When Shin'en is in Charge
Well, I don't know how many people will see this here, since FFN's email system has been completely shot for over a month now, but here's the latest chapter of Remnant!
My move to Ao3 is now complete. All of my stories with all of my chapters are now there, and updates will be congruent to both sites. To anyone who sees this, I implore you to follow me on Ao3 because their email system is much more consistent than FFN. I'm not completely abandoning this site because it's where I started, but it's clear this place is going under.
Something else of note is that I started posting my old subreddit stuff on my Ao3 page, namely the Trials essay and a few other things that I was able to find still on the subreddit. Go check them out if you like.
Without further ado, the next chapter of Shin'en's saga in Remnant.
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or RWBY
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"We…died…"
"Correct."
"And you…brought us back to life…"
"Correct."
"And you killed all the Apathy…"
"Mm-hm."
"And we've been dead for…how long, you said?"
"The freezing temperatures basically made your homes into morgues, preventing major decomposition, so it was a bit difficult to determine the exact time of death, but I estimate it's been about six weeks."
Bartleby just sat there, his wife next to him, both of them unable to speak.
It was just them and Shin'en in the upstairs office, the kids, Ozpin, and Qrow and the other residents of the farm all downstairs, eating breakfast, a general subdued air around the whole settlement.
To be fair, though, waking up to freezing cold, heavy snow, feeling the stiffest you'd ever felt in your life (not to mention the indignity of postmortem bowel movements and urination), and a bunch of strangers in your house with one of them being a god-like not Faunus who explained that he brought you all back from the dead because he took pity on you…was a lot to take in and process.
"Thank you…" Bartleby said distantly, still traumatized by the fact that his idea with the Apathy had not only resulted in his death, but the deaths of his wife, his beloved children, his friends, and all of their children too.
Honestly, how does one deal with that?
You get everyone you know and love killed, including yourself, and then you're all brought back to life.
Like, thanks, obviously, but Bartleby was so racked with guilt that he was in danger of prematurely ending his second chance of life.
"You're welcome," Shin'en said.
"What happens now?" Mrs. Brunswick asked.
"My group and I will finish breakfast, and then we will resume our journey to Argus to meet up with family. You will resume your farming lifestyle, make great strides in not using Grimm as pets, and if the farm fails, you will move to the nearest city and make a new life there unless you want to die. Again."
Bartleby shut his eyes tight.
His wife honestly couldn't look at him right now.
Shin'en didn't blame her. Imagine your husband doing something so boneheaded as trying to use an Apathy Grimm to remove the rising hysteria spawned by the failing farm, only for it to backfire so spectacularly that not only did you die, but your kids died too. And your youngest daughter was in absolute hysterics when she, ah, woke up because there's a literal, rock-solid, six-week-old mess in her favorite underwear.
With yourself fairing no better.
Dying with full stomachs was gross.
"Who are you?" the wife finally asked. For the second time. "You can bring the dead back to life…"
"Not entirely, no. I need a certain amount of organic material to do something like that. Your bodies were all uniquely persevered."
"But…why…? You could've left us as dead, or stolen everything we had, but you…brought us…just…why?"
"Is altruism that foreign a concept to you?"
"…I suppose it is, yes."
"Unfortunate." Shin'en stood up.
"Are you a god?" Bartleby asked.
"I am two-thirds of a god, yes."
"Two-thirds," the man breathed. Then his face scrunched up. "How does that work?"
"It just does."
"Are you going to eradicate the Grimm?" asked the wife.
"Yeah."
"A world without Grimm…" Bartleby said distantly.
"Yes, a fantastical thing that would be. Of course, then you just have to worry about bandits, bad weather, war, racism, economic struggles, and so on and so forth. But don't let that kill the mood."
Shin'en left the room and went down the stairs. He was getting bored with the proceedings and really wanted to get this ball rolling again, because he was still on a mission. Though, funnily enough, he still wasn't going full speed. If he was, the story would've already been over, with Shin'en having teleported to Salem's location, neutralized her, and then the summarizing epilogue would've been underway.
