Hi! Long time-no see! I'd like to aplogize for the unintentional hiatus. I work 12 hour shifts 5+ days per week on average. It sucks.
Anyways, here we are with the first official chapter of ARChiving Reactions.
But first, I would like to answer a couple questions/make a few review responses.
NarutoNikeNinja21 - I can't speak for every other writer out there, but the reasoning as to why I have chosen this point in time, is because this is roughly in between volumes 2 and 3. Around the same time as Grimm Eclipse. Which, as far as universe 7991 is concerned, is the 'extra credit' assignment their Jaune is currently on solo. For our loveable goof, what was originally supposed to be a day or two long assignment, is now roughly a week long adventure that is effectively helping him get a better grip on his semblance which 'technically' debuted then. It's my personal headcanon as to why Ren somehow figured out what Jaune's semblance was when Weiss got poked with the business end of Cinder's spear. Sometime during Grimm Eclipse Jaune tapped into his semblance and Ren being the resident 'Aura Master' (or closest thing to it available at the time) likely either witnessed or was affected by it. Giving him a theory to work with and avoid sharing until someone was dying.
In this universe, Jaune finally unlocked his semblance during the Breach, where he(possible spoilers for Universe 7991) may have seen/done something rather messed up in a moment of desperation/rage. I think I may have mentioned it in the previous chapter, but the Breach in this universe was a fair bit worse than the one in Canon. As a result, Jaune already has access to his semblance as of right now, but his control is rather iffy at the moment. Hence, why he has taken this mission on alone as an extra credit assignment in order to attempt to experiment and train with it.
Which leads us to Pyrrha's current explanation as to why even though Jaune has improved by leaps and bounds as a fighter, he's absolutely swamped by any of his classmates that use dust, or have their own semblance. Pyrrha has been training with Jaune, so she 'knows' his strengths and weaknesses. More on that later down the line. Let's just say Jaune has a few surprises for everyone in the regard about his skills as a warrior. Pyrrha included.'
Jaune is a scary fast learner after all. (And for good reason in this universe.)
As for Ice Queen, in this universe, she was not made aware of the fact that Jaune is the reason as to why Neptune danced with her. Everyone kept silent on this as per Jaune's request as he himself has come to see Weiss as more or less a lost cause. In the current timeline of univers 7991, Jaune only ever actually tried to get her attention romantically 2 or 3 times. And he even actually waited before trying again for at least a week minimum. Any other interaction he made with her were out of a genuine desire for friendship or was actually looking for help for something school/improvement related. Weiss just simply blew things out of proportion and would take things the wrong way without even hearing the poor guy out because of her first interaction after initiation was him flirting with her rather badly.
That, and she's kind of a poor judge of character due. I would blame that on her less than stellar upbringing, if not for how she immediately reacted to Neptune's flirting on contact, and continuing to show interest even after seeing him flirt with everything with a pulse in a skirt. And she's not quite used to the idea that people can be rather honest or multi-dimensional in terms of character, or that people can change outside of her own teammates. She's still more or less in the middle of "what you see is what you get" and "there's always a hidden motive", until presented with evidence that proves otherwise. Her problem with Blake's background being proof of that. As far as Weiss is concerned so far, seeing is believing.
She is getting better, though, I will give her that.
Offunseeker271 - I do plan on a Shield Hero universe.
1v2 - I do like the idea of a few of you're suggestions. Some of which I already had plans for.
Such as...
Monster Musume style AU.
Shining Resonance (I see you enjoyed that game as well.)
Kingdoms of Amalur* (not exactly a teleported universe per se but just straight up KoA)
Cyberpunk 2077*
The (*) indicates I have plans for that.
Gonsmoss - I know exactly what you mean. This Universe's Jaune does have a uniqueness to him (as far as their reality goes). And yes, the gay Ren and Neptune bit is meant to be a pain in the ass. Literally, in Neptune's case.
Lord Leonidas - I actually was already considering something like that. Pretty much DBZ (possibly Abridged) if Gohan kept training after the Cell games with Jaune as Gohan. Could do the History of Trunks special too. It was either that, or a Xenoverse 2 universe.
ricky117 - I was actually gonna do Resident Evil 2 with Jaune as Leon and Weiss as Claire. As well as throw in the joke meme involving his supposed need to breed for shits and giggles.
