Watcher Curse
Chapter : 6
Artist : RachiePieUwU
Jaune's day was going terribly. From team CRDL sending him and his team death glares to having class with Professorr Port, then immediately Dr. Oobleck.
Then, the cafeteria ran out of pancakes, which led to a huge fight, and team JNPR had to restrain their Valkyrie.
The worst part though, was the voices in his head, which, by the sound of it, made him insane.
"Why's that girl so obsessed with pancakes anyway?" The voice of Cinder fall asked.
It's a comfort food for her, she's not obsessed like you with power.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
You know exactly what that mean Cinder.
"God dammit you two, can't you guys stop." He thought.
She started it.
"He started it."
"What the fuck did I do in my previous life to deserve this?" he thought.
You faked your transcript.
"oof, that's a bad one."
"Shut it you two, it almost the end of the day, let me rest a little, we're going to have a long talk." He sighed and picked up his food.
"Jaune, we need to talk." Jaune groaned upon hearing that voice. Usually, it would have made him happy, but with the situation at hand, it was everything but.
"Hey, Snow angel, how can I help you today? She giggled at that.
"Well my knight, I was thinking we could discuss some things with Rusty if you don't mind."
It was official. This Weiss is the most precious person on the planet, alongside Ruby.
"I would love to, but Rusty and I are having a little problem, plus we can't switch like you do, I usually can hear his voice when it's an emergency or my life is threatened" which left Cinder arrival a blessing in disguise.
Because apparently, Cinder existence in my mind is enough to have Rusty on high alert and always active.
"That's a problem, at least he can help you when things get tuff, I take it he took control when you fought CRDL and the Ursas?"
"He did take over when we fought team CRDL, but the Ursa was all me." He didn't mention the advice Rusty gave him.
"It's different from me, I can switch with Weiss, but it's more comfortable to have her lead while I focus on the semblance side of things, Rusty traded control for more power, when he gets control he can probably do more damge, fitting." She laughed softly.
"Ah, you haven't told me your name yet…" Jaune asked nervously, Weiss with this personality gave totally different vibe to her usual rude, beautiful self.
"Oh right, after the revelation yesterday, I forgot to tell you the name Weiss use for me." She bowed a little, her hand on her heart.
"I'm Weiss schnee of Atlas, I am the Rusted Knight of my world apparently, Ruby and Jaune did call me white Knight before they recognized me, but this Weiss calls me White, it's nice to meet you again Jaune." She saidz giving him a wink at the end.
Jaune blushed, she laughed at him.
"I don't remember you being this easily flustered, anyway I have to go, Weiss isn't so happy with me talking to you, even though I made sure no one sees us." She rolled her eyes at the last part, her smile turned to a scowl looking at him.
"Hey Weis-" she cut him off with a finger to his face.
"Never even dream about this Arc, it doesn't matter that we were lovers in the past life, doesn't mean we will become one in this, we are only teaming up so we can save the world and our friends." Weiss stressed every word, and Jaune nodded slowly.
"Good, now get out of my face before our teams think something unpleasant." He nodded again and left in a hurry.
"She seems nice"
She'll get better, she still doesn't fully trust us.
"You had a crush on her?"
"I still have a crush on her." Jaune thought.
He made his way to his dorm room, making an excuse to his friends that he wasn't feeling good.
He needed to deal with this problem fast.
/-/
Jaune opened his eyes to the familiar sky of the everafter, he got used to this place. He trained here, he even made friends with a mouse called somewhat.
Upon waking up, Jaune was greeted by the sound of combat, he groaned and looked around.
He saw Rusty fighting Cinder, he would have said it was a friendly spar, but the fact Cinder was running for her life and Rusty ruthless attack, he decided to interfere.
"Hey guys, how about a time-out?" he shouted, which made the fighters look at him.
"Jaune, thank God, help me, this psychopath trying to kill me." Cinder had a panic smile, clearly Rusty didn't hold back at all.
"Good of you to finally show up, I was about to clean your mistake." Rusty had his helmet on, which meant Cinder didn't know Rusty was related to him.
