Knox: ...

King: What?

Knox: The hell?

King: What?

Knox: He just... and he...

King: Don't spoil it.

Knox: Is this a thing in your version of their timeline?

King: Yep.

Knox: That's... kind of scary, dude.

Inspiration: n/a (Haven't seen that in a while)

/\

And so, the next world began its run.

The scene opened to a black screen.

Coco smirked a bit as the screen opened, "We seem to get those a lot."

They heard Jaune speaking through the void, "I always wanted to be a hero. I wanted to make a difference."

A green line ran across the middle of the screen.

"To most, this meant going to a Huntsmen Academy like Beacon."

Ruby crossed her arms in a moment of thought, "So, this Jaune didn't go to Beacon?"

There was a sense of sadness among his friends in the room. If he hadn't attended Beacon, they'd have never met.

"To others, they join the military."

The line moved across the center again.

Nora got a little antsy, "Okay, seriously, what's with the line?!"

Ren thought it over for a second, "It… kind of looks like a heart monitor."

"But for me…"

They heard a quick charging sound before the screen seemed to light up with an electrical overcharge. After a moment, the line returned taking a different path, indicating a heartbeat.

Pyrrha smiled and clasped her hands together, "Oh! I get it! Jaune is a doctor in this reality."

"It meant taking a different path."

The line started to flow across again. This time the line split apart and created an outline of a symbol few of them had ever seen. Then, the line flowed away and the symbol formed within it. It resembled a straight sword with two snakes coiling up the blade before resting their heads on the cross guard. The center of the guard had a crow skull set into its form.

Jaune felt a chill run up his spine. "Oh! Oh…"

Velvet turned to the young knight, a bit concerned by his reaction, "Is that bad?"

"No. Maybe? It's a special group back home called the Plague Walkers."

"That sounds pretty bad."

"They're travelling doctors that go around healing the sick and wounded."

"Oh. Um… never mind?"

Coco leaned forward to look around Velvet to see the knight, "Okay… then what's the catch?"

Jaune sighed, "The catch is that they're notorious for being a gambit. People that like to fight become warriors. People that want to help others become doctors. Plague Walkers could be any one, literally any one. All you need is medical knowledge and practical understanding. How they use it is up to them."

"Are there any back in Arcadia?"

"Not really. You don't see them too often in the kingdoms or large settlements with dedicated hospitals."

The Jaune on screen continued, "And it turns out, I have a knack for this kind of stuff."

The void faded off to show a patch with the symbol in question on an armband. The camera pulled back and showed a man in a dark tunic and pants. Every inch of the man's body was covered head to toe. Hands covered by gloves and his head obscured by a tight, dark hood that hugged his head. He also wore a wide hat and a mask with a beak over the lower half of his face.

Yang took in a sharp inhale, "That's a weird looking mask."

The camera pulled back again to show the man wrapping bandages around a man's arm, "Try to take it easy for the next few weeks." The voice revealed the man in the mask was Jaune. "Luckily, harvest ended recently."

The man Jaune was helping smiled to the masked doctor, "Yeah. Lucky enough~ Thanks again, Doc."

"You can thank me by not being so reckless. Charging a Grimm like that will probably only get you killed." Jaune stood straight again and placed the remaining bandaging away.

Ruby smiled, "Looks like we got lucky and this Jaune is a good guy after all."

The man smiled toward his healer, "You sure you can't stick around? You'd be a real help around here."

"I don't doubt it. But if I stay, who will help the man lying on the path covered in blood? Who will help the child, lost and alone in the woods? You don't need my help anymore, but they do."

"That why you're always traveling around?"

"That's the idea."

The man laughed, "One of those noble types. I get it. Go on. We understand."

Jaune bowed lightly and silently turned away, walking off into the forest.

Yang grinned and leaned back in her chair with her arms behind her head, "Not bad. Sweet look and acts cool."

Tai nodded, "Now, we just have to wait for how this goes wrong."

Jaune walked through the woods without fear. Then…

Caw!

Jaune looked up into the branches to find a raven looking down toward him in the branches. Its eyes were red as blood and its gaze cold as ice.

Qrow's eyes narrowed. Was this Raven in her bird form, or a simple bird that followed him?

Jaune stared at the bird for a minute before turning away and walking down the path. Within moments, he was surrounded by bandits.

One of the bandits grinned at his 'mark' and laughed, "Long way from the kingdoms, aren't you?"

Jaune was silent.

"What? You mute or something?" After a moment, the bandit rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You found yourself in Branwen territory. Hand over your valuables and we'll let you leave in one piece."

Qrow sighed, "Of course they'd be Raven's stooges."

Jaune didn't answer.

This just made the lead mad. "Well?! You think we're joking?" He pulled heavy pistol and pointed it toward Jaune, "Hand it over or we'll take it from your corpse!"

Jaune let out a breath and reached into his bag.

"That's better."

