29RWBY
This will be a fairly short story set in the RWBY series with a few small influences from both the real life legends behind the characters, and some very small influences from the Fate franchise (mostly to facilitate the early portion of the main plot), that I'll write in part as an attempt to get back into writing shape, in addition to looking for a beta-reader for my stories. The past few years have been problematic for me to say the least, spent a good chunk of them sick, the rest working my ass off to pay my bills. As such I have had neither the time, nor the mood, to write much, but now my health is a lot better and my work situation is a lot more stable, allowing for me to indulge more in my hobbies again.
22-11-2022 AN: okay so I went back to finally change a few things, such as fixing spelling mistakes etc. so by now the story is almost 100k words and my early expectations of a relatively short story that I initially had are fully gone. Expect this to grow a lot larger over time, and hopefully enjoy reading.
Short summary: Jaune Arc, while looking for a book to help him get stronger to have a better chance at a huntsman academy, finds a book promising to make him 'the best version of himself', but will it actually do that or is young Jaune in for a surprise?
Arc Mansion Library, early afternoon
Jaune Arc was a young man with a dream, to become a hunter, a hero, like his ancestors were. He already had it planned out, his great-grandfather's sword, currently hanging on the wall over the hearth as if it was a relic, but due to good maintenance still almost as sharp as the day it had last been wielded in battle thirty years ago, would be the weapon he would take with him, he'd already managed to forge beacon transcripts which his sister-in-law had managed to get admitted through official channels as a favour in return for him helping her with his sister's and her child wish, and had even gotten a reply of admittance over on his personal scroll already.
However now there was an issue: while he was physically fairly well trained, having exercised as much as he could get away with without alerting his parents in addition to his already labour heavy life so far building up a decent amount of muscle, he had no way of actually learning how to wield a weapon in combat, what with his father having forbidden him from training and warning off everyone in town who could have trained him. So now here he was, only a month before the entrance ceremony, hurriedly searching the library for any book that might give him enough of an advantage to fake it till he made it at the academy. It couldn't be that hard to find such a book in the library of a family which had been known as one of Vale's premier warrior families for centuries right?
Arc Mansion Library, early evening
''Why!'' And there we find young Jaune Arc on the floor with his hands in his hair ''I've been looking for almost 6 hours already and nothing but fantasy tales, history books, weapon forging instructions and books on how to most effectively run a small economy, nothing, absolutely nothing, on anything actually directly related to combat!'' as he finishes his rant he slams his fist against one of the shelves by accident only for the sound of a gear working to start up.
The young man turns around, taken by surprise as he now sees a wooden plank on an empty bit of shelf being pulled away to reveal a few books, he takes the top one 'Supernatural secrets of the old world, by Joffrey d'Arc' Jaune stares dumbly, realizing it is likely some kind of fantasy book, but also knowing this is his last chance at something that might actually work, and as such he opens the first page and starts reading.
''How to weaponize a stick till its as strong as iron', interesting but I've got a high quality steel sword to use, might be useful later on though, 'how to turn water poisonous to grim and other demonic beings'… yeah no way in hell am I ignoring this book, if it's actually real that would be great, though not good enough to close the skill gap between myself and others… 'become the best possible version of yourself in three easy steps' okay this is almost too coincidental…''
Upon muttering this, he starts to more closely read this chapter 'One problem with human capability is that when young one has the strength to achieve almost anything, but none of the knowledge or experience to actually use that strength effectively, while once one is old they will have all the knowledge and experience in the world, but none of the strength to put anywhere near enough of said knowledge into practice to any great effect.
However I have found the solution to this, with this ritualistic spell allowing one to become the strongest possible version of oneself while still in a fairly young body. Simply draw a circle in chalk of roughly 2 meters in diameter, put an item or weapon you see yourself using in the future in the centre and put roughly 100 millilitres of blood on it, where-upon standing in the circle you'll recite the phrase 'Wise warrior, answer my call to fight once more, so I may be strong enough to face all challenges without issue.' After this the wisdom gained up until this item stopped being used should be gained.'
As Jaune stares at the book he thinks for a moment before the look in his eye turns into one of realisation ''I'd probably use Crocoa Mors for quite a while, with this I should be able to call upon all the capabilities up until I'm capable enough to switch to something else… at the very least if it works…'' As he sits there thinking a phrase his grandfather used to use a lot comes to mind 'Nothing worth fighting for has ever come about easily or without risk being taken to reach it.'
