Watcher Curse
Chapter : 7
Artist : RachiePieUwU
Sun wasn't the brains of his team, so when they all agreed to look for their leader, he made the sensible decision to go to Vale.
His Team Leader was excited for the festival, training them hard to win it, yet suddenly, that happened.
Sun knew, Mercury knew, and Emerald knew, but apparently that wasn't enough for the world at large, they all knew something was up and decided to investigate it, each of them going to a kingdom to search for her.
Sun picked Vale, he would have been better in Vacuo, but Cinder said she hated hot weather a lot. Mercury went to Atlas, saying his adopted father could help him.
While Emerald stayed in Mistral, she started to act strangely after Cinder disappeared, she didn't look worried about their team leader or what was happening to her.
Sun was pretty close with his partner, she took him to visit her family and they got on well, he never had a family, so what Cinder did touched his heart, specially after they offered to adopt him.
Sun's mind wondered all of that while the girl in front of him talked about the origin of the whitefang.
Of course he knew about them, being a faunus and all, but that was the first time since they met that she talked so much, he didn't want to Interrupt her.
"So here I am, a criminal hiding in plain sight, all with the help of my little bow." She moved her ears, which made her bow twitch.
Sun winced at the last part, fitting that the girl he met in Vale was so like his Leader yet not, dark long hair, amber eyes, Criminal in plain sight.
"So did you tell your team that?" he wondered at loud.
"No, Ruby and Yang didn't know, but Weiss looked like she knew about it all." She sighed.
"The one who you had a fight with?" she nodded.
"You know this is stupid, right? You said they are good people, yet you ran off without a word. If I were them…" Sun trailed off, his face darkening, Blake noticed.
"Are you ok?" she asked.
"No, you need to talk with your team and explain yourself." He said sharply.
"They'll just hate me for lying to them, and Weiss won't accept me." She argued.
"They'll hate you anyway if you don't tell them why you left, and what about Weiss girl, you said she knew, yet she never seem to have a problem until you said the whitefang are innocent."
"Because they are." She argued, her voice getting louder.
"You don't know that, and you don't know how they would feel about..."
"And you do?" she cut him off, her tone sharp and sarcastic.
"YES." He yelled at her, and she froze. They have been hanging out together for a few days now. Sun never complained and was a perfect gentleman, but this was the first time he ever showed hostility.
He realized what he had done, apologized and sat back down on his chair. Everyone was looking at them now.
"What do you mean?" she asked him slowly.
"I- I lost my team Leader, Remember when we met I told you, you look like someone I know-" she nodded , "- well that someone is my Team Leader, my partner. At the start of the second year everything was fine, until she disappeared suddenly." Blake listened intently.
"We looked everywhere for her, and a few days later we saw this on the news." He passed a piece of news paper that was cramped in his pocket.
The newspaper had a headline about a huntress in training killing her family. Blake's eyes widen at her realization.
"She didn't do it." He hissed, knowing what she was thinking.
"She loved her family, she even introduced me to them when we were on summer vacation, she wouldn't do that." He stressed his point.
"Me and the rest of the team went to each kingdom to look for her, to find out what happened, and to help her. We are worried, at this point, we don't care if she did it or not, we just want to hear her out, we just want answers." He sighed and looked at her, she shrank in her chair.
"I didn't know, I'm sorry."
"You don't need to apologize, all what I'm saying is just talk to them, I'm sure they're worried sick about you." He sighed in relief when she looked convinced.
"You're right, I should talk to them… but first I'll need to prove that I'm right." The sound of a head hitting the table was loud, but Blake ignored it.
"After that, I can show my face." She smiled his way.
"Thanks Sun, you really helped me."
"Well, at least this helps me look for my partner too." He mumbled, drinking his hot chocolate.
"Excuse me, sir, you need to come with us." Two police officers were at their table.
"Ah, why is that? I'm only having a chat with my friend here," Sun asked, confused, he gestured to Blake. The officers hands went to their weapons.
"Ma'am, is this faunus threatening you?" the female officer asked her in a whisper, Sun heard that and Scowled.
"No, he's fine, thank you." It took a lot of effort for her not to be hostile towards the cops.
And after few minutes, they decided it was her doom and left them alone.
/-/
Jaune was sat at the computer in the library, looking up information.
He started by looking up Cinder Fall, which resulted in nothing, which was weird, especially that he looked up her team and school.
