Author Notes: The fanfic written by PaulXion is by far one of the best I have ever read and I feel that the main girls from RWBY and many of our favorite characters should read about their favorite goofball of a Jaune who turns into someone greater and much more than the lovable goof they all grew to love. This is exciting! I got permission from the author and it is a GO!
Disclaimer: I do not know RWBY or the original fanfiction story. They are owned by Rooster Teeth and PaulXion, respectively.
Chapter 00: A Story for All to Hear
It was the end of the Vytal Festival Tournament's Team Rounds and all the student returned to their dorms for a well-deserved rest. After all name gave it their all, but there will always be winners, and some losers. But that doesn't mean they all can't have fun while they're at their best. Team RWBY and JNPR were one of the many who has made it to the Doubles Rounds and were heading back to their dorms. Night as already fallen onto Vale and the Amity Colosseum has closed for the day.
"Well, good night everyone and congratulation to all of us making it to the Doubles Rounds." Ruby, the leader of RWBY and the youngest of the group, bidding her friends, Team JNPR a job well done.
"Thanks, you guys were great in your fight." Jaune, the leader of JNPR, returned the same gesture. He wanted to say more, but was interrupted by his most electrify teammate.
"YEAH, WE KICK BUTT! We were like, 'Take this!' and 'Take that!'." Nora motioned her hands performing what appears to be karate chops. It was amazing how she still has a lot of energy even after a…somewhat impression…battle.
"Nora, it's late and I'm pretty sure, Professor Goodwitch will shout at us again if she hears you shouting at the middle of night." By far the most passive of the group, Ren has this strange ability to calm the storm inside Nora. No idea how, but it works. No one wants to be anywhere near Nora when she is unsupervised.
"Well, it was fun to actually work together, but I still feel somewhat unimpressed with your match with those students from Shade." The heiress glanced at Jaune making everyone remembering his embarrassing moment in the ring. I mean… who has a 'Team Meeting' in the middle of a fight?
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Apparently, it's Jaune.
"Hey! We still won!" Jaune tried to counter Weiss's statement.
"Beginner's luck. If you had any brain cells, you should have known that your team would not remember your… 'Team Attacks'." The ice queen made yet another valid argument which crushed Jaune's ego. "Although your fighting has improved, I would say your leadership skills will need improvement," Every word that came out of her mouth was painfully true, "And I do mean MAJOR improvements." More like straight to the heart painful.
Jaune realized she was right and slumped in defeat. He then felt his partner patted his back letting him know that she will support him. He say looked up to her to see her smiling. He smiled back. Just that kind and illuminating smile, the blonde knight's confidence rose again.
"Don't worry Jaune. I'm sure you'll do great in the doubles round." Ruby tried to cheer up Jaune which seems to work… if she didn't add the next part, "But I think you should leave the team attack names to me," Ruby stood up proudly with hands at her sides. It was like an arrow shot right through the pale white Jaune, "I mean, 'Flower Power'," another arrow was fired, "and 'Arkos' really?" yet another one. It was right on target and the gloomy blonde leader slumped his head down yet again. (AN: I am do not dislike Flower Power or Arkos. I love them!)
"I think… it was…clever…" Pyrrha tried to revitalize her partner without having to insult Ruby's comment. "And I'm sure Ruby didn't mean any of that," she glanced at the young leader, signaling her, "Right, Ruby?"
Ruby's eyes widen realizing what she just said didn't exactly help motivate her friend. "Of courses! Sorry, Jaune I didn't mean to say those things." Jaune heard the red reaper's comment which made him better again. Ruby then complimented Jaune, "I bet you will become a better leader after this tournament." She lightly elbowed Jaune in the stomach showing her support in him.
"Thanks Rubes," He sighed knowing Ruby would be joking. He then let out a big yawn. "Well, goodnight everyone."
"Goodnight!" Everyone said in sync and returned to their dorms.
(RWBY's dorm)
The whole team had finished showering and dressing into her pajamas. Ruby was already on her seemingly suspended, yet unstable, bed. Everyone was happy for making it through the Team Rounds, but they also knew that was only the beginning of their journey. Still they deserved some rest, after all, they had to fight the White Fang, Roman Torchwick, who by the way is locked away in one of the Atlesian Airships, and a Grimm breach. All of which, they overcame with skills and teamwork.
So everyone was in bed, but one of them decided to ask a question, but one she didn't think she would ever ask about. "Do you guys really believe Jaune can be a better leader?" Yang watched most of the conversation in the hallway about Jaune's strange team strategy. "I mean he has the right idea…"
"Oh, please. I would hardly call that an idea." Weiss rolled her eyes in disagreement, "That was more on the line of copying."