Now here's a few Universes/Realities ideas I curently have in mind for the future in no particular order.
STAR WARS (I am currently debating with myself if I want to do KOTOR 1 or 2 Lightside Routes, or if I want to do the Original Trilogy with a minor twist in the character dynamics with whoever replaces Han to be a girl competing with whoever replaces Leia for Jaune's (Luke's) affections. Just for funzies. I'm leaning towards the prequels idea.)
HARRY POTTER featuring whoever stands in for Hermione to be a yandere for Harry(Jaune) for the lulz. Why? Because Harry's interest in Ginny came out of nowhere on me when I first read the books and was more of a supporter of Hermione. This one is more or less trying to give my old twelve year old self some measure of peace. (This series will likely draw mostly from the movies with a sprinkling of the books.)
A Vikings AU.
MY HERO ACADEMIA featuring an anti-hero Deku/Jaune being unique with his aura and a modified version semblance present plus acquiring One-For-All. Making him significantly stronger. And leading him down a still heroic yet slightly more bloody path. Creating a lesson for the cast about no matter how hard you try, there are going to be irredeemably evil people in the world where the only solution is death. (Possible other changes as well to other stand-in characters.)
NARNIA!
LORD OF THE RINGS (With Auras and Semblances here and there.)!
HFY/Humans are Space Orcs.
Jade Empire.
Fairy Tail
Samurai Jack
Various Fantasy AU's
The Odyssey.
At least one Yandere universe per girl in both teams RWBY and JNPR plus a few other characters. (Don't mess with the Bunny.)
Devil May Cry.
Dragon Riders (Inheritance Cycle inspired) AU
Overlord 2 (the game)
Overlord (the anime) x RWBY crossover. (Jaune fills in for Ainz and is just as intelligent as the NPCs think as Nazarik finds itself in the world of Remnant.)
Possible Alternate timelines (Futures and Pasts)
James Bond
Ninjas of Love (Blake's gonna love that. And Yang might be surprised to see what's in it.)
Hellsing (Abridged?)
Lilo and Stitch
Robin Hood (Disney inspired)
Beauty and the Beast (Disney inspired)
The Little Mermaid (Disney inspired)
Aladdin (Disney inspired)
Sleeping Beauty (Disney inspired)
Treasure Planet (inspired)
Tarzan (Disney inspired)
Fantasia's Sorceror's Apprentice with Jaune as the Sorceror and Prof. Goodwitch as the apprentice. Should be good for a laugh among the cast.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla (inspired)
The Big Iron on Jaune's Hip (Yang and Tai will love it)
Rosario Vampire (inspired)
HIghschool of the Dead AU
Highschool DxD (inspired)
Tenchi Muyo
Seton Academy (inspired)
Obligatory Jaune is the Only Dude with Aura AU
Familiar of Zero
Arifureta
How Not to Summon a Demon Lord (Inspired)
Master of Ragnarok (Inspired)
DanMachi (Abridged?)
Far Cry New Dawn (Inspired. Plus, it's my favorite one.)
Conan the Barbarian 1982
Conan the Destroyer 1984
Fallout (Haven't decided between New Vegas or 4.)
Skyrim
Doom
Shadow Warrior
Halo
And that's it for now. Any that say 'inspired' means that I'm going to take liberties and change things up here and there as I see fit, while more or less staying true to the plot and/or theme.
Now let's get this show on the road!
TO
THE
STORY!
!LINE BREAK!
Laughing settled into a seat of his own while grabbing what appeared to be a large TV remote and pointed it at the screen screen while pressing a sequence of buttons.
"Is that a TV remote?" Asked Ruby.
"More or less," answered the host. "I already had this universe's sight orb in place before your arrival. This remote allows me to pause, unpause, rewind, fast forward, zoom in or out, and gives me greater control over what we're seeing. It even has a lazer pointer to help me point out bit and pieces of what's on screen if I decide to give a lecture or explanation of whatever is on view."
