No message from me at the top this time, lets just finally get into this chapter, and I can talk at the end!


CLANG!

Jaune felt Crocea Arca's feet grinding along the ground as his shield blocked the impact of a swing of the Creep's tail.

He felt his Aura rippling as the sensation of the attack shot through his arm, giving him goosebumps. He could also feel the joints of his Ark creaking in a way that made him quite uncomfortable… But he didn't really have any other options at the moment.

A beep from his comms system told him that Weiss was grabbing their whole Fireteam into a call got him out of his own head, and he tapped the screen. His teammates' faces appeared to his left, and Weiss spoke up, looking worried. [Arc, Ruby is almost unable to fire, and I'm low on ammunition.]

Jaune clicked his tongue, as he heard Yang let out a muted swear and Blake a worried grumble. His mind was running a million miles a minute as Ren used his Semblance to get the Creep off of them, with Dove and Sky -who were luckily still up and capable- keeping the Grimm occupied for the moment.

Nodding to himself as he took stock of the situation, he glanced at Weiss even as he fired off a couple of shots -from the very few cannons on his Ark that were still functioning- toward the Creep. [That's not good… Alright. Ruby, back up to Blake and Yang. They seem to have done good enough at keeping the Grimm from forcing Blake's Semblance that she probably has one more go left. Stay near them just in case, Ren and I are on our way as well!]

He saw Weiss nod and already started talking before Jaune returned his focus to the battlefield, motioning towards the others to Ren, who was saving his Aura, his Semblance inactive. [Ren, we have to regroup with the others. Our Arks are falling apart but we can bunker up and still fight if we end up needing to.]

He stepped forward right after saying that and slashed vertically with Crocea Arca's sword, feeling his Ark's arm CREAKED as he successfully deflected a wild swing from the Creep's tail as it released smoke and keels over, Dove and Sky having finished it off.

Ren swallowed at the close call -the fact that he had only had his Semblance off for an instant and still been targeted acting as a reminder of the Grimm's ferocity- and brought it back up, his Ark once again going monochrome. [Indeed, let us return.]

Shooting off a quick message to Dove and Sky -who were stabbing the Creep's body to make it vanish faster- to tell them their plan, the other two go off to reinforce another group as Jaune and Ren start to make their way back to Blake, Yang, and the others.

Jaune vaguely heard some kind of explosions over in another group's section closer to the school, and when he looked over, saw a pink mushroom cloud going up at one of the walls between the coast and Inner-Vale.

Ren paused for a moment, a single instant of hesitation as he saw the smoke cloud, and Jaune stopped alongside him, hearing one small word from Ren's mouth over the comms. [Nora?]

And then…

Jaune was too slow to spot it, and Ren both had his Semblance up and was distracted by the cloud, so he wasn't expecting it. The group of Arks that had been fighting the King Taijitu Swarm had apparently either failed to completely keep it locked down -or had been defeated- as one of the heads struck out towards Crocea Arca -which it could see- but was actually headed towards Stormflower, which it could not.

Crocea Arca's blade was only half-lifted by the time it was about to strike Stormflower, but before any of them could react fast enough, something that looked like a bolt of pink lighting struck the side of the King Taijutu's jaw, sending it keeling over to the ground, stunned and sparking with electricity.

[Nora!]

Ren was fast enough to react and raise Stormflower's hands to meet the glowing ball of pink lightning before it could start falling, however, and Jaune was amazed to see Nora Valkyrie in Stormflower's palm, waving what looked like a hammer with a tired, almost delirious expression on her face, her arms already looking like they were bruising something fierce.

Taking the opportunity before it could recover, Crocea Arca sprung forward and stabbed the King Taijutu's head right through where the brain of a snake would be, holding it down a moment as it thrashed and roared… Before eventually fading, taking part of the bulk and durability of the Swarm it was connected to with it.

[Hey Ren! Saw the snake coming your way so I blew myself up to get over here!]

Before Ren could scold her for the girl's apparent insanity, something Jaune was sure he would do once all of this was over, he motioned to Ren in the comms and waved a hand. [Sorry Nora, we gotta talk later. Ren, if you've got her secured, we have to move! Take her into your cockpit and let's go!]

