Once again
"What?"
A shiver ran down Ruby's whole body, her hands still held Penny close, while Ironwood was kneeling beside Fria's dead body.
But Ozpin didn't care.
"Miss Rose, I understand we just lost a maiden and you got your friend back, but the fate of all Remnant depends on Me now. So tell me. Where. Is. Jaune Arc." Ozpin spoke gently, like he was speaking to a child.
"Dammit Ozpin, do you really think this is the right time for this? We just lost half of the maiden, and the killer is out there, we need to stop it now." Ironwood groaned at the man in a child's body.
"I understand your frustration James, but this is much bigger than us, much bigger than Salem herself." He gave them a glance, his eyes glowing green.
"Where's Oscar Ozpin?" Ruby asked without thinking.
"Oscar… decided to not be useful and tell me where Jaune is, and bury himself inside our minds." He stated it flatly.
Ruby immediately knew something was wrong, as Jaune told her in the previous timeline. After the truth came out, Ozpin buried himself in Oscar mind to escape them. So why did Oscar decide to do the same here?
Ruby's thoughts were interrupted as the soldiers came in, the medics immediately rushed to Fria, while the soldiers saluted and gave Ironwood a report.
"Sir, team delta made contact with the intruders and went to pursue, team alpha went to support them, they still on Atlas, we're not sure where they are headed." The soldier said, his salute not wavering.
"Good work, inform specialist Schnee about this just in case, and lock the academy down." The soldier nodded and left to do just that.
"James." Ozpin said calmly. Coldly.
"This whole thing was Jaune's idea, correct?" he said, looking at Penny, who now stood on her own, looking at her human body.
"That's classified."
"So it is true."
"I already had the idea, Mr Arc only gave me a few pointers." Ironwood surrendered.
"Hmm, I expect those pointers were from his future I take it?" Ruby and the General froze in their places at the mention of the future, but Ozpin only noticed Ironwood.
"How did you know?" Ironwood asked.
"And here I thought Salem was bad enough to try to use the gods, and when she loses, she uses another person to do her work." Ozpin said, anger bubbling in.
"What are you talking about?"
"The brothers themselves used the Relic of Creation to tell me that, Jaune fucking Arc made a deal with another godly entity to go back in time and do things again. Dooming all of Remnant because now, a new force will try to fight them." Ozpin took a little satisfaction from the shock expression on everyone faces at that.
"What? But he told me.." The General started.
"That he came back to save us all, yeah, a noble goal, and while I appreciate the help, the brothers made a deal with me." Ruby tensed at that, from what they all knew, making deals with the brothers was a bad idea.
"What kind of deal?" Ironwood asked cautiously, his right hand drifting to his weapon.
"That if I kill Mr Arc, they'll end my curse." He stated, creating a long pause in his silence.
"And Salem?" Ruby finally asked. Ozpin stayed silent, which was an answer in itself.
"So what? You're gonna leave us and give up?" Ruby said, her own anger showing.
"You don't understand miss Rose, I've fought for a long time, too long for any human. It's time to take my rest." He said it solemnly.
"Then I would rather take my chances with him than you old friend." Ironwood leveled his gun at Oscar's body, and Ozpin only sighed.
"This won't end in your favor James, this will doom you all. Do you think you will be safe in death? The gods will just bring you back to do it all over again. To struggle while watching your loved one die again and again and again." His eyes traveled to Penny, who barely reacted in time to shield herself with her arms, but Ozpin only grabbed one of them.
Penny's Green aura flared up, as the energy traveled from Penny to Oscar's body. Ruby swung her scythe to separate them and succeeded, yet, Ozpin looked pleased.
"I haven't felt this power in a long time." Ozpin opened and closed his hand, strange powers came from it. He glanced at Ruby, who couldn't even dodge, but thanks General Ironwood pushing her out of the way.
Ironwood didn't hesitate to shoot Ozpin, who only waved a hand, and an ice wall appeared.
"Even though it's only an eighth of my original power, I can still beat you two and take yours, Miss Rose." He stated.
"But I think you'll need it to fight Salem, so I'll make a deal with you, tell me where Jaune is, and I'll let you keep the powers." It was tempting. If he left them alone to fight Salem, who can't be killed, they'd need every power they could get, and if Ozpin took it, then they wouldn't stand a chance.
Thankfully, they didn't need to take it. As a shotgun bullet just missed Oscar's head, Ozpin looked back to the door and saw two, very angry huntresses.
"What is the meaning of this, Ozpin ?" Yang growled, her eyes shining Red.