His face sets into a look of determination as he whispers to the ghost of the long dead man who always believed in him ''No matter what grandpa, I'll make you proud, or die trying.'' As he closes the space back up before grabbing the book away he starts thinking up a plan on how to get everything for the ritual ready by tomorrow as his mother calls out that it's dinnertime. 'Hmm she said she would be cooking something Mistralian today, wonder what it is?'
.
Evening the next day
.
After dinner the previous evening he'd started gathering everything to perform the ritual, waiting till last for getting Crocoa Mors, which he'd only grabbed after his parents left to go visit his sister and her wife in Argus where they would stay for the remainder of the weekend, giving him an easy way to perform the ritual, what with most of his sisters taking the opportunity to go stay at friends houses for the night in sleepovers or go party without parental supervision.
He looks at his left hand where he bandaged the cut he'd made to get the required blood, before pulling out the measuring cup he slowly drips all that he can on the sword before using a paintbrush to get the remainder out and brush it onto the shield. At which point he steps back slightly, ensuring he remains in the circle before starting to chant ''Wise warrior, answer my call to fight once more, so I may be strong enough to face all challenges without issue.'' Upon the end of which he waits tensely.
Nothing happens for the next few seconds, causing him to lose hope, before both the circle and the weapons within shine brightly, blinding the young Arc for the moment in addition to showing him… something?
.
Jaune's mind
.
As he takes in his surroundings he realizes he's seeing something he's never visited before, but after looking up for a second he sees a floating city above him, realizing it can be nothing but Atlas, one of the most powerful cities on Remnant, making him realize he's currently standing in Mantle. Before his attention can drift further he hears what seems to a somewhat heavier, older but most certainly emotional version of his own voice giving out a short cry of rage, causing him to look down again upon a horrifying scene.
Seven people can be seen, but of them at least five seem to be dying and all are injured, while a dozen or more grimm are dissipating around the scene. A dark haired woman with glowing golden eyes is walking to what looks to be a downed older version of himself while a shredded black cape with golden lining floats behind her, a spear made out of flames forming in her right hand ''This would have been so much easier if all of you had just died when you were supposed to, back in Haven. Oh well, now you'll just get to experience it at this point. Say hello to your red-headed little friend when you see her again…''
Meanwhile invisible to her, but not Jaune due to his positioning, the future version of him is gathering some kind of light in his right hand which is gripping the pommel of Crocoa Mors while a dark haired young looking boy on the right of them is slowly standing up, gripping what seems to be a metallic cane with a sword handle, while on the left of them a young man with dark hair with a stripe of pink in it is glowing a dull grey as he slowly grips a pistol and starts aiming it at the woman, who keeps walking forward till she is just in front of him, readying to stab down all the while smirking down at what she believes to be a helpless opponent.
Who then surprises her by stabbing up and hitting her in the chest upon which a blast of energy travels up through the sword, causing an explosive blast from the tip of the sword into the women, heavily damaging her aura at which point the black haired boy shoots the few remaining shots in the pistol into her, the first two breaking what remained of her aura before the third wounds her in her right shoulder, breaking her concentration and causing her to turn slightly with an outcry of agony, meaning that the hit the younger boy is trying to land to hit her in the neck instead of the head.
As she collapses the young boy looks around, tears in his eyes as he sees that one of his friends is now dead, while two more are dying, with him being unable to do anything to help them. Before Oscar's eyes Ren (how does he suddenly know either of those names?!) sinks down dead, the adrenaline that gave him the strength to hold on for one last second having gone while his left hand stills lying on the arm of the girl he loved (how do I suddenly know this?!).
At this point Oscar falls down to his knees and looks at Jaune ''Please Jaune, you can heal yourself or maybe even the others, they might not be dead yet, your semblance could save them. Please, I need you guys!'' as he is doing so the tears start flowing on his cheeks while looking down at the scarred face of his friend, who gives back a sombre smile at him, all the while softly shaking his head, the motion visibly causing him pain.
''It's too late for me Oscar, and sadly enough also for the others…'' his talking is interrupted by him coughing up some blood ''just make sure Cinder is dead and this wasn't all for nothing and if you ever see my family again… please tell them their son died as his ancestors did, with a weapon in hand till his last breath…'' it is interrupted by more coughing ''Go, get to team RWBY, get them to work together with Ironwood, they mean well but…'' before he can finish talking he starts coughing again before falling silent.