Ren was already moving alongside him back towards the others as his Cockpit opened, Nora's tired face appearing on the screen alongside Ren. With a loud -but clearly exhausted- voice, she waved at the screen.

[HI, PARTNER STEALER! HI, PARTNER STEALER'S TEAM! I'M NORA!]

There is an instant of silence, allowing Jaune and Ren to make it back to Yang, Blake, and Weiss, only for the silence to be broken by a simultaneous shout from all three girls.

[WAIT, NORA IS REAL?!]

Nora did nothing but wave back excitedly, whatever she had done to protect Ren -something about a Semblance, Jaune would guess- having taken quite a toll on her stamina as she was clearly already fading to exhaustion.

Jaune let a smile out at their reaction. [Yes, Nora is real. But for now, we need to focus. Where is Ruby?]

As Jaune talked, he looked around and pumped a fist in excitement as he saw the last of the two Goliaths that had arrived go down… Taking the 4 Arks that had been fighting it along with it. He winced slightly at that, as it brought Beacon's number of active Arks down to something around 15, maybe 20 if you included the ones incapable of movement that still had their guns active.

His cheering was cut off as he spotted a glint of light reflecting off a black feather in the air and darted forward, his shield raising as he jumped in front of Blake. As he did so, he heard the SCREECHING sound of metal tearing as the sharpened feather of the Nevermore dug into his shield, remaining attached.

[RUBY!]

He turned at Weiss' yell and watched as Crescent Rose collapsed to the ground, its firing arm severing from its body and its ankle shattering. As he watches the Ursa getting closer, he tries to push forward…

But the damage his Ark has taken throughout the battle finally caught up to him.

He could feel Crocea Arca's joints locking up as heavily stressed metal collided with itself, and his shield finally gave out as well from the attack by the Nevermore, clattering to the ground in pieces.

The claustrophobia from before now felt like it was smothering him, and he could feel his Aura SCREAMING out alongside the shout of determination escaping him as he pushed harder and harder against the failing technology…

He reached out to Ruby, and Crocea Arca failed him, the hand holding his sword collapsing and the blade itself falling to the ground.

He could feel something eating away at his Ark, something causing it to fall apart faster than it should have… But he kept pushing his Aura forward. He wouldn't allow her to be hurt. He refused to let that happen while he could still reach her!

And then… As he heard Crocea Arca shatter around him, Gold became all he could see. A feeling akin to rushing water filled his body. And the claustrophobic feeling he had felt every time he had been in an ark vanished like dust in the wind…

As something changed.


"Doctor Oobleck! Get that servo moving, now! Peach needs to access the panel behind it!"

"Yes, Admiral!"

Ozpin tapped away at the tablet in front of him as the other Staff members of Beacon darted around the currently inoperable hunk of metal known to most as 'Broomstick.' They were currently trying their hardest to -as quickly as possible- dispel some kind of computer program that was locking all personnel out of piloting the Staff member's Arks.

He had briefly considered getting his own Ark -The Long Memory- active before Glynda's… But had decided against it when taking into account Glynda's Semblance and the defensive options it allowed them.

As he had found out over the years, Telekinesis was quite the Semblance.

A dark part of him still wondered why all of the Arks hadn't been sabotaged in such a manner, especially if the saboteur was capable of doing so to the Staff Member's Arks -which arguably had better anti-virus software than the student's- while leaving the first-years capable of mobilising.

According to Mulberry, not even the transportation tracks leading to the surface from the Hangar Bays had been ruined. The Saboteur clearly wanted the first-year's Arks to arrive on the surface and attempt to fight them off… But the saboteur wanted them to do so in a state of disrepair, and without the intervention of Mr Arc and Miss Rose, they would have been deployed right onto an un-evacuated Vale as well.

Already, Ozpin could see the writing on the wall. The saboteur… They clearly weren't simply attempting to destroy Vale with this scheme. Or if the destruction of Vale was part of the plan, it would likely be merely a side benefit.

No, he believed that the saboteur's goals lay more in the spreading of fear and negativity than anything else. And he could only think of one thing slumbering deep beneath the surrounding countryside that would need the entire population of Vale's negativity to spike to something on this scale to reawaken…

"Admiral! We've made it inside the cockpit! I'm guessing about five minutes until Broomstick is fully operational!"