"Miss Xiao-Long, I assure you, I have the best of intentions." Yang didn't buy it, she glanced at her sister.
The tears in her eyes told her enough, and she prepared herself for the fight, Blake doing the same.
"I really didn't want it to end like this." With a sigh and a wave of his hand, a giant wall, made out of ice and stone stood separated Ruby, Ironwood and Penny from the rest.
"Dammit." Yang cursed, launching herself at the much smaller enemy, who only stepped to the right to dodge without any real effort.
Blake tried to flank him, Ozpin only extended his hand her way, and a fireball came to life, and Blake had to fall back to dodge.
"You wouldn't know where's Jaune, would you?" He asked with a bored look, he used his palm to deliver a devastating punch that sent Yang back with a grunt.
"Jaune? What the hell did vomit boy do. Fuck." Yang brought a hand to her mouth and saw blood, this was Ozpin, not Oscar, which mean they can't take him on like that.
Yang was about to move, until with an impossible speed, a cane was under her chin.
"I would advise not to move, tell me, where is Jaune." His cold, green glowing eyes met her red ones, and he knew the answer before she spoke it.
"Fuck you." It wasn't the answer he wanted, and was about to knock her out of the fight, until a red portal opened behind her.
A red blur moved from behind Yang, throwing Ozpin slamming into the wall.
"Yang? What happened?" a familiar voice called her. Her eyes teared up a little, but a question came to her mind first.
"Dad?" She looked behind her, she saw her dad walk out of a red portal, she looked in front of her to see her deadbeat mother, sword drawn, ready for a fight.
"What's happening, why are you fighting that kid?" he asked while helping her up, he had a confused look.
"That's the new Ozpin Tai, and would you mind telling me why are you attacking my daughter?" Raven asked the kid, who now looked like a cat out of options.
"Raven, you really abandoned your child for all those years and now you decided to show up?"
"Its none of your business old man, now, for old time sake, I would let you leave without killing you." She said, eyeing him warily while he made his way to the exit.
"Well, isn't that generous of you? You have suddenly grown a heart." She scowled at him.
"You disappointed me Miss Xiao-Long, you and your sister. Still, I hope you survived your next fight." With that. Ozpin made his way out, just as Ruby managed to break the wall
"Dad?" Ruby's eyes met her father and flew to him.
"Ruby? You can fly?" Taiyang gave his youngest a hug, while Raven eyes grew wide and slapped her four head.
"Yang, I really hope you have an explanation." Raven looked at her daughter who only shrugged.
/-/
"What is this alert?" Jaune asked, as he, Winter and Weiss made their way to where they heard the explosion.
"It's a Grimm alert for the mansion, it means a grimm is inside." Winter explained that the alert lights were showing red and black colors.
"Since when did Grimm use explosions?" Weiss asked, her weapon already drawn, same as Winter.
As they sprinted through the hallway, they heard the scream coming from the hallway they were in when they came in, they rushed there, only to be met with a horrific sight.
The faunus maid that Weiss talked to, Mary, was screaming on the ground with a puddle of blood underneath her, her left leg was being snaked on by the grimm.
Jaune froze when he saw it. It wasn't anything he had ever seen before, not in this world, but he did see it in his.
The Grimm, if you can even call it that, was as large as he remembered it, his red eyes scanning the area while his sharp teeth dug deeper into the faunus leg.
"Dammit." Winter grunted, and she lunged herself immediately to stop the grimm.
"Winter wait!" Jaune screamed behind her, but it was a little too late, as the grimm saw her coming and dodged her attack.
"What the?" Winter was shocked at the sudden dodge, that she didn't react in time to dodge the grimm claw, sending her to the wall.
"It's an intelligent grimm, it can adapt to anything we do, be careful." Weiss looked at him with confusion.
"How do you know that?"
"I just do, trust me, I'll explain everything later." He hoped for that, at least.
Last time, Ruby killed it with her silver eyes, now? They need to kill it by themselves, or discover what it's after.
"Winter, Summon nevermores to distract it, Weiss, Summon your knight, I'll boost you, so use your time glyph to make it faster." Winter nodded and started to use her summons to distract the grimm.
"Jaune, I stopped using my time glyphs for a reason, it takes too much aura." He gave her a confident smile.
"Don't worry Weiss, I'm sure I can handle it." With that, Weiss started to summon with the help of Jaune's amplification, which resulted in the Arma Gigas being several times bigger than usual. Weiss then used a glyph that she hadn't used since her time at Beacon, a clock glyph appeared under the knight, giving him much more speed needed for this fight.
