Chapter 1 - The End Of A Beginning

The world was ending, and Jaune Arc was terrified.

To be fair, though, Jaune Arc was often terrified.

Just in the past year alone, he'd been terrified when he'd submitted fake transcripts to Beacon. He'd been terrified when he'd stolen the family sword, run away from home, and hopped on a civilian Bullhead heading to Vale. He'd been terrified when he'd been launched off a cliff and into a Grimm-infested forest. He'd been terrified when a javelin had suddenly speared him to a tree mid-flight. He'd been terrified when he'd been chased out of a cave by a very large and very angry Deathstalker. He'd been terrified when he'd had to fight said Deathstalker. He'd been terrified when he'd been made leader of a team of teenagers, all clearly stronger, more experienced, and qualified than he to even be in Beacon, let alone Team Leader. He'd been terrified when he'd been called upon in any class, let alone Goodwitch's Combat Class. He'd been terrified confessing to Pyrrha that he'd been a fraud. He'd been terrified when Cardin had found out, and held it over him. He'd been terrified when he'd stood up to Cardin in Forever Fall. He'd been terrified when he'd stood up to an Ursa Major to save Cardin's life. He'd been terrified when someone had spilled a drink on Yang's hair. He'd been terrified when Nora had gotten hold of coffee. He'd been terrified when he'd received a call from his best friend in the middle of the night, while she'd been on a mission to Mountain Glenn. He'd been terrified when the Breach had occurred. He'd been terrified competing in the Vytal Festival, his first publicly-broadcasted tournament. He'd been terrified when he'd found his valued partner in a corner, depressed and philosophical, in the middle of the festival. He'd been terrified when she'd fought Penny, used too much force, and the White Fang leader Adam had suddenly hijacked the broadcast. He'd been terrified when the White Fang and the Grimm had suddenly attacked Amity Colosseum (and especially when the damned Wyvern had suddenly burst out of the mountain). He'd been terrified when he'd seen Headmaster Ozpin lead Pyrrha away without a word, halfway through the Battle of Beacon. He'd been terrified when Pyrrha, clearly scared and apprehensive herself, had stepped into a pod, linked to another pod with a comatose and injured woman within. He'd been terrified when they'd been interrupted by a red-dressed ravenette who'd shot the comatose woman in the chest, before doing a "Yang Xiao-Long" (i.e. bursting into flames and blowing him away with a single hit. At least she hadn't made any puns, thank Oum for small mercies).

Seeing as how the Headmaster had stayed back to fight her, ordering them to call for reinforcements as "the tower cannot fall", and they'd ascended from the Tower to find Beacon completely deserted, the Grimm Dragon out of sight but audibly circling overhead, Bullheads leaving Beacon in distance, and he still had no idea what was going on, Jaune felt that his sense of terror was even more justified than it normally was.

Still, though, if there was a state of mind Jaune Arc was used to, it was being terrified and in way over his head, and he'd spent the past few months learning how to operate under such conditions. Slowing down once they'd made it what they felt was a safe enough distance from the underground vault (what was the minimum safe distance between one and a person slinging fireballs with enough force to hold off a Huntsman Academy's Headmaster, especially considering one's Aura has been depleted from constant battling for the past hour or two? He'd never been any good at math!), he quickly tried to catch his breath (Pyr still wasn't even winded, and she'd carried him halfway up!) as his mind quickly analyzed the situation (rumbling in the distance; fighting still occurring? Abandoned open rocket locker; possible supply or escape craft) and ran through a checklist he'd seen on a scroll with Ruby during one of their Team Leader Study Sessions.

Survive? Barring Coma Lady (and maybe the Headmaster, though the Headmaster was definitely strong and Jaune had hope for him), check.

Evade? Eh, close enough.

Resist?

Alright, time for the next step. Who would he call for help, though? Ren and Nora? Team RWBY? If even his partner had been told to run, he doubted any of them would be able to help the Headmaster. The teachers, then? Headmaster Ozpin had said to get Ms. Goodwitch or General Ironwood...