Professor Peach's words snapped him out of his thoughts and he nodded to his staff. "Good, move over to my Ark as soon as Broomstick is on her feet, I want The Long Memory right on her heels!"

"Yes, Admiral!"

Tapping through his own tablet, he let a subsection of the anti-virus they were using run by itself as he tapped at a separate screen, pulling up feeds from the -few remaining, he found- cameras that existed as part of the defence systems Vale used.

Many cameras came back with nothing but static -having been destroyed- but many others still gave him a view of the battlefield, as narrow as that view was. The defence system was active enough -thank the Brothers- to tell him that the coastal area of Vale had already been entirely evacuated, with Vale's police pulling their weight for the first time in a while.

Unfortunately, his long, long life had given him a wealth of experience, especially when it came to assessing the tides of battle and their chaotic ebbs and flows.

And yes, while he could see the surprising success of his students -to have taken down at least five of the Grimm when their Arks were falling apart and their Aura strained was nothing less than a miracle he would thank the small amount of preparatory time Mr Arc and Ms Rose had given them for- he could also tell that it was a losing battle.

A beep from his anti-virus gathered his attention and he tapped a few more buttons, sending the adjustments he had made to the other's tablets, hearing a small cheer echo throughout the room.

"Whatever you just did, Admiral, we're down to an estimated three minutes until Broomstick is operational!"

Ozpin had a small smile on his face as he nodded towards the others, tapping away to try and see if he could cut any further time off of that process. While learning the ins and outs of Ark programming took many years of dedicated study… He really had nothing but time.

It also certainly helped that he was one of the designers of the Ark coding systems almost 200 years ago, albeit when he was within another body entirely.

He, unfortunately, didn't get very far into the second optimisation, however, as he glanced at his camera feeds and saw Crescent Rose -the Ark that Ruby Rose piloted, the silver-eyed girl he promised Taiyang he would keep a close eye on- go down, and go down hard.

He was on his feet from surprise before he could stop himself, a hand reaching towards the tablet to do… Something. He froze, however, as he saw Crocea Arca rushing towards the girl as it practically fell apart.

And then, there was… Gold.

The camera's feed went bright gold for an instant before shutting off as something overwhelmed the receiver on the other end.

That shade of gold, and the circumstances that lead to it… Hope shot through Ozpin as he stared at the roof, his hands coming together in a quick prayer, to a God he hadn't prayed to for centuries.

"Oh, Light. If there was any time for one to finally manifest it once more… Please let it be now..."


Something had changed.

Jaune could tell something was different, but he didn't know exactly what. Nor did he know why he felt so different, but… He didn't really care. He didn't care because right now he felt powerful. He didn't care because as he rushed towards the Ursa that was atop Crescent Rose, the once-terrifying creature looked… Smaller?

'What?'

The Ursa, which had been about equal in height to Crocea Arca and the other Arks before… Not only went up to his chest? Shaking his head, he ignored the discrepancy and ignored the weird shift in his point of view, because they weren't important right now.

What was important was Ruby, and getting that Ursa off of her.

He didn't have time to wonder about what was going on as he rushed forward, muscle memory from experiences that now almost felt like a whole lifetime ago coming to the forefront as he grabbed the Ursa exactly like he would an angry boar back at home on his family's farm, putting it on its side with a semi-tackle.

But unlike the pigs on the farm, where he would be tackling them was probably for some beneficial reason to them in the long run… He pushed himself to his feet and jumped into the air, curbstomping the Ursa's head on one of the remaining buildings of Vale and replacing its head with billowing black smoke as he crushed it against a raised section of the ground.

He stood there for an instant, just staring at the corpse of the Ursa as it vanished… And only briefly gets the chance to wonder at how he had dispatched it so easily before the feather of a Nevermore slammed into him, almost knocking him off his feet.

He reacted as quickly as he could, however, adrenaline rushed through him as he darted over and grabbed his Ark's sword from where it had fallen. He didn't spend any amount of his precious time considering why it felt smaller and lighter in his hands, more like a large dagger than a proper sword. Nor did he focus on how he could pick it up at all after he had felt his Ark shatter around him, the pieces of it even still visibly scattered on the ground around where the sword lay…

None of those mattered at the moment, only the fact that there were still Grimm to kill and that he felt more than energised enough to kill them.

