Knox: That was fast.
King: Been in my head a while. Besides, it's not supposed to be a long one. Just a little bit of fun.
Knox: I can see that. And you call me the twisted one.
King: You got it from somewhere. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the chapter.
Inspiration: Ghost Rider (RWBY)
/\
King shook a little, Oh… this will be interesting.
The screen opened to the new reality. The scene before them showed Jaune propped up against a brick wall. His body was bruised and bloody, clear signs of broken bones and skin. The right side of his face was covered in his blood, a very nasty slash over his eye and forcing it closed. It was very likely he had lost the eye altogether.
This put everyone on edge. It caused too many questions to be asked in their minds and too many painful thoughts coming to mind.
Jaune was breathing heavily, his good eye cast down to the ground. He heard someone approach and looked up toward his new visitor.
Standing above him was a man with dark hair and a set of green eyes that seemed to glow. He was dressed rather smartly for the area, definitely looking out of place outside the kingdoms.
Ren sighed, "This sadly explains his state more."
Blake nodded, "Living outside the kingdoms is notorious for being very harsh."
Jaune coughed, causing a bit of blood to fall on the man's pantleg. "Sorry about that… Uh…"
"My name is Ozymandias."
Ozpin went stiff as a board hearing that name. He had thought the man looked familiar, but having the name confirmed it. This was a previous host of Ozma's cursed reincarnation cycle. The unnerving part was that this man was more than 200 years old.
Jaune tried to chuckle, "Your parents must have hated you."
Ozymandias looked over the injuries. "It's clear a Grimm did not cause this. Who has done this to you?"
Jaune shook his head slightly, "Doesn't matter. I'm going to bleed out soon anyway. Wouldn't even make it to the hospital."
This got each of his friends and even his teachers to feel a sense of pain. It was always hard to see moments like this. Hearing the person just give up, accepting nothing could be done was just painful.
Ozymandias's eyes narrowed a moment, looking into Jaune's good eye. "What if you still had a chance?"
Jaune was silent, looking away. It was as if he refused to let this man get his hopes up.
"I can see it in your eyes. You still have some fight in you. What would you do if you survive? Would you use it as a second chance of life? Or will you avenge yourself?"
Jaune's eye told everything he needed to know. Jaune had been attacked by men that made a habit of causing pain, making people disappear, and destroying families. He spoke up against them, leading to his current situation. He wanted to knock them down a peg.
Roman tapped his chair. "That's what happens when you go in without a way to cover your ass. Especially outside the kingdoms, you'll get yourself roughed up."
"You want justice?"
Jaune was still, but soon nodded.
"Justice may be beyond you, but I can offer you your revenge." Ozymandias held a hand down toward Jaune. "If you take it." A small spark of fire flickered around his hand.
"What was that?" Jaune was a little worried about the way this was going.
Jaune slowly lifted his hand. He let hope in just enough to take this man's offer. The seen went bright white before transitioning to a new location.
The screen now showed Vale at night. The angle showed a motorcycle wheel roll into frame and stopping, a slight vision of frame poking to the side.
Yang laughed a bit to herself. "So, there's my bike." She recognized the paint and style of the bike, even if it was only a little.
"Unless someone else has the bike instead." Blake reminded her. There was every possibility that Yang's bike was owned by someone other than her.
But, Yang was correct in her base assumption as the camera panned up to show her removed her helmet, placing it on her bike. "Now, let's see if this guy Junior really does know everything."
Yang now recognized the moment at hand. This was when she first went to Junior's bar to ask about her mother. There were a few little differences, but so far they were minor and didn't change anything.
Yang made her way inside and looked around, hoping to find Junior and get this over with. Eventually, she found the man in question at the bar and moved across the dance floor. She moved next to him and played it off that she was just ordering a drink from the bartender, "Strawberry Sunrise. No ice. And one of those little umbrellas if you have them."