"Universe's sight orb?" Questioned Weiss.
"Yeah, I just call them Sights for short. There's a shelf of them over there." Laughing gestured towards another wall at the other end of the room. What appeared to be a massive bookshelf with a myriad of differently colored and faintly glowing crystal spheres laid there. "Approach one and its number will appear on the surface. Pick it up and it will give you a sense of what it entails. "
"Its number?" Asked Ren.
Laughing nodded, "Yes, it's easier to list and compile the universes by number. For examply, you guys are from universe 7991. I can only show you univereses and realities from my jurisdiction however. If I want to show you all something from somebody else's sector, I'll need their permission first."
"How many universes are there?" That was Nora.
"Infinite." Laughing answered.
"And how many are in your jurisdiction?" Nora again.
"Infinite." Laughing answered.
"That's a lot of Jaunes to keep track of."
"It is."
"What kind of universe are we going to see?" Pyrrha wondered aloud.
"You'll see..." Laughing said as the lights dimmed and the screen came to life.
Brown clouds of dust and sand swirled and parted to reveal a great face of stone. And as the screen zoomed out, the sight of hundreds of men pulling forward with a chant.
"Who are they?" Asked Ruby.
~Mud.~
The screen had cut to the bare feet of a man wading through a thick puddle of it.
~Sand.~
A great plume of sand blew the image away to reveal multiple men appearing to stamp the mud into place.
"Workers, by the looks of it." Answered Pyrrha.
~Water.~
Multiple men were now seen dumping the water onto the workers below. Knocking a few into the ground.
The sight was jarring for the audience to say the least. And a deep pit began to form in the stomache of one Blake Belladonna.
~Straw.~
Now straw had been thrown up and scattered into the mud the men were creating. And the audience was immediately greated by the sight of a man, this time a faunus, judging by his ox tail, raised a whip and lashed out at the human workers.
~Faster!~
"Slaves." Blake corrected. 'This is the kind of world Adam wants. Humans enslaved by faunus. No equality. Just barbarity.'
"So it's a world in ancient times where faunus are the dominant race?" Weiss shuddered.
~Mud, and lift~
After placing some mud down, a great stone was lifted with rope.
~Sand, and pull~
What appeared to be a stone hoe was struck into the ground, followed by the sight of the rope pulling the stone.
~Water~
Water was now being being lifetd into the air by pulley system.
~And raise up!~
"They're clearly building something. But what?" Ren pondered.
"Maybe more of that creepy statue we saw earlier?" Nora offered.
"Maybe."
~Straw!~
The human slaves were laying more straw down.
~Faster!~
The slaver cracked his whip and knocked over one worker.
The audience winced. These people had nothing to protect them from the leather's bite.
~With the sting, of the whip, on my shoulder~
A bird's eye view granted the sight of hundreds of slaves carrying heavy loads of masonry, being whipped and driven forward.
~With the salt of my sweat on my brow~
"I don't think I like this world so much..." Ruby admitted.
~Elohim, God on High... Can you hear your people cry?~
~Help us now... This dark hour...~
"So this song is like a prayer?" Yang asked Laughing.
"It is." Laughing solemnly answered. His expression was sorrowful.
"Okay, who's Elohim? A god like you?" Pyrrha asked.
"Elohim is one of the many names of the God of Gods." Laughing answered with a small smile. "These are Jaune's people, some of the earliest recorded worshippers of Him. There are many depictions of The Father and many religions surrounding Him. Each claim to be the one true path to following Him. His existance is a mystery, and His true nature is often the subject of great debate among my kind." The host explained.
"What other names does He have?" Pyrrha asked. The curiosity of the audience was piqued.
"Plenty. Yahweh, Allah, Jehovah, El Shaddai, Aslan, Ahura Mazda, Eru Iluvatar, The Presence, The All-Maker, The-One-Above-All, the Creator... And these are just a few. Worship of Him is greatly diminished in your world. Some of the lesser gods of it, such as the Brothers have seen to that, but His influence remains here and there. Such as your rosaries, Ms. Rose."
Ruby was stunned by that. "Really?"