While still crying slightly Oscar stands up, runs his hand across his face with his sleeve to dry his tears, moving over to Cinders corpse to ensure she stays dead this time. All the while unaware of the past Jaune watching his own death, horrified by the entire scene as feelings he doesn't understand for people he doesn't, shouldn't recognize start rushing to the forefront, before he is suddenly back near his house, on his knees inside the chalk circle, panting and hurriedly looking around.
As he sits there uncomprehendingly a voice in his head speaks up ''What the fuck just happened, and why did I just get a third person view of my own death at Cinders hands?!'' as said voice is saying this a see-through shape, looking like his future self, but in a far healthier condition than he last saw him. As both of them look at each other stunned, the see through variant speaks up ''Okay what exactly is going on here, I thought I might see my lost friends, maybe some approving or disapproving ancestors, I did not expect my afterlife to be to stand eye to eye with a younger looking version of myself.''
The younger Jaune looks straight at him, still too horrified by the scene that had played out before him to be anything other than numb ''I used a book from the library that said it would grant me the knowledge and capabilities equal to those I would have in the future, believing it to either be a fake or just give me information straight up… now who were those people, what is it that suddenly causes me to feel white and/or red hair would improve somebody's looks, why do I suddenly feel like rushing to find orphans and hug them as tightly as I can while telling them it's going to be okay and what the fuck is up with me feeling like going on a killing spree among Vale's underground with a specific hatred towards anyone with the last name 'Fall'?!''
The seeming ghost shakes his head for a moment trying to come to terms with this ''Given the chance you've possibly given me I'll give you answers before I explain just how bad it can be to use vaguely described supernatural powers, especially with anything involving your own blood.'' He thinks for a moment on where to start ''Now the thing is I have believe it or not encountered something similar to this before, though there it wasn't time travel, more of a cursed task some very infantile gods gave a man to reign in his wife after they ruined her mental health and cursed her for eternity, so I'll explain that bit first before going into the parts related to my friends.''
The living Jaune Arc is giving him a look easily translated into 'please do' ''Okay so first things first, unlike with us the other guy, a wizard called Ozma, didn't get reincarnated into some past version of himself or something, he gets put into the heads of relatively random people who only need to share a similar personality and drive to him at the time of his joining them. While with his possession there are heavy issues for the host, you're in luck, because most of those only started after he'd gone through a large number of hosts already or in some cases are related to his personal curse situation, which we don't have.'' The living Jaune gives a sigh of relief.
''So nothing like one of us absorbing the other or anything, we're safe from that. However an issue will be that because unlike him I am not some kind of fairly powerful mage, my addition will give you far less advantages than his would to a host while additionally also not having the connections to high ranking individuals to keep us out of a madhouse if somebody discovers the whole two minds in one body thing. So once this conversation between us is done, first thing we're going to do is figure out a way how to communicate in your mind between ourselves.'' At this the living Jaune started panicking again.
''You should relax somewhat, as long as we keep it to ourselves we should be fine. The other guy has been living in this manner for millennia and never ended up in an insane asylum, as such he almost certainly will also have a system in place to keep anything from happening when he first joins with somebody and they freak out. So even if somehow everything goes wrong we'll just have to convince him of our situation which shouldn't be too hard with the combination of my knowledge and the sheer personality shift at any time where you would grant me control.''
While the living Jaune is nodding he's still stumped, before he shivers slightly, he hadn't thought ahead beforehand just how cold it would be in the shed, knowing he needed to get a mental conversation with his future self 'Can you hear me now? If yes I'll clean this up quickly and get inside, conversation will be a lot easier there.'
'Yeah I can hear you, so let's get everything cleaned up and I'll answer your questions as well as I can. Do keep in mind, I won't have all the answers, after all the very fact that I was brought here means that at least some things will be different than what they were when I experienced them.' The younger Jaune subconsciously nods his head while washing away the chalk and cleaning up the sword and shield.
.
Late that evening, in the house, after several hours of explaining
.
'So… you are telling me that I somehow faked my way into Beacon successfully, fell in love twice, got rejected by the first and that second love died by the hand of some fire magic loving anarchist where-after you and three friends roamed the world in a journey in which you fought her and her faction several times, saved half a dozen towns from grim invasions, killed some of the most dangerous grim alive, assisted in preventing another kingdom from being overrun, helped save the lives of a number of people on a full train before finally fighting and dying to kill that fire loving anarchist while she was trying to destroy the kingdom of Atlas, all the while picking up companions on the way.'