Why was Shin'en holding back the throttle, you ask? Well, having had to bear witness to a dead family and a dead little girl had brought back enough memories to have made him cool his jets a little.
Everyone below looked up when they saw Shin'en coming down the stairs in all his ethereal glory. The black outfit, the healthy skin, the softly glowing red eyes, and the horns—all coming together to make the picture of otherworldly grace and composure.
"Pack your things," he said to his companions. "We are soon to depart."
He left the farmhouse before anything could be said.
True to his word, the good guys were loaded up in a cart being pulled along by Yang's motorcycle before ten minutes has passed, and Brunswick Farms was nothing more than a heavy memory, with the farmers left with thousands of questions, and the good guys sans Shin'en left with many of the same.
After so many minutes of tense silence, Ruby finally worked up the nerve to ask a question. She opened her mouth, but Shin'en already knew.
"I can only resurrect someone if enough of their body remains. I need something from a large enough pile of bones to their entire corpse. I cannot bring a person back to life if all that remains is ash and dust, or a few strands of loose hair that young found on an old pillowcase, or in a blanket, or on some article of clothing. I will find your mother, Ruby, and when I do, I will go from there."
Ruby just nodded.
She was as shellshocked as everyone else was.
Wouldn't you be, too, though? Imagine spending two weeks with a guy, training with him, learning admittedly riveting history from him, and then he just casually raises the dead back to life.
Like the Brunswick families, how were you supposed to react to that?
In one very real, very serious train of thought, all of the good guys were wondering whether they should get on their knees and faces and start worshipping Shin'en. Two-thirds of a god or whatever, the being could bring back the dead. He could also use water to reset bones, put organs back where they belonged, fix internal bleeding, and remove severe concussions. In terms of healing, there was no one on the planet greater than Shin'en Yūrei.
And he was a necromancer.
What else could he do?
A question with a shorter list of answers would be what could he not do.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Eventually, the silence got to the point where Maria decided to ask this question:
"So…does anyone wanna hear the story of how I lost my eyes?"
With nothing else going on, everyone decided to listen, and so Maria revealed she was actually the Grimm Reaper, a Huntress once so renowned that Qrow had modeled his sword/scythe after her own weapons. As such, in a way, Ruby also owed a decent deal to Maria, since she had based her own fighting style after her uncle. However, Ruby had a deeper connection with Maria, that being that they both had silver eyes.
"And bounty hunters targeted you?" Shin'en asked.
"Yep, sure did," Maria answered with a sad laugh.
"Interesting," Shin'en mused.
Qrow looked at him. "Thinking that Salem's been targeting the Silver-Eyed Warriors?"
"She has, which means that she won't be able to resist coming after us for long. Maiden powers, silver eyes, and the relic."
"You're using Ruby as bait."
"No. She is bait all on her own."
"At least I'm bait that can bait back—I mean, bite back. Haha…my tongue slipped. Sorry."
Shin'en looked at Maria. "Do you want your eyes back?"
"Excuse me?"
"Your silver eyes—do you want them back?"
"I-I mean, I know you brought the dead back—still processing that, by the way—but my eyes are-"
"Do. You want them. Back?"
His tone made it abundantly clear that he was not going to ask a fourth time.
"Well—yeah."
Shin'en beckoned her to him.
Yang stopped her bike, because she wanted to see this too.
Maria walked to Shin'en, and when she stood before him, she turned off her prosthetic eyes, and pulled them from her face. Doing so revealed the grotesque and toe-curling sight of her lidless, empty eye sockets, her model of prosthetics evidently having required the removal of her eyelids for successful implantation and function.
The slit on Shin'en's forehead opened for the first time everyone present had ever seen, and they all gasped and flinched upon seeing the third eye, his green Rinne-Sharingan with its rings and spinning tomoe.
"Banbutsu Sozo," Shin'en intoned, clapping his hands together.
A purple flame engulfed his hands, and then he placed his flaming palms over Maria's eyes. She rent rigid and gasped, and when Shin'en pulled his hands away, Maria fell, being caught by Shin'en. When her restored eyelids fluttered open, everyone gasped even louder than last time at seeing the bright silver eyes.