"Hey, we did technically used team attacks on Torchwick when he was in the giant Paladin and won." Ruby wanted in on the action and defend her first friend at Beacon, "That means Jaune is learning from us. I would even say he sees us as role models."
Weiss pondered on Ruby's statement of a moment and nodded, "Well when you put it that way, I suppose he does have the right idea." It is not often a person gets to hear Weiss agree on things, much less agree with Ruby and about a weak person, like Jaune.
Huh? You think you know a person.
"Yeah, but it makes you wonder…if Jaune was even little bit stronger on the first day of Beacon, would things be different." The blonde brawler planted a new idea into all the girl's heads. What would really happen if the lovable goof Jaune was even a little bit stronger, a little bit smarter, or a little bit different? With those final questions planted, team RWBY hit they hay as fast as you can say "Beowulf".
Still the questions lingers.
Well, there's no point for them to be wasting their time on a mystery they will never solve…
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Or can they…?
(Unknown Location)
A white light shined on Ruby's face forcing her to open her eyes, but the problem is all she could see is white. Quickly getting up she finds herself standing in the middle of emptiness of pure whiteness. To make matters, more strange she looks down to see she was in her regular red and black combat attire. She looked around and found her whole team on the ground still sleeping, but soon she realized they weren't alone. She spotted JNPR, all of which had their regular clothing and armor, a few feet away from her team.
"What's going on?" That was all she could ask.
She turned back to see the sleeping team SSSN and CVFY were also nearby and in the regular clothes. It was strange. Why would they all be suddenly here in this… world… of sort. Ruby went over to wake her team. She started with Yang, bad choice by the way, and started shaking her.
"Yang! Wake up. Something weird just happened!" Instead of words, she was met with the hard and painful jab to the chin.
*BAM*
"OUCH! Yang that hurts." Ruby's voice finally woke Yang, who saw her little sister rubbing the area that was hit. Yang quickly sprung out of her b…wait why does she feel like she slept on the floor? She scanned her surrounding and saw the same scene that her little leader saw.
Confusion fell upon the blonde brawler, instantly telling her… to panic.
"Ruby! What is going on!? Where are we!? Where are my pajamas!?" These are the very same question Ruby kept asking herself, but nothing she saw answer any of them.
"I don't know. I went to sleep like usually, dreamt of mountains of cookies and strawberries, then when I woke up, I saw nothing but white. Our team is here, so is JNPR, SSSN and CVFY." Ruby pointed out everyone to her sister, which only added more questions than answers.
"Well let's wake everybody up!" Yang stood up. She wanted to a way to wake up everyone in one go. Immediately, an idea popped into her head making her grin. She took a deep breath and cupped the mouth. "GRIIIIIIIIIIMMMMMMMMM!"
In a matter of seconds, everyone instantly shot up in their battle stance only to find themselves weaponless and in an entirely new world of nothingness. Another few seconds pass before their realized their situation.
"Uh…What going on?" Sun was the first to answer.
"Are we dead? Is this heaven?"
"I'm too young and beautiful to die! Not like this!" That was the redhead of SSSN clutching his head as he screamed in fear, if anyone was asking.
"RUBY! If you have something to do with this, you better make explain yourself right now!"
"WHAT!? What did I do!?"
"Where are we? This isn't our dorm."
"And I was just getting to the good part! I was standing on a tower of pancakes, when a storm of raining syrup was closing in!"
"How did we even get here!?"
"Everyone calm down, I'm sure there is a perfectly good explanation to all of this." Surprisingly, no one expected the blonde knight to be the calmest of all. Usually the bumbling idiot is the first to be spazzing out or at least hyperventilating.
Weiss, however, had too much pent up angry to listen, "Really!? Please enlighten us Arc!" she pointed at his nose demanding answers. "What is this 'perfectly good explanation'!?" Jaune was at a disadvantage. Surely, there has to be something around here that would explain why three teams from Vale and one from Vacuo were somehow magically transformed to this world. Something that isn't all white. Something that had answer. Something like a…a… textbook?
*SHINE*
Surely enough, a bright white light shined in the middle of the groups. It was blindingly bright, forcing everyone to shield their eyes. The light remained for a few seconds and started to dim. As soon as the light died, the object in front of them was a small rounded table with a large hardcover book on it.
Everyone slowly gathered around the book, but never expected what they saw.
