‘Tis I, The Not-so-Chosen One

-[CW: Violence, Choking (and not the good kind~)]-

A cacophony of clangs is all that can be heard now, other than the brief, split-second moments of heavy breathing. With every impact, a little bit of rust chips away from Jaune’s sword, and yet the blade is still somehow impossibly sharp.

With every step and swing, Pyrrha realizes more and more just how outmatched she is. Even using her semblance proves mostly useless, Jaune’s sheer skill enough to beat her at her own game. With one more push of Polarity though, Pyrrha locks the grip of her Semblance around Jaune’s blade, stopping it in its tracks just before it was about to slash her chest.

He pushes harder and harder to try and beat it, every single part of him pouring every ounce of his strength into overpowering her. For a second he does, but Pyrrha takes the moment to focus on his armor, using her Semblance to grab it and launch him backward suddenly. He flies into the already ruined tent, but it doesn’t take long for him to stand up from the cloud of sand and paper. “So your Semblance has evolved enough to mimic other Semblances now? Maybe the Monster’s stories weren’t him being scared, I hate to say it but he might have been right about something; you being a threat.”

For some reason, Pyrrha sees a pale yellow sheen form around Jaune before it grows brighter and brighter… and then shatters, his aura having disabled and broken itself somehow. As the yellow particles fade into the air he also starts… taking off his armor, reaching underneath the plates and unlatching the leather straps that kept them in place.

Now completely unarmored save for the thin clothes he was wearing under the armor, Jaune finally takes the helmet off and tosses it aside, also dropping his sword. He takes a big breath before he lunges again, much faster now and somehow even stronger than before.

Without any metal for Pyrrha’s Semblance to latch onto, she struggles and fails to dodge Jaune’s attacks. With him being unarmored now, she doesn’t even try to block out of fear of hurting him. Finally after a long struggle, Pyrrha just barely loses her footing, giving Jaune a perfect opening.

He pounces and grabs her, his grip strong around her neck. But his grip isn’t what starts hurting, the pain in Pyrrha instead seeming to radiate from inside her. She tries to scream, to say anything at all, but she can’t breathe. 

But for some reason, neither can he.

His grip is getting tighter, but in her struggle, Pyrrha sees a strange imprint around Jaune’s neck as well. It looked like his own hands were just invisible and squeezing his own throat shut, his face turning blue much sooner than Pyrrha’s. Pyrrha hesitates, tears starting to fall from her eyes, but she mouths “I’m sorry” before kicking Jaune square in the stomach, causing him to choke and fall to the side.

Pyrrha quickly chokes out a breath, rasping for air now that she can breathe at all. As soon as she’s sure that she can, though, she hurries to check on Jaune, rolling him over so he’s on his back.

Without his aura, Pyrrha’s strong kick knocked him out cold. He’s still breathing, in fact he’s already seeming to stir awake. She eeks out a sigh of relief, tears still falling from her face as she kneels over him. But with how much he seemed ready to kill her, she looks for her weapons just in case he pounces as soon as he’s up.

She sees them just a few steps away, probably thrown around in her struggle to get out of his grasp. She uses her Semblance to bring them to her… Or she tries to, only to find that she can no longer feel the draw of magnetism. She tries and tries, but it just isn’t there anymore. What’s worse is that she can’t see the red sheen around herself, where she’d normally feel the strain on her Aura from trying to use her Semblance.

She can’t feel her Aura at all. It’s not broken, just… gone. In its place is just that searing pain from when Jaune was on top of her, clamping her throat shut. It’s slowly fading, already much more of a sting than a burn, but Pyrrha’s aura is still nowhere to be seen.

She can’t even hope to win against Jaune now, with how strong he’s gotten she needs her aura and semblance to even hope to survive against him. So without any other choice, Pyrrha gets up and runs, grabbing her weapons as she flees. Jaune, now finally waking up, only sees the flurry of sand as Pyrrha kicks it up, and in his dazed state, all he can do is watch. Just as Pyrrha vanishes into the jungle, she glances back to see Jaune trying and failing to get up, managing to stand only to fall right back down. Only two words rush through her mind as she sprints away, feeling strangely cold now that the strange searing pain is fading.

