Commission -- Happily Ever After 001 (Patreon)

Jaune didn’t know how long he fell through the void, a feeling of dread heavy like a stone in his throat. Orange globes of light passed him by and if he wasn’t so consumed with his imminent demise, and the sounds of people screaming all around, he may have found the sight beautiful. He strained his eyes, trying to see if there was anything else, if he could see his friends – but no, they had all fallen so much earlier than he had. Even Weiss, the last to be claimed, was nowhere in sight.

He would die alone.

They had failed.

He thought of Pyrrha, then – his wonderful partner, battling atop the crumbling spire of Beacon Academy, the tower that gifted their school its name. How she had been all alone, fighting a battle that was already lost. Would he see her again? Would she be proud of him?

A welling of self loathing bubbled up from deep inside.

No, she wouldn’t – how could she be? When he had the blood of an innocent on his hands? Penny’s face flashed before him, her blood pooling thickly around her body, his sword covered in sin. He was tainted – and where he was going, he was sure he would never see Pyrrha or Penny ever again.

They were pure souls, the very best – and he was not.

A flash of red passed him by and he watched as Crescent Rose fell like a comet, wreathed in a blaze of fire. Making a decision, he tucked his body in and tried to go after it and felt his momentum shift. Whatever it was he was falling through, it didn’t feel like regular air. Gravity felt different here – and so he shot off after Ruby’s weapon, reaching for it with desperate hands.

Strangely, he did not remember much else until with a start, he awoke on a beach. Cheek pressed into the sand, he lay there, dazed and confused for several long moments. His body felt heavy and unresponsive, so he simply lay there as he blinked slowly, attempting to gather his wits. The sound of lapping water caught his attention and when he felt a gentle wave roll over legs, he scrambled to stand.

Unsteady on his feet, he took a moment to regain his balance before staring without comprehension at the vast ocean that stretched further than the eye could see.

“What...” he uttered.

What was going on?

“Am I...” he looked around, confused.

Am I dead?

He didn’t feel dead but how did it feel to be dead? It wasn’t like he had ever experienced that before. He pinched his arm and felt the flare of pain, and he could feel the uncomfortable wetness of his jeans, the salt water having soaked the material all the way through to his skin. His sword was belted to his waist and when he unsheathed it, it felt wrong; lighter.

The broken blade made him feel sick to look at and he hastily sheathed it, not wishing to look at it any longer.

If he wasn’t dead, then where was he? And did that mean... Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang... they must be here, right? If he was here, then they were too.

He needed to find them.

When he turned, he was greeted by the sight of a lush jungle. Sounds issued forth but while some were identifiable as birdsong and insects, many were strange and unusual. He was sure he heard the bleating of a horn, high and loud, and that was followed by a warbling call the likes of which raised the hair on his arms.

There was a high cliff in the distance, followed by more vegetation – and high above that, stretching impossibly into the sky was a massive tree the likes of which he had never seen before. No building on Remnant could match it in size, the branches stretching wide, the leaves a mixture of green, orange, blue and purple.

Just what was this place?

Shaking off his indecision, he stepped forward – and then stopped immediately. From the corner of his eye, he glimpsed something white. Further down the beach, laid out prone, face first in the sand was Weiss.

Jaune froze, his heart seized in a vice – and then he was running, a flare of panic igniting as she remained unmoving. He almost tripped in his haste, sliding across wet sand as he reached her, flipping her over and cradling her body against his own.

“Weiss,” he said hurriedly, touching her cheek. Her skin was chilled but the warmth of life still thrummed underneath. “Weiss, wake up – wake up!”

His fingers pressed on her neck and after a frightening couple of seconds, he sagged in relief as a steady pulse pounded under his touch. Then he noticed the gentle rise and fall of her chest. The loss of tension was so sudden and swift that he felt a little dizzy, his breath coming in shallow pants as he recovered from his fright.

She was okay.

“J-Jaune?”

Jaune’s head whipped around and there stood Ruby, a look of shock on her face. Her eyes darted down and locked onto Weiss, her silver eyes widening even further – and then she was burrowed against his side, arms squeezing him with everything she had.