Weiss fell to one knee, gasping for air. Jaune was already amplifying her, but looks like it wasn't enough.
"Good job Weiss, I'll heal you till about 70 percent and I'll join the fight." She nodded, and her focus went to the fight that was about to start.
Winter noticed the giant knight approaching, she stopped her summoning and fell back, to watch the fight unfold.
The knight didn't give the grimm time to recover from all the nevermore, immediately cutting his arms off. The grimm screamed in agony as it moved around.
"Y..Yu…You." The Grimm eyes were set on Jaune, as the chill ran down everyone body when the grimm talked.
"D- did it just talk?" Weiss asked, disbelief in her voice, and to make matters worse, the grimm started to grow more hands and wings.
The Knight didn't wait, it used the new speed to cut off the new arms before they grew, but the grimm tail wrapped around the knight's neck, snapping it with a loud crack.
"Shit." Jaune cursed, and he ran down the stairs with the unfamiliar blade to fight the grimm head-on.
"And here I wanted to save this for something big, I guess that's it."
The Grimm saw him coming, it raised the newly formed claw and swung it down at Jaune. He used Wilt horizontally in a defensive position, ready for the blow.
The blade, which stood numerous attacks and blows, yet again stood strong, absorbing the attack, Jaune grunted and scream.
"KNIGHT." Jaune screamed, as the room was consumed by a white light that blinded everyone.
When the light finally faded, it was to see a man in full Rustled armor suit, holding a blood-red blade, facing down the grimm with the help of a white creature.
"Juniper, attack." The knight screamed, while the horse-like creature slammed his horns into the grimm's back.
The scream was deafening, but the knight didn't stop. The red blade came down on the grimm's stomach, black liquid leaking like blood.
"What the hell?" Winter whispered, and Weiss agreed with her. As if it wasn't enough, a random knight showed up, the place where he cut the grimm, another person was inside it all along.
"Capture. The. Everafter. Knight." The faunus man, noticing the ears at the top of his head as soon as his face was visible, started to speaking.
And soon enough, the knight stabbed the sword into that man. It took a few seconds, but the man smiled, closing his eye, leaving them with a mess at their hand.
Winter and Weiss were exhausted, summoning took a lot of aura, but they still stood up to face the knight and the weird creature with him. Who was currently petted by the knight.
"Good girl, thanks for the help." The knight glanced their way and gave a weak smile.
"I think I owe you an explanation." He said weakly.
"Who are you?" Winter demanded.
"Jaune?" Weiss looked at him with disbelief, one of her hands was extended to make sure he was there.
"It is me, or what I've become, this gonna take a while, let me turn back first." The knight, Jaune, turned to the creature, he placed his head on her and whispered something. After that, the creature disappeared in a flicker of light, also turning Jaune back to normal, who fell to his knees.
"Jaune!" Weiss rushed in to help him stand up, and he gave her a grateful smile.
"What was that? What was all of that? The grimm, that weird creature, why did you turn into an actual knight?" Weiss went on, and Jaune couldn't blame her at all.
"The white creature is Juniper, she's my trusted companion, she helped me through a lot."
"That doesn't explain anything." Weiss protested, and Jaune laughed weakly.
"Well, do you know the fairy tale-" Jaune stopped mid-sentence as the sound of laughter echoed around them.
They looked around to see they were all alone. Jaune glanced to where Winter was, only to see a stinger behind her.
"Winter." He screamed, but he was too far away to do anything. She barely turned to see the enemy behind her when someone pushed her out of the way.
"Fucking Bastard, not again." Qrow looked down at his injury, the same place as last time too.
"Qrow?" Jaune questioned the man, then focused back at the enemy at hand.
"Kid, you are a magnet for bad luck more than me, which says a lot, are you sure we're not related." Qrow said jokingly, but his eye never left the enemy.
"Oh yes, more prey, more prey, I was sad when my queen told me to get the knight alive, but now I can enjoy seeing his expression when I kill his friends." Tyrian laughed maniacally.
"Shit." Jaune stood up, ready for a fight, only to slump back down as his legs couldn't carry him.
"It looks like the Knight can't stand, I'm gonna make you knee just like that in front of the queen." Tyrian dodged the swing that was coming at him.
Qrow still stood, he held his scythe with both hands, ready to defend them.
"Hey, mini Ice Queen, take the blonde and make a run for it." Qrow whispered to them.
"What? But you can handle him, right?"