"I can see again…" Maria breathed, bringing a finger to her face, dragging her cheek down to reveal the pink flesh that surrounded her restored eyeball. "And I can even-"
Her silver eyes lit up like stars, wings of light flapping strongly before disappearing as fast as they materialized.
Silence reigned for all of a second before Shin'en spoke. "Now you can train Ruby on how to use her eyes."
Maria looked at him. "You did this for me just so you wouldn't have to try and figure out to teach her yourself, didn't you?"
"Are you complaining about having your proper eyes back?"
"Well, no."
"That's what I thought. You're welcome."
Maria actually bowed. "Thank you."
Shin'en looked at Yang. "Resume, please."
Yang couldn't be jealous about Maria getting her eyes back. Shin'en had offered to restore her arm, but she had declined, so that was on her.
With that, Team Ruby and the others had seen Shin'en make eyeballs, heal injuries, and raise the dead.
"What was that?" Weiss asked.
"The Creation of All Things technique. I can use my power to create atoms out of nothing. Pairing that with me healing abilities, I was able to completely restore Maria's eyes to their previous state."
"Can you give all of us silver eyes?" Blake asked. "Or at least, the power of the eyes?"
She liked her yellow eyes, but no one could deny that having such power would at all be a negative thing. Being hunted by Salem notwithstanding.
"In theory, yes," Shin'en answered. "However, with Maria, the power of the silver eyes was already alive within her body. I restored that power by giving her functioning, organic eyes, kind of like how a generator has all the power, but it has nowhere to go until it's plugged into something."
What Shin'en didn't say was how he could actually do just about anything he wanted to them, which included creating a chakra network inside each and every one of them, but he A) didn't know how a chakra network would work in tandem with Aura—they might be fine, or they might explode, and B) he was still thinking in the long run, and appreciated how Hagoromo giving mankind chakra had objectively led to more harm than good.
Remnant was already struggling with Aura. Imagine generations that had Aura and chakra.
Along with the potential emotional toll on the good guys when they were old and grey, and they could do nothing but watch as either their grandchildren or great-grandchildren used their epic chakra powers to turn the planet into a ruined hellscape.
So, Shin'en more or less said no, he couldn't give everyone the power of the silver eyes, and somewhat implied that he could only give someone power if they already had that power within.
His strategy worked, because no one pushed for the creation of any additional abilities.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Upon arrival in Argus, there wasn't a moment of rest.
"Contact Jaune," Shin'en said, looking at Ruby. "Have him and the others meet us at the military base. We will use the angle that we are the entourage of Weiss Schnee, here to bring her back to Atlas."
"What if we meet with, er, resistance?" Weiss asked.
There was no mirth or humor in Shin'en's response. "I will only be nice once."
Ruby got her Scroll out and Jaune answered barely a second after she called him. She explained that she and everyone else had made it to Argus, and that Shin'en had taken over as leader, and he was currently on a beeline for the military base to secure transportation by using the angle that they were here to escort Weiss back home. Ruby also made it as clear as she could that playtime was over and Shin'en was in no mood for games anymore.
Now, the whole point to this part of RWBY was for Blake and Yang to team up and kill Adam, and have Ruby display the power of friendship and her silver eyes, and also introduce one of Jaune's big sisters who was also a lesbian so the writer's could check one of the diversity boxes off the list, because in a sci-fi/fantasy series about teens with superpowers fighting a genocidal maniac with an army of bloodthirsty monsters, it was important to have gay representation for some reason.
Anyway.
Shin'en had already killed Adam, his plan had nothing to do with the Argus communication tower, he didn't care about Jaune's family in the slightest, and the big reveal about Ozpin and Salem could come later. Shin'en's jets had reignited a little bit now that he was back in the zone, and he was on the move. It was on everyone else to keep up.
Shin'en looked at Weiss. "Can you operate the Bullheads?"
"I was once scheduled for flying lessons, but I decided to leave the country."
Shin'en looked at Qrow.