Laughing nodded. "Indeed. The Cross is a very common symbol of His in Christianity, a religion dedicated to Him. One of the three dominant ones. In fact, the slaves we see on screen are the precursors to them. The Hebrews."
"He doesn't seem like a very good God to me if he's ignoring His people like this." Blake muttered.
Laughing chuckled. "Elohim is rather much a fan of free will and involving himself in more subtle ways. It is due to free will we can act out with great cruelty or great kindess. Plus he's not ignoring the Hebrews. As you will see, He has a plan to help out which he is about to enact. Though I will admit, normally, it is borderline impossible to predict what His plans are and the pay off may be further down the line than one may expect."
~Deliver us!~
~Hear our call!~
~Deliver us!~
~Lord of All remember us, here in this burning sand.~
And with that, a great statue of a man with the head of some bird was raised.
"So it was a statue. But of who? I've never seen or heard of faunus with full on animal heads." Blake commented.
Laughing began his explanation of this. "That would be Ra. The Egyptian god of the sun. Egypt is the location where this viewing takes place. The Egyptians are a faunus population with a pantheon of gods, most of which have the body of a person, and the head of an animal. They are quite powerful, but pale incomparison to Elohim. Ra and his fellows do not approve of their people's treatment of the Hebrew humans, and thus have turned deaf ears onto them. Which, unfortunately, has lead to harsher treatment of Jaune's people and the forced labor of creating more unwanted tribute."
~There's a land you promised us...~
~Deliver us, to the promised land...~
The scene now shifted away from the construction site, and towards a village of crude brick by a riverbank. The shadows of soldiers with spears could be seen along the walls accompanied by the cries of women and their babies.
"Wh-what are they doing?" Asked a horrified Ruby. She and Nora were clinging to each other at the sharp cry of one babe, only to be silenced by the squelch of flesh being pierced and the anguished cry of a mother.
"Culling the herd." Blake answered. Her hands were subconciously placed over her belly as she said that and realized what was going on. "They're trying to break Jaune's people's spirit and make sure they don't have the numbers to rise up in rebellion."
"By killing the babies?" Weiss was abhorred by this.
"Just the boys." Laughing added.
Blake's hands clenched into fists.
"So baby girls are safe?" Yang asked.
"Yes." Laughing answered.
"And how old is Jaune at this point?" Pyrrha was almost too afraid to ask.
Laughing pointed back at the screen,
~Yocheved Yal-di ha-tov veh ha-rach~
A blonde woman was hiding in the shadows clutching something to against her chest beneath her cloak. She watched as some soldiers passed her by without seeing her.
"Oops. Lemme auto translate for you all."
[My good and tender son]
My~Al ti-ra veh al tif-chad~
[Don't be frightened and don't be scared]
The woman stepped passed two younger girls, both with blonde hair. Her daughters. And as she stepped by she revealed the bundle in her arms to be a blonde baby boy.
"Oh no! Jaune! He's in danger!" Ruby was the one to point out the child's identity.
The girls in the audience would have cooed in delight at the sight of Baby Jaune, but were too stricken with fear for his safety.
~My son, I have nothing I can give... But this chance that you may live~
"What's she going to do?" Nora asked no-one in particular.
~I pray that we'll meet again...~
"Something incredibly hard for any mother."
~If He will...~
Jaune's mother turned to look towards the river.
~Deliver us!~
~Hear our prayer! Deliver us!~
The screen now showed a different woman knocked aside by some soldiers as they marched into her home.
~From despair!~
Now that same woman was shown crying on her knees as the soldiers passed by. Their weapons dripping crimson.
The woman sobbed even harder.
~These years of slavery grow too cruel to stand~
"Not even the SDC was this cruel." Blake whispered.
"That you know of." Added Laughing.
And now Weiss feels horrible for some reason. "What do you mean?"
"You're father's sins run deep. And it's not just the faunus who suffer because of him. All are subject to his cruelty..."
Weiss hung her head in shame.
"It is not your fault, child. No one is to blame but your father. It is up to you to right his wrongs."
With Jaune and two of his sisters in tow, Jaune's Mother navigated her way down towards the river.