I’m sorry.

==================================

With Pyrrha’s exceptional athleticism combined with the adrenaline of nearly being killed, it takes at least an hour before the burn of exhaustion finally seeps into her legs. Soon after, her lungs burn just as much, but compared to the searing pain of whatever Jaune did to her this pain is… strangely welcome.

Pyrrha doesn’t stop running just yet though, with how cold she felt without her Aura and Semblance part of her wants to keep feeling this burn, a strangely comforting warmth. But eventually it becomes too much, the burn turning to numbness–something that Pyrrha is currently just fine with as opposed to everything else around her–and then to a sort of prickly fuzzy feeling, overpowering her senses enough to make her trip in some of the sand… no, mud? 

Looking upwards, Pyrrha sees thick grey clouds looming overhead, all pouring down a torrent of rain. How she was even still running in the thick mud, she doesn’t know, but she does know that now she’s tripped and fallen, she’s absolutely caked in mud.

She gets up and glances around, quickly spotting a larger-ish tree with leaves big enough to at least somewhat shield her from the sudden downpour. As soon as she’s under the cover of the canopy, she lets some rainwater collect in her hands to try and wash herself, or at least rinse herself off. It works just fine, but when she goes to wipe off what she assumes to be warm mud from her face, nothing comes off.

Wiping at her face, she does get a little bit of mud off of her forehead and out of her hair, but her face as a whole seems to already be clean. And yet her cheeks and jaw still feel warm and slick, water still dripping from her face.

It takes her a good few seconds of trying to dry her face to realize that she was crying so much that her tears washed the mud away.

All of a sudden her emotions crash into her like a tsunami hitting a floodwall. She feels her heart beating, her throat closing up as she chokes out sudden sobs. Only now does the burn in her legs feel unwelcome, feeling to her like someone was pressing hot coals against her skin. Her legs give out, knees buckling under her own weight. The ground around the tree is thankfully not muddy, but Pyrrha hisses in pain as she lands on rocks.

“H-Hey! Just because I’m smaller than you doesn’t mean you can try to sit on me!” A tiny, somewhat quiet voice squeaks out from behind Pyrrha. She turns around to see a small mouse hiding behind a rock, clearly a little damp from the rain. With the absurdity of the whole situation, all that Pyrrha can think to do is laugh under her breath.

“W-What’s so funny? You nearly s-squashed me you know!” The mouse says, looking both scared and angry at the same time as Pyrrha calms down, both her crying and laughter dying down.

“S-Sorry, sorry, I just… Heh, everything’s just too much. Last thing I remember I was fighting in Beacon, and then I was just standing here. Then I find Jaune and he’s aged for whatever reason, and so much stronger than before… Where even am I?”

“Jaune? Do you mean the Rusted Knight? Are you friends with him?” Pyrrha takes a minute to think before responding to that, her mind racing with too much information to think clearly. “I am, or at least I was. But he’s changed, and for some reason, he thought I was someone else.”

“Maybe you just knew the old him! I’ve never met him myself but some of the older people in my village have, and they say not to talk to him. Everyone says that he used to be nice but one day when he visited he was different and hasn’t changed since.” The mouse says calmly, having already forgotten that Pyrrha nearly squished them when she fell.

“Really? Were there any other people like him; like me with him?”

“I don’t know, but I think I heard someone in the village say something about two smaller ones with him.” Smaller ones? Why would Jaune have children with him? Wait, the broken sword and the rusty armor…

“The kids- er, smaller ones, was one of their names Alyx?” Pyrrha asks the little mouse, something starting to click in her head.

“Alyx? Hmm… I think I heard someone say that name a while ago, but I’m not sure… I could lead you to my village to ask around if you want!” The mouse says as the both of them look out to see the rain is starting to lighten up.

“I… I’d love to, really, but with how Jaune- uh, the Rusted Knight really seems to want me dead, I don’t think it’d be a good idea to get you and your people caught in the crossfire. Even if he didn’t attack you directly, you all could get caught underfoot.”

