Sunshine Chapter 31: Farewell, Myself of the Past, a rwby fanfic

Chapter 31: Farewell, Myself of the Past...

"Suddenly I wanted to go back and be in all the places I'd ever been, every street I'd walked down, every room I'd sat down in. I wanted to see it all again. I tried to remember my life, flipping through Polaroids in my mind... But I knew that even if I could go back, if such a thing were possible with exactitude, in life or in dreams, there was really no point." - Ottessa Moshfegh

blaiseingfire: I'll never stop with these games! NEVER! Also yeah, like I said, when she shows up again, something bad is going to happen, it may be something small or it may be something big, but bad things will follow RK.

NinjaFang1331: Nah, no fights just yet, this is the last chapter of the Patch Act, and then we're onto the Shade Act! YEAH!

CriticaofRandomness: Trust me, if the RK shows up, trouble is about to begin, either big or small. Also, while Jaune V Old Jaune would be cool, it sadly isn't going to happen in this story, and trust me, the RK is not Jaune but a completely different character but one that has been mentioned before and played a huge role in Vale's history. Also, I hope I get a theory soon because trust me, so much is going to happen in the Shade Act and in future acts that are going to make you question everything, but maybe the side story will answer a few questions

ASpanishReader: Thank you and I'm glad you like the chapter, I hope that the side story gives you some of the answers you're looking for, because some things will be answered, but will those answers be good or bad?

Some asshole 4145: Why RK is watching will soon be revealed, as for when Jaune and Vernal are finally gonna do it, it will happen eventually but it's not gonna be anything real smutty, more vanilla and fluff.

Chemistry: Jaune and Vernal won't hook up for a while, but it will happen during the 2nd part of the story, and Vernal is definitely going to be the Antithesis to both Raven and Summer, She's already confronted Raven about her cowardice but her time to be different then summer will come when we get to explore STRQ's past. Vernal is indeed a survivor who knows that she needs the people around her to keep her from falling back into the pit she was in before.

XXX

A few days had passed since the reunion and with the extra hands around the house, the fence was put up, the garden was complete, and pretty much everything at Tai's house was done, but even then, the jobs were far from over as Jaune and the others had agreed to take care of some Grimm for the locals and the town of Cobble.

Now, it was the day before they would leave for Vacuo, and this time, the group was going to be taking a ship to Vacuo, they all had finished packing by now and for the rest of the day, they had simply wanted to rest.

"Ugh! It feels like we haven't had a moment to rest!" Vernal cried as she sat on the couch.

Jaune chuckled as he sat next to her, letting out a sigh of exhaustion, "Tell me about it, but hey, now we've got some extra money when we get to Vacuo," Jaune told her.

Maria sat on the couch with a bag of cashews in her lap, "Indeed, I believe we're all quite tired," she said.

"You didn't do a thing!" Deery and Oscar cried.

Jaune grabbed the remote and turned on the TV where the news was playing.

{"Lisa Lavenader here with VNN, in recent news, it seems that General Ironwood had let go of his position as Headmaster of Atlas Academy and given it to none other than Mantle's very own, Robyn Hill," Lisa said}

Jaune and Deery's eyes widened with surprise when they heard the news about Robyn becoming the Headmaster of Atlas Academy, and that's when Jaune remembered what Ironwood had told him in the Hospital room.

"See, Mr. Arc, with Robyn being praised as a hero, certain things will come out about her, her time training in the Military, her beliefs of unifying Mantle and Atlas, everything in her spotless and clean record, and with her as the hero, I can help her accomplish her dream,"

Jaune smiled, 'So that's what you were talking about Ironwood,' he said with a smile.

Vernal grabbed the remote and changed the Channel, "Ugh, boring!" She cried.

The channel was changed and a show appeared, {"It seems today~! That's all you see~!"}

Deery groaned, "Please change the channel, this show isn't as good as it used to be!"

Vernal smiled, "Agreed!" Vernal replied as she changed the channel.