"How about we stop, Cinder is in as much trouble as us, she lost her body to someone who looked like her, but a little different." Rusty stopped at that, getting the hint.
"Do you think…?" he trailed off, and Jaune nodded.
"Probably the same situation as us." Jaune said.
"What do you mean?" Cinder finally let go of her weapon.
"Cinder, tell me how the other you looked like?" Rusty asked her. She looked uncomfortable but answered anyway.
"She looked exactly like me but with some differences, she had Short hair and an eye patch, she could control fire and fly too."
"Let me guess she wore black clothes and fire comes out of her eye?" Rusty looked troubled.
"That's correct, how did you…" Jaune trailed off, realizing.
"You know her, don't you? Is she the Cinder you warned me about?"
"Do you know someone named Salem?" Rusty ignored him, focusing on Cinder reaction.
"No?" his eyes narrowed, but his posture relaxed a little.
"And here I thought things weren't going to get worse" he sighed and extended a hand.
"I am the Rusted Knight, I'll fill you in on what's happening." Cinder shook it.
"Cinder fall, Leader of team Compass or CMSS of Haven."
"CMSS? Who's your teammates?" Rusty asked.
" I don't think you'll know them, but, Mercury black, Emerald sustrai, and my partner Sun Wukong." The last one made Rusty eye widen.
"Mercury has gray hair and fights with his legs, Emerald has green hair and have illusion semblance, and Sun… is a monkey faunus." Cinder gasped in shock.
"How did you know all of this?" she demanded.
"It's hard to explain, by the way, isn't Sun a year younger than you?" he asked.
"Yes he is, he showed talent, so the Headmaster let him join a year earlier, he's the youngest second year in Haven, although I would like him to drop his attitude and be more Disciplined."
"Great, now that we all made up, can we now discuss what the fuck is happening to me, why do I keep jumping into other people's drea-" Jaune was cut off when they all heard someone screaming.
They all held their weapons at the ready, Jaune manifesting his weapon, Cinder glass swords appearing from nowhere, and Rusty got his broken blade out, he put some aura in it replacing the rest of the missing blade. They rushed to see the source of the voice, only for them all to freeze upon seeing the new arrival.
Two people stood side by side, one a little taller than the other, Jaune immediately recognized his crush, but the other person was a different story.
The person next to Weiss wore a full armor suit, the armor was fully white, with both dark blue and Cyan on it, the helmet covered the face like Rusty, at the back, a long ponytail of pure white hung loss.
The Knight took one look at them and dashed forward, if it was Jaune at the start of Beacon, he wouldn't have reacted, but with Rusty's training, he prepared himself.
The strike went past him though, it wasn't aimed at him but at the person next to him, Cinder.
Jaune turned around just to see the knight's blade inches away from Cinder eyes.
The blade was held by Rusty's hand, smoke was coming out, and the sound like hot iron in cold water echoed in the silence that came.
"It's not her." Rusty said simply. He couldn't see his face because of the helmet, but with his voice alone, he could feel his pain.
The knight pulled away and stepped in front of Rusty, Cinder was too stunned to react.
Slowly, the knight took off her helmet, revealing a familiar scar, but it was overshadowed with the tears that came to light. Rusty did the same and took off his helmet.
Weiss, or an older version of Weiss stood in front of Rusty, she was as beautiful as ever, the only changes were the few inches in height, and the lines on her face, showing the stress she was under, even though tears fell, she smiled at Rusty.
Her hand came to cup his face, her hand traveled across his face, feeling the beard on it.
"Hey." He simply said.
"Hey." She replied.
They stared into each other for a few seconds before breaking the silence.
"I missed you, Weiss." It was Rusty who pulled older Weiss, White, for a hug, and she was as eager for it.
"What the fuck." Were the only word that Cinder could say.
"Please don't ask." Weiss came and stood next to them, watching both Rusty and White hugging.
"Wow, is that what you are going to look like in the future? I finally understand her obsession." Weiss mumbled, but Jaune didn't hear her. He was trying to figure out how all of that possible.
"You know, you're the same as my Jaune, the only difference is that you also were trapped here, you would understand me." White started saying.
"You're saying I can understand your suffering?" Rusty raised an eyebrow.