The mouse frowns a little, but a tiny spark in their eyes looks almost content, like they’re fine with waiting for something. “Alright then, I guess I can just give you some directions at least! You see that path over there?” The mouse asks, pointing to a lightly-trodden path just past a small clearing. Pyrrha looks over and nods, seeing that it leads up to the cliffs that she’s currently below. 

“If you go that way then you’ll eventually get somewhere that you can look around, it usually leads up to one of the higher cliffs too so you’ll be able to see plenty!”

“Thanks… Wait, what do you mean it usually leads to the higher cliffs?” Pyrrha asks, unsure of what the mouse means exactly.

“Oh, the path is never the same! Going down you end up in the same place but going up is always different, and for whatever reason unless you want someone to follow you they’ll end up on a different path, so the Knight won’t be able to follow you!” The mouse answers cheerfully, Pyrrha smiling as the strange little creature cheers her up a little.

“Oh, that’s… that’s perfect actually. Thank you, uhh… I didn’t get your name, what is it?” Pyrrha asks, only just now realizing that she hasn’t known the mouse’s name at all.

“Name? I’m too young, don’t have one yet! I kinda want to be an Explorer though so that could be a good one…” The mouse answers, getting a little lost in thought. “Ah well, no use thinking about it! What’s yours?” “Mine? I’m Pyrrha, Pyrrha Nikos. And wouldn’t Explorer be more of a title than a name?”

The mouse takes a good second to think about Pyrrha’s question, not fully understanding. “Aren’t they the same thing? And you’ve got a weird name, how does one Pyrrha Nikos?” Pyrrha can’t help but let a chuckle escape before answering, the brief pause letting her see that the rain has died down to a very light drizzle. “A name isn’t what you do, little one, that’s your title. Names are just what you call people.”

For a moment Pyrrha could swear that she sees steam coming from the cute little mouse’s ears, their mind working overtime and still not wrapping around what she said. “I’m sure it’ll make sense eventually!”

Another giggle escapes Pyrrha’s lips, her breath feeling much calmer than before and not hurting with every inhale and exhale at all. “I’m sure you’ll get it. In any case I hope that you stay safe, little one. And maybe you will be an explorer, or maybe your destiny is to guide the journey of others. Either way, thank you for the help, little one.” Pyrrha says as she stands up, being careful to not fall and smush the mouse.

“I’ll certainly try, Pyrrha Nikos! If I do become an explorer then I hope to run into you again during my travels!” The mouse says, cheerfully waving as Pyrrha waves back, heading towards the path the little mouse pointed to.

Some small part of Pyrrha hoped that they would meet again, thankful to have met such a friendly face in such an unfriendly place. As soon as her feet hit the path, Pyrrha finally felt a sense of direction. She put one foot in front of the other again and again, seeing the path before her loop a few times just like when she first arrived here. But she trekked on.

And soon she saw a new path, the one behind her nowhere to be seen.

==================================

(That's the end of Chapter Three, everything past this is just me the author rambling~ And here's a link to the Previous Chapter, and a link to Chapter One! I'll get a link to Chapter Four as soon as it's up~)

Hello again everyone! Sorry that Chapter Three took so dang long to post, put simply I got a little bit of writer's block and combined with being a college student in the midst of finals I had to put a few things on the backburner~ Regardless I hope you can enjoy it, I'm really happy with it right now so I'm gonna post it before I can start criticizing my own work~

As usual a large chunk of credit has to go to @pilot-boi for the original idea of the Mirror Man which I'm incorporating into this AU, so big thanks to them and go give them all the love if you haven't already!

I really do want to just tell you what I'm writing but I don't want to spoil the story~ What I will say is that I'm currently cooking up an evolution to Jaune's Semblance! All I can say is that with this evolution, Jaune can be a very powerful "Glass Cannon" type of Character.

Also just another thing, if you've read a bit closer into Chapter 2 and maybe if you've heard of the original concept of "Mirror Man" by @pilot-boi, then you'll know that Jaune and the Rusted Knight are two entirely separate characters. Or at least that's how I'm writing them.