Turning his attention to the Nevermore, his sudden jump in height -something he would figure out later, but was nonetheless thankful for- meant that he had enough reach to grab at the Grimm's hind legs, the creature not smart enough to have raised itself any higher in the air than it would otherwise have needed to.

With a shout, he pulled his arms down as hard as he could, overpowering the Grimm's impressive wings trying to fight his grip and SLAMMING it into the ground. He was fairly sure that wouldn't be enough to kill it, however, and jumped atop it, bringing Crocea Arca's sword to its throat.

He clenched his legs as hard as he could, pinning its wings with his thighs as he pressed down with his sword, the Nevermore letting out slowly quieting 'caw's' of pain before Jaune felt the Grimm's throat give out on it and his sword hit the ground below, decapitating it and causing a bunch of black smoke to block out Jaune's sight for a moment as he pushed himself upright.

The kill reminded him vaguely of a chicken he had once had to put down back home, but he refocused quickly. Glancing back at his team, who were for some reason, also much smaller -or was he bigger somehow- and noticed that they were already at Crescent Rose, with Ember Cilica already reaching down to give Ruby a path up into Yang's cockpit.

"Blake? Yang?! Is everyone alright?"

He yelled out to them but got no response other than the air around him shaking with a thunder-like rumble that seemed to get the attention of the others… If the way that their Arks turned in his direction was any indication.

But, where had his comms system gone? Why couldn't he hear the others?

There wasn't time to think about it as a sudden weight slammed into him from behind. It threw him forward, and he very nearly fell to his knees at the sudden weight but kept himself upright as he stumbled forward.

Glancing back, he saw the Humanoid Grimm that Pyrrha Nikos had been fighting, now with its teeth -which were longer than he remembered seeing them- and its claws -which were similarly different sizes to what he remembered- embedded into his shoulder.

He let out a grunt of pain and allowed Crocea Arca's sword to tumble from his grip, raising both of his hands to his shoulder to push the Humanoid Grimm off of him. Rolling his shoulder, he felt like it was a little stiff now, but he could feel his Aura taking care of it.

How exactly his Aura was fixing him when it usually wasn't able to fix his Ark?

He didn't bother thinking about it.

With a better view of the Humanoid Grimm, he could tell that Pyrrha Nikos had put it through the ringer. It was currently still covered in cuts -even if they were slowly closing as a dark, purple-black liquid bubbled out of them- and he thought he saw… Was that the top half of Epariti's spear still embedded in the Humanoid Grimm's shoulder blade?

He didn't have time to examine it any further, however. He was forced to put his guard up as the Humanoid Grimm dashed forward, wildly swiping at him with its claws, a shout of anger escaping its weirdly human-like face.

When he blocked its arms with the instincts Yang had drilled into him throughout their sparring practice, he visibly watched a tail grow out of the backside of the Humanoid Grimm in an instant, shooting forward at speed with a pointed tip -unlike that of a Creep's tail- as it tried to stab into his chest.

Pushing the Humanoid Grimm's arms up into the air with his own, he freed his hands up enough to grab the base of the tail just before the tip could spear into his stomach.

With a roar of his own, he grabbed tight with one hand and pulled with the other, kicking out into the Grimm's torso to add some extra force to the move. He could feel Grimm-flesh tearing under his hands as he ripped the sharpened spike of Grimm-bone off and threw it behind him, already dissolving into black smoke.

Pushing forward, he took Yang's lessons into account and put pressure on the Humanoid Grimm, which was actually fairly close to his current height. Throwing a jab forward, he intended to stun the Humanoid Grimm, but it ducked to the side and threw a punch back of its own, Grimm-bone spikes forming atop its knuckles.

Blocking the attack at the wrist to avoid the spikes, Jaune threw it out to the side, opening a small gap for him to press forward again as he aimed an uppercut at the side of the Humanoid Grimm's ribcage… Or the Grimm equivalent to one, at least.