"I can fly a Bullhead," Maria informed.
Shin'en nodded.
"What are we going to do about Bumblebee?" Yang asked.
Her beloved motorcycle still had the cart attached to it.
"Everyone out," Shin'en said.
After the cart was emptied, he produced a rolled-up length of paper—an actual scroll—and he unfurled it, made a Ram seal, and in a poof of smoke, Bumblebee and the cart were gone. Shin'en rolled up the scroll and handed it to the gobsmacked Yang.
"Keep that secure until we have arrived in Atlas. Your motorcycle is sealed inside."
After seeing this man bring the dead back to life, Yang didn't even question it. She accepted the roll of paper and tucked it into one of her pockets.
Going down main street, the group was joined by Jaune, Nora, and Ren.
"Hi, guys!" Nora greeted with her standard enthusiasm.
Everyone barely had time to wave because Shin'en was setting such a pace just by walking.
"Glad to see you're all okay," Jaune breathed, putting forth some effort in keeping up without breaking into a jog. "Uh, there's something you should all know about the base, though."
"Walk and talk, Jaune," Shin'en said without turning around.
"Well, you see, we already tried speaking to the commanding officer here about our situation, and well…she's-"
"She's an asshole!" Nora said with true conviction.
Maria, who was riding on Qrow's shoulder, looked down at Nora. "Midget with grey hair by the name of Cordovin?"
Nora gasped. "You two know each other?"
"I had to come through here once upon a time to get to Atlas to have my eyes checked. I once brought some cashews with me on a flight, and she was not happy about that."
Shin'en made a sound between a groan and growl. "Perfect."
The colorful group reached the front entrance to the base, and the gates were slammed shut in front of them.
This time, Shin'en really did growl. "Go get your commanding officer. I have Weiss Schnee with me, and I am trying to escort her back home."
Weiss exercised a little proactivity by stepping up to the gate so the two oddball guards could look at her and verify who she was.
The guards straightened after their inspection. "Very well!"
"You may speak with our commanding officer!"
"We will fetch her at once!"
They marched off with way too much enthusiasm.
Shin'en's eye twitched. "I find my patience rapidly waning."
Yeah, they could all feel that because despite the sunny day, the temperature was steadily dropping around them.
The gates opened when the guards returned. They stepped aside to introduce the grey-haired midget that was Caroline Cordovin.
She looked at Maria. "Witch."
Maria glowered with her returned silver eyes. "She-devil."
"Pardon me, ladies," Shin'en said, unamused. "We're here to escort Weiss Schnee back home to Atlas. If you would be so kind as to provide us with transport, Jacques and General Ironwood would be most appreciative of you."
Cordovin sized Shin'en up, her eyes lingering on the horns sprouting at his hairline. Her honest opinion, with the horns, the black outfit with the red highlights and accents, was that Shin'en was either Adam Taurus in disguise, or a kind of disciple. Bottom line was that she now on high alert, and gravely suspicious and mistrustful of this situation.
"I see….Well, in that case, we of the Atlesian Military will happily provide Ms. Schnee, and only Ms. Schnee, with transport to her home. The border will remain closed to everyone else."
"Hey, we're a package deal," Yang asserted.
Cordovin shrugged. "Not to me, you're not. It's either Ms. Schnee by herself, or no one at all."
She turned around, and the gates slammed behind her.
"Very well," Shin'en said shortly. "Almighty Push!"
The gates were blasted off their rails so hard that not only did they literally flatten Cordovin and her guards, reducing them to gory smears of blood-soaked clothes splattered with pressed organs and splintered bones, but they went skipping across the base to slam into the tower, knocking out the walls.
"Get to that Bullhead!" Shin'en commanded as he pointed at the nearest machine.
After that display, everyone was sprinting as fast as they could go, with Ruby scooping up Maria and using her Semblance to shoot straight inside the Bullhead. The Grimm Reaper wasted no time in flipping switches and hitting buttons, bringing the Bullhead online. Luckily it had a full tank.