"I'm pretty sure my team is the strongest second year, why isn't anything showing up."
"I'm not sure, let's look up something else." He thought, looking up her family members names, which also resulted in nothing.
"OK something is definitely up now." He thought.
"Try my family hotel, it should show up."
"Good idea." Jaune immediately typed the name Cinder gave him, Glass Unicorn Hotel, a weird name, but who was he to judge.
The only result showed the closing of said hotel a few years ago, saying that the owner and her 3 daughters moved to Mistral.
That is true, try and look up the owner, she's my adopted mom, if you can follow it, you can find something about me, at least no news is good news."
Jaune looked up Cinder's mom, yet he came empty handed.
"Fuck, why can't I find anything." He said out loud in frustration.
"Well Mr Arc, if you're so interested , I can help you with that." The voice from behind caught him off guard.
He turned and found the Headmaster standing behind him with the librarian.
"That's the one sir." She said.
"Thank you mis afton, I'll take it from here." The librarian walked away, handing the situation to the Headmaster.
"Did I do something wrong?" Jaune asked when they finally were alone.
"No, Mr Arc, after our talk, I saw it fitting to have certain words flagged, so when you searched for example, Cinder Fall, the librarian and I immediately got a message about the search, not only did you trigger one but 3 in less than an hour." The Headmaster looked amused, but something bugged Jaune.
"How did you know about Cinder?" Jaune asked, he felt Cinder's confusion.
"You have a keen eye Mr Arc, I did mention another person having two souls like you and Rusty, they gave me a pretty similar story to you, she mentioned the name Cinder Fall, so I had to look it up, along other things…" he trailed off.
"This conversation is better in my office, come along." The Headmaster started to walk, and he followed.
"You're going to tell him about me?" Cinder asked.
"No, Rusty said to not trust him fully. Besides, why does he need to know about you? I mean, you haven't done anything bad in this world."
"… you're right."
"Yeah, what's the worst that could happen?"
A growl sound came from inside him, probably Rusty, but Jaune ignored it.
/-/
Reaching the Headmaster office, they close the elevator and the windows to give them privacy.
"So, what do you know about Cinder Fall?" Jaune tried to act casual.
"Quite a lot, Mr Arc." The Headmaster opened a folder named 'fake fall' and showed a picture of Cinder's team, Compass.
"This here is Team CMSS, led by Cinder Fall in Haven, she's a second year, and is supposed to fighting in this year Vytal Fastival." A recording of the team fight started to play.
Cinder was tearing her enemy with the help of her partner, a faunus monkey.
"Cinder fall went missing at the start of this school year, and shortly after that, her family was found dead." A couple of pictures came to view, none of them had a full human body, each of them had burns and cuts all over them.
Jaune barely held his stomach, but the Deafening scream in his head, made him fall to his knees.
He felt anger rise in himself, was it his? Or was it Rusty?, he couldn't think with the scream so strong.
And suddenly, it was quiet.
"Jaune, are you ok?" the Headmaster was kneeling next to him, concern in his eyes.
"w- what happened?" Jaune asked in a whisper, his head felt light.
"You suddenly Collapsed, I apologize, I should have warned you the pictures were graphic." He helped him stand up and take a seat.
Switch with me?
"Sure, I need a minute." Jaune agreed without thinking and closed his eyes.
He opened them again to find himself in the everafter, he looked around but couldn't find Cinder.
"Where's Cinder?" he asked.
Not sure, after her breakdown she quite literally disappeared.
"What's now." Jaune Whined.
Jaune walked around, he needed to take a breather.
If he was shocked at the news, Cinder must feel worse, her family got killed by her hands.
"I just hope she's oke-" Jaune couldn't finish his word, he felt something activated in his core.
He felt the same when he saved Cinder from her lookalike, and the same when Weiss and White came here too.
He didn't have enough time to think, his body was lifted from the ground and started to float, shining white.
The first thing he heard was the sound of combat. He barely had time to open his eyes to see the flashing of fire.
He was at a new location. Not only that, but he stood in a void, he looked down and saw a bridge made out of light, he took a look around and saw the bridge leading to portals.
He took his eyes off the surreal sight to look at the source of the combat.
He saw Cinder fighting herself, her evil self.
He saw the fury in her eyes, the tears and the anger, the evil one looked confused at her opponent, but quickly gathered herself and started using fire.