As the lead approached with gun forward toward his target, Jaune suddenly spun the bandit around and lightly pushed a needle toward the man's neck. "Do you know what would happen if I push a syringe's worth of air into one of your arteries all at once? If you're lucky, you might survive. But I doubt you will." Gone was any sense of care. Jaune was cold, a hellish man that could kill a man in countless ways without effort.

Everyone went stiff in shock hearing him like that. A doctor of all things speaking like that was scary.

The bandit lead started to panic, "You… You can't just…"

"I can, actually." Jaune lightly dragged the needle along the man's neck. "It would be so easy. Might get it to burst if I'm fast enough. Can you imagine it? One little needle causing you to bleed out from the inside."

The mental images this created made many of the viewers sick. It was a horrifying scene of the man dying in the forest without more than a small puncture in his neck.

Jaune held the man there in silence for a moment before continuing. "Now, I'll make it simple. You drop your weapon, and I'll drop mine."

The bandit glowered but couldn't really fight this. He dropped his gun to the ground, defeated. Jaune moved the needle away from the man's neck and pushed him away.

Jaune crouched and grabbed the gun from the ground, "It takes a special kind to attack and try to mug a doctor."

Qrow sighed a bit after his prerequisite drink from his flask, "To be fair, he doesn't exactly look like a doctor."

The bandit growled before swapping it for a grin, "A doctor, huh? Well, doc, if you think we're done here, you're wrong." The rest of the bandits pointed their weaponry toward Jaune, and the lead drew a smaller pistol he had hidden away in his boot. "Always pays to be prepared."

Jaune glanced among the bandits. The tension seemed to build up to Jaune's reply, "I agree." The camera pulled away and they heard the sound of gunfire. When it returned to the ground level, Jaune was standing where he had been before but the bandits around him were all grounded, bloodied and broken. Black feathers were scattered about their bodies.

Ruby shivered a bit in fear, "What happened?"

"If I had to guess," Ren replied, "whatever just happened is going to be important and shown to us later."

Jaune looked around at the bodies before starting to walk passed them. He didn't say a word, just stepped over the body of the lead bandit and continued down the path. As he walked down the path, he soon found a large bandit camp set nearby. "That must be the Branwen Tribe then…" He walked off toward the structure and the camera pulled back to show the raven from before resting on a branch above him. The bird spun its head to the side, looking to the camera, before flying off again. A black feather fell, acting as a transition to the interior of the camp.

Within the barrier, Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury stood at the center as they met with Raven. Emerald and Mercury looked the same as the versions in the seats, however Cinder was not. Her dress was adjusted and now sported a long, left sleeve. A patch was placed over the left side of her face, but a scar was clearly formed beyond it.

Mercury dropped back out of a relaxed stance, "What the hell happened to her?"

Emerald's eyes went wide and glanced to Cinder. Seeing her that scarred… It seemed impossible to her. Cinder was too powerful to be so beaten up. Right?

This scene did not sit well with Cinder, either.

Cinder spoke to Raven, who stood on an elevated platform by her tent, "I think you'll find my proposal is mutually beneficial."

"And what benefits would we receive? All I'm hearing is a veiled threat if we choose not to help you."

"As I said, mutual benefit." Cinder made her threat clearer by creating a ball of flames in her hand.

The scene was tense. The camera showed everyone inching toward their weapons or drawing them in the case of blades. One wrong move would result in a brawl. Everything seemed to build to a fight, until a cry cut through the air. Everyone turned to the source and found a raven with blood red eyes perched atop the bandit leader's tent.

With the camp's attention on the bird, they didn't notice Jaune standing in the center of the crowd. "Take me to your sick and wounded."

Yang growled a little in her chair, "Okay, seriously, what's with that bird?"

"That's a good question…" Qrow's previous theories were out. The bird wasn't Raven, though it was a raven, and it clearly wasn't a random bird. "There's more going on here."

Raven jumped a bit at the sudden appearance of this young man, "And… you are?"

Jaune looked up toward the bandit leader, "I am Jaune Arc of the Plague Walker Corp. Take me to your sick and wounded."

"Is that name supposed to mean something to me?"

Cinder growled at this intruder, "Listen. I think it would be best for you to go. We're in the middle of something." Jaune ignored her, which just pissed her off. She swung her hand and the fireball flew toward the man that insulted her. The camera followed as the fire was sliced in half by a red katana blade. Raven had intercepted the attack.

Yang, Tai, and Qrow were left surprised. Raven was never the type to save people, having a sink or swim mentality. Why save someone she didn't know and who was clearly annoying her?

It was clear by her face that Raven was thinking the same thing. "What… what just…?"

Jaune turned bac toward her. "Odd… You weren't supposed to intercept that attack."

The raven on the tent cried out again.

Jaune looked up to the bird in though. "Really now?"

Ruby looked up to the screen in confusion, "Is he… talking to the bird?"

