Once Again
He couldn't control his breathing, he tried to but failed, his eyes kept glancing back, worried at any moment, an arrow would strike him in the back.
"Why did this happen? Everything was fine before, why all of a sudden?" Thoughts raced through his mind, but he shook his head.
"N- No time for this, I need to focus, I'm a leader."
"I- I think I have Miss Goodwitch's number on my scroll." He said, not looking at his partner, he couldn't show her how shaking he was by all of this.
"Jaune." Before he knew it, his Partner, his savior, planted a kiss on his lips, he didn't understand why. He wanted to ask why, but she pushed him away.
And he saw her walk to her death.
The foot that was pushed into his stomach woke him up, he bolted up immediately in a fighting stand, ready for combat, his years of experience coming back.
It took him a moment to realize there wasn't any threats, quite the opposite.
He found himself in Atlas dorm room, his teammates were all on the floor sleeping together.
He looked down to see Nora's leg was the corporate in waking him up, and said girl was clinking to his red-haired partner. Despite himself and the small annoyance of waking up, he smiled.
Last night was a long one, they first shared stories of team RNJR, which Pyrrha agreed it was a less cooler than JNRR. They all laughed at that and continued their stories, first about Ren and Nora's village and the fight with Tyrian, to more lighthearted moments, like when they finally met up with Yang and Weiss.
After a while, Jaune told them how his timeline went, with Cinder living and taking Neo with her, and them stealing the bullhead in Argus, which earned him an approving look from Nora.
He pointedly skipped how Atlas ended up falling, and gave a vague description of the everafter. Nora looked annoyed at that, but Ren knew the reason, and Pyrrha didn't comment on that.
He then told them what happened in Vacuo.
"So, when team RWBY and I reached you guys at Shade academy, the situation wasn't that good, especially that we had to fight someone with a mind control semblance."
"Say WHAT? That's awesome." Nora beamed.
"Not really, he took control of you, Ren, Yang, and Ruby. Oscar and Qrow were fighting off Tyrian, so that left me, Blake, and Weiss to fight you off."
"Wow, we won obviously, I mean, it's four on three, and you definitely didn't want to hurt us right?"
"Well, I took care of you two, you weren't that much, not saying you weren't strong, it just I've got a lot of experience fighting you two and knew how to stop you." He assured them when he saw how they looked disappointed, more like just Nora.
"What about the rest?" Pyrrha asked.
"Blake had a pretty good handle on Yang, Ruby was a problem though, she was much stronger than usual thanks to her Ascens-" he cut off immediately, Pyrrha and Nora looked confused, but Ren caught on quickly.
"Because of her silver eyes, right? It would be a threat to anyone." Ren came to the rescue, and Jaune latched onto it.
"Yes, right, Weiss had a big problem, so I had to help her out with it after I knocked you two out." He saw the disappointed look on Nora's face, and Pyrrha petted her back. He shared a grateful glance with Ren, who smiled.
"After that, the grimm came in with large forces we had to send civilians to Mistral, Argus and menagerie, which left us to defending Shade academy alone." His voice dipped, knowing what's coming, and the painful memory with it.
"We lost a lot of people then, team CVFY and most of SNNN, but then the Summer maiden showed up with the Relic of destruction. After that, we made a plan to attack Salem, to take the fight to her." They saw how the light started to fade from his eyes.
"It was a good plan, Ruby, Winter and I made it, we had three Maidens to one, we had the strongest Relic, yet." He trailed off and they knew what happened next.
"Well look at the bright side, we have a chance now, with your knowledge we can stop her from taking down Atlas." Ren cheered him up and he smiled.
He always had his team to support him, and now this was the time to repay them.
Jaune looked around the room, he didn't fine Ren in it, so he left as quietly as possible to not disturb Nora and Pyrrha.
Closing the door behind him slowly, he got his scroll out and saw the time, it was around midday, he sighed as he realized they overslept.
He checked his notification to see if anything happened that he missed, seeing none, he made his way to the training rooms, where Ren sat on the floor cross-legged.
Jaune noticed the slight twitch of Ren's eyebrow before Ren addressed him.
"How was your sleep, Jaune?" Ren asked, standing up.
"It was good." He didn't mention the nightmare that he had earlier, it was just bad memories, after all.
"What about you? You went on without us?"
"Sorry, I needed some time to think alone." Ren didn't look his way, he took a deep breath and looked at Jaune.
"What happened to Ruby in the everafter?" Jaune forced himself to relax, he knew Ren didn't mean it to sound accusatory.
"When you told us about the mind control, you said something about Ascension. I've read the girl who fell through the world Jaune, the author does bring Ascension in passing, so tell me, what happened?" Jaune should have known Ren would piece it together, he knew his friend was the observing type. When Ren saw Jaune hesitate to answer, he sighed.
"Listen Jaune, I know you, I've known you for a long time now, and I know when you don't have a plan, you start acting nervous and won't focus on anything until you get one. And looking at you, you clearly have one, sure, Pyrrha coming may set you back a little, but your confident never wavered. So if you don't want to tell me, that's fine, but I want to make sure that you do have one." Ren's serious look made Jaune think.