Put simply, the person currently fighting Pyrrha is not Jaune. If you want more details you can put in another ask, or you can wait for the later Chapters~

-[CW: Vomit/Puke, Blood]-

Saying his name felt wrong. Every part of her knew that she was right, but every part of her wanted so desperately to be wrong. Why would Jaune ever write “kill me?” It didn’t make sense, nothing does anymore. “Does he blame himself for Penny’s death? H-How could that even come close to what happened? I-I was the one who…” Is all that Pyrrha manages to say, her thoughts and voice having no barrier just as usual. Why though? Her voice still feels ever so slightly off, like it both is and isn’t hers. She rereads the note over and over, desperately hoping that this is all a sick nightmare and that dream logic would kick in, the words suddenly changing or for her to wake up and continue the fight with Cinder.

No such thing happens. As she reads the note, she only becomes surer that it’s Jaune’s handwriting, that he thinks Penny’s death is his fault, that it’s him who calls himself a monster.

That it’s him who wants to die.

For a brief moment, Pyrrha’s mind can’t help but wander to the last time she saw him. He was desperately pleading with her, but all that she heard was the noise of the ongoing battle. His words were both like a siren song and like gunshots, his voice as beautiful as the sky and as ugly as the Wyvern Grimm that flew through it.

But still, all she heard was the boy she kissed, the boy she wanted to leave with but knew she couldn’t. As she finally forced her thoughts to return to the present she felt queasy, her heart thrumming faster than a hummingbird’s wings as she stumbled out of the tent and fell to the ground.

With the sun setting now, the sand and soil felt cool, at least much cooler than her blood which Pyrrha swears she could feel boiling. A burning sensation erupted from her chest as she tried and failed to get up, the sting and burn of acid shooting up through her throat. She just barely managed to prop herself up before a puddle was beneath her, yellowy-green bile still stinging her mouth as more came.

After what felt like hours and seconds at the same time, one last retch spilled from Pyrrha’s lips, only a few small drops of bile escaping her as she finally stood up. It felt like she was standing upside down, like her feet were somehow clinging to the ceiling and that the sky above her was a void waiting for her to fall into.

But she didn’t fall.

She stared up into the sky, getting darker with each passing moment, and the abyss that she thought was there didn’t stare into her. Nothing was there to stare, no eyes, no abyss, just the slowly darkening sky. As she yet again spoke out loud, her voice finally felt right, the acid of the vomit having burned away something in her throat.

“H-He has to be out here s-s-somewhere. He must be h-hurting, if he was a-alright he wouldn’t even be thinking about wanting to… to die.”

Pyrrha took a big breath in as she talked, the now dark jungle’s cool night breeze washing away any heat or burn inside her. Her heart was still beating, her lungs still pumping, her blood still warm in her veins. She slowly wandered back into the tent, lying down on the bed of leaves as she calmed down, the sudden exertion of puking having tired her out. She speaks one more time before she drifts off into a dream.

“I need to help him.”

================================================

Pyrrha’s sleep was strangely dreamless. She drifted through the blank nothing that is sleep, her body feeling weightless. But with a sudden shift, she felt heavy, her armor and clothes putting pressure on her skin as her eyes slowly opened.

She was still in the tent, the light of day bleeding through the canvas material. As she stood up, she felt the weight ground her, keeping her senses active as she briefly glanced around the tent again.

There’s another shred of paper in a small box, what looks like a calendar. Reading over it, Pyrrha sees that the only days that Jaune comes to this camp are two out of the week, and that they’re back to back. The first of the two days he leaves early for something, but the second of the two seems more relaxed. A small note scrawled on the back reveals why. Pleasers don’t try to ascend as early on the day after the second, so don’t rush to get back. Spend the night here and then head back as soon as you wake up

“Ascend? Pleasers? Whatever it is, Jaune must be struggling with it if he has to remind himself of what he’s doing.” Pyrrha says as she grabs the map of the area, seeing another note showing that he tries to get back around noon. Not seeing any sort of time keeper in the tent, Pyrrha steps outside and glances up at the sky, seeing that the sun is right near the center. Noon.

Guess I’ll be waiting for a bit, might as well eat. Pyrrha thinks to herself, grabbing a sliver of the jerky that she found and quickly downing it. Just as she swallows, she hears a rustling behind her, sounding like something is in the bushes behind the tent.