"Well yeah, you understand what happened to the Rusted knight, how long we have waited for our friends, only to get thrown away like we're nothing." Her expression darken.
"I know, but let's figure out what's happening first." He looked at Jaune.
"Any ideas?" Jaune shook his head in the negative, and as he did that, a storm of leaves swallowed them, and they found themselves in a different place.
"Fuck me." White and Rusty growled at the same time.
/-/
They stood in some kind of void, they couldn't see what they were standing on.
Looking around they found endless line of glass weapon cases, each storing a different kind of weapon.
A Yellow light reflected on them, they looked at the source, Jaune, Cinder and Weiss stiffed while White and Rusty faces harden.
A lone person stood in front of a forge, hammering away at a grail of some kind.
"Welcome again, Listener, Watchers, I see almost everyone is here today." The person said.
"Is this a sick game for you, Tree." Rusty scream.
"What? are we stuck forever here, once a knight of the everafter, always a knight of the everafter bullshit." White continued with him, Weiss flinched at the language.
Both of their voices were cut by hand motion that person did.
"You are here only to listen. This is a meeting for the watchers." The person said simply.
Rusty and White prepared themselves for a fight, but they found themselves unable to move a muscle.
"Who are you?" it was Cinder who spoke, her weapons in her hands.
"It's nice to finally meet you, Cinder Fall, your Listener never been able to come here, yet you did, this does speak highly of you." Cinder flinched, she didn't know what that meant.
"Answer the question." She insisted.
"I am the Creature beyond time of your world, I am the one who gave you the brothers, you mortals can not comprehend my true name, so you can refer to me as the Tree." The Tree finally answered.
"Why did you bring us here?" Weiss asked.
"But of course, to answer your questions, each of the watchers has 3 questions to ask because soon, you wouldn't have the luxury to have answers, especially you." The Tree looked directly at Jaune.
"Why me? How did I bring Cinder to be in my mind?" there were too many questions that he needed answers to.
"It is your special ability, I believe you call it semblance." The Tree answered.
"What, but Rusty semblance is amplification." He argued.
"The Rusted Knight semblance is indeed amplification, but you are not him, you lived different life, he trained under Pyrrha Nikos, you trained under the Knight of the everafter, different experiences, different decisions, which resulted in a different power which suits your task more."
"Rusted Knight needed to save people, which resulted in his power to be around that, you on the other hand, want knowledge, you want to know everything, which resulted in your power letting you see other people experiences, you, Jaune of Arc, are the most dangerous watcher I have ever seen, I cannot see your fate."
Jaune was stunned, and by the looks of it, everyone else was the same.
"W- what about my body?" Cinder recovered quickly and asked.
"If you want your control back, you'll need to defeat your Listener, unfortunately, she decided to break both your spirit, and morals."
"What the hell do you mean, what did she do?" Cinder was enraged.
"She simply cut off all your connections, be that friends or family, states or achievement, she's too invested in the war between the brothers mistakes to care about the trail that she left behind."
Cinder was shaken by that, she lowered her weapons and looked at the ground with disbelief.
"Why did you bring them back in time?" Weiss asked, pointing at White and Rusty.
"When a knight of the everafter finish their duty, they are either promoted to Listener, or they'll continue their life as normal, the Rusted Knight and White Knight have done an excellent job, so, their reward was a do-over, a second chance, to correct their mistakes."
"Then why are their three listeners?" Jaune asked.
"Simply put, they are the last of the knights, and I grow tired of Cinder Fall, she has never been able to come to me, and as the last two knight left, I decided to put them in a three-way, to see which of them have the stronger will to change."
Weiss bite her lips and asked her final questions.
"What happened to her Jaune?" she was pointing at White, White eyes widen on that question.
"Interesting, I see you have made an emotional connection with your Listener, very well, her Jaune of Arc lives, but she would never have the chance to meet him again, her original world, like the Rusted knight, got destroyed."
Everyone was stunned at that statement. Weiss, however, got angry. The Tress saw fit to explain.
"If the White Knight goes back to the moment her friends left the everafter, he would be alive, but from my prospective, their world already ended." The answer stunned Weiss , while White tears started to fall again, Rusty too, realized what that meant to his world.