It had a picture. And not just any picture. A full body picture of Jaune Arc. The picture showed him with his eyes closed and head slightly facing down. He is holding Crocea Mors with both hands together as it rest on the ground. The shield was expanded with the sword was still in it. A golden line cut in the middle of Jaune which displays two different worlds.
On the left side, the world around Jaune was prosperous and alive. It showed Jaune smiling as if he had found peace in him. The right side displayed a world in ruins, with nothing but fire and brimstone. Jaune has a frown written on his face as if he has lost hope of everything.
In the background of both sections, all the members of team RWBY are seen with the standing on top of large boulders looking into the distance. They wore their respected expressions for their section. There was a title on top of the cover written in gold.
"RWBY: Tomorrow and Never Again" Blake read the title out loud so that everyone could hear it, but what was strange is that the book had her team's name on it, but the picture mostly shows the leader of JNPR. She knew books aren't meant to be judge by their cover, but she couldn't help but wonder if this book was the answer to all their questions. Silence impregnated the air, creating a very eerie mood.
"So Jaune… buddy… mind telling use why this book happens to have a picture of you on it." Sun asked the person in question believing the blond knight would be able to answer his question.
"I-I have no idea." That was all he could say.
"Hey look, the girls from team RWBY are in the picture too!" Velvet quickly stated the two version of the all-girl team of Beacon.
"Why would there be a book have the name "RWBY" when the pic is mostly of Januey boy?" Coco, the leader of CVFY, pushed her sunglasses down to get a better look of the book. "In fact, why would it appear now?"
The book was quickly swiped from the table and the holder was dancing around giving her explanation of the book. "OH! I know! Maybe this book tells the future of Jaune, like when he will graduate, when he will get married to someone from RWBY," Ruby, Weiss, and Jaune slightly turned red at the thought. Yang grinned as she stared at the three. Blake deadpanned at the ridiculous idea. "Or when he will die from a horrible gruesome death by…"
"Nora…please… you're scaring Jaune." Ren stopped his childhood friend from finishing that sentence. He gestured to Jaune showing him as pale as the Weiss. Obviously, Nora can't help but over-exaggerate on her ideas… just like her dreams.
"Well, we might as well read it. Who wants to go first" Neptune couldn't wait anyone and wanted to go home.
*Cough*"Nerd"*Cough* Sun teased his partner.
"Intellectual!" Neptune corrected Sun, but knew the jokes would never end, "In…tel…tecl…tual."
"Either a member of RWBY or Jaune should do it. Since they are on the cover." The rabbit Faunus meekly suggested to the group. Silence filled the air again. No one was interested in reading a book. They had more important things to do, like how to get home, who is responsible for bring them here, and why are they here? All of them are the heiress's questions. Still no one took the chances, not even Nora for goodness sake. What if the book was a trap and one of them will lose their eyesight once they open the book. In the midst of all fear, the blonde knight took the chance and snatched the book from his teammate.
"Fine… I read it!" Jaune didn't really care anymore. If this book had answers to what is truly going on, he is willing to take the chance for his friends and their future, even if this book is a trap. Slowly, but carefully, he open the book little by little. Everyone back away slowly in a cluster, not wanting to get caught in…whatever that mysterious book had.
What seemed like an eternity was a few seconds, Jaune finally opened the book, but quickly retracted his eyes and prepared for his fate.
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Nothing happened. That's good. He opened one eye just to make sure everything was ok. Jaune release a huge sigh knowing that he got to live another day. Everyone finally relaxed and glad to see the knight alive and well. Jaune took a few glances and a concluded that it was a regular book with pages and words.
"It's just a book with words. Nothing to be afraid of guys." Jaune let the others know that the book was safe.
"Well, that's reassuring." Blake answered.
"Well, that was disappointing. I was expecting something to pop out and scare the daylights out of him." The monkey Faunus wasn't really helpful at all.
"I might as well read if it can get us out of here." Jaune sat down on the white ground and started reading it out loud.
How did it all go…
*BLEEP*
"WAH!" Everyone was caught completely off guard while the knight was able to jump from his bottom, seeing as something just popped right in front of him.
That something was a rather large holographic screen, as big as the ones in movie theaters that was flowing in midair. Everyone blankly stared at the screen, unable to process the information. Sure, Remnant has its own technologies in holographic screens, but they required projectors to be displayed. This particular screen, however, requires none whatsoever. It was incredible! A book that doubles as a movie theater.
While everyone was simply staring at the scene before them unable to explain how it happened, most of the students were skeptical, except one of them.
