Chapter 1

It started like everything in recorded history. With a wandering thought. With a simple what if. What if they didn't react to the danger, but tried to prevent it, if they tried to take the chaos, the destruction, and all that death out of the end of the story.

But they can't just abandon that many people in Vacuo and 9 hunters can't leave the already overburdened defenses there either. After the fall of Atlas, things took a noticeable turn for the worse on Remnant. Dust is more difficult and expensive for the average person to access, because the army, hunters and the air fleet are prioritized to successfully deal with the growing number of grimms.

In a situation like this, Jaune couldn't ask his team and friends to leave the city of Vacuo and come with him on a trip that had little chance to success. The more then 25 years he spent in that cursed place known to everyone as Ever After had gotten him used to doing things by himself because there was no one with him.

25 years

25 long years alone. Alone with his guilt, with his mistakes, with his ghosts that haunted him in every waking moment and often in his dreams. In everyone's childhood memories the Ever After is remembered as a place of adventure, magic, and wonder, but for Jaune it was his own personalized hell from which there was no escape. A personalized hell where the torturer was himself or rather his own mind. There were days when he wished that he had the will to end this suffering so he could finally rest. Jaune can't even count how many conversations or arguments he had with people who weren't even there or brought up things against him that they wouldn't even know about.

But these things are in the past.

They are forgotten.

Forgotten like Jaune himself.

While Jaune was imprisoned in the Ever After his team wasn't really his team anymore. Or at least Jaune remembered them differently. They tried to move on. He can't blame them since everyone thought he was dead. Dead like Pyrrha who like him left nothing but tears and pain behind for the living. Oscar, Emerald, Nora and Ren formed a new team that didn't need Jaune for as a leader because they had Oscar who thanks to Ozma had hundreds of years of experience at their disposal. The months they spent without him changed them because it is normal that when we lose someone, we also lose a small part of ourselves and we will no longer be who we were. We try to accept what happened and move on with our lives, we cannot live in the past and its ghosts. Not at times like this.

Jaune wasn't the person they remembered either because the many years he spent alone had changed him. He had to because that was the only way he could survive that cursed place. He smiled less, talked less with others, his habits became completely different, he didn't seek the company of his friends, he became much more independent. But what was most noticeable change that he was tired, tired of everything. He was simply older than them and he was no longer the person they mourned, but a pale imitation, a shadow of his former self.

There was no harmony between them anymore, they were no longer effective together during the fights. Their movements and attacks were no longer in sync. While his team really improved during these months, he had more than two decades to develop and polish his fighting style to that level where he had no unnecessary movements in it, and he was as effective as possible during the fights. His friends fought as a team, built their strategy on each other's attacks, and moves. They knew each other's fighting style and most likely knew what the next move would be during combat. Jaune's moves became completely foreign to them, he used almost completely different moves than he used to. He no longer thought about how they could win against the enemy as a team. All he could think about was how he alone could defeat his opponents as quickly as possible. Jaune's movements were precise and somewhat brutal, filling his long-lost friends with worry and alarm each time. Jaune saw their gazes and felt alienated every time, an outsider who no longer belonged to the family he had dreamed of so much in his lonely moments over the years.

Probably his worst moments happened during the nights. Jaune would wake up almost every dawn yelling that there was a fire and run out of the room to which his friends and the inhabitants of the other rooms around them would wake up to and try to contain the all-consuming flames or whatever threat they heard half-asleep. Weapons in hands and in their night clothes, everyone rushed to the corridor to stop the danger.

But there was never any fire or danger.

Just a sweaty, deathly pale, blonde huntsman who is now, moments later was only muttering softly about the fire. He thought that he was still in his hut outside the Paper Pleaser's village and had to save them from themselves. Usually, it was Weiss who would go over to him and gently take his hands and try bringing Jaune back to the present with a soothing voice until he stopped muttering and focused on her. The first few times the occupants of the surrounding rooms were forgiving and understanding, but the more times the yelling was repeated, the understanding was steadily disappearing, and the frustration and anger appeared on the people's faces. Jaune didn't blame them, if the situation was reversed, he too would be understanding and accepting only for a while.

The worst part wasn't the malicious comments from the people on the corridor when they realized it was Jaune who had woken up again. No, it was the pitying look in the eyes of his friends. The pitying look he often saw on his friends' faces after the Fall of Beacon when they looked at him and thought Jaune wasn't paying attention, or when Pyrrha was mentioned. That pitying look that he hated so much. He didn't see it while they were in Atlas, but ever since he met with team RWBY in the fairy tale world, he can see it almost everyday thanks to his early morning episodes.

His friends, especially Ren and Nora, always assured him with soothing words and kind smiles that there was nothing wrong and that they weren't bothered by these incidents. But after a few more sleepless night after a long day, and their smiles were less sincerely, no longer reaching their eyes. After that, Jaune decided to move to a less populated area in the local academy where he wouldn't bother anyone at night. Nora begged him to stay, even Emerald tried to make him stay, but Jaune was adamant on the subject. So, he moved into his new room that very afternoon, which was at the other end of the academy.

After that he saw them less, Jaune went to breakfast much earlier, started his duties earlier and came back later than the others. Nora and Weiss often dragged him over for movie nights or to just hanging out together, but Jaune couldn't enjoy these events like in the past. Ruby had also tried to call Jaune over once or twice, but things were still tense between them since their fight in Ever After. Both of them avoided the topic as if the mere mention of it burned them, instead she tried engaging in awkward small talks which lasted no more than half a minute.