The alarm sounded after the people up in the control center got over their shock at seeing their commanding officer get turned into paste via the security cameras, and the whole compound came alive. The Atlesian soldiers grabbed weapons and ran to their battle stations, while in Argus, an automated intercom commanded the citizens to reach shelter.
Funnily enough, this was actually not one of Shin'en's most tactless moments. Which was really saying something, since he'd just murdered a high-ranking officer of the most powerful military on the planet, smack in the middle of her own base for everyone to see. The thing was, Shin'en did not care about tact in this moment. There were times when he did care about tact, and then there were times when he didn't.
The usual deciding factor was whether or not he could sneeze the opposition out of his path.
In this world of Remnant, sneezing was all that was required.
Shin'en appeared inside the Bullhead, causing everyone to jump and/or scream. "Get to Atlas," he said to Maria. "I will ensure the flight."
"Wait!" Weiss shouted. "Please don't kill anyone else! And please don't destroy anything else! These people have families, and these soldiers are defending this place from the Grimm!"
Shin'en nodded. "Cordovin pissed me off. No harm will come to these people, nor will their defenses be damaged."
With that, he jumped out of the Bullhead as Maria was getting airborne.
Shin'en delivered on his word. When he targeted the other Bullheads, he only slashed at their fuel lines, a simple and easy fix, but one that would take enough time for the team to fly safely away from Argus. When he targeted the soldiers, Batman would've given him a pat on the back for not killing anyone else. When it came to the gun turrets and missile launchers, some cut cables were enough to shut them down without causing permanent damage.
The only reason Shin'en had been so violent with Cordovin was like he said: the little bitch had pissed him off. Granted, the two weirdo guards hadn't really deserved death, but they were weird enough so it was okay.
With the Argus base sufficiently neutralized yet still operational enough to protect the citizens, Shin'en took his leave by way of the ocean literally right next to him. Boy was that a mental trip, connecting to the planet's greater hydrosphere, feeling the thousand of ship and aircraft wrecks dotting the ocean floor, all the ships currently at sail, and all the different kinds of Grimm swimming through the depths.
Which included this one really big one currently heading for Argus.
Unfortunately for it, it was completely submerged, meaning it was completely surrounded by Shin'en's element. It didn't even know what happened when it died, and so many millions more Grimm shared the same fate when the ocean suddenly came alive around them and destroyed them.
Yes, as he casually swam through the ocean to catch up to the Bullhead, Shin'en killed all of the Grimm in Remnant's ocean.
He hadn't been lying to the Brunswick family this morning when he told them he'd kill all the Grimm.
No, he wasn't about to stay here for years on end and make the world a better place, that was what Ruby was for, but that didn't mean he couldn't give her a good head start.
Shooting through the ocean, it didn't take Shin'en long to catch up to the Bullhead. Everyone almost shit their pants, though, when he landed on top of the aircraft after rocketing out of the water from over a thousand feet below. He knocked on the class of the cockpit, casually waving at Maria before indicating the cargo hatch. Maria opened it, Shin'en entered, and the hatch closed.
"Is everyone still alive?" Weiss asked.
"Yes. Only Cordovin and those two morons are dead. The damage to the machines is superficial, and should be repaired within an hour. Plenty of time for us to have covered too much distance for them chase after us."
"But we didn't do anything about their communication system," Qrow said. "By now, they've sent a message to Ironwood about some Faunus having showed up with Weiss Schnee, killed Cordovin, stole a Bullhead, and is now on his way to Atlas. The whole country will be on high alert now, and we'll be lucky to see James without getting shot down."
"I'll handle it," Shin'en said firmly.
"Without killing a bunch of people?" Weiss asked skeptically.
"That will depend on how Ironwood instructs his troops."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
They got to Atlas airspace, and Shin'en was marginally impressed to behold the floating city. The name Atlas was funny to him, and the clear allegory to Olympus was also humorous.
However, any appreciation for the majesty of the city had to be postponed in favor of dealing with the sum total of the Atlesian Domestic Military.
The radio beeped. "Attention Manta 5-1. Report to Docking Bay Three immediately."