"So what, my semblance allows me to invade others dreams?" Jaune asked, ignoring the look Everyone sent him.
"You semblance allows you to watch other people story, it is not specifically to your world either nor yourself, even I, cannot do that, among all the watcher I ever seen you have most potential with your semblance."
Suddenly, Rusty and White fell on the ground, they tried to move their bodies and it worked.
"You little shi-" Rusty was cut off by the Tree.
"I'm afraid this is all the questions you got.The everafter is still open for their knight to use as they wish, until next time Watchers be sure to entertain me."
A Flicker of her hand made the surrounding space change again, they all started to fall into darkness.
/-/
Jaune opened his eyes tiredly, he started to hate that action.
"Come on Jaune, even if it's a day off, we can't slack off" Nora started to shake him awake.
She noticed his red eyes and stopped.
"Are you ok?" she asked him, worriedly.
"I'm fine, I just feel a little sick." He waved her worries off.
"Would you be able to come with us to Vale?" Ren asked from his desk.
"Sorry, I know I promised you guys, but I don't feel well." Jaune stayed under his cover, not moving.
"You just rest, we'll get you something from down Vale when we get back." Pyrrha promise.
They quickly made their way out of the Room, wishing him to get better.
Jaune could only sigh and look at the ceiling, thinking of what happened in his dream, a knock on the door forced him to get up.
"What?" Jaune opened the door in his pajamas, irritated. It quickly vanished when he saw who it was.
"Can I come in?" Weiss asked him, she was wearing her casual clothes, she also looked spent,dark lines under her eyes.
"… sure." He moved from the way, letting her in, she sat on Pyrrha's bed next to his, he went back and laid on his bed.
"You want to talk about it?" she asked him after a long moment of silence.
"Is this Weiss or White talking, because I'm sure Weiss won't care." He said, not looking at her.
"HOW dare you, of course I care, even if I don't like it, you're one of my few friends, not to mention I can feel White, as you can Rusty, I know how devastating it feels."
"And here I thought I could help you, turns out my efforts are as useless as you." She stood up to leave, but Jaune caught her hand.
"Wait, Weiss, I'm sorry, I didn't know what came over me." He apologized.
"We both know what came over you, we both can feel our 'Listener' as the Tree put it, How do you think we'll feel if our world just got destroyed." They didn't need to answer that question because they were feeling that.
"What should we do now?" he asked her.
"I'm not sure, white told me about what's going to happen, the fall of Beacon, my father taking me back, getting disowned, the fight at Haven, Argus, then Atlas." She shivered at the last one.
"You have Cinder, let's start from there, White told me Cinder was the main driving force against us, but this Cinder is just a normal person, we need to look into it." She told him.
"Good idea, by the way, where's your team?"
"They went to Vale for shopping and to see the festival preparation." She waved her hand in the air in a dismissal manner.
"Wait, didn't you- I mean White had a fight with Blake which resulted in a fight with the whitefang?" it took Weiss a second to remember it, and another one to slap herself.
"You're right, I guess I need to push Blake so we can fight the whitefang, while I do that, talk with Cinder and try to do some research on her background, school, friends, if what the Tree told us was true, we'll need to fight her." Weiss left the room in a hurry.
"Anyone is their?" Jaune thought.
"I'm here…" a voice barely above a whisper answered, it was Cinder.
"How are you guys holding up?"
"We're managing, White is with Rusty, don't ask me how."
"What about you?"
"I- I don't know, White and Rusty filled me in, apparently I'm an evil, power hunger bitch who killed your friends and destroyed Beacon."
"And do you believe it?"
"After what I saw from that bitch?, I do, which mean I need to beat her, I'm not going to turn out like her, but…" she trailed off.
"What's up?"
"The Tree said that she burned everything I held dear, if you don't mind Jaune, can you look up my family?" Suddenly a sense of dreaded came over him.
"Are you sure? You may not like what I would find." He didn't know why he said it, but he had a strange feeling about it, maybe it was his semblance acting up.
"I need to know Jaune, I just… I just need to know if my family is ok" her voice was weak, fragile.