She opts to stay quiet, slowly turning around and investigating. As she steps around the tent she sees a bush shaking, but just a moment later a mouse hops out of it, standing on its hind legs. She’s curious about the strange little creature, but regardless breathes a sigh of relief seeing that it wasn’t anything dangerous.

Unfortunately, that sigh is met with a cold sort of itch at her throat, and before she can think to scratch it, the feeling seems to dig into her neck.

“Either you’ve been here long enough to get sloppy or the Monster’s stories about you were so wrong that I snuck up that easily. But if you’re here then team RWBY isn’t far behind I’m sure, so give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now and spare them the trouble, Neo.”

The voice was cold, calculating, and even. It had just enough familiarity for Pyrrha to second-guess herself though, so she didn’t immediately use her semblance to move the metal blade away. She opened her mouth to respond before she realized that there were other holes in her memory. There was always someone there that she can’t quite remember, a blank spot in otherwise perfect memories. She knows Neo, but at the same time, she doesn’t.

“Neo? I’m not Neo, I… If I could remember her then I’d explain. I know the name but I don’t remember.” Pyrrha says, slowly putting her hands up. The voice pauses for a bit, seemingly hesitating after hearing Pyrrha’s words. For just a moment, Pyrrha could feel the blade being pulled away from her throat. But just another moment later it was back, now threatening to draw blood.

“You seriously expect me to believe that? After all you’ve done, after who knows how many people you’ve hurt? You’re almost as bad as him, but you were at least blatant with your wrongdoings.”

“Jaune, please-” “If you compare me to that Monster again, then it won’t matter if you have a good reason for me to not kill you. That thing killed Penny, and if he wasn’t such a coward then he could’ve saved the person you’re imitating. If it weren’t for me killing him then I’m sure he would’ve killed more too.”

The voice is definitely Jaune’s, just older. Much, much older. It’s low and gravelly, and so so so cold. What the hell happened to him? How long has it been since Pyrrha was fighting Cinder?

“I’m not imitating anyone! And you didn’t kill Penny, I did!” Pyrrha yells out, the sudden movement of her throat making the blade dig into Pyrrha’s throat and draw a single drop of blood, the drop now slowly inching down her neck.

The man hesitates again, but the blade doesn’t leave Pyrrha’s throat, just idly sitting there as her blood adds to its already incredibly rusted surface. He slowly spoke up though, his voice starting to shake a little.

“Pyrrha Nikos died during the Fall of Beacon. Jaune Arc could’ve stopped her but didn’t, instead letting others do the work only for one of his victims to watch her die. Long after that, he killed Penny after she was brought back.” He says, pausing for just a second to breathe. “And you tried to kill Ruby, but got Yang instead. I doubt either of them are dead though, before I killed Arc he always went on and on about how he was sure that they were alive. It’s the least I can do to wait for them, to keep them safe once they get here. And to give them the good news, that their manipulator is dead.” Pyrrha can’t bear to hear this all from Jaune’s voice. She’s desperately trying not to cry, her vision blurred with tears that have yet to fall. She can feel Jaune press the blade into her neck more before she finally caves, using her semblance to just barely slip out of his grasp and jump away. “I was gonna give you a quick death, you know. Even the worst people ever deserve a painless one. This is your own fault.” The man says, and now that Pyrrha has turned to see him, he has a helmet on, obscuring his face.

“Jaune, please! Snap out of it! I’m alive and right in front of you! Please!”

The man stands up a little, Jaune now in his old age is even taller than Pyrrha. He flicks her blood off of his broken and rusted blade, his rusted armor creaking as he moves and gets ready to lunge.

“That’s the second time now. You even beginning to compare him with me is infuriating. If I was as insane as him I would kill you slowly for that, but I’m not. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

Just as Pyrrha draws her weapons, Jaune launches himself at her, tearing the tent apart in the process. They’ve both stopped talking now, Jaune aiming for the kill and Pyrrha only blocking and dodging.

Now with centuries of experience, Jaune already has the upper hand.

================================================

(That's the end of Chapter Two, everything past this is just me the author rambling~ And here's a link to the Previous Chapter! I'll get a link to Chapter Three as soon as it's up~)

Hello again everyone! I got super carried away and just wrote Chapter two already~ Honestly I'm a little unsure if this is really a finished product so I may revise it still but oh well, we'll burn that bridge after we cross it!