"Normally yeah, but this poison is m- much stronger than the last one, I'm barely standing." Qrow parried multiple swings while defending Jaune and Weiss, Winter was already pushed out of the room thanks to Qrow's entrance.
"He won't last." Jaune said through gritted teeth.
"We can't stay. I tried to call Ruby and the other, but no one is answering." The desperation in her voice cut him deep.
He came back to save his friends, to save everyone, not to watch as they gave their lives away, not again.
"Let me do this one thing."
Jaune pushed away from Weiss, who was supporting him to walk, and he turned back to the battle.
"Jaune, what are you doing?" she hissed at him.
"What I came here to do in the first place, I won't let anyone die here, I made an oath, I promised everyone. Even though it will kill me, I'm fine with that, as long as I can protect them." Jaune saw Qrow winced at the pain from the poison, which gave Tyrian the opportunity to deal a fatal blow.
"KNIGHT." Jaune screamed at the top of his lungs, jumping in to protect Qrow.
Tyrian was blinded by the sudden light, which was enough for Juniper to slam him away with her horns.
When Tyrian opened his eyes, it was to see the Rusted Knight standing in front of him to fight.
"She told me you're strong, let's see how strong." Tyrian laughed as he lunged at the knight with open arms, and Jaune simply prepared his crimson sword.
Jaune used his right arm armor to block Tyrian's blade, while he used the sword for the other, but when the tail came in, Juniper pushed Tyrian with force enough to break his bones.
Tyrian only laughed harder, jumping wildly to hit Jaune off guard.
Jaune closed his eyes. He remembered the stance Adam took when he used his semblance on the leviathan and mimicked it.
Jaune poured all of what's left of his aura into creating the same effect as Adam did. It was one of the abilities that his friends used a long time ago, but stopped because it took too much aura.
Tyrian was getting closer. Jaune opened his eyes and unleashed a powerful aura slash, his eyes widened at the reason why Tyrian was laughing so much.
The hound, the grimm that was literally made out of silver eye warrior, was used as a shield for Tyrian.
It shouldn't have held, but because of the grimm regenerating ability, it held well enough to spare Tyrian his death.
"Dammit." Jaune cursed as he turned back to his normal self and fell to the ground. He didn't have any strength left in him, this was it.
"Yes yes yes, yes. When the goddess sees that I accomplished her command without a hitch, she'll reward her most loyal servant, come now-" Tyrian tried to carry Jaune from his neck with his mechanical tail, but it didn't follow the commands.
He looked back at it, and he saw a strange black aura around it. He wondered for a second until he heard a voice coming from the door.
"I'm sorry, but you won't be taking him today." The female voice was confident, and Tyrian smiled.
"Oh, another challenger appears. Good, good good, let see-" before he could finish, he was yanked to the side by his stinger, the woman chuckled and walked in. Her bronze armor shining like it was new, her confident smile assured anyone who saw her, that everything will be ok.
Tyrian jumped in, not a care in the world but a good fight, yet his tail acted up again, holding him in the air.
"If this thing doesn't want to work." He said, cutting the metal part of his tail off, which allowed him to fight back.
Then his hand stopped midair, the same black aura surrounding it.
"This is getting old." The madman complained, taking off his blades and fighting hand to hand.
Unfortunately each punch he delivered missed, like the woman could predict his next move and acted accordingly.
On his last miss, she delivered a devastating punch to his gut, aura broke immediately, and she gave him another one to make sure he was out.
The whole time, Qrow, Weiss and Jaune watched in absolute silence as their dead friend, who was killed in front of Ruby, stood in front of them, with a crown.
She looked their way and smiled a nostalgic smiled that brought Weiss and Jaune to tears.
They couldn't say a word, as the disbelief was still acting up, so she took the initiative.
"Hello again, friends." Pyrrha Nikos, the Mistral champion who lost her life defending Beacon, stood in front of them.
"I know this is too early, but…" She trailed off as her eyes started to glow green.
"Rusted knight of the everafter, return to where you belong, or suffer the consequences."
Note: So yeah, that was a thing.
Pyrrha showed up, yay. Ozma is now against us, shit. But hey, at least Penny is alive.
So just in case anyone asks, the scene where Pyrrha in Vale is after the brothers decided to send someone to stop Jaune, and Pyrrha was making her way to Atlas.
And finally, Jaune showing his true powers. You didn't think the tree would send him without making sure he was strong enough, did you? Unfortunately, it cost a lot of stamina and aura, and the fact he used most of his aura to power Weiss wasn't helping.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please leave a review, I actually want to see what you think here, please.
Free Palestine.
And goodbye.