On the next channel, it was some talk show with Headmaster Lionheart.

{"So, the Vytal Festival is coming up this year, how do you feel Mistral will do this year?"}

{Lionheart chuckled, "I think that we've got a good chance of winning this year, in fact, I believe the other academies better watch out!" Lionheart proclaimed with a smile.}

Jaune's eyes widened with realization, "I almost forgot the Vytal Festival was coming up," Jaune said.

"Really?" Maria said.

Jaune nodded, "Yeah, I mean, I've had other things on my mind lately," Jaune said.

Oscar turned to look at the blonde, "When you get back to Beacon Jaune, are you gonna participate in it?" Oscar asked him.

Jaune shrugged, "Maybe," Jaune replied.

Vernal smirked, "I'd say you go for it," She told him, "If anyone can win, it's you,"

Jaune smiled at that, "I don't know, there are a lot more skilled fighters at Beacon than me," Jaune said.

Deery was a bit shocked at that, "Really!?" She asked.

Jaune nodded, "Yep, what you thought I was the strongest?" He asked.

Deery nodded, "You took on Bane-Saw and won! He's one of the toughest fighters next to Siena, Adam, and the Chief's daughter," Deery said. "I'd say you're one of the strongest people I've met!" Deery told him.

Maria hummed in agreement, "Let's not forget you trained with the Happy Huntresses, Robyn Hill, and those two other girls are on a specialist level, so you managing to hold your own against them is pretty amazing," She told them.

"Let's not forget you alone took out most of Spider, not a lot of people can say that," Vernal chimed in.

Jaune sighed, "True, but in all honesty, I'm still nowhere near where I want to be, I still need to get stronger," Jaune said. "Trust me, there are still a lot of people stronger than me, like my partner Pyrrha, my teammates Ren and Nora, or my friend Ruby, her partner Weiss, and her sister Yang, hell even some upperclassmen are tough," Jaune said.

"Still you've got something they don't," Maria said.

Jaune looked at her with a raised brow, "I do?" He asked.

She nodded, "Yes," She replied. "You have something none of those students have, Jaune, and that's the fact that you're close to knowing yourself,"

"Knowing... myself?" Jaune asked.

Maria nodded again, "Yes, I've seen growth in you Jaune," Maria told him. "You've already faced the dark part of this world, you've have and I'm sure you still are, struggling with your inner demons, something that not a lot at your age have done or even think they can do, but you have... Strength isn't all about how physically strong you are, it's also about how strong you are mentally," Maria told him.

Her words took aback Jaune but he felt good to hear them, and that's when memories of the past hit him.

Jaune smiled at Ruby as they walked around Beacon, "Well the name's Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it!" he said trying to sound cool.

Ruby smiled at him and looked at him with a raised brow, "Do they?" She asked.

"You know what else is great? Me," Jaune told Weiss with his old false bravado.

Jaune fell onto his back as Cardin once again won their match, and all he could feel was disappointment at failing to win once again and he felt anger at how he was not as strong compared to the rest of his friends.

Jaune looked away from Pyrrha as Jaune stood on the roof. "I mean I didn't go to combat school! I didn't pass any tests! I didn't earn my spot at this academy! I lied! I got my hands on some fake transcripts, and I lied!" Jaune cried. "My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors! They were all heroes! I wanted to be one, too, I was just never good enough..."

Jaune didn't know how he did it, but he blocked the Ursa's claw and he knew what he had to do next, he quickly pushed the Grimm's claw and with a swing that contained all of his strength, he cut off the beasts head and watched the body fall to the ground dead, and fade away. In that moment, all the doubt he had felt before, left him.

Jaune helped Cardin to his feet and once the other teen was up, Jaune glared at him and got to his face, "Don't ever mess with my team, my friends, ever again, got it?" he asked.

He remembered the day Ozpin had "expelled" him.