The future Jaune seemed to sink into grief for a second while listening to the shortened version before thinking on the matter for a moment 'Very over generalized, but yes that is a fairly decent summary of everything we did, though I was in most parts not the main hero, that was usually Ruby or early on Phyrra.' At this the young Jaune's face lights up.
'You mean to tell me that we essentially are like the founder of our house, Jacques d'Arc, brother and travel companion of the legendary Jeanne d'Arc, the warrior maiden of Vale? The peasants that grew to lead the nation of Vale in the reconquering of dozens of lost cities from enemies both human and Grimm, that with half a dozen others faced down hordes of thousands of Grimm with only their blades, shields and their wits, saving the Royal family of Vale in doing so?!' the bright smile on the face of the younger Jaune takes the older one aback for a second before what was really said sinks in on the older man's face.
The future Jaune now looks completely stumped 'I guess you could see it that way, though when experiencing it things certainly didn't feel that way. It always felt more like we were never doing well enough. Don't know yet if this is the same time-line and we're just going to be changing the past or an alternate one, if it's the latter its good to know I did the family name proud if nothing else.'
Both turn more thoughtful now, before the younger seems to get a eureka moment 'So since you've experienced the whole early phase of Beacon thing with the kit you originally managed to gather what are the two things you felt you could have improved most on during preparations? Also a question, is it just me or why did you never seem to use a gun?'
The older Jaune is a bit stumped 'Early on it was simply that I had no money to buy one and was trying too hard to go through things on my own to ask my friends support in it, later on till we got to Atlas everything happened too fast for me to get myself the training I would need to actually make use of that gun… at that point though I have no idea why I didn't just request a handgun from Atlas's armoury, or otherwise bought something at the Atlas military surplus… or even just took one of the rifles the White Fang dropped when surrendering Haven ...'
The two stare at each other for a while, the younger with a somewhat stupefied look while the older looks sheepish 'Let me get this straight. You' he points at him 'where on good enough terms with the Atlesian military to be able to requisition equipment at the same level most of their soldiers could' the older gives a nod 'and you were in need of a ranged weapon of some kind, since your only weapons are a sword and shield, which though extremely useful do have the issue of being quite short ranged weapons.' he nods again 'And instead of, I don't know, requisitioning a revolver or Atlesian battle rifle… you got yourself a way to have your sword and shield to merge into a large zweihander… this all in spite of one of your friends being a gun nut who would have been more than willing to train you in using said gun.'
The older one scratches the back of his head while looking anywhere except his deadpanning younger self 'Okay yeah that wasn't my best moment. I honestly don't know why I didn't think of requisitioning some kind of ranged weapon, even if only a small hold-out pistol to use against human criminals.' He visibly sighs 'okay but lets talk about something else, discussing this part of the past isn't all that useful. Okay so your previous question about what I realised I didn't have that I really could have used, well first things first more than a few changes of clothes. I had like one sweater, a T-shirt and two hoodies as upper body clothing outside of my school uniforms.'
The younger self had during the conversation picked up his scroll and started typing up a list, currently containing, 1. Find a fire-arms salesman and buy whatever gun I can on the paperwork I got from Terra, 2. Buy more clothes, especially shirts and hoodies but probably also a few spare pairs of pants. 'Okay, gun and clothes, what else did you really miss especially early on in Beacon?''
The older man thinks for a second before answering 'Okay yeah throw away those 'learn sword-fighting from Samuel' instruction video's, they're a complete scam. Almost got myself killed trying to apply the so called 'moves' from them in initiation.' His rage at the useless project was being projected heavily enough it almost hurt at this point 'I'll walk you through basic sword forms instead as much as I can before initiation starts. Though do me a favour and contact Terra as soon as possible once you're actually at Beacon to see if she knows anything about legal necessities regarding competence on combat instruction video's.'
The younger Jaune immediately adds 3. throw instruction video's in the trash, and 4. seek legal counsel through Terra, onto the list before he looks at his older self 'Okay so for a plan, do you have any idea on how to get to Beacon? I was going to get a train ride at Oakville station after walking the journey there, while I leave in two weeks. That way I should arrive with a week to spare at Beacon.'