Fire, Jaune thought, his memory of those pictures still fresh in his head.
"HOW did you get here?" the evil one demand.
"You monster, how dare you? They were good people, they were my FAMILY." Cinder didn't answer, using her duel blade to reflect the fireball thrown at her, she got up close to her evil self, swinging her sword, but it got parried and Cinder was pushed away.
"I got rid of those Bastard for what they did to me, I just did you a favor." She smirked and extended her hand.
Under Cinder, a circle appeared, she didn't have enough time to react, but Jaune was quick enough to tackle her away.
"What the, Jaune, how-? Your semblance." Cinder said it with shock, but quickly got on her feet.
"ARC, good of you to show up, you will pay for what you've done too." Evil Cinder fall yelled at him and attacked him with her flame sword.
He barely got his shield up to protect himself, but the force was too great for him, he was sent off the edge.
He screamed while falling, luckily, a hand caught his.
"Hold still." Cinder told him, trying to pull him up.
"Look at you, pathetic, he'll be your Demise, yet you help him." She stood right behind Cinder, taunting Her.
"I'm not you bitch, I'm not a fucking psychopath who kills other for my enjoyment." She didn't face herself, she was struggling to lift Jaune up.
"You're nothing without power, look at you, you lost everything because you weren't strong enough, and look at me, I already have the fall maiden power, and I have the backing of Salem, no one can stop me." She started to laugh, her sword ready to cut Cinder's head off.
Jaune closed his eyes, he didn't know if he died here, he'll die in real life, but he didn't want to risk it.
"Dammit Rusty, I need you here." He thought, Cinder almost pulling him up.
"You haven't changed a bit Cinder." She didn't have time to look when a shield slammed her to the ground.
She tried to land on her feet, but the new arrival came in hot, swinging his sword across her chest, aura flickered but held.
"YOU!" She screamed, fire coming from her eye.
"Wow Cinder, the me from your world must've left a mark to be that pissed." The Rusted Knight replied.
He had his helmet off, his long hair tight with a familiar red piece of cloth, he wasn't smiling, his sword and shield were up, protecting them.
"I haven't seen this place in years."
He said, glancing around.
"Memorize it, it would be the place where you die, Arc."
"I will avenge Pyrrha and Penny Cinder, mark my words, you will die." He charged at her, and she did the same.
But before the hits could connect, a bright light engulfed everyone.
"FUCK." The sound came from besides his on the ground, he looked over and saw Cinder on the ground, her hand clutched tight.
"Cinder." He said softly, his hand reaching for her.
"How?" She whispered.
"How did I become like this? How did I get so screwed in the head to the point I burned my own family." Jaune could see the tears falling to the ground.
"She isn't you." Rusty's voice was firm.
"You're a good person Cinder, your family loved you, they knew that bitch wasn't you until the last moment." Rusty made his way to her.
He placed his hand on her shoulder for support.
"I- I have nothing left. What should I do now?" she asked her voice fragile and weak.
"You still have your team. They're looking for you. They know something is up, I bet even Sun in Vale right now." Rusty smiled down at her.
She finally stood up, giving Rusty a weak smile.
"Jaune, I'm sorr-" she didn't finish, Jaune immediately went to hug here.
"It's OK Jaune…, I won't do anything stupid again." She patted his back awkwardly.
"We'll avenge them Cinder. She won't get away with it." Jaune assured her.
"How are you so sure about this?" she asked Jaune and Rusty.
"We have the advantage, we have Rusty and white, we know what's going to happen in the future, we can take her down." Jaune smiled at her.
"I'll fill you in, but now-" he said, looking at Jaune, "- you need to go back to your body, it's with the Headmaster, you summoned me, and your body is asleep in the middle of the office. " Jaune nodded and broke off the hug.
He waved to them, Cinder tried to smile but couldn't, and Rusty just nodded.
/-/
Jaune opened his eyes, which were met with giant gears on the ceiling.
"You're finally awake, Mr Arc." He heard the voice of the Headmaster. He was sitting in his chair, doing paperwork.
"How long have I been out?" he asked.
"About few hours, it's already 7pm, I would advise you to inform your team." He pulled out his scroll and winced at all the notifications.
He read through them, most of them were from Ruby telling him about Blake running away, and the rest were from his team telling him they're going to help Team RWBY.