Junior turned to her and raised an eyebrow, "Aren't you a little young to be in a place like this?"
"Aren't you a little old to have name like Junior?"
"So, you know who I am. But I don't know who you are."
Yang recoiled remembering what was about to happen. She knew it wouldn't look good and likely cause her to get an ear full from her dad.
Yang didn't get the chance to answer as a man ran in from the back. "Boss! You have a visitor."
"I told you to not bother me today. I'm not working…"
"It's the Rider, sir."
Junior nearly jumped in his chair, "What?!"
Yang looked around Junior to the interrupter. "What's going on?" It was partially a way to remind them she was there.
Then, the door to the back burst open. A man dressed in black leather biking attire, complete with face obscuring helmet, walked out to meet them. His shoulders, gloves, and boots were covered in silver spikes. A long chain wrapped over his left should and across his chest to his right side, wrapping around a little over three times.
Ren tapped one heel as he sat. "He looks like the stereotypical biker from a movie. The kind you find in violent gangs."
Yang raised an eyebrow, "The Rider, huh? Wonder what he's about."
Junior was on his feet and looking very nervous. "Rider… Why are you here?"
The Rider turned his head toward him, but said nothing.
"Right…"
Yang moved to the side to get a better look at this Rider. "So… who's your friend, Junior?"
The Rider turned to Yang, causing a chill to run up her spine. Something about him felt unnatural. Almost… unholy.
"Damn. Can't see him and he scares you?" Coco chuckled. "I get he looks like a gang biker or something, but is that any different to the crazy stuff you've all done?"
Blake shrugged, thinking back to their fighting Torchwick and the White Fang, "She has a point."
The Rider turned his head back to Junior who shook his head, telling the man she wasn't associated with him. Then, he turned back to Yang.
Yang shook, but pushed passed it. She was here for a reason, damn it. "Look, I need to borrow Junior a second." She held up her scroll with an old picture of Raven on the screen. "I just want to know where I can find her."
Tai's fist clenched tighter on his chair. He knew about Yang's quest to get answers, but he never saw this go too far or fast. She seemed to have it under a sense of control.
Junior was about to tell her off, but the Rider reached out and grabbed the scroll to get a better look at the woman on the screen. The Rider was quiet, but soon returned the device to her. He started to walk toward the door to the front.
Yang watched him, confused. "Um… where's he going?"
Junior's eyes narrowed. "To hunt her down, if I had to guess. If you're hoping to ask questions, I suggest you find her first."
"Wait, what?!" Yang scrambled to the door in time to see the man mount his motorcycle, a black metal copper, and start to peel out of the parking lot. Yang jumped on her bike and pursued him.
Roman chuckled, "So, it looks like this Rider is either a rogue huntsman or a bounty hunter."
Ozpin sighed. No matter how often he tried, some huntsmen always appear to fall upon a more violent path and planning to take justice into their own hands.
The Rider saw her in his mirror but chose to ignore her, until his attention was needed elsewhere. He heard a loud explosion on the street to the east and he quickly changed direction.
Yang followed close behind, her motorcycle being better designed for sharper turns than his chopper. She wasn't sure what he was up to, but she needed to make something clear to him.
As they arrived on the street in question, the Rider skid his bike to a halt in front of a robbery in progress, and a big one. There had to be at least ten armed attackers hitting one of Vale's largest banks.
Roman huffed and chuckled a bit, "Amateurs. Bank hits are too easy to track and too obvious a hit. Plus the money itself would be useless."
Mercury turned back to the accomplished criminal, "How the hell does that work?"
"Well, people will notice your influx of cash for one. For another, banks can track the Lien's numbers. You ever go in and se them scan any Lien before taking or giving? That's them putting the numbers into the system. Anything you grab, they'll blacklist after a while and make it useless."
The Rider seemed to silently growl before standing up from his bike and walking up to the bank.