The older Jaune rubs his chin 'Well there were positives and negatives to that approach, you reached Oakville in time however due to the time at which I left our parents realized pretty quickly that I wasn't home and so I got into a scroll call shouting match the moment I arrived at Oakville before they said that I was always welcome back home, apparently they think we're not going to pass the written pre-qualifying exams for Beacon. Before you start fearing, the academic parts of those exams are a joke, its more a written psychology evaluation to try to figure out why you're actually applying to Beacon, and to try and screen who will need to have the most urgent access to mental health services if they ask for it. Until the very day they saw me fight in the Vytal tournament they thought I'd flunked out of school and was just afraid to go home after failing.' His face turned somber 'The route passed by a sight which strengthened my resolve to fight.'
The younger Jaune stares at him almost as if asking what it was that strengthened his resolve so much 'You'll have to see it for yourself once we go past it, will help a lot if you face it without much in the way of mental preparation. Though I do think it's better if we leave next week and instead of on foot, we hire a horse from the pony express between here and Oakville, it will help us a lot in getting there faster in addition to leaving you more rested in case we encounter Grimm or I give you some instruction after we make camp. Would also give us more time in Vale to get you a fire-arm of some kind.'
The young man nodded in agreement causing him to sigh tiredly in response 'Goodnight now, you'll need your rest. I'll awake your aura tomorrow and then start teaching you the basics for the rest of the week while we prepare to leave.'
The younger Jaune nodded again before saying 'Goodnight, but there is one thing I need to do first' He stands up and looks the older him in the eye with a sudden resolve ''By my name as an Arc I hereby swear I will do all within my power to save your formed family and the City of Vale, I will never surrender and I will stand my ground against the tide of Darkness so help me the Lord, for my name is Arc and our word is our deed.''
As he spoke the oath used in times long passed by the Arc family to swear loyalty to their causes and Kings, something strange happened that stumped the older Jaune, his eyes glowed a golden light for a second. Before he could comment on it though, the other Jaune was fast asleep. All the while far away both the Headmaster of Beacon and the Queen of the Grimm felt a small bit of magic awakening, a type magic they'd last felt centuries ago, though both still firmly remembered it. The headmaster with a frown on his face, while the Queen stared forward with an intrigued look. While the magic itself and its wielders were usually a help to Ozpin, the fact that it happened in the first place usually meant less than great tidings for humanity as a whole, as it spoke of the spirit of humanity itself feeling the need to act.
AN:
And that's the end of the first chapter. I said this was going to be a one-shot, it just felt better to end it here and continue afterwards with a part 2. It was a fun thing to write especially as an exercise to get back into writing. (Later AN, yeah no this has grown far beyond a small story and it will be quite a bit more than just a fun writing exercise, though it is still very fun to write.)
This is not fully about the story though it is related to it, if you don't want to read my rambling you can just skip it as this is the end of the chapter. Hello to all of those still here, I would like to genuinely ask one thing of everyone who watched the show: who the hell understands Ruby's 'This is no fairy tale' thing (don't remember when specifically she says it, but it was either in late season three or sometime after it) that was intended on making it seem like the show is dark while in fairy tales everything is good.
This always stumped me because the actual original fairy tales, as in the ones written down by the brothers the main monsters of this show are named after, would in the modern sense usually be considered horror stories. Because in most of them the 'good' characters lose half their number by the time you're halfway through the book, at least 2 people get their eyes ripped out of their skulls by birds while they are still alive, in all of them the main character either starts as an orphan or loses at least one parent very early on, people are trying to eat the main characters alive, people are burned to death either in an oven or at the stake, if the main character is female there's a 50/50 chance of her being raped or sexually assaulted, if he's male there's a 50/50 chance of him getting torturously castrated, etc. Those kind of things. All the while the ending is usually closer to either bittersweet or outright horror than a happy ending.
Hell, the story Ruby is based on herself, Red Riding Hood, in the original version she just straight up goes into the wolfs mouth still half alive and dies from being melted alive inside his stomach, where her half melted skeleton is found by a hunter a few days later after he kills the wolf. Yes in some more modern retellings she is instead freed from there by the hunter cutting the wolf open just in time, but that doesn't change the fact that in the actual 'fairy tale' the girl gets melted alive inside a wolf for being too trusting and naïve as a warning tale to parents and young children alike to not trust the kindness of strangers.
How in the world can anyone state 'this is no fairy tale' and then act as if that means your story is going to be dark. Unless I misinterpreted it and they meant their story was going to be far more light hearted than the fairy tales and history a number of the characters in the show where based on, (the majority of which end in the very painful deaths of said characters by a mixture of burned alive, thrown off a cliff, eating by wild animals, etc.) okay then I get where they were coming from. But if not… why? If anyone does know, please explain in the reviews.