“Ruby,” he released in a breath of air, relief palpable in his tone. “Oh – Ruby, you’re okay.”

She buried her face against his shoulder, her body shaking for a moment and he thought she was going to start crying. But then she pulled back, eyes dry but face filled with worry.

“What happened? Why are – did we fail?”

Jaune felt his throat close up.

What did he say?

The fluttering of Weiss’ eyes saved him from answering, her smaller girl squirming in his hold as she returned to consciousness. Icy blue eyes blinked up at them blearily, a small groan escaping her lips. Squinting, she attempted to sit up and Jaune released his hold, letting her rise until she was sitting upright.

“Where...” she mumbled, looking around. “What – Ruby, Jaune?” she stared at him in horror. “You fell?”

He nodded grimly.

“But – no,” her hands bunched in the sand. “What happened?”

“Cinder has both of the Relics,” he said, a pit of despair like a gaping chasm in his gut. Ruby reeled back, eyes closing in resignation while Weiss scowled, anger clouding her eyes.

“Damn it,” Weiss swore.

“The people got out,” Jaune said, mostly for Ruby’s benefit. Silver eyes opened. “They all made it through. At least the ones that Cinder didn’t blast off the pathway. The people of Mantle and Atlas are now in Vacuo. Safe... I hope.”

Ruby sighed in relief. “At least that worked out.”

He needed to tell her, he knew. Something dark and oily curled around his spine, constricting. He felt sick just thinking about it, his hands twitching as he tried to figure out how to say it. Weiss noticed the sudden conflict in his expression and grabbed his hands, squeezing them gently. She already knew. Weiss had been there – and there was no hate on her face, no hate in her eyes, only understanding.

In a way, that was worse. He wanted her to scream at him for what he had done. He had killed Penny, just as he had killed Pyrrha. It was different – but the same. With Pyrrha, he had been too weak and useless to stand by her side. She had sent him away because he would only get in the way. If he had been better, then maybe things might have gone differently.

Though maybe they would both be dead, together.

With Penny, he had been lacking as well. He couldn’t defend her, couldn’t heal her – and when she had asked him to take her life, to let her choose, he had given her that. But someone else, someone like Ruby... she would have fought for Penny, she wouldn’t have given in so easily to her demands. Hadn’t she already shown this? When Penny had still been a machine and corrupted by the virus, Penny had begged Ruby to finish her, to end it but Ruby had refused. She had found another way to save her.

Jaune couldn’t find another way.

Because he wasn’t good enough.

“Myrtenaster is missing,” Weiss said, drawing him forth from his self doubt.

Ruby frowned. “So is Crescent Rose.”

Weiss hopped to her feet, dusting off. Sand flecked off her dress and she made a sound of disgust when she touched her braid. “Urgh – I hate sand.”

Jaune stood. “Yang and Blake are down here somewhere.”

He was a coward but mention of their teammates distracted them.

“So is Neo,” Ruby’s voice was deadly serious, her face pinched. “While I was falling – she was still trying to kill me. I – she is full of so much hate.”

Jaune knew all about that, how it felt to be so consumed with thoughts of revenge. For almost a year, he had operated on nothing but. It had fueled his every waking moment, every swing of the sword, every late night training session. Hate and spite were a powerful motivator but if you weren’t careful, it would lead you to ruin.

“Cinder betrayed her,” Ruby added.

“Big surprise,” Weiss rolled her eyes. “So – what’s the plan?”

She looked at Ruby but to their surprise, she shied away. Jaune took the lead.

“We need to find Yang and Blake – before Neo does,” then he thought about it. “Or something much worse. We don’t know where we are or what is here. We were warned about falling off the path – he wouldn’t have given us that warning for no reason. Who knows what is down here.”

Weiss grimaced. “Great. Just what we need – more problems.”

“We should also try and find your weapons as quickly as we can,” he added, thinking about his own shattered sword. As much as it pained him, he could still use it in a pinch but its effectiveness was highly reduced. “Our fighting strength is severely limited without them.”

They checked the rest of the beach before moving into the jungle but Yang and Blake were nowhere in sight. As they walked, Jaune listened to the strange sounds pouring from further in. He shared a look with Weiss before taking the lead, brushing aside vines and branches, his larger frame cutting a path for them to follow.