Yang arrived soon after but was caught off guard seeing the heist. "What the heck?" She planned to go and get answers, she hadn't plan to find a heist in progress.
One of the criminals noticed the Rider and leveled his rifle toward the biker, "HEY! You just keep moving and get lost! You hear me?"
The Rider grabbed his chain and removed it from his chest, snapping it against the ground like a whip.
"You want to get killed, tough guy?!" The lookout spotted Yang still on her bike behind the Rider. "And you too, blondie! Get lost or else!"
The camera zoomed down to his hand as the chain seemed to glow between his fingers. He snapped the chair forward and smacking the man's wrist. The criminal fired in a panic, but far off target. The Rider snapped his wrist around again, his chain following his motion and wrapping around the man's neck. The Rider started to pull on the chain and squeeze the air out of his neck.
Emerald felt a certain appreciation seeing this man's fighting style. Her kusarigama fighting style used a similar principle of tangling up her enemies and keeping her opponent from fighting back effectively.
Sienna felt a stronger kinship, having a fighting style far more identical to the version on screen.
The Rider's hand seemed to smoke before he snapped the chain again. A bright orange glow flowed down the chain, reaching the end and igniting the man's head in flame.
This caused many in the audience to jump in shock at the suddenness of the fire.
Now it was Cinder's turn to appreciate the moment.
That wouldn't last.
The criminal screamed in pain and fell to the ground as the Rider's chain flew back to him. The heist team heard the commotion and sent three out to deal with the issue. One fired a heavy shotgun slug at the Rider and cracked his helmet's faceplate. The Rider had to take a step back to keep his balance. One of the men tried to douse the fire but found it to be impossible. Whatever was fueling the fire, nothing was putting it out.
Now Cinder was invested.
The Rider found his helmet useless now, the armored faceplate cracked. He removed the helmet to reveal his face. The Rider was shown to be Jaune Arc, complete with a scar down the right side of his face and reaching his lower jaw. Surprisingly, his eye was spared the damage.
Some of the audience was taking about Jaune's powers or his look. However, Ozpin focused on something else. Ozymandias, who was over 200 years old, had met Jaune in this reality. Yet the Jaune on screen seemed to have not aged very much in all this time. The most likely answer to Ozpin was that he and this old soul had swapped places in the timeline. The other option unnerved him, however. Was it possible that the old life had given Jaune some form of magic that kept him alive all this time? And if so, what had been given to the young man?
Jaune glared at the men and started to raise his free hand. He pointed toward the three currently not burning. "You and your cohorts have wrought pain and destruction in your wake."
One of the men laughed, "And let me guess. You're going to bring us in? You think you're some kind of superhero?"
This got Jaune hopeful.
Jaune slowly shook his head. "No."
Cue deflated, but also confused Jaune Arc.
Jaune's chain started to glow again as he swung it at the three. One was hit square in the jaw, causing a serious burn across his face, while the other two were knocked off balance with their associate being thrown into them. Jaune swung the chain back and over his head before slamming it onto the ground beneath them, each link creating a burst of fire as it hit the ground before erupting at the end and knocking all three to the ground.
The remaining six members of the heist bust out of the bank to find four of their associates on the ground burning and/or broken. The lead looked over to Jaune, "You the one responsible for this?" He didn't exactly seen broken up about it, all things considered.
"Wow…" Yang huffed. "That guy sounds like a real ass."
"On the contrary," Roman took a puff from his cigar before continuing, "he's likely only connected to those goons by pay. It's common for small crime groups to gather freelance talent to fill out their ranks for a job. Probably doesn't even know his name."
Jaune snapped his chain back an spun it to return to a resting placement in his hand.
"Neat trick. But I wonder what good it'll really do you now."
Jaune swung the chain back over his shoulder and his foot dug into the ground. He turned slightly and pointed to the leader of the heist, causing the group to pause a moment. "Carmine Ignis. The blood of innocence soaks your hands and your aura is tainted by your deeds. Your sins have been counted, and I am here to wreak vengeance upon your soul!"