"Something important?" the Headmaster asked.
"Yes, but I can take care of it, about Cinder Fall," Jaune began.
"I told Rusty all the information, he'll inform you. Right now, we need to focus on the important things. Headmaster Lionheart is a traitor, as Rusty predicted." The Headmaster looked like he had aged a few years by saying that line alone.
"So what are we going to do?"
"For now, we can't do anything. I asked James to help gather Evidences. Hopefully, we can stop him from coming for the festival, and by the end of it, he'll be removed entirely." Jaune didn't know what to think of that. He'll need to talk to Rusty about it.
Jaune was about to ask something, but his scroll rang.
He looked at it and was surprised by the caller. He looked to the headmaster, who nodded to him, and he answered.
"Hey Weiss." He answered.
"What the hell are you doing, Arc? we need to get Blake now." She screamed at him.
"Well, I see you and Mis Schnee have revealed your true self." He chuckled.
"… was that the Headmaster?" she asked, and he could only sigh
" Yes, Weiss, I'll be on my way." Before she could say another word, he ended the call.
"Be careful, Mr Arc, I still need you both. If you require assistance, don't hesitate to call me." With a nod, Jaune left the office.
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"So you want to talk about it?" Rusty asked Cinder.
"What is there to talk about? That bitch killed my entire family and laughed it off, how did I become like this?" They were sat at the edge of a cliff, looking at the everafter and it's strange inhabitants.
Cinder found this spot by herself and kept coming when she started to question herself.
Why her? Why was she trapped in a teenager's body, while another version of herself took hers and started to kill people?
"Don't think about it like that, I know that Cinder, she may not be my Cinder, but she's close enough. "He didn't look at her. Instead, he looked at the tree while sitting next to her.
"How is she like?" she dreaded the answer, but she needed to know.
"I first met her in Beacon, team RWBY Introduced her to us. She was nice, strict, and admittedly beautiful." She scoffed at that.
"But behind all of that, she was a murderer." Cinder's laughed died down.
"She killed a girl named Amber for her power, the maiden power. She didn't want anyone to be stronger than her, so she did everything to get it."
"At the fall of Beacon, in that festival, my partner, Pyrrha, went to stop her. She wasn't strong enough and died there." Cinder looked worried and started to move away from him.
"She's not you though." She was suspicious, but she relaxed a little.
"Ozpin been researching you, and what I saw was enough for me to know you're nothing like her."
"What did you see?" she asked.
"Your first mission." She made a sound of understanding.
Her first mission in Haven simply put, Hell.
It was supposed to be a recon mission around a small village, but the information they got was inaccurate, which left them with no choice but to retrieve, leaving the villagers to die by the Grimm invasion.
She made a call to stay, with no hope of backup to save them.
They couldn't save everyone, but they did save people. Mistral made them heroes, Haven gave them full marks, and everyone looked at them with stars in their eyes.
But they got first-hand experience of what it meant to leave people to their deaths. They got to see what a Huntsmen truly was about.
"I could have saved them all." She said after a long silence.
"No, you were all supposed to die there." His words froze her, and she looked at him for an explanation.
"We told you that Lionheart is a traitor -" she nodded. "- this mission was supposed to kill you all and destroy the village. Your information wasn't inaccurate. It was straight-up lies because of Lionheart." His hand clutched to fists.
"That Bastard threw innocent people lives to save his own."
"For fuck sake." Cinder head was hung low between her hand.
"How are we suppose to do anything?"
"We are doing something. I know it's hard to see people you trust betray you or keep important information away from you, but trust me on this." He looked into her eyes, Amber drowning in blue.
"You will get your body back, and that Cinder will pay the price for her crimes against your family." Cinder couldn't keep the tears in. She hugged him and cried her heart out.
He stiffened at first but quickly held her and comforted her.
Nothing will be the same, she need to take her revenge, and to do that, she needs her body back.
/-/
Jaune was making his way to Vale as fast as he could.
However, his mind kept wondering what Rusty said to Cinder, Evil Cinder, Fake Cinder? He'll need to work a name for her so he won't confuse her with good Cinder.
"Rusty said Pyrrha and Penny, who's this Penny? What will happen to Pyrrha in the future? And why did Fake Cinder hate him so much?".
Those questions kept Jaune's mind busy while running, he couldn't hear Rusty, looks like he stopped seeing Cinder as a threat, and Cinder has been quiet ever since her family revelation.
