt was good for him. He didn't know if he could hold himself back if it was someone like Marrow interviewing him.

"Welcome to the city of Mantle, under the Great Kingdom of Atlas. Our doors are open to all, but we must ask a few questions." The guard said in the most boring monotone voice that would've put Professor port to shame. "State your name, age, weapons of any kind and if you have your aura."

"My name is Jaune Arc." Jaune thought he should've lied about his name but that would probably lead to a bunch of confusing mess in the future, and there's also the chance he'll just forget his new name anyways.

"I'm thirty-nine years of age, the only weapon I have with me is my sword." Jaune demonstrated by unsheathing his broken blade and shield, holding it out for the Guard to inspect. "And I have no aura of any kind." Jaune lied as easily as he breathed. He knew if he said he had aura that would raise a lot more red flags for him, he doesn't need the attention of some random stranger seemingly appearing out of thin air with aura.

Even if he was a random stranger seemingly appearing out of thin air with aura, no one else needed to know.

"Well Mr. Arc." The guard stated, looking incredibly bored, Mantle finest everyone, continuing with the voice equivalent of a chalkboard. "You may now enter the Kingdom of Atlas and will be placed as an honorary citizen of Atlas, until you wish to move to our kingdom, you were be given temporary housing in the city of mantle, you are herby accepting of any and all laws of the kingdom, and face the same consequences as other kingdom citizens, Jaune Arc do you accept these terms?"

Jaune took a moment to gaze at the city and to think on what the tree said to him. Someone in this city apparently needed his help, or so that is what the tree believed. He didn't know how he could help, but he'll try or so gods help him.

Then again, it not like the gods are even truly listening anymore.

Jaune took a hesitant step, his nose was in misery, plunged with the foul stench of factory pollution and smoke from the burn barrels all strown around.

But to Jaune, nothing ever smelt better. It took him a while, but here he was, back on Remnant. Jaune took another big step, then another, and almost felt like he was going to break out in a run to explore something other than an empty beach filled with false hope.
He was here, he was back. Now he had a job to do.

It was time for him to be a brave Knight.