"Mr. Arc... I saw your potential," Ozpin told him. "Call it a gut feeling actually, but when saw your profile after looking more into your life... I had this strong feeling that you, Mr. Arc, are capable of doing great things in the future, just like how I believe Ms. Rose will do the same,"

He remembered how he was too ashamed to say goodbye to his friends.

Jaune nodded, "I..." Jaune began, he gulped, took a breath, and let out a deep exhale, "I... can't face them, not when I let them all down, which is why until next year, until I prove myself... I can't face them," Jaune said, looking down in shame.

He remembered his goodbye to Ozpin.

"Goodbye, Mr. Arc, I do hope to see you next year," Ozpin said.

"I wouldn't really call this a goodbye, Headmaster, this is more of a... see you later," Jaune said with a goofy smile.

Ozpin couldn't help but smile and nodded, "Very well then," Ozpin said "See you later, Mr. Arc," Ozpin finished.

Jaune nodded with a smile, "See you later, Headmaster Ozpin," Jaune said.

Jaune couldn't help but think how he was back then, naive old Jaune, thinking the journey he was going to be set on was going to be easy, that he was finally going to get the chance to be the hero, but he was so wrong.

He wasn't the Hero, he had become a monster...

Jaune managed to get his hands now back to his front and get up only for him to see that the Beowulf's back was right in front of him, and suddenly, that anger from before returned, and not even thinking about getting his sword, he rushed at the Beowulf and quickly put his still tied hands over the Beowulf's head and quickly began leaning backward, his tied hands choking the Grimm.

The Beowulf howled in pain and backed away from Vernal. The Grimm tried to claw at its back to wound Jaune or grab him and throw him off, but Jaune didn't let go, he not pulled his hands back, choking the Beowulf harder, he could feel the throat of the Beowulf and heard it suffocating.

All Jaune was thinking about was everything that just happened, reminding him of the anger he felt. Never had he felt such anger before. It was feral.

"I'LL FUCKING KILL THEM ALL!" Jaune cried, "I SWEAR TO GODS THAT I'LL FUCKING KILL THEM ALL!"

He remembered when he blackened his soul over and over again.

"W-Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!" Shay cried out, as he waved his arms in desperation "C-Come on man! Bl- Jaune! I-It doesn't have to go down like this! P-Please don't fucking kill me!"

Jaune looked down at him, his face still full of anger, "This is just how things work in this world, right Shay?" Jaune said.

Shay's eyes widened with terror.

"Besides..." Jaune began as he raised his shield over Shay's head, "I already made you a promise!"

"N-!"

But Jaune didn't hear his cry as he brought down the end of his shield into Shay's face, caving in his face. the bottom end of the shield was now covered in blood, and blood spattered all over it and Jaune's face. But Jaune didn't stop.

Tears began to stream down the gangbanger's face, "Please... I have a family," he sobbed out, "my... my f-father is sick..."

But at the moment, Jaune didn't care, he felt no remorse at that moment, he felt nothing for him, and he continued pounding the young man's face until he began hearing cracks.

"Why...?" Noah asked weakly, as he spat up more blood.

Jaune looked down at him and his expression slightly changed, as he appeared to look saddened by this whole ordeal.

"I'm sorry," Jaune told him as he raised his sword and brought it down on the gangster's head.

Jaune pulled his sword out from the man's head and looked at him with a sad expression. However, he recomposed himself and went over to Duncan and grabbed his gun, and cocked it. "You can do this, for Melissa, for Vernal, for Oscar..." Jaune began, "For me," he said as he walked into the bar.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Malachite asked.

Jaune looked at her for a few more seconds before he pulled his sword back and stabbed her in the chest. Malachite spat up blood from her mouth and her body sized up for a few seconds. She kept eye contact with Jaune and Jaune did the same, but then her eyes looked past him, and that's when she saw her husband smiling at her softly. Malachite smiled softly back at him, and her body relaxed and she slumped back in her seat, still smiling softly.