"I'll try my best to look it up, I promise you, and I'll make sure you'll get your body back." It was the least he could do.
"Thank you, Jaune, for everything."
/-/
"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around" Blake yelled, not caring about the looks everyone around them gave, a moment later, she realized what she said.
And surprisingly, Weiss face hasn't changed at all, like she expected it.
"…you knew?" Blake asked in a whisper, she didn't give Weiss time to reply before running away.
"Blake wait" Yang cried out after her, but she didn't listen, instead, yang rounded on Weiss.
"What the hell was that for?" she snapped at Weiss.
They were in the middle of Vale, the team was happy after Weiss caught up to them, but the mode quickly changed after the whitefang was brought up.
"I literally just told you how the whitefang killed people who worked for my family's company, and Blake just admitted being one of them. Why the hell are you screaming at me." Weiss argued, which work, as Yang Scowled and left her alone.
"I'm going to look for her." She said before leaving.
"Can't we just talk it out, I'm sure Blake has a good explanation. We know Blake, you know she isn't that type of person." Ruby tried to defend her teammate.
It was admirable of her, Weiss nodded with her in agreement, if they found her, Weiss would let her explain herself.
Weiss sighed and excused herself. She walked to Beacon through the emerald forest to work off some steam.
After Initiation, White found it important to tell her about her teammate secret, and it took her 3 days to convince Weiss not to call the police immediately.
Weiss hated the whitefang with all of her heart, but the stories that white told her made her stop and think.
She gave Blake a chance, to see if she would betray her or be a true friend, with the help of white feelings about her teammate Blake from her world, Weiss opened up to Blake quickly, and Blake did the same.
But now she had to create a fight with her friend, so the events can happen.
She cut her way though grimm, thinking about what they learned from the Tree.
The fact white whole world stopped existence, the thought of losing everyone she cared about scared her, but what was worse.
She couldn't tell anyone about it, sure the Headmaster believed her, but white told her not to fully trust him because of his actions in the future and the past.
So when she found out that Arc of all people was in the same situation as her, she was disappointed.
But not white, who was more than happy to connect with her lost love, which was, in Weiss opinion, stupidity wrong.
How can she, the heiress of the SDC, settle for the blonde idiot.
" He didn't care about my states, he only saw me for me, I only realized that at the dance, and after the fall, he was just happy to see me again, none of our friends cared about who I was, they care about me, Weiss." Those were the words white told her, and she believed her on most parts.
Cutting down the final grim, she reached Beacon.
"You didn't need to be that harsh on her, you know." White voice was weak.
"I had to do it, and you know it, now I just need to wait and see." Weiss thought and made her way to her dorm room to take a shower.
"So, thought you were with Rusty, what happened or how did that happen."
"We both kinda stuck in the everafter when you and Jaune aren't asleep, and with Jaune's semblance working like a hub for souls or something, we could talk, see and train with each other" white explained.
"Well, that's useful, how's Rusty and Cinder?"
"Rusty is doing better, we had a talk about our worlds, Cinder had her breakdown, she's talking with Jaune to see any information about her other soul."
"The evil one?"
"Oh, she is evil, when I get my hands on her, I'm going to tear her throat out and watch her suffocate to death."
"Hold your horses, aren't you a little bit dramatic about it?" Weiss asked
"Not at all, this bitch needs to die, me, Rusty and Cinder all agreed to that."
"I'm stuck here with a group of psychopaths." Weiss thought reaching her room, she thought to check on Jaune progress, but decided to give him some space for now.
The words of the Tree still rang in her head, Jaune is the unknown of their world.
Note: yeah a lot of things happened here, it may be more crazier than last chapter, but hey, it is what it is.
On a serious note, this chapter was heavy with lore, I changed Jaune semblance to fit the story more, and if it wasn't clear , the tree is somewhat of antagonist in the story.
The the focus will be on Jaune Weiss and poor Cinder, not bitch Cinder, which hate Jaune for future reason.
I have a lot of ideas after this chapter, but for now, next Chapter will be the docks.
Please leave a review and tell me if I can improve something.
Goodbye.