Everything reminded him of a tropical paradise, a mixture of palm trees and other tropical plants. But there were other plants, ones that Jaune had never seen in any textbook or photo, colored red and purple, and every other shade you could think of. Large shells jutted out from the ground, abandoned by their former occupants, twisted into a variety of different shapes. Sand crunched underfoot as they moved onwards, small clusters of grass becoming more frequent the longer they walked.

It can’t have been more than ten minutes before they entered a strange clearing, an altogether different sound reaching their ears. It sounded like the heavy ticking of a clock, drowning out all other sound and when they moved closer, Jaune spotted an odd looking tree. The trunk was strange, the branches coming together in a twisted body before breaking off into what he could only describe as several root-like legs, suspending it above the ground. In the middle was a pink sphere and on closer inspection, the hands and numbers of a clock within.

“Uh,” Ruby moved closer, head tilted in confusion as she gazed up at the strange looking fruit that hung from vines. They were golden in color, flat and enclosed in leaves. The ticking sounds were coming from them and the face of the fruit showed why; they were miniature clocks.

“Should we...?” Weiss questioned, unsure.

Jaune reached up and plucked one of them free, bringing it down. Ruby and Weiss crowded around it, their hands touching it lightly.

“It’s made of metal,” Ruby caressed it with her fingers while Weiss picked at one of the leaves. A loud metallic clunk sounded, the minute hand coming to a rough stop – and then it began moving in reverse, spinning wildly as the hour hand followed suit. Jaune stared at it, a feeling of unease blooming deep in his stomach.

The shadows on the ground from the sun began to stretch and shift. Weiss gave a startled shout, staring at the sky. Jaune and Ruby looked up, watching as the sun moved rapidly through the sky, dipping below the horizon and night falling.

“What?” Ruby whispered, voice tinged with mild hysteria.

Night quickly became day again, the sun reappearing only to soar through the sky and plunge back down out of sight. It moved from west to east, the complete opposite of what they were accustomed to, the movement unnatural. Over and over, day and night switched places and they saw streaks of light fly through the sky in reverse; purple, pink and yellow, and then two shades of blue as the cycle ran out of control.

“Wait, wait, stop,” Jaune shook the clock fruit but it did little good, the sky a constant flash of sunlight and darkness, the clouds a blur as they raced across the sky. “Stop!”

But it didn’t – and so he threw it on the ground, unbuckled his sheath and slammed the point down onto the face of the clock. Glass shattered and the hands buckled, gears spilling forth. The rapid cycle slowed, day and night lasting longer – until finally, the sky settled, the sun now low where it began high like noon.

“What just happened?” Weiss demanded.

Jaune swallowed, almost sick with dread. “I – I don’t know but I think – I think time just flowed in reverse.”

Weiss frowned, scoffing. “What?”

“I know it sounds crazy, okay?” he erupted suddenly, immediately feeling horrible as she stepped back in alarm. “Wait, Weiss – no, I’m sorry. I know it sounds crazy but those lights we saw – I think that was Yang, Blake and Neo. They were going backwards. They weren’t falling but ascending into the sky.”

Her mouth flapped uselessly for several seconds, her expression incredulous. “But – no, how – that is impossible.”

“Just like magic?” Ruby whispered and that brought Weiss up short. “Just like – just like everything we’ve been encountering lately? Impossible like Salem? Impossible like Maiden’s and Relic’s?”

The former heiress didn’t have an answer to that.

“Who were those other lights, then?” Weiss asked instead.

Jaune shrugged.

He had no idea.

“If what you’re saying is true – then how far back did it take us?”

He didn’t know. How could he? Even though he was the one that brought it up, this was certifiably crazy! But this was exactly on course with their luck lately, wasn’t it? Nothing ever went right. Back in time? There was no way, right?

But his eyes saw what they saw. The clock had moved in reverse and the sun had followed.

Ruby sunk into herself even more, shoulders hunched. Jaune considered the tree and noticed there were fewer clock fruit now, only five or six at most when before there had been more than a dozen. Was there a possibility that they could move forward instead of backwards?