Jaune looked down at her still with a blank expression and he wiped the blood of his sword before sheathing it.

"Jaune..." Fiona began with a worried tone, "What are you going to do?" She asked.

Jaune looked at her and pulled his wrist away slowly, "I'm doing what Monsters do," Jaune told her and walked into the snowy night.

He watched as Ilia jolted and spat out blood, he saw her turn to look at his sword which had punctured her stomach. He saw her eyes drift away from the sword that speared her and land on him, and Jaune finally realized what he had done at that moment.

At that time, he believed himself to be a monster, too dark to even be around his family and friends, plagued by those he killed, and haunted by his inner demon in the form of humanity's greatest and longest enemy.

But now...

Jaune couldn't help but feel that he was slowly moving away from that mindset, that he was getting close to something new about himself, he felt that he was getting close to finding some sort of... peace.

That old him and that him just a while ago, was no more, that Jaune Arc was dead.

He was still Jaune Arc, but he was no longer just Jaune Arc, son of Nicholas Arc, he wasn't Jaune Arc the idiot of Beacon, he wasn't Jaune Arc the liar and cheater, He wasn't the cold-blooded killer he once thought himself to be, he wasn't the heartless monster that he convinced himself he was, however, he knew those things that he had done in the past and the blood that trailed behind him was always going to be with him, but he wasn't going to let it all define him.

He was going to be better, he was going to be stronger, and he was going to find peace at the end of the road.

That was what Jaune had now wanted in his life, and he was not going to do it alone, because he was going to be with the family he had made along the way.

From behind him, the Beowulf appeared, still the size of a mini-van, however, it began to walk away, but this time, chains dangled around it, weighing it down and keeping it at bay.

It was thanks to Tai's words that pushed him to keep moving forward, it was thanks to his realization that he cared deeply for Vernal, Oscar, and Maria like his own family, it was the reunion of his new family that pushed him to follow Tai's words to be better and to smile more.

"Hey Jaune," Oscar called out.

Jaune was taken out of his thoughts as he looked at the younger teen, "Yeah?" he asked.

"What's Beacon like?" Oscar asked, "I mean, we're going there at the end of all this, I wanna know what it's like," Oscar told him.

Deery nodded too, "Same here, I've always heard a lot about Beacon back when I lived in Vale," She said.

Jaune chuckled as he looked at Vernal, "You wanna hear about it too,"

Vernal nodded, "Yeah, why not," She said with a smile.

"Well, the auditorium is pretty huge, but I think the coolest part about the school is the Cafeteria," Jaune said with a smile, "The food the Beacon serves is amazing, they pretty much got everything there, like a whole buffet," He said with a chuckle.

Jaune continued to talk about Beacon with the rest of them, and in that moment, everyone was happy.

It appeared that a new chapter in the life of our heroes has begun, and it is still going to be filled with dark times, times where things will seem hopeless, where the pain is a constant reminder, but there will be times when they will be happy when they will move on from the pain and push forward.

You must remember, that in the end... there is light in the darkness.

XXX

The next day arrived and Tai woke up early as usual, and he quickly got dressed and went downstairs, hoping he had time to wish Jaune and the others farewell, but when he went downstairs, it was quiet, at first, Tai assumed he had woke up a bit before them, however, upon closer inspection, he saw that their bags were gone, the had already left.

Tai let out a disappointing sigh, as he had hoped to give some advice to Jaune and wish them all good luck on their trip to Vacuo, but it seemed he wasn't going to get that chance.

He went into the kitchen to prepare himself breakfast, and he looked over to the calendar, that's when he saw it was Sunday and there was a note on the day that reminded him that Ruby and Yang would be coming to visit with their friend and boyfriend. Tai was a bit surprised he had forgotten about today, but he chalked it up to being caught up with Jaune and all the things happening in his life.

he was happy that they would be coming back to visit during their summer break and was going to make sure the house was clean, so he turned around to get ready, but when he did, he saw that there was a note on the counter addressed to him.