Pulling out his scroll, he tried to reassure Pyrrha while finding Ms. Goodwitch's number, but even if they hadn't been partners for over a semester now he'd have easily been able to tell her mind was still focused back on the Tower. He knew he wouldn't be able to put the topic off any longer; he needed to know what was going on, if only so he could actually plan around things (even if an abandoned Grimm-infested school probably wasn't the best time or place for it). Turning to his partner, he tried to steady his voice as he asked: "Pyrrha... what was all of that?"

Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to get out more than a single syllable before a strong quake turned them around, just in time to see the ravenette rocketing up the Tower's elevator shaft. Terror turned to horror in his heart, and he murmured: "But... Ozpin..."

He didn't want to believe it, but he couldn't deny it. He'd known that being a Huntsman meant risking your life to protect others, but to see it first-hand was a whole other matter. Where his face fell, though, and he silently mourned the Headmaster, he noticed his stalwart and trusty partner's face harden. He knew that look; it was the same look she got when he told her she couldn't have any more chocolate. His fears were confirmed when she turned to him, and with a determined voice ordered: "There's no time. Go. Get to Vale and call for help."

"Pyrrha..." Jaune didn't need to hear the edge in her voice, see the way she looked back to the Tower, to know she planned on going back.

Going to fight that monster.

Going to her death.

He knew she wouldn't back down. He knew his partner. Kind, caring, selfless to a fault, and stubborn as an Ursa. Arguing would be a waste of time and breath for both of them. Defiance would result in his overprotective partner doing something drastic. Instead, he mentally measured out distances (6 paces behind), and did the last thing she expected.

He stepped forward and as he saw her tense up, ready to drastically intervene, he embraced her, enveloping her in his arms as he spun around. He felt her stiffen in surprise, and almost swore he heard his invincible partner actually squeak, before she relaxed, melting in the comfort of her trusty partner's arms. He saw her look up at him, face flushed with embarrassment at their sudden contact, but her eyes had momentarily lost their steely glint. There was his opportunity, and he released his hug, before gripping her shoulders, and leaned down to whisper in her ear: "I'm trusting you to call for help, Pyr."

Confusion overtook her features as he pushed hard, and she stumbled backwards before her back hit metal. He didn't give her time to protest or question him before he shut the rocket locker's door, and quickly keyed the rocket locker to home in on Ruby's scroll signal. Through the slits of the rocket locker he saw her eyes widen in realization, and the narrow in anger as her hand clenched into a fist. A black glow began to visibly manifest around the locker and his armour and she shouted: "Jaune-"

Jaune didn't give Pyrrha the chance to use her Semblance, instead punching the launch button with a quiet: "I'm sorry."

And then she was gone, the black glow dissipating. He knew from first-hand experience that, safe as rocket locker travel may have technically been, it was also a particularly bumpy one, and Pyrrha's Semblance required concentration. He watched as the rocket locker took his partner to the safety of the second-best team in Beacon, before the reality of what he'd done hit him, and he felt like collapsing.

Escape? Close enough; Remnant needed Huntresses like Pyrrha more than a fraud like him anyway.

Clenching his fist around his sheathed sword, he turned back to the Tower, where she was. For a moment, he was tempted to make a break for it, to just run away. It was crazy, after all! She'd killed Ozpin! Even Pyrrha wouldn't have stood a chance, let alone him, and he didn't even know what was so important about the Tower anyway.

But Headmaster Ozpin said the Tower could not fall, and he trusted the Headmaster. And they had to stall Cinder here, in the abandoned Tower where they knew she was; if she got out, got to the Bullheads evacuating the school, or the city...

He knew he couldn't beat her... but he didn't need to. He just needed to resist, to hold out until Pyrrha got Ms. Goodwitch or General Ironwood to the Tower, and then he'd be fine. Just fine. Maybe a little bit well done, but he'd be fine. And hey... he'd wanted to protect others, to be a hero, right? And wasn't this what heroes did? Fight insurmountable odds for the sake of others? He'd known, even as a kid listening to his parents' bedtime stories, that not all heroes lived to see the happy ending they fought for...