-[CW: Brief mentions of Suicide]-

“I was expecting you’d be here soon enough.” Neo stood still as she stared up at the Blacksmith, starting to rethink her quick decision to jump into the colorful leaves of the Tree. “Hm? Oh, I see. You don’t quite know what to do here, do you?” Neo shook her head, a tiny bit of tension draining from her as the Blacksmith’s voice began to calm her. Her thoughts raced with the last few things she saw outside. The others saving her by using the smoke of the leaves, the cat screaming as she snuffed its life, the others nothing more than thankful that Ruby was still herself. Just thinking about Ruby was met with a pang of guilt, with how she forced her to practically commit suicide, and when her desire was filled, nothing but emptiness was what she felt. “You seem… sorry. You only wanted vengeance–no, closure–and you got it. There have been others that came here for the same reasons. But that doesn’t matter anymore. Now you have a choice to make, a choice that is yours and yours alone.”

As the Blacksmith spoke, a wide array of weapons rose from the ground. Some familiar and some not, some too heavy to even think about and some so light they could float. But there were two weapons whose weight and quality couldn’t be described: one, a parasol with an impossibly sharp blade inside.

The other, a pair of weapons. A sharp shield with scooped indents on either side, and a weapon capable of swapping between a Javelin, Sword, and Rifle. Though Neo’s eyes briefly lingered on the all-too-familiar parasol, the other pair grabbed her gaze as the Blacksmith continued.

“Your choice is who you want to be. No matter what that choice is, as soon as you make it you will be the person who wielded that weapon. It seems you’ve already left yourself behind once, but you are still you. Should you choose, that will no longer be the case.”

Neo couldn’t help but approach the case with the paired weapons inside, still glancing back at the parasol. With every glance, though, it felt heavier. She had held that same weapon for so long and she knew that it was her perfect weapon, so why did it feel so wrong now? Why did these bronze weapons seem so much more fitting?

“Those weapons are as good a choice as any. Do know that every weapon has its weight, that every person who wields a weapon has burdens. While picking up their weapon may release you of your troubles, you will be shouldering theirs.”

Pressing her hand to the case of the weapons, Neo felt an inherent rightness. Like a river finally reaching an ocean, an immaculate completeness. She could feel tears start to well up as the Blacksmith somehow perfectly put her messy thoughts into words.

“You’ve taken so much, so you think it’s time you gave back instead? If that is your choice, then very well.”

Neo closed her eyes as she noticed all the other weapons sinking away, giving a final glance to the parasol before feeling her new weapons in her hands. She feels her body suddenly change, and the last thing she sees is a gateway into a jungle in the Ever After as her memories slowly fade. As she steps through, the Blacksmith speaks again. “Just as I have done for the others, you will be brought to when you are needed most. Though it is not my part to influence your fate, I wish you the best of luck, Pyrrha Nikos.”

================================================

Just as the Gateway closes, Pyrrha realizes she has no idea where she is. She thinks out loud, and though her voice comes easily it feels odd in her mouth. Every word feels strange to say, like it was the first time she was speaking at all.

“Where am I? Wasn’t I just… What’s happening?”

Pyrrha tries and tries to remember anything, but all she sees in her memory is the impact of the Wyvern Grimm against the tower where she was fighting. Everything feels fuzzy like she was looking through stained glass and hearing with ear muffs on.

“I must’ve gotten injured… But nothing hurts at all. Maybe a dream thanks to hitting my head? No, everything feels too… real, too coherent…”

All Pyrrha can think to do is look around. Trees all around, a thick canopy shading her from too much light, and herself with her weapons. She starts to pat all over her body in search of any injuries or abnormalities and finds nothing. Nothing save for a lock of her hair, a chocolate brown instead of the usual red. She pulls and brushes at the brown, assuming that it’s dirt or mud stuck into her, but nothing comes out. As her motions get more manic her thoughts do as well, her mind drifting to her friends.