Jaune laughed from behind his mask. "How fortunate for me." Jaune turned toward the blade wielding bandit. "Raven, where are your sick and wounded?"

Raven's breath hitched. She pointed him toward the back of the camp, "Grey tent in the back center."

"Thank you." Jaune walked off and left the group in their confusion.

Cinder looked between the two, confused, "What the hell is going on?"

Jaune looked toward Cinder and his head tilted like that of a bird looking over something, "Are you angry?"

Nora chuckled a bit, "He's taking this a bit far."

Cinder's eye twitched but she took a breath to calm herself down again, "No. But I want my answer from Raven."

Jaune's head returned to a normal position. "Which one?"

Cinder was confused before another cry broke the air. She heard the bandits starting to panic and looked around to a scene of horrifying implications.

Ravens and crows had flocked to the camp, perching over the scene to watch their actions.

Everyone nearly jumped at the mass of feathers, beaks, and talons. They'd never seen so many birds in one place. Yang recoiled a bit at the moment on screen, "What on Remnant is going on?"

Qrow tapped his chair, surprised but calmed thanks to his training and consistent drunken state, "They're all carrion eaters…"

"They're what?"

"Carrion is the dead carcasses you find on the ground, usually decaying. Every one of those birds is a scavenging carnivore, waiting for a kill to pick apart for their next meal."

Ruby nearly threw up at the thought. She knew how nature worked and how it was just that harsh, but this was on a new level. "That's so wrong…"

Qrow sighed and slumped into his chair. In his crow form (and the irony was not lost on him) a part of his brain would react to roadside corpses. Thankfully, it never got farther than a twitch to make him look toward it. And people wonder why I drink…

Cinder looked around at the birds, uncertain what she was seeing, "What on…" Her eyes returned to Jaune, "Who… what are you?"

"I am what many would call a living contradiction, the altruistic sadist. I also happen to have a lot of feathered friends. Every one of which isn't happy that you just tried to kill me."

"You expect me to be afraid of a bunch of birds?"

"Not likely. But what about a magically super charged human that just happens to be able to become one of them?"

Qrow felt a shiver run up his spine. It was likely his secret bird-based ability was out. But… "What did he mean by magically super charged?"

Cinder looked at Jaune, confused, but had to snap out of it as a blood red katana nearly lopped her head off. She retaliated with a fireball, but a gust of storm winds broke the attack, revealing Raven's eyes glowing an electric blue with an electric effect flowing out from her eyes.

Qrow, Ozpin, Glynda, and Ozpin were all frozen with a look of shock on their faces. But they got over it after a moment. There was no way Raven was one of the Maidens. But… it did seem like something she might do, killing a previous Maiden and attaining the power by being the last thing she thought of… They would have questions for her when they got back.

Cinder jumped back in surprise. "So, you were the Spring Maiden."

Pyrrha blinked in surprise, a question lingering, "Wait… like the fairytale?"

Jaune's head tilted again, "So that's what it's called. Then you're one of these Maidens as well?" He shook his head after a moment, "Doesn't matter. Go away and pick this up later. I have patients to attend to and you causing a fight will only make things worse."

Cinder growled, "I will not be ordered around by you." She jumped a bit as the hoard of birds screamed out at her hostility. She knew there was too many, and Raven, the Spring Maiden, falling under the same influence did not help matters. "We're not done here." She spun on her heel and her cronies followed after her in fear of the mass of birds. Cinder's anger was boiling over and threatened to explode. When one of the bandits, a woman with a dark brown vest and asymmetrical pants with one side rolled up her thigh, accidently tripped her, she set out to explode on her.

As Cinder raised her hand, Raven slashed forward and cut into her skin with a deep wound. Raven glared toward the camp's visitor, "Big mistake." Bigger than she knew. The camera tracked as the birds glared toward her, wings spread wide. The screen cut away as a few of them jumped from their perch.

Everyone went stiff. Was… was it implying what they think it was?

When it returned, one of the birds was hopping around the ground up to Jaune as he patched up a bandit sitting on a makeshift operating table. The bird hopped onto the table, before fluttering up to rest on his shoulder. "That should do it. Rest up for the next few days and avoid reopening the wound. Avoid strenuous work for the next mouth. Take over cooking duty or something."

The bandit chuckled nervously, "Right… Will do."

"That's the last of them," As Jaune walked out, the bandits watched in a mix of horror, gratitude, and confusion. Jaune walked on passed the bandits and out the door of the camp. The camera moved along to show a mass of birds picking at something on the ground, a stream of red flowing from the center.

This made many in the audience feel sick to their stomachs. One went into a silent rage (Cough, Cinder, cough). Ruby wasn't as fortunate as before and ended up gagging at the scene.

One of the birds looked up to the camera before it cut out again with a single red flatline traversing the screen.

Jaune's voice carried over the screen one last time with a light chuckle. "Dead on arrival. What a shame."