... but he'd already accepted the risks when he'd run away to join Beacon. It just felt so surreal, though, accepting his mortality. It'd been different with Cardin and the Breach; this felt more certain, more final.

And still he ran into the Clock Tower, trying to remember where the maintenance access corridors were.

After all, the lift was out of order, on account of the human-shaped hole.

-BEACON EVACUATION ZONE PERIMETER, 2 MINUTES LATER-

Ruby's breathing may have been steady as she and Weiss sprinted towards Beacon, but her heart and mind were anything but calm.

Ruby had been supposed to join Beacon because she'd been cool and awesome in fighting Torchwick, and then she was supposed to have a great team with new friends and her sister, and they'd all bond over weapons and cookies! And sure, she'd accomplished all of that (barring some... "hiccups"), and even found a dorky best friend that hadn't been stolen away from her by Yang! But everything else after that? The Vytal Festival? This?!

This wasn't supposed to be how things would go!

Yang was a brutal fighter, sure, but she'd never break a defeated opponent's legs! And Pyrrha... Penny...

She blinked back the tears threatening to form in her silver eyes as she remembered the rest of the day.

Penny, dismembered.

The White Fang.

The Grimm attack at Amity.

Atlas' airships and robots, firing on civilians.

Roman Torchwick, unceremoniously eaten by a Griffon.

Coming back to Beacon to find Yang, bleeding out, missing an arm, Blake stabbed, Ren and Nora, exhausted and wounded, and Jaune and Pyrrha nowhere to be seen.

Not for the first time, Ruby felt a sense of helplessness creep up on her, but she squashed it back down. There'd be time for doubt later; for now, she had to find her two close friends. She hadn't been able to save Penny or Roman. She hadn't been there for Yang or Mom. There was no way she was going to lose a good friend with a cool weapon who ignored her young age, and there definitely was no way she was going to lose her first friend in Beacon! She owed way too much to Vomit Boy, after all, from how he'd been there to pick her up on their very first day to his support when she'd been doubting being a team leader, to how he and his team had helped her during the Breach! And he'd promised to make cookies for her someday which they'd share while reading X-Ray and Vav Comics! And an Arc never went back on his word!

The sound of a rocket locker's engines snapped her out of her thoughts, and she looked up in surprise. She hadn't thought there'd been anyone left who didn't have their weapons yet, and she paused and stared at it a bit longer.

Then she realized it was getting closer and aimed straight at her, and she quickly jumped out of the way as it slammed into the ground. Weiss moved next to her and stared at the crashed rocket locker, before asking: "Uh, Ruby? Did you call for that?"

"No, did you?"

Before Weiss could answer back, a familiar black glow began surrounding the rocket locker, before it violently burst open with a roaring sound that sent them diving to the ground with a ferocious war cry (and definitely not squeaks of "Eep!"). Looking back up revealed a familiar bronze-armoured champion.

Ruby was too relieved to care about the anger radiating off of her, and zipped towards Pyrrha, hugging her with a "Pyrrha! You're okay!"

"Wha- Ruby?!" Pyrrha stammered out in confusion as she finally realized where she was, and she spent half a second soothingly rubbing the Red Reaper's back before she remembered just exactly how she'd been sent here. Weiss backed up when she noticed the very uncharacteristic anger and worry return to Pyrrha's face, but before she could say anything Ruby looked around, and thoughtlessly asked: "Hey, where's Jaune?"

Weiss winced as the remains of the rocket locker began crumpling like tissue paper, but what finally set off Ruby's mental alarms was the sheer amount of indignant fury in Pyrrha's voice as she snarled out her partner's name like a Beowolf: "Jaune!"

They'd never heard her talk about Jaune with anything more than concern, worry, resignation and way more gentle affection than was usual for most partners. So it was perhaps understandable that the novel string of Mistralian curse words ("Uh, Weiss... have you ever heard Pyrrha swear before?" "Drat, looks like I owe Yang 20 lien.") and promises of pain to her partner that followed had them nervously backing up, before the anger suddenly drained from her face like a switch had been flicked. Instead, she looked back towards Beacon, where she'd been launched from, a forlorn look on her face.