“Calm down, calm down. Something happened, I just have to figure out what exactly. The last thing I remember is getting knocked back by that impact, so I must’ve hit my head hard enough to lose whatever happened next. I can’t be far from Beacon, if I get somewhere high up I could look around and find my way.”

Now with a concrete goal, Pyrrha let go of her hair and glanced around. Upon spotting the Tree through a gap in the canopy, she quickly heads straight towards it. But then she realizes that the vine she just passed looks familiar, and that vine too. And didn’t she just walk past that rock? Something is wrong. So Pyrrha sat still for a moment, confused. To test her growing suspicions, she tore a vine from a nearby tree and wrapped it around the branch of one ahead of her. She tied it snugly and then kept moving forward. As she emerged from the thick bushes she saw that same tied vine. Pyrrha balanced her spear on her forearm and used her semblance to magnetize it, now seeing that the direction she was trying to go was north.

“North isn’t an option, okay. How about south- okay, I guess that’s north too.” Pyrrha says as she turns around, seeing that her spear-turned-compass thinks that north is all around her.

Now just using the faraway Tree as a landmark, she turns and finds that her path isn’t infinitely looping anymore. As to why, she doesn’t know, but thankfully she finds a site of interest soon after to distract her. A small clearing with one strange tree in the center. She reaches for the strange, clock-like fruits but notices on the opposite side of the tree lies one of the fruits on the ground, clearly dented and smashed. From the damage to the fruit, it looks like it was frantically smashed in, and clearly, this was quite a long time ago as its metal parts are rusted so badly that just picking it up nearly breaks it in half.

“I couldn’t even hope to guess what this thing does if it was working, but I don’t think I want to find out. Someone must have found out and broken it, and it looks like it took a few hits to do it.”

Pyrrha glances around after she sets the strange fruit down, not seeing much. She does spot a lightly trodden path though, and as she nears the end, she finds a small camp that looks recently visited, but currently unoccupied. She keeps a good eye out, but goes ahead and scouts the small camp.

“Small tent, campfire, and… Perfect, a map of the area. Apologies to whoever is living here, but I’ll be sure to thank you later.” Pyrrha thought out loud as she also found a small pouch with some jerky in it, quickly stashing it away for when she inevitably got hungry. As she looked around for anything else of use, she saw a small note written in scrawling, frantic writing that has a sort of… familiar twinge to it. DON’T FORGET:

-Clock fruits: Harvest by cutting the vine instead of plucking, Jinxy wanted one in exchange for another year or two. Done, but go barter since Jinxy lied and only gave a month

-Check the Monster’s Grave, make sure he didn’t come back again

-Wait, make sure none of the Monster’s victims fall for the clock fruits like he did

-If the Monster comes back then don’t fight, reminding him of what he did to Penny works faster

“...Penny? What the… This has to be a different Penny, right…?” Is all that Pyrrha can say, her thoughts again being said aloud. She looks over the note again and on the back sees more manic words, but written in handwriting that she finally recognizes. The Monster isn’t back he just never left I am the Monster please please please Penny I’m sorry please someone anyone help me kill me

Despite the agitated writing, Pyrrha recognizes the handwriting nearly instantly, the shorter note on the back being clearer than the scrawled front. “Jaune…?”

================================================

(That's the end of Chapter One, everything past this is just me the author rambling~ And here's a link to Chapter Two!)

Hello everyone! I doubt that anyone really knows me, I don't post much but I wrote this quite a while ago and recently touched it up a little and finished what I think is a good "Chapter" of sorts! I think it could be shorter or longer, but after months of on-and-off writing I finally got to a point where I think it works well enough on its own, which is something I strive for with writing since there are a lot of times I condemn a WIP to the shadow realm known as "Write later."

Anyways I'd just like to thank one person in particular, @pilot-boi for at least somewhat entertaining an idea I had a few months back. Had it not been for you saying that you like the idea even a little, this short work may have never existed and would have never been posted, so thank you so so so so so much. I've written a lot of things that just kinda came out of nowhere that not a lot of people have found interesting so I never bothered to post them anywhere, but the tiny bit of encouragement that you gave me was a spark. I can only hope that spark stays lit long enough for me to write this AU out fully, and maybe for me to give the series an ending that I think it needs.