He discarded the idea immediately. Even if that was possible, they had no way of knowing how to get it to do that. If they picked another one, it was more likely to just throw them further back. Things were enough of a mess as it was.

This had to be one of the worst days of their lives.

With Ruby withdrawn and Weiss looking overwhelmed, Jaune took a long, steadying breath to calm his frayed nerves. He was a leader and he needed to act like it. It was a leader’s job to face harsh truths.

“I think we need to figure out how to get out of here,” he said. “But – we might be here for a long time.”

Weiss blanched.

“So what do we do?”

Jaune sighed.

“Well, first things first – we need a place to stay.”

Jaune had some experience building shelters. Camping with his family had taught him a lot about outdoorsmanship and Team RNJR’s journey from Vale to Mistral had sharpened his skills. They didn’t always stay in towns and sometimes when the weather got a little too wild for their tents to handle alone, he had constructed small shelters to help stave off the worst of the wind and rain. This time they didn’t even have tents – whatever they built was all they had.

He’d taught Ruby how to do it but she was uncharacteristically down, moving with a sluggishness that was a little alarming. Whenever he asked her something, her responses were slow in coming, her voice vacant. They moved back towards the beach and while Ruby lethargically gathered wood, he taught Weiss how to use vines to tie pieces of wood together to form something solid like a wall or a roof.

They worked in silence, gathering material and binding them together until Weiss finally said, “Are you going to tell her?”

Jaune froze. A quick glance showed that Ruby was further down the beach.

“She needs to know,” she paused for a second. “She deserves to know.”

“I know,” he said. He did. “I just… hasn’t our day been bad enough?”

“It wasn’t your fault,” she grabbed his hand and squeezed. “Penny – she asked for you to do it, didn’t she?”

He nodded, his expression threatening to crumple.

“She said she wanted to make the choice,” he whispered. “That it was her decision to make.”

Suddenly he was in her arms, Weiss squeezing him in a heartfelt hug. He inhaled sharply, his control slipping and a few tears escaped his eyes, rolling down his cheeks as he leaned into her, encircling her petite waist with his arms. He hugged her back fiercely, almost lifting her off the ground.

“She made her choice,” Weiss said, voice thick with emotion. “I don’t blame you. I never would.”

“Are you two okay?”

They jerked apart, an awkward atmosphere developing as Ruby stared at them with an arched eyebrow. Her arms were laden with driftwood and she dumped it on the ground unceremoniously. Some of it would be useful to build with but most of it was no better than fire wood.

“Yeah,” Jaune cleared his throat. “Yeah, we’re good.”

Weiss’ face was a little flushed and she busied herself with slicing pieces of vine to length with a pointed rock.

Ruby made a doubtful sound but didn’t push, walking off to gather more wood.

He knew he needed to say something but how did you bring up something like this? Jaune knew that as soon as he told her, things would never be the same again. How could they be? Weiss might be able to accept it and accept him, but would Ruby? Would she understand?

Jaune didn’t want to crush her with the truth. He wished he could protect her from it – but hiding it, not saying a thing, he couldn’t do that. It would only make things worse in the long run. All secrets eventually found their way into the light and when they did, the amount of damage they caused was entirely up to you.

But as one day turned into two, then into three, four and five, he was no closer to telling her about Penny. Even with their theory of time displacement, they still searched for their friends just in case they were wrong. Unfortunately, exploring this new strange land wasn’t as easy as they thought it would be.

On the first day of exploring, they’d all been snared in moving vines. If not for Crocea Mors, they would have been in a lot of trouble. Broken as it was, it was still razor sharp and hacked them to shreds. It was a testament to how off Ruby was that she didn’t question him on his broken blade, content with being free of the vegetation's violent grasp.

Day two was no better, attacked by a flock of birds with long, thin legs and massive beaks. They weren’t particularly dangerous but there were a lot of them, stampeding all over them and letting loose with ear splitting cries that sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

On the third day, Jaune found himself walking in a never ending loop. It didn’t matter how far he walked, he always ended up in the same spot. Embarrassingly enough, it had taken him several resets until he noticed that he had passed the same large rock more than once. He was just lucky that walking back the way he came was enough to break him out of it but he warned the other two not to go that way. Next time one of them might get stuck permanently.