Ruby felt her heart fall, but she still used the lull in Pyrrha's rant to ask through a rapidly-constricting throat: "Pyrrha... is Jaune..."

"No!" Pyrrha yelled in response, before her voice softened, and she softly murmured: "No, Jaune's not dead... he's the one who pushed me into the locker and sent me away."

Ruby breathed a sigh of relief, but Weiss noticed what was left unsaid. She may not have been fond of Jaune's (former) constant attempts at asking her out, but she considered him a good friend for how he'd set Neptune straight at the dance (and how he'd stopped asking her out every other day), and it was with a quiet voice that she asked: "Pyrrha, what happened? Where's Jaune?"

"There's no time." Pyrrha declared as she gripped her weapon and stormed her way back towards Beacon, but before she could make it two steps Ruby zipped in front of her, and asked: "Pyrrha... what's going on?"

"... someone killed Ozpin." Pyrrha finally said, gently but firmly pushing past Ruby, and as she continued back towards Beacon her pent-up frustrations began to spill out: "Jaune and I were... we were doing something for Ozpin, but then the leader of Team CMEN suddenly interrupted, shot a woman with a glass arrow. Ozpin told us to call for help while he held her off, but... and then Jaune! He stayed behind! He pushed me into the rocket locker and sent me off while he stayed behind to try and stop her by himself!"

Glass... glass... the CCT! The robbery! Ruby Rose never forgot a weapon, after all. She still didn't want to believe it, though, and even as they ran after Pyrrha her voice shook as she asked: "Cinder killed Ozpin? How? And Jaune's going to fight her?! Wait, where are you going?!"

"She's... she's got weird fire magic now. Flames, fireballs, and flight."

"What."

"Fire... magic?"

"And I'm going back for him. Don't try to stop me."

"We weren't going to. We're coming with you. Right, Weiss?" Pyrrha looked back at Ruby's words, noted the seriousness, the determination on the young girl's face. Behind her, Weiss simply cycled Myrtenaster's chamber and nodded back. She managed a small smile for the Reaper and the Heiress, and they began running back to the clock tower.

-OZPIN'S OFFICE, 5 MINUTES AGO-

Not for the first time in his life, someone thought Jaune Arc was a complete and utter nobody.

To be fair, he was the weakest student in Beacon, and that was before one considered Team JNPR consisted of the Invincible Girl, Nora Valkyrie, and the only man who could calm Nora Valkyrie down, and that they could often be found with the strongest first-year team, Team RWBY, as well as the strongest second-year team, Team CFVY.

So, being completely overlooked by someone? Completely reasonable and understandable (and something he'd been used to, growing up with seven older sisters and all).

Also, she'd killed Ozpin, so her lack of approval didn't really hurt anyway.

For the first time in his life, though, Jaune Arc was happy that she didn't consider him anybody. That she didn't even consider him a threat.

After all, he was just playing for time until whoever Pyrrha called could come and save him, and if the homicidal lady (who he was starting to recognize as that "totally, definitely, undoubtedly school-aged and not suspicious" leader of Team CMEN who seemed to keep finding excuses to be around Pyrrha and Team RWBY) wanted to spend a good minute or two staring at him in disbelief before laughing when he'd come through the maintenance access, panting for breath, well who was he to stop her?

... okay, it had started to grate a little bit after the second minute...

His knuckles had also turned white from clenching his sword as she'd scoffed at him, taunted him, monologued about how she'd made plans to deal with all of Ozpin's pawns, from Pyrrha to Glynda and even Team RWBY... but she'd never bothered making one for him.

That was a good thing, after all. That meant she hadn't noticed that his pocket was emptier than normal; he'd left his scroll by the doorway when he'd hunched over, recording their encounter. If... if things didn't go according to his vague unformed plans... hopefully his death wouldn't have been in vain.