The whole idea come up during night, when Jaune couldn't sleep after a long day and wondered how so many had gone so wrong. How could his friends have positive attitude toward the future with such losses? How could Jaune change things that hadn't happened yet? Jaune knew that things could only get worse from here and the loss of the Relic under the academy was only a matter of time and nothing could be done about it. Others may only guess this, but he treats it as a fact. The identity of the Summer Maiden is still a mystery, but that's almost irrelevant, it's almost certain that the enemy will find her sooner than they do. They shouldn't sit here and wait for what can't be changed. They are at war and difficult decisions must be made to win and only he sees this.

The Beacon relic is still "hidden", but Salem knows that it's around the former academy. The academy, which is too close to the city of Vale, which would inevitably be in the crossfire if the Relic was still there. If Jaune could somehow get the Relic of Choice and take it with him to the middle of nowhere where no one lives, or just go around and around on Remnant with it so they wouldn't catch him until he found a safe place to hide it. It's not the best plan, but something must be done, he has no choice, Salem can't call the gods back because the world wouldn't survive that. Jaune knows the Maiden is not the key for the Relic for some reason but something else, but he hasn't been able to get that out of Ozma, nor exactly where it is. If he fails to get the crown, at least he could try to build up the local defences to give them the best possible chance of fighting the last siege of the war.

He knew his friends wouldn't let him go. They wouldn't let him do this foolishness. They would stop him somehow, even if they had to fight him to keep him from going. They would beg him to stay to fight with them in Vacuo, or there was still hope for the desert city, but Jaune couldn't see it. Perhaps he was too old to believe that if they believed in this strongly enough, they could miraculously win here without serious losses.

In three days, he collected the necessary equipment and enough food for a couple of days, so that the others wouldn't suspect that he was going somewhere. On the fourth day he had breakfast as soon as possible to reach the first bullhead that was traveling to the east coast of the kingdom. He had written them a letter the day before, explaining why he was leaving, but not what he was going to do. Jaune didn't want them to come after him and try to bring him back, or worse, come with him on this suicide mission. He had to go through this alone, he couldn't lose any more of his friends. He put the letter on the end of his bed and left.

The first bullhead departed two hours after sunrise. In the city, which was painted orange in the morning sunlight, the morning crowd had not yet appeared on the streets, only a few people were trying to get to work or walking home from it. There were already several people at the bullhead station. Many people wanted to leave the city because they felt something was coming. Anyone who was paying attention knew that with all the military hardware in the city, something terrible was coming. The presence of the grimms is also increased. Just like at Atlas, and if Remnant's strongest and most modern military couldn't stop the approaching storm, what chance does Vacuo have? Many tried to leave the city in the direction of smaller settlements as soon as possible. Jaune was among the firsts to take his place by the window. After everyone boarded the bullhead which had seen better days, began its seven-hour journey. The view quickly became boring due to its monotony where Jaune could only see endless sand dunes under the cloudless blue sky. The flight made several stops either to pick up new passengers or deliver supplies, or just for fuel. Before anyone could notice Jaune's disappearance, he had already arrived his destination.

The town of Sandhaven was slightly smaller than Argus, but almost as busy. It was Vacuo's largest port city, where most of the kingdom's trade took place. There are several architectural styles in the city, the classic sandstone low houses of Vacuo, the elegant Valean brick buildings, but you can also see some Mistrali buildings here and there. The bullhead station and the harbour were an hour walk from each other. During this time, Jaune wondered if he was really acting correctly and logically and if he wasn't guided by his fears. But he didn't dare to turn around and go back, it was too late for that.

The ships that's still carrying passengers didn't travel far, only to the border towns that separated Vacuo and Vale. Due to the increase price of dust or the lack of it, it was not worth launching routes further. Jaune managed to buy a cheap ticket to Searock that included a cabin and breakfast. The ship was named Starfish. It didn't look like the fastest ship, it was battered and there were some spots of rust on the hull, but these didn't bother Jaune as long as it took him to the harbour of Searock.

Jaune immediately occupied his cabin. The cabin only had the necessary things: a bed, a wardrobe, a table and two chairs. The blond knight took off his bag and armor, which he placed on the table. He propped his sword against the wall next to the bed he was lying in. Jaune was staring at the ceiling of his cabin until departure, trying to gather his thoughts and figure out how he was going to move on from Searock. The ship left the port after sunset and the passengers were all at the railings to see the night lights of the city that was getting further and further away. Jaune took his sword and he too looked at the lights of the city a little further away from the other passengers. When the lights of the city were no longer so spectacular and the temperature began get cool, the passengers started to go back to their cabins where it was warmer.

Jaune was the only one still there. He looked at the almost invisible horizon, listened to the rumble of the ship's engine and the sound of the waves as the ship passed. Jaune took a deep breath and let it out. A moment later he reached for his sword and pulled it out of its scabbard and held it in both hands. He stroked the broken end of the sword with his thumb, being careful not to cut his finger. When the blacksmith changed him back to the age he had arrived to the Ever After, she didn't repair the sword. It's still broken.

'A broken sword for a broken knight, how fitting.' he thought to himself. It's still usable for its intended purpose, but it's not the real thing anymore. Jaune didn't know if that statement was more true for the sword or to himself. He looked at his reflection on the blade, which he could see clearly thanks to the light of the full moon. He saw his own eyes in it which were no longer as bright and cheerful as they had been when he had last gone to Beacon. They were dull and tired. Like what old men has. It's not as if he was not one of them.

He slipped the sword back into its scabbard and leaned against the railing with both hands. Then he took a deep breath and looked up at the night sky as he exhaled it. Not a single star can be seen by the light of the broken moon. His gaze wandered to the onyx-coloured waves of the sea.

"I hope it works." he whispered to himself and went back to his cabin to sleep.

Hi everyone,

This my first fic, I know my grammer probably not the best but this is why I started writing, to improve my rusty english. So what do you think about this story? Criticisms are welcome.