Those in the audience with any sense of guilt or an extensive amount of sins felt a chill run up their spines. Something about what he just said scared them. There was no rationality behind why. Just the words, his inflection, something! It scared them all.
Carmine was silent for a moment before bursting out laughing. "Seriously? What? You some kind of dark and edgy hero from the old comics? Get real. You knocked the shit out of four goons, but I'll warn you to be fair. I've got an aura and a semblance. You want to risk fighting that?!"
Jaune cracked his neck, unimpressed.
This just pissed off Carmine. "Fine. OPEN FIRE BOYS!"
The six standing criminals all fired their weapons toward Jaune. The scene slowed as the first of the bullets started to approach, only for his chain to fly off his body and surround his body, catching the larger bullets between the links and knocking the small pellets away. The chain started to glow around each bullet as Jaune grabbed the chain and swung it fast enough to send the bullets flying back and knocking the five other goons down with a set of burning bullets ripping through them.
Yang jumped at the scene, "Holy crap that was badass!"
"But how is he doing that?" Ruby asked, to no avail. How would anyone know?
Cinder was mentally taking notes. For the first time in a while, she was enjoying this.
Carmine looked to his former goons in shock, allowing Jaune to get in close and grab his jacket before lifting him into the air. Jaune's glare showed just how pissed he was, "Carmine Ignis! Vengeance shall be…"
Before he could finish, Carmine fired a Dust-boosted short barrel shotgun at point blank into Jaune's face. The power behind that kind of weapon would rip Jaune's head apart into a bloody mist.
"Oh, come on!" Yang groaned. "He was too badass to go out like that."
Jaune's strength faded and Carmine was returned to the ground, his grip following soon after. Carmine laughed and turned to see the stunned Yang still nearby. "What have we here? You best get out of here, blondie." He pointed his gun toward her, "Or else."
Yang's instincts kicked in and she adopted her fighting stance with her gauntlets forming over her arms. However, seeing a man decapitated in front of her shook her a little more than she'd prefer.
"I'm surprised she can even work on instinct seeing that." Winter shuddered. She remembered old video messages the White Fang would send out after executing Schnee board or family members. It was something she actively tried to repress in her mind.
Carmine laughed and started to walk toward Yang. "Last chance blondie! Unless you want to die too!"
A chain suddenly swung around Carmine's neck and snapped against his skin. Carmine, in shock, tried to fight off the chain but each time he tried to grab it, it would heat up and burn him.
"Wait… But how?!" Yang's eyes were wide in shock.
No one was really sure what was going on.
Carmine was dragged back and spun around to see the headless body of Jaune Arc still moving. Jaune pulled the chain harder and grabbed Carmine's head from either side, squeezing against his skull.
How do you rationalize what they were seeing? A headless man was not only still alive, but still fighting the man that blew his head off!
A spark formed at the base of Jaune's neck before erupting in a pillar of fire. Small structures of bone formed at this neck before creating the missing pieces of the spine. As it reached where his skull would be, the bone spread out and reformed his skeletal head and jaw. All the while, flames crackled around his head and, once fully formed, flames sparked to life within his eye sockets to take the eyes' place.
Carmine was too terrified to scream at this point.
As were many in the audience. Especially those with more tainted souls.
"Carmine Ignis! Look into my eyes!" Jaune squeezed down harder, forcing the criminal's eyes open in pain and shock.
Carmine began to relive moments in his life. Every theft, every beating, every kill. The only differences were that he was on the receiving end and that it was happening at once. The pain of broken legs, lost kneecaps, bullets ripping through flesh, blades digging into muscle and scraping bone, everything he'd ever done was being repaid onto his soul. He felt it all, and so he did all he could. He screamed in agony, horror, and pain.