She also didn't notice anything weird about the vial of emergency maintenance Dust supplies he'd swiped from the janitor's closet. Sure, half a year or so of Dust Studies had done precisely nothing in teaching him how to actually use Dust, but if Ruby could set off an explosion by sneezing, he was sure he could figure something out.

He'd have liked to call the battle that followed an epic last stand, where he tapped into unknown reserves of strength and power, and put her on the backfoot.

However, since he'd been recording the whole thing, he couldn't.

Instead, she'd merely tried hosing his position down with flames and tossed fireballs at him while he'd desperately blocked and dodged whatever he could, not for the first time thankful for his large Aura reserves and the training Pyrrha'd put him through. When he'd finally tried her patience by refusing to die (and when he'd mentioned that "Pyrrha's faster."), she'd suddenly drawn two black glass swords, and jumped at him with ferocious swings and furious swipes.

Where Pyrrha would have just danced out of range, performing feats of acrobatics that made his spine and pelvis wince sympathetically, Jaune was barely able to stumble back, shield raised, sword flailing about in a desperate attempt at blocking or parrying the many hits that made it past his shield.

But still, even as his back hit the wall, faster than him as she may have been, stronger than him as she may have been, vastly more skilled than him as she may have been... he'd been trained by the best. He saw her eyes flash in satisfaction as she wound up for a heavy blow, meant to take him out of the fight in a single hit...

... only to get a vial full of Dust to her face.

She was more than quick enough to intercept it, granted, but in doing so she shattered the vial and set off the Dust stored within. Jaune hadn't known enough about Dust to identify what kind of Dust it was, but from the arcs of electricity that had suddenly shot out at her face, he felt confident in assuming it had been Lightning Dust. He also considered himself very lucky that none of the lightning hit him; lightning plus metal armor would equal one very unpleasant experience. More importantly, though, he finally had an opening... well, an opening even he could actually take advantage of. With a high-pitched desperate roar he charged forward and swung his sword in an upwards arc.

She caught his sword bare-handed, murder in her glowing bloodshot eyes, before sending him flying back into the wall with a gout of flames. He got back up as quickly as he could, ignoring the aches, bruises, burns, and pains, in time to see her snap his sword in half before tossing it away. She looked back at him, and declared: "Enough! You are beneath me, and I shall not waste my time and energy on you any longer! I'll just let her deal with you now."

A loud screech had him take his eyes off of the ravenette, and he looked out of the window, just in time to see the Grimm Dragon fly towards him from another tower. He had just enough time to dive for cover under Ozpin's desk before it hit the tower, sending dust and debris flying everywhere.

Cinder looked at the destruction with a sense of satisfaction, tempered with anger at the fact that Jaune Arc, some random nobody with next-to-zero combat experience or training, had actually managed to waste some of her time. She'd come up here expecting the Invincible Girl to follow, at the very least, or the Good Witch. An actual challenge whom she could wield the full extent of her new Maiden powers against! At least he was dead, tho-

The elevator dinged, distracting her momentarily.

Cinder turned around to see a familiar spear fly towards her face, which she handily dodged, followed by a circular shield, which she blocked, and a very angry champion, who landed on her shield, pressing against Cinder. A heavy impact against her stomach made her double over slightly, weakening her stance, and Cinder was kicked into a pillar by Pyrrha, who backflipped off of her shield and back towards Ruby and Weiss. The Grimm Dragon roared at the new arrivals, but a wave of frost made it back up cautiously.

Pyrrha and Ruby, meanwhile, hurriedly scanned the room for any sign of Jaune. Any sign that their best friend was still alive. All they found, however, was a broken sword and his scroll on the floor. Something inside Pyrrha snapped, and even as Ruby zipped to Jaune's broken sword, staring at it, praying that her eyes were deceiving her, Pyrrha screamed, and all the metal debris throughout the room began levitating with a dark glow. Cinder had barely enough time to recover from being kicked into a pillar before she began quickly deflecting all the metal flying at her.

The Grimm Dragon, meanwhile, decided that the Ice Dust wasn't a very significant threat, and began advancing on Weiss, who called for Ruby to snap out of it and help her kill the darned thing. She couldn't focus on anything besides the broken sword in her hand, though. Indescribable but familiar feelings began roiling within her chest, and a burning sensation began to build up behind her eyes...