Jaune gritted his teeth in anger. How can a monster like her exist? Cinder is a wonderful person, yet her Listener is worse than grimm.
Jaune saw a White figure running towards the docks area of Vale. He recognized her and tried to catch up to her.
"Dammit Blake." Weiss yelled as she ran.
It was already nighttime. By the time White told her the fight would start around that time, she was too reckless, she wasted time, and now she's late.
"Are we late?" A voice came from behind her, and she recognized it immediately.
"You're late Arc, what the hell were you doing?" she didn't turn to him, keeping her focus on running.
"I fought Cinder fall." He answered. She turned and looked at him strangely.
"I mean the Cinder fall, you know, the Fake on, Fake Fall." That stopped Weiss in her track.
"What? When? Where?" she demanded.
"Dream, my semblance, but we ran out of time before Rusty could do any real damage." She sighed in relief.
"Give me the details later. We're almost there."
"I told my team about our location, they should back us soon."
"Good, we don't know how much our world is different than theirs, so we need to be extra careful." He nodded.
They reached a warehouse besides the Docks. Their first warning was the knocked-out guard at the door. The second was the gunshots from inside.
"Ready?" she asked him, and he nodded, pulling out his shield and sword.
"Good, let's go." The first thing they saw was the shipping container with SDC written on it.
After that, there were about 20 people with masks firing at two others. They dodged well and took down some of them, but the real problem was the orange-haired guy with a cane.
He was beating up Blake badly. Weiss immediately summoned a glyph, making her faster, and attacked him, He didn't react in time, Weiss knocked him away.
"You messed with the wrong team, torchwick." She held her weapon in a fighting stance, ready for anyone to approach.
She held her position until Blake and her partner in crime got up. Meanwhile, Jaune was taking out the whitefang.
he held his shield to stop the bullets, when he got close, he used his shield to dash into one of them, the force knocked his enemy out, he quickly used his sword to cut his way through the other, pushing his aura to the front to protect him from any stray bullets, and thanks to Rusty's training, his defense with the shield allowed him to save up his aura, not taking any hit and blocking them all with his shield
"W- Weiss? Why are you here?" Blake asked her, disbelief in her eyes.
"For you, of course, you dolt, you're my teammate, my friend, and I'll be damned if I let you die here." Blake was stunned but quickly stood by her teammate side.
"Hey, I'm happy for you and all, but it's time for you kids to leave." Roman torchwick dusted himself off and stood up.
"We won't leave until we arrest you, torchwick." Blake yelled back.
"Well, I guess my new employer will have a few words with you." He said.
"It doesn't matter who you bring. They won't save you, you're the only one left." Blake said this after Jaune took down the rest of the white fang.
"Well, well, well, looks like dear Roman is in trouble again. I guess I have no choice but to help." Color quickly drained from Jaune, Weiss, and Sun, Blake stood their confused.
A fireball was sent their way, Jaune quickly parried it, but it was only a distraction, for a circle under them sent them flying in all directions.
In front of them stood Cinder Fall, not the one from this world, but the one from the everafter. She was a Listener, she was way stronger than any of them.
"Hello Jaune, I guess I'll have my fun with you earlier than I thought." She smiled cruelly when she saw Jaune's face go pale.
"This bitch!"
Fuck this world.
"I'm fucked."
"Now, let's the fun begins." She made two blades out of fire and pointed one of them at him.
Note: a lot of things happening, Jaune semblance still goes unexplained (he'll need to test it himself), Cinder has a breakdown, Sun gonna have a breakdown, Blake gonna have breakdown, Jaune is having a breakdown, EVERYONE HAS A BREAKDOWN.
Nothing to say really, I'm sure you guys have some questions, ask them in review, if it something that will be explained in the future, then I'll say so, if you don't quite understand what's happening now? I'll be happy to explain and rewrite the chapter to make it easier, after this chapter however, Jaune going to have a trip across the universe jk.
I read chapter 6, usually I read the chapter immediately after posting, but that was the first time I haven't read it, and to my surprise, the biggest plot point got deleted for some reason, thankfuly, i had the og saved and i fixed it, it was the question part, I recommend to read it again.
Anyway hope you enjoyed the the chapter, leave a review and if you like the story follow it.
Free palestine.
And goodbye.