"If I tell him, I risk another person knowing the truth, but if I don't, I would be just like Ozpin." It didn't take long for Jaune to make a decision that he was happy with.
"I didn't come back for nothing Ren, I made a promise, to all of you that I will succeed. I have a plan, but trust me on this, it's better not to know it."
"Because if I do, I also become a target?" Jaune nodded.
"That's why I put my trust in you Jaune, you and Ruby never failed to believe." Ren gave him a rare smile.
"So, your new powers. I want to test them." Ren said, drawing out his own weapon.
"Yeah about that, they are gone." Jaune looked away, blushing slightly.
"What?" he asked, dumbstruck.
"You see, I have limited use of my power, which boiled down to using it as a last resort. And now I can't use it again." Ren looked at him with deadpan eyes.
"Well, hopefully I can solve that issue soon." He thought.
/-/
"Start talking." The General slammed his robotic arm on the table, cracking it slightly from the impact. The prisoner was not impressed.
"Dear General, we both know those tactics won't work on me." Arthur watts said calmly.
"What on those drive?"
"I'm sure you would want to know, General, but alas, it's only for the Queen's eyes to see."
"Will see about that. Lock him up, same as Adam Taurus, make sure he won't see the light of day." The soldiers saluted and dragged Watts out of the interrogation room. A few moments later, three other people came in.
"Penny, any updates?" the girl in question looked sleepy, which was an odd sight not only for him, but also for her, she looked like she didn't quite understand why her eyes kept closing on their own.
"Sir, my father said it would take some time for him to crack it open" she said yawning, a small smile formed on his rugged face.
"Thank you Penny, I think you earned your rest, go to sleep." Her salute was weak, clumsy, which made him chuckled as she and miss Rose made their way out.
"Winter, what do you think?" he asked the other woman.
"There's clearly more to Jaune's story, even he doesn't know about, I believe everything he told us is the truth." She noticed the surprised look on her superior face, but didn't say anything.
"Jaune? I see you got attached to your mission, Winter." He reprimanded her without any heat in his voice.
"Sir, when you told me to keep an eye on him, I got to see what type of man he us, especially seeing the Interest my sister gave him. I believe Jaune Arc is doing the right thing, but I'm not sure if his priority is for his mission, or his friends."
"Interesting point, he did do all of this to save them, and now that his old partner is back, would he be willing to sacrifice her to save Remnant or would he risk it all?" he wondered.
"I believe he would do the right thing in time." She responded.
"Believe, if you said that a year ago I would have stripped you from your specialist rank, we do not operate on Believes, but now, I can only feel the same."
/-/
On JNPR breakfast, and team RWBY dinner, they got to know about Ruby's secret mission that just ended.
Turns out they caught Arthur watts in Mantle. Jaune hoped it was a good thing, he couldn't predict Salem's next move.
After all, she wanted him for some reason.
"So you didn't get any information from him?" Blake asked her question to Ruby, who looked half sleep, half excited.
"No, he was pretty arrogant, how did no one knew he was a bad guy, I mean, did you see his mustache."
"It is quite impressive." Jaune added between bites, the table went silent for a moment, with team RWBY going eerily quiet.
"Yeah, but it also screamed I'm a bad guy." Ruby complained, choosing not to acknowledge the situation.
"Anyway, I'm going to sleep, bye." And just like that, Ruby ran away, leaving her friends and her team to figure things out.
"Hey Pyrrha, want to try sparing for a bit?" Weiss asked, winking at Yang.
"Sure, it's been a while since we trained together." Pyrrha stood up, walking behind Weiss.
"Come on Nora, we need to clean the mess we made yesterday." Ren stood up too, followed by Nora, who glanced between the rest and gave an "ohhh" before leaving.
Blake wasn't moving from her seat, which left Jaune and Yang in an awkward situation.
Yang looked at her partner, eyebrow raised, trying not so quietly to move out, she finally sighed and got out. Leaving the two alone.
"Jaune, I-"
"Don't apologize Yang." This took her by surprise.
"What?" she asked.
"Don't apologize, you are in the right, I thought by being from the future that I could fix anything, while in truth I took a gamble in Argus which could have resulted in the death of thousands." The guilty look on his face started to eat at her.
"No, I need to apologize, I said awful things about you, while you were trying to help us, to save us from a doomed future. I was so self centered to see your suffering."
"Yang, would you mind we go somewhere more private? I have something important to tell you." he asked, she was hesitated for a second but nodded.
/-/
"It's been a while, I thought you gave up on me." The redhead faunus said, throwing the ball at the wall and catching it in his hand.
Jaune took the seat in front of the cell door, looking at the faunus who didn't pay him any attention.
"I didn't plan to come back, but something came up." He said, eying the faunus.
"I want to deliver a message from someone who once knew you." The faunus finally paid him attention, catching the ball one final time.
"I've met with Willow Schnee recently." He started, seeing how Adam expression changed to something he thought would never see in a terrorist's face, sorrow.