He was blocked, however, by a bit of Grimm plating that grew out of the bubbling black skin of the Humanoid Grimm. It rebuffed his attack, and as it twitched as well -the only warning he got that something was about to happen- he was forced to dodge backwards as a blade shot out said Grimm-bone plating, aimed at his chest.

He threw himself to the side as much as he could, but the growing spike shot forward, scraping across his chest. But even though it had connected, it did… Not a great deal to him. It barely even stung if he was being honest.

Jaune wasn't good enough at hand-to-hand combat to break through its ever-changing, at-will defences, but for the same reason that he was faster and stronger, now, the Humanoid Grimm didn't seem to be able to hurt him much either.

They continued to trade blows even as the realisation sunk into him, and from the truly hateful scream of anger the Grimm released after a while, Jaune could tell that the Humanoid Grimm was starting to realise much the same.

His newfound strength and agility -something he lacked before due to sheer inexperience with his Ark- meant that he even sometimes had the opportunity between attacks to glance at the battlefield and take stock of the situation.

Fireteam JSBYRR looked like they had backed back up to the line of Arks that was immobile but still firing the occasional shot into the remaining Grimm, and Pyrrha… Now that he was fighting the Humanoid Grimm, he could see what looked like a swarm of individual metal pieces -connected only by the black light of what he assumed to be her Semblance- practically flying around the battlefield, attacking the other Grimm.

The Humanoid Grimm had noticed Pyrrha as well, and Jaune could feel its desperation rising as each of its attacks got less and less accurate, and Jaune got more and more solid hits from attacks that had previously been glancing blows.

It was right after Jaune noticed Pyrrha finishing off the King Taijitu Swarm that the Humanoid Grimm let out a scream of pure malice towards the sky. He saw that the Tempest floating above the coast started moving away from the shore right after.

With the Humanoid Grimm distracted, Jaune reared back and threw a solid right hook that crashed into the Grimm-bone facial plate. The Humanoid Grimm stumbled back from his attack, and Jaune could see its red eyes flickering slightly as it screamed and thrashed about. Almost simultaneously, a siren went off from Beacon.

Glancing over to the school -more specifically to the slowly-opening bulkhead doors in the side of the cliff face- he saw a purple glow growing brighter and brighter. Where usually it would be launched by momentum into the ocean around Vale, Broomstick came flying out at top speed covered in the purple energy of Professor Goodwitch's Semblance.

Water was pushed to the side, and the Ark itself was running as if it was half as heavy as usual, as Professor Goodwitch used her telekinesis to speed her movements up and increase how far each step propelled her.

It was then that both of them seemed to realise that the game was over for the Humanoid Grimm now that the teachers were active again. The Humanoid Grimm let out a scream so full of hatred and anger, all directly aimed at Jaune…

He felt the hairs on his body standing on end as he met the Humanoid Grimm's eyes, seeing the promise of a slow and painful death within them. With one final roar of frustration, it took a swipe at his face with both hands which caused him to block with both arms, obscuring his vision…

And then black smoke went everywhere, covering the entire area around where he had been fighting, suffusing almost 9 whole city blocks in opaque black smoke… And the Humanoid Grimm was gone, as if it had evaporated at will.

With Jaune's fight suddenly over, he watched in shock as Epariti continued mopping up the rest of the Grimm now that Pyrrha was unfettered by the Humanoid Grimm. Add on the fact that Broomstick was now there as well…

It felt like a single moment to Jaune, but it likely took only around a minute before the fighting fell silent, with the rest of Grimm being killed… Except for the Tempest, which he can see slinking away through the sky over the open ocean, way too far for anyone to go attack it.

It seemed that the giant, squid-looking Grimm would survive to see another day.

It was with this newfound safety, the fact that the threat of attack has been pushed back and defeated… Jaune finally gave himself the chance to inspect himself. He had been running on pure adrenaline the whole time, putting off the question of 'how' and 'why' he was able to keep fighting… But now, he had to know.

Taking a look at himself, he… Didn't know what to say.

As he raised his arms in front of himself, he could see that they were massive, and made from semi-transparent energy, a few shades deeper than the usual Goldy-White his Aura usually was.