It was some male operator.
Shin'en expanded his senses and found the central control room, a number of people huddled around a terminal with the operator in question, the mic still in his hand. In the room was a tall man with prosthetic limbs, his hands clasped behind his back.
General Ironwood.
Shin'en grabbed the microphone. "This is Shin'en Yūrei. I have with me Weiss Schnee, Ozpin, Qrow Branwen, and a number of students that participated in the Battle of Beacon. I also have important cargo, and even more important information, for General Ironwood. I will be landing this ship at the front door of your headquarters. If you get stupid and attack me, I will destroy your entire fleet, and send Atlas crashing down upon Mantle. This concludes communications."
Shin'en crushed the microphone in his hand. He looked down at Maria. "Do as I said."
The old Huntress nodded. "I hope you know what you're doing."
"I'm making a statement."
As he had already said, he was now no longer here to take a backseat role. Now he was in command, and he was doing things his way, and his way, for this operation, did not involve any kind of tact, and barely any kind of cordiality and pleasantries.
None of the airships attacked, and none of the other Bullheads approached. Maria had an easy time flying Manta 5-1 to the front landing pad of Atlas Academy, which also doubled as the headquarters of the Atlas Military. The easy flight was counteracted by the presence of the welcoming committee, consisting of dozens of soldiers, a handful of mechs, General Ironwood himself, Winter Schnee, and a group of five elite Huntsmen known as the Ace-Ops.
Maria landed the Bullhead with the cargo bay facing the battalion.
"Weiss, Oscar, and Qrow, on me. The rest of you follow."
No one argued Shin'en's command.
They had seen him bring the dead back to life. They had seen him effortlessly slaughter the foes they had all been struggling with. They had seen him shut down all forms of argument and opposition with superior might. Now they were all nervous and apprehensive that they were about to see him destroy a civilization.
Shin'en descended the ramp of the Bullhead, Weiss at his left, Qrow to his right, and Oscar on the other side of Qrow with Ozpin's cane in his hand. Shin'en's pace wasn't manic, but it wasn't sedate, either. It was measured, purposeful, and deliberate. It was the pace of a man that had business to attend to.
Ironwood and his top soldiers approached the group.
No one besides the grunts in uniforms had their weapons out, but everyone else had their weapons close at hand.
The groups soon met, with James towering over Shin'en with his 6'6 against Shin'en's 5'10. Still, despite this glaring height difference, Shin'en seemed so much bigger.
Another interesting contrast was their clothing. Ironwood came wearing blue pants and a blue shirt with a red tie, a white jacket over his shirt, while Shin'en was dressed in all black with red accents, the stylized cloud of the Akatsuki still prominently displayed on the lapel of his coat.
"General Ironwood?" the demigod asked.
"I am," Ironwood said evenly. "And you are Shin'en Yūrei?"
"Yes. The rest of this conversation will be held in a private venue."
Ironwood took quick stock of everyone, catching Qrow's eye, who was trying to communicate with him via telepathy to please don't do anything stupid, and do what Shin'en said, with the same message being on repeat on everyone else's faces.
"Very well," Ironwood said. "Follow me."
Shin'en pointedly ignored looking at anyone else as he followed the general.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
And I'll end it here on this cliffhanger after over a month since the last chapter.
Again, no idea how many people are going to see this on FFN, which is why I encourage everyone to start following me on Ao3 for more consistent email communication.
How do you think Shin'en talking with Ironwood will go down? Clash of the alpha males, or will the general be agreeable? And what do you think lies in store for Jacques, Winter, and the Ace-Ops?
Fun fact: originally, Shin'en was going to keep his backseat role until the climax of the story, and as such, the scene where Ruby's group finally made it to Mantle only to be captured by the Ace-Ops was going to play out very differently, with Shin'en kicking their asses. However, given the different direction I decided to go with, such a scene no longer made any logical sense.
That doesn't mean Shin'en still isn't going to smash the Ace-Ops's teeth in, though.
Stay tuned to find out what happens next!
In the meantime, please Fav, Follow, and Review!