Tai picked it up and read the letter, which he was sure was written by Jaune.

"Tai, I wanted to thank you for everything you've done for us and me, you gave me a lot to think about and helped me out with a lot of things, and I hope that in the future, it will be ok for us to visit you again, maybe before my 2nd year at Beacon officially starts, but I think it would be good to see you again, I know Oscar and Deery enjoyed their time here, and lord knows that Maria loved the peace some times."

"Seriously, thank you, Tai, for everything... you helped me more than you can ever know, and for that, I'll forever be grateful," - Jaune

Tai smiled at the note and he felt a warm feeling in his chest, it was the feeling of pride, one that a teacher had for their best student.

Tai then felt something brush up against his leg and he looked down to see Zwei, and the corgi looked up at him with a bit of a sad look, no doubt missing Deery who spoiled him.

Tai smiled, "I'm gonna miss them too bud," Tai told Zwei. "Hey... how about we go for a walk," Tai told the dog.

Zwei seemed to perk up at his favorite activity and Tai chuckled as he and Zwei left the house and walked toward the cliffside.

After a rather short walk, Tai and Zwei arrived at their destination, and at the cliffside was a gravestone, which belonged to Summer Rose.

Tai smiled at her grave, "Heya Sum, been a while," he told the Grave, "The girls are coming back to visit for the summer break, so I'll be sure to have them visit, I think you'll love to hear all the stories they have to tell you," He said with a smile.

Tai then sat down and crossed his legs while Zwei barked with glee as he lay down next to his owner. Tai smiled at the dog and petted the corgi as he turned back to his late wife's grave.

"Ya know, I met this kid, he's a friend of Ruby and Yang, his name's Jaune, he's Nick's kid, but funny enough, he's nothing like him, but..." Tai began before letting out a long sigh, "He's got a troubled heart, but I'm sure that if you met him, I think you'd try to do the same thing you did for me all those years ago... and oddly enough, if it's not too much to ask, I want you to watch over him, I've kinda got attached to the kid, it felt like I was repaying you in a sense..." Tai said.

Tai closed his eyes as a memory flashed in his mind, it was a memory of Summer simply standing at the very cliff where her grave now resided, he remembered how she said she loved the view, how beautiful it was when the sun rose and fell into the ocean, he remembered her soft and kind smile as her white cloak flailed in the wind.

A tear escaped his eye and he opened them and wiped the tear away before he sniffled. He looked at Summer's grave with a sad expression, "I miss you, Sum," Tai said.

Suddenly, he heard a loud horn blare and he was confused as to where it was coming from, when he heard it again, he found that it was coming from over the cliff, and Tai stood up and looked out to the ocean and that's when he saw it.

It was a large transporting boat that would carry goods and sometimes passengers, and he heard the horn blare again and that's when he swore he saw people on the deck waving at him, the more he looked, he realized it was them, it was Jaune and the other's waving him goodbye with smiled.

Tai smiled softly and he waved goodbye to them as the boat sailed away. Tai then finished and he turned away and looked at Summer's Grave as he walked away. "I'll come to visit you again soon, Summer, I love you," He said.

As he walked away, he failed to notice a specter floating atop Summer's grave, smiling at him with love as he left, she then turned around to look at the boat that was now on the horizon and still held that loving smile.

"Thus Kindly I Scatter," She said.

And just like that, the specter slowly began to scatter and fade away... like flower petals in the wind.

PART 1 - PATCH ACT END

XXX

With that, the Patch Act is finished and we finally move on to the Shade Act, where for the first couple of chapters we'll be focusing on a Character who's one of my favorites! They'll be somewhat the opposite of Jaune and they have achieved what Jaune hasn't.

Trust me when I say in the next Act, we get spiritual! Like trust me, I'm kind of scared that You guys will get confused about how spiritual we'll get in the Shade Act, but know that in this Act, Jaune will surpass everyone around him, he will become... Invincible under the Sun!