Looking over his entire body, he raised his hands to his head to inspect that by touch, he quickly realised that for some reason this body he was… Inside of? Had manifested? Whatever it was, he was somehow sure that it was around 60 meters tall, some innate sense of scale that he hadn't had before making it seem obvious.

It made sense that most of the Grimm seemed smaller, then. Arks were at maximum only around 45 meters tall… Had he known that before? Or was whatever was telling him that he was 60 meters tall letting him get a feel for the normal height of an Ark? He couldn't quite tell.

It also -for some reason- wasn't just the outline of a human body. It was the figure akin to the knights of old, decked head to toe in armour like the ones in the stories his mother used to read to him… But the armour was the same colour, the same shade of gold the body was made out of, meaning that much of it blended together.

Then there was also the fact that as he looked down at his chest, he could see his real body just… Floating inside of his chest, where his heart usually was, mimicking the movements this giant, golden body made. It was tiny, however, small enough that with whatever eyes or point-of-view he was using, his real body was barely visible.

He could feel his breathing speeding up as a sort of panic came to the fore now that his adrenaline was fading.

What was happening to him?

Why was this happening to him?

What should he do now?

Was this a good thing, or should he be worried?

Just what the hell was going on?!

Before he could get too far into his head, he spotted an Ark walking directly towards him. It took him a moment to realise which one it was -his mind too unfocused and holy shit he felt so tired- but when he realised that it was The Long Memory -Admiral Ozpin's Ark- he tried to straighten up…

Only to realise that even The Long Memory was only up to the bottom of his chest. In his panic, however, his legs -which were giant, and solid enough to hold him up, but somehow also ethereal enough to not damage the buildings beneath him- collapsed from under him as his giant, golden, knight-shaped body fell to its knees.

The Long Memory sped up at that, a hand coming to hold Jaune's giant body up as the front hatch of the Ark opened up, revealing Admiral Ozpin. He could see a smile on Ozpin's face that felt like such an odd combination of pride, excitement, and concern that it threw him off a little.

He could feel the thrumming energy within him -and all around him- starting to calm now that the danger had passed and his adrenaline finally left him, the threat of the Grimm gone for sure now, if even Admiral Ozpin had enough time to check on him.

Jaune blinked… And then almost threw up as his perception was suddenly altered, the 'eyes' that he had been getting his visual inputs from swapping in the blink of an eye to his regular, meat-body ones. Admiral Ozpin saw something that Jaune didn't as he started blinking and trying to adjust to the sudden shift and leaned forward, catching Jaune out of the air.

'Oh, that's what felt weird, my big body was vanishing…'

Admiral Ozpin dragged Jaune into the cockpit of The Long Memory and sat him down against one of the walls, patting him on the shoulder. The older man gave him a comforting smile as he then moved and sat back in the pilot's seat, the cockpit doors closing a moment later.

"Well, Mr Arc. That was quite the morning for everyone, wasn't it? I would give you congratulations on your accomplishments today -which are much, much more than you could know- but in truth, I don't think you would hear me…"

Admiral Ozpin was correct, of course.

Jaune was already way too passed out to hear anything the man said.


GO AND LOOK AT THE ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN VERSION OF THIS CHAPTER TO SEE SOME ABSOLUTELY PEAK ARK I COMMISSIONED FROM A MATE OF MINE!


AND THERE WE GO!

This is THE chapter, THE idea, THE moment, that I have been waiting for, for SO LONG now! It took us 29 Chapters to get up to the first thing I planned for this story!

I am so excited that you guys are up to it now as well, and I am so excited to keep writing this for you!

As a celebration of reaching this massive shift in the story, I'd like to tell you guys something.

This is the start of Volume 3 for Remnant Light, and as of posting this chapter, AO3 tells me it currently has 137k Words posted (with 10 chapters backlog :D).

I have plans for a totally original plot for up to a theoretical Volume 9!

I hope that you guys are just as excited to read what's to come as I am to write and share it, and I cannot WAIT to see you all next week so that I can really start throwing down some explanations about what the FUCK just happened!

Once again, thank you all so much for reading, and I will see you guys in another 7 Days.

:D

PS: The next chapter really starts to showcase the AU/Butterfly Effect that the backstory of the world had even more so than just Grimm being big, especially shown through the behaviour of someone who has seen it all…