"This! Is! Awesome!" The Valkyrie appeared beside her leader's side as fast as Ruby's Semblance and invading his personal space.
"You got ourselves a movie to watch!" Nora ecstatically screamed while vigorously shaking her leader enough to make him feel motion sickness again. Jaune couldn't really think clearly, in fact, no one expected this.
"You know! If we had some a bunch of chips, sodas, comfy couches, and PANCAKES, we would make this the most perfect movie experience ever!" Nora shouted in glee, "Wouldn't it be cool if all those things pop out like the screen thingy!?"
"Right… if that happens then I'm the Queen of Atlas." Weiss stated with skepticisms. In fact, she was ready to find a way out of this dreadful…
*POP*
*POP*
*POP*
*POP*
Exactly as Nora said, the list of contents she described appeared out of nowhere at her feet, while the couches materialized behind her. Baffling as it may seem, everyone was now afraid of what Nora was going to say next. It would seem that anything she says will become reality. Strangely though, Nora was not her normal self, seeing as she is starting at the contents even thought she was the one who apparently summoned them.
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"This. Is. AMAZING!" Throwing her hands in the air, Nora hopped around the summoned objects with stars in her eyes.
"Woah…" Ruby was at awe with this new development. Thinking it was a good idea, she tested something out. "I wanna try!" Shutting her eyes she thought of the one thing that she loved the most. "I want mom's cookies!"
*POP*
A table materialized in front of the little red leader with a plate of warm, seemingly freshly baked cookies piled on each other, but not just any normal cookies. These were her mother's favorite recipe. Ruby's eyes widen to the size of baseballs as she stared at one of her mother's greatest creation. She slowly picked one from the top of the pile and took one bite.
One bite was all she need to know.
"It IS just like Mom's." Ruby cried with tears of joy.
"Really!?" Yang didn't think it would be possible. She grabbed one and tossed it in her mouth. Slowly but surely, she too fell into the same state as her sister.
"Well, in that case…" Seeing as there is no limit to asking what he wants, Sun joins in on the fun. "I want a boat load of bananas!"
*CRAASH*
Immediately, he got want he wanted.
"Awesome, I want in!"
"Me too!"
"So we can ask for anything!"
"What about best designer brand shoes!?"
"Umm…I guess… it wouldn't hurt to try."
"How about the newest video game on the market!?"
"I would like a pack of my tea bags."
"There's a cookbook I been wanting to buy."
"Awww, Ren you shouldn't have!"
"Make that two boat load of bananas!"
"I'll go with a bowl of fish."
"I think I'll go with the bowl of noodles from that old guy at the fairgrounds."
(A few minutes later)
Everyone got what they wanted and situated onto the furniture…except, Weiss. Now, it understandable the ice queen of the group was not participating the summoning of random accessories. In fact, it was just insulting. She had practiced for years and has yet to master her summoning glyphs, and all of sudden everyone else can summon objects like it's a second nature.
"Well, you all seem to be comfortable with all your fancy magic tricks." Weiss glared at the group.
"Come on, Weiss! Try it! If it can work for us, then it can work for you too. You can ask whatever you want!" Ruby did make a good point. Weiss wants to agree with her partner, but there were still so many unanswered questions. Being the most logical person of the group, all the heiress wanted was a way out. Then it hit her…
"Alright then, I want a way back to Beacon." Weiss lifted her nose high, expected exactly what she wants. Everyone just stared at her. Sun calmly took a bite out of his banana waiting patiently.
Still nothing...
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Any second now…
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"OH COME ON!" Weiss screamed in confusion, "How come it works for everyone, except me!?"
"Wait, so we're stuck here?" Neptune cried.
"Who cares! Let's read the book!" Nora commanded.
"Well, Ice Queen? Are you in or not?" the brawler of RWBY asked.
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Weiss signed in defeat knowing that everyone was stuck in his place, she might as well make the most of it. Who knows maybe reading this book is the key to going home. "Fine." She took seat next to Ruby, "I'll indulge in this little… story time," the gang as happy that Weiss was joining, "BUT once we finish reading this…bizarre book, we are all going home." And the moment is gone.
"Hey Jaune! Maybe you should start reading first since your picture is on it?" Nora suggested.
"Ok," Jaune opened the book to the first chapter. He took a deep breath and began reading.
To be continued…
Author Notes: I know this there is nothing much this prologue has to offer, but I can assure you that things are about to get exciting for all the characters of RWBY. Please do not flame or write negative reviews. If you have nothing good to say, then don't say it. If you do have something good or interesting to say, please don't hesitate to PM me or leave a review.