As the Grimm Dragon stomped upon a pile of rubble, however, a bright light suddenly shone from within it, and the rocks under the Grimm's wing (and the Grimm's wing) suddenly flew upwards, all the force applied downwards suddenly being reversed. Even as the Grimm Dragon squawked in surprise as it was thrown off balance, a coughing sound could be heard, and a familiar blonde emerged from the remains of a broken desk, bruised, battered, very much beaten, but still alive.

"You."

"Arc?!"

"Jaune?!"

"Jaune!"

Jaune was too busy clearing his lungs to pay much attention to his surroundings, but he still tried to analyze the situation. He'd been knocked out for a minute or two when the roof had collapsed, and had woken up underneath a broken desk and a ton of rocks. And then, suddenly, he'd felt an additional weight press down on him, and then his aura had glowed, like back in Forever Fall with Cardin, before everything on top of him was suddenly repulsed. Wait, was this his Semblance? Or just a side effect of his abnormally large aura? Eh, question for later. His aura was even lower than red at the moment, he could feel a sharp pain in his chest whenever he breathed as well as a dull ache in his sternum, and the fiery bitch (not Yang) was still around, albeit being backed into a corner by his partner's Semblance.

Wait, his partner?

Jaune blinked, and blinked a second time to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. Oum, it seemed, had answered his prayers; Pyrrha was here, along with Ruby and Weiss, all staring at him with relief evident in their faces.

Cinder didn't miss her opportunity; she threw a fireball at a distracted Pyrrha, knocking her away easily, before sending a wave of glass shards throughout the room, trying to suppress them. Weiss threw up a wall of ice to protect herself, but Ruby hadn't noticed until it was too late. Lacking the time to concentrate on her Semblance, Ruby closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, hoping her Aura was still high enough.

5 seconds later, when the expected force and pain hadn't come (and she belatedly realized her heart was still beating), Ruby slowly opened her eyes, wondering if Cinder had somehow missed.

Jaune's unmoving body, riddled with sizzling holes in front of her, said otherwise.

"Jaune?" Ruby cautiously crawled towards her best friend, not wanting to believe it. The red liquid pooling beneath him made a squelching noise as she accidentally stepped into it, but she was too focused on him too care. Her best friend, whom she'd come to save, whom she hadn't been too late to save, had dove in front of her to save her.

And he was gone for it. The satisfied smile on his face was the worst part. The heat behind her eyes doubled, and something within her broke as she howled.

Beneath her, Jaune struggled to speak, to reassure his first friend that he was alright, just a little cold. He heard his partner also cry out his name, and tried to turn to her, but a silver light suddenly engulfed him, and then he knew no more.

Author's Note: Before anyone asks, yes, this is basically identical to the first chapter of Two Worlds, One Arc-nomaly. Because, while this is (hopefully) going to be a longer and less silly version of that short and silly story, the starting point's still the same: a destiny altered at the top of a tower. I know I said I was going to do this when I finished TWOA, but I've been really busy for the past few months. Hopefully, that'll all change soon, though.

And no, while they may start the same, and be based on the same concept, that doesn't necessarily mean I'll take this story in the same direction as TWOA, nor does it mean things will progress in this story as they did in TWOA. Consider this the sell-out cash-grab spin-off, if you're cynical enough.

I was honestly considering starting off the story with the next chapter, and directing readers to read TWOA if they wanted context on how Jaune dies, but I believe my stories should be self-contained (unless they're sequels, prequels, or spin-offs, perhaps), and newer readers might be confused and lost. So, instead...

And no, this still does not get put into the crossover category because I don't believe on limiting myself purely to Elder Scrolls or Fallout.

Expect updates to be very infrequent, though I should pump out the next chapter by next week, now that I'm finishing up my current job that "requests" an 80-hour work week.

On an aside note, I've been considering setting up a ko-fi. Feel free to lambast me as a sell-out if you want; I do appreciate feedback.