On the fourth morning, they were having issues even before leaving camp. The tide was much higher on this day, overrunning them in the very early hours and soaking them to the bone. While Weiss and Ruby searched for their teammates and weapons, Jaune spent the following hours building their shelter up off the ground. Cutting logs with a sword was a pain in the ass but with aura, he made do.

At least on day five, things were going a lot more smoothly.

One thing they were thankful for was the abundance of food. They’d been wary at first considering all the other strange things happening around them but hunger could not be denied forever. They needed to eat or they would eventually die, and so they scavenged whatever they could. Ruby found an area that was a literal field of cheese, buried in the ground like carrots. The fish in the ocean were edible but their flavors were off; the pink fish tasted like cotton candy, the blue ones like bubblegum. They were tasty for sure but off putting when you expect to taste something completely different. There were also clams on the seafloor and mussels growing on rocks, an endless supply for them to pick. The clams tasted like chicken while the mussels didn’t have a taste at all, utterly bland but filling. If any of it was poisonous, they showed zero signs though Ruby had over indulged on the pink fish to the point of nearly throwing up.

It was only a matter of time until questions began being asked.

Inevitably, those questions led to Penny.

Jaune paused what he was doing, his arm raised above his head, a sturdy stone clutched in his hand. In front of him was a coconut – or at least what they believed to be a coconut. It looked just like one but in this place, it was impossible to know. He had been in the process of attempting to crack it open when Ruby had sprung her question, completely blindsiding him.

“What?” he asked stupidly, knowing perfectly well what she’d asked.

“Do you know what happened to Penny?”

Ruby often shifted between bouts of melancholy and hope these days, and Jaune could see the clear hope in her eyes. Jaune slowly lowered his rock, feeling a pressure sit firmly on his chest. His fingers tightened briefly before they relaxed, knowing that the time was now.

Weiss had looked up from her own spot, her expression troubled. She glanced from Ruby to him, and then back again. A bowl sat in her lap; that is to say, a piece of curved wood that acted as a bowl lay in her lap, strips of fruit peeled and awaiting consumption arranged neatly in typical Weiss fashion. When her eyes met his, he looked away.

“Penny,” he said, her name escaping his lips like a prayer.

“You guys never mentioned what happened to her,” Ruby watched him carefully. “She made it out, right? I mean – she didn’t fall. She can’t have – we didn’t see her in the sky.”

Jaune’s tongue felt dry, a mouthful of ash.

“She fought Cinder,” he said, his voice sounding like it was far away; muffled. “But – Cinder’s arm, that Grimm appendage – it struck her in the chest, and wounded her. Badly.”

Ruby’s face twitched, “Then what happened? Did you – you healed her, right?”

It was difficult to breathe.

Jaune stood.

“I tried to use my semblance,” his heart was racing, pounding loud in his ears. “But Penny – she stopped me. Weiss was fighting Cinder but couldn’t hold her off. She was too strong for us. There was no time.”

Silver eyes filled with tears. She knew – she knew, Penny was gone. But she didn’t know how.

“She didn’t want Cinder to claim the mantle of the Winter Maiden,” Weiss was standing now but she didn’t approach. “So – she asked me to let her choose.”

“There is not enough time to heal me,” Penny said weakly, her chest bleeding from where Cinder’s claw pierced her. “She can’t get the staff – and the power.”

“There was no time,” he repeated, trying to convince himself. “Penny wanted to die – and pass on the powers to someone else, a friend – to Winter.”

Ruby was shaking, her face crumpling.

“But there is something you can do,” Penny touched his hand, pushing it away. She looked at his sword, at Crocea Mors and he flinched back, stuttering.

“No, no – I don’t know where the others are but Weiss will give us time,” he tried.

“Let me choose this one thing,” reaching for his sword, her fingers caressing the hilt gently. “Trust me.”

“I killed her,” he choked out.

Horror graced Ruby’s face, her eyes full of pain – and it was like a sword stroke to his heart, an agony he would remember until the end of his days. That horror quickly morphed into anger, revulsion – and when he reached for her, the last thing he saw were her tears spilling over down her cheeks as she vanished in a swirl of rose petals.