Cinder's notes went silent. This… this scared her again. Everything she'd ever done forced upon her? She started to count out everything she'd ever done. The power that would hold over her was staggering. Emerald and Mercury had similar reactions, though likely having a smaller sin count.
Carmine's screams stopped soon after, his very soul destroyed by the amount of pain he had endured in less than a second.
Safe to say, the viewers were scared shitless.
Jaune unwrapped his chain and tossed Carmine onto the ground. Jaune turned to Yang, who flinched in fear at the flaming skeleton staring right at her. Jaune held his hand up and pointed toward Yang.
Yang felt a shiver run up her spine. She had gone on more than a few rampages when people messed with her hair, even if they weren't necessarily bad guys.
Yang shook, a similar thought running through her mind.
Jaune finally spoke, "Yang Xiao Long. Your fists are shaped in the crucible of human pain. However, though your soul is stained by this pain, your sins are few. You shall be spared."
Yang fell back in her chair, relief flooding over her.
The Yang on screen was still in shock at everything happening to the point that she was silent.
Jaune returned to his bike, which transformed with him sitting atop the seat again. The front of the bike reformed as a demonic skull and the wheels seemed to smoke before bursting into flames.
Mercury chuckled a bit, "Damn, that's cool."
The engine revving snapped Yang out of her shock. She called to him before he could leave. "Hang on! I need to say something!"
Jaune turned toward her, one foot on the ground to signal he wasn't leaving yet.
"The woman in the picture you saw before. I need see her. If you're going to do…" she looked over to Carmine's body, "that… to her, I…"
Jaune interrupted her. "You're going to ask me to spare her?"
Yang tried to steel her nerves before the burning skeleton man. "She owes me answers. Why she left… So much she needs to answer for."
"I see…" Jaune was silent a moment. "Know this, for I am the Spirit of Vengeance. If your target's sins prove too great, I will wreak vengeance upon her as any other."
Qrow sighed. "Well, she's doomed."
"Such is the mission given to me by Ozymandias. And if you get in my way, count your sins and pray that your soul will be shown mercy in the next life." A hellish tire screech later and Jaune was tearing across downtown Vale at top speed.
The camera tracked him as he moved through the city at night. Soon it showed him approach a sheer cliff at the edge of the city. He leaned back and his bike leaned with him. Once the front wheel hit the cliff, his bike ran up the sheer, 90-degree face of rock as though it weren't affected by petty things like gravity.
Considering what they'd seen in this reality, this wasn't even registering on the too out there to keep quiet scale.
Soon, Jaune flew over the side of the cliff and onto the court of Beacon Academy. The camera remained in position, but his fire showed as he drove to the building and scaled its walls to the tallest tower.
The camera now moved into the building to show Ozpin working late in his office.
Ruby shrunk in her chair a bit, "Is Professor Ozpin in trouble?" She remembered him saying he'd made more mistakes than anyone on Remnant, so this worried her.
Ozpin looked up from a paper to find Jaune standing on the other side of his desk, flaming skull and all. "So… the Rider finally arrives."
Jaune nodded. "What mission do you have for me, Ozymandias?"
Ruby blinked once in confusion, "What?"
Many did. All but two, to be exact. Ozpin and Oscar knew what was going on, though Oscar more about the process than the actual reason why it was happening.
"I told you, my name is Ozpin."
"Your body is a reincarnate. Your soul, though morphed with your new lives, remains within."
Ozpin sighed. "I can't persuade you to call me by my own name… Fine." Ozpin stood and turned to the window. "Though I hate to ask this of you, I need you to remain close by. I have reason to believe an as of yet unknown group plans to attack Vale. Do what you do best, Jaune."
The screen went black, a loud roaring engine screaming through the darkness.
Chills ran up their spines in fear. This unyielding force of vengeance and hellfire would likely haunt the dreams of any that saw him this screen. But to all of the viewers, it was just another world on this road of the multiverse. They were thankful their world didn't have that.