~Deliver us!~
~There's a land you promised us!~
~Deliver us.~
~Out of bondage and...~
~Deliver us to the Promised Land...~
Now the family had made it to the riverbanks and were hidden by the local flora.
One of Jaune's sisters laid down a basket on the water's edge with blankets and bedding inside.
"Does she really plan on leaving him there? Surely she at least will come back for him. Right?" Yang asked. This almost reminded her of how Raven had abandoned her and Tai. 'But that was out of selfishness. This is love...'
The mother of the three children laid her son into the basket.
~"Hush now, my baby, be still love. Don't cry"~
She sang to the boy as she did so, lovingly rocking him to sleep.
~"Sleep as you're rocked by the stream... Sleep and remember my last lullaby... So I'll be with you when you dream..."~
By now, everyone was moved to tears.
"This is her last chance to save him..." Ruby sadly whimpered.
Jaune's mother now covered the basket with a wicker lid as the boy fell asleep to his mother's words.
Now she sang her prayer at the river itself.
~"River, O river, flow gently for me..."~
She began pushing her son's basket out and into the water.
~"Such precious cargo you bear; do you know somewhere, he can be free?"~
Jaune's mother had now pushed Jaune into the river and watched as the current began to carry him off.
"So this is her last goodbye..." Blake bitterly remembered her last conversation with her own mother. She never did tell Kali goodbye. Regret gnawed at her.
~"River, deliver, him there..."~
And as little Jaune floated away, one sister followed alongside the by the banks and marvelled at how it seemed almost as if the wildlife itself within the river's ecosystem guided her little brother along.
She followed all the way up to the palace downriver. Where, to her shock, was the Queen of Egypt herself just now finishing up a bath with her very young son and had just redressed herself. She herself had blonde hair blue eyes as did her son. Yet these two sported the tails of a monkey.
"Is that Sun and his mom?" Blake asked in surprise.
The audience watched along with Jaune's big sister in worry as to how the noblewoman would respond to the baby's intrusion.
The Queen was certainly surprised by this developement, but curiosity got the better of her. Placing Sun down, she removed the basket lid and to her surprise was greeted by the sight of little Jaune waking up from his nap. Rested, happy, and ready to play with his new friends.
The Queen smiled in delight at the sight of her newly adopted son.
Sighing in relief, Jaune's sister sang. It was to soft to be heard by anyone present and thus she went unnoticed. 'This must be God's plan...' She realized.
~"Brother you're safe now, and safe you may stay... For I have a prayer just for you..."~
~"Grow baby brother; come back some day... Come and deliver us too..."~
And with that, the girl left with peace in her heart, and a sense that everything will be okay.
Now the Queen was making her way back into the palace proper with little Jaune in her arms and little Sun trailing after. Desperately attempting to catch a glimpse of his new baby brother.
"Mommie..." He tried to grab her attention, as the Queen shooed away her servant girls.
"Aww... Look how small he is..." Nora cooed at the sight of little Sun. he couldn't have been more than five or six years old.
"Well Blakey, I guess this gives you an idea of future kids? Right?" Yang ribbed her partner with a waggle of her eyebrows.
Blake rolled her eyes. "Sun and I aren't like that."
"Really?" The brawler asked in a teasing manner. Clearly not buying Blake's answer.
"Really. Sun's at best, a friend. Besides, there's..." Blake caught herself before going any further.
"There's what? Someone else on your mind?" Yang and the others were invested now. All eyes were focused on her.
"Not now. Maybe later. Please?" She gave a nervous look to Yang and the others.
"Fine, but this isn't over. Okay? We are continuing this later." Yang relented.
Blake nodded. "Later." She promised.
"Come Sun, we will show Pharoah your new baby brother." She paused on deciding a name for the child.
"Moses." She decided.
And with that the screen darkened as the lights came back on.
"I think that's enough for the moment, will pick back up in a bit. For now, feel free to stand up, use the bathroom if you need to, and get a couple of snacks at the snackbar. If you want a drink, just get a cup and fill it up at the station next to the snacks with whatever you're in the mood for." Laughing said as he got up to walk over to the snack bar.
!LINE BREAK!