"She must've told you how much she regretted saving me, how many souls did she doom by that."
"No, she told me she regretted how she didn't act up when she saw what happened to you. She told me that if she fought for you, for people like you, you wouldn't had to suffer like this." The shock on Adam's face earned him satisfaction with a little regret.
"I know I can't save everyone, but it doesn't stop me from trying." He thought to himself.
"She gave me Wilt and Blush to protect myself, to fight for what's right, yet." He sighed.
"I used the blade to save an innocent person from grimm, it's a wonderful blade."
"Did you know the whole weapon was made from dust, the blade was forged from dense red dust, while the outer shell is made out of a rare metal called titanium." Adam looked at a ceiling with a small smile.
"The blade can cut through anything, no grimm would be able to harm you." She said, with her gently, caring voice.
"W- what if that monster showed up again?" the boy asked, his voice shaking. The woman took a deep breath and smiled at him.
"He won't come for you, after all, menagerie is a safe place for all faunus alike." She pulled him for a tight embrace, which he could only return.
"I- I'm sorry." The boy felt his shoulder getting wet.
"For what?" he asked.
"For not being by your side".
The boy opened his eye to see himself as a man, a man who have done many wrongs in his life. His working eye traveled to the only person with him in the room.
There was always two people who visited him, the young knight, Jaune, who already left. Now, the second guest waved her hand energetically, a smile splitting her face.
"Hey you."
/-/
"Sir, Ace-Ops reporting back." Clover stood at the front, saluting, the Ace-Ops all had more tan and looked dusted, no doubt from their trip.
"Good work, clover, your mission result will help us greatly in our fight against Salem." The General saluted back.
Clover had a bulletproof suitcase in his hand, he handed it to the General, who measured the weight and nodded.
"You all deserve time off, specialist Schnee will update you on the current event, until then, take care." Just as fast as they came, the Ace-Ops immediately disappeared to their own rooms, no doubt tired of their journey.
General Ironwood sat back on his chair, eying the suitcase. In a swift motion, he sent a message and closed it.
It only took a minute for that person to burst into the office which a lamp on his hip.
"General." He greeted.
"Mr Arc, I think you would like to take a look at this." He pushed the case across the table and Jaune took it.
His hand hovered over the case, then came down to unlock it. The moment he did that, a bright light shined from the case. Slowly fading, allowing them to see the content inside.
A blade by the size of his own family sword was stored inside, the blade was made out of diamond, while the hilt was made out of gold in beautiful patterns.
"Is that?" Ironwood asked.
"Yes, the Relic of destruction, one of the most dangerous Relics of them all. And now." He said, as he held the blade out, swinging it a few time, which earn him a grunt from the General.
"Be careful with it." He hissed. Jaune laughed awkwardly.
He held the sword in his right, and the lamp is his left.
"Jinn, Ragnarok, by the command of the great Tree, awake." As he spoke those words, time seemed to slow to a stop.
He saw Ironwood frozen too, he punched his leg lightly, which brought him back with him.
"What the." He didn't finish as the two spirits left their shells.
He saw Jinn and Ragnarok floating in the air, their eyes were shining white, Ragnarok looked like a giant of a man, with a big beard and red marks like tattoos on his arms.
Who dares awaken the spirit of Ragnarok?
Hmm, interesting
The spirits looked between each other and smiled, they looked back at him with amusement.
Jaune Arc, we meet again.
"Hey Jinn, sorry for the last time, it got a little heated."
Worry not, I was merely delivering the brother of light's words.
"And now?" he asked, eyebrow raised.
Thanks to you, I am no longer required to give knowledge, as Ragnarok is not required to destroy.
Jinn looked at the other spirit who hummed.
"What do you mean by that?" the General asked, confused.
We, the Relics, were made to help humanity, and now, we will be helping the young knight save humanity.
"Why? Last time, you promised to fight against him, and Creation already turned Ozma against us." He accused.
"Well you see, the Relic of choice and creation were made by light, while the dark created destruction and knowledge, the Tree told me the dark was more of a natural part than we were led to believe, which gave me the idea of turning their Relics against them." Jaune smirked.
Jaune nodded to the two Relics, who nodded back and started to shine.
"Thank you two, for your work."
Worry not knight, it is our purpose to help humanity, however, be careful, the brothers can still be summoned using us.
With these words, both Ragnarok and Jinn energy started to move to him, the light blinding the General.
After a while, the light stopped and Ironwood opened his eyes to a scene which was described to him by Winter.
He looked at the Knight, long hair tight down with a red piece of clothe, his armor Rusted, yet, it showed sign of combat with the numerous cuts on it, and the eyes of a warrior who saw hell and came back from it.
"Arc?"
Note: now that we finally have the Relic of destruction, I can start writing the last Arc.
It weird that I referenced the Ace-Ops going on a mission away and no one even brought it up, and thanks to Jaune knowledge of the future, they managed to find summer and get the Relic, which lived for only 5 seconds before I killed it, lol.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you leave a review telling me how you're finding the story.
Free Palestine.
And goodbye.