The procedure was successful. Amber's half of the fall maiden was extracted and stored in a mini hedron. Her body was turned into a revenant and put into stasis until the pod she was in is opened. The life support equipment was set to make it look like she was still alive.

The only snag we had was where to put the maiden hedron.

Eventually I convinced everyone that storing it off of Remnant was the best idea. So, I took it to my vault that was still on Remnant. I didn't know how it would react to being taken away from this plane, but the professors didn't need to know that.

After I returned everyone left to do their own thing, probably sleep, it had been a long day. I however wasn't going to get that luxury just yet.

"Jaune." Pyrrha whispered. We were alone, her mom had gone back to her no doubt spacious hotel.

"Yes, Pyrrha?" I asked.

"Nothing, never mind." She replied, but I knew something was wrong.

"Pyrrha, if something is bothering you, you can talk to me about it." I said with a smile.

"What if what's bothering me is you?" she whispered. Freezing me in place.

"Then I would definitely want to hear what it is you have to say." I replied.

"It's just, back in the chamber, it was like you were a completely different person. It was scary." She managed to choke out. Each word stabbing me in the heart.

What do I do now? Besides panic. Go with my gut then.

"Will you sit with me?" I asked while sitting myself down on one of the benches in the courtyard between the offices and dorms.

She hesitated for a second but sat down anyways.

"Every planeswalker is unique but few can claim that they have been a planeswalker in both this life and their past life. I am one of those few." I lamented.

"What were you like before you were Jaune?" she asked.

"I was old, old enough to have tasted the power that planeswalkers wielded before the mending. I watched empires rise and fall like leaves on a tree. I ruled a few and as my power and knowledge grew, I decided to create my own worlds"

She gasped.

"Your mother was at one point also able to make planes herself but didn't see any reason to." I pointed out.

"So why did you?"

"I was not a good person back then, to this day I sometimes refer to who I was as someone else to distance myself from them." I babbled.

"I created those worlds and those that inhabited them solely for my own amusement. Like a child playing in the sand on a cosmic scale. I created planes with unique lifeforms for the single purpose of hunting them into extinction." I whispered.

She gasped again.

"I killed millions for my amusement Pyrrha. Toyed with them, until I grew bored. Even after I was killed and partially reborn here, I still remember the sick joy I felt when I saw their despair. Their wails of terror and pleas for mercy was music to my ears as I killed them." I sobbed while holding my head in shame.

The tears were flowing unbidden. The weight of my past had come crashing down on me. For years I ignored it, pretended it wasn't me, that Bolas was someone else. Today that fantasy was shattered. There is no difference between us other than experience but given the same set of circumstances I will do the same thing he would do. The estrangement with my human family, so similar to the hostility I bore for my draconic brothers on Dominaria. Even this latest scheme with Amber was no different. I knew she would agree to anything if it meant revenge and I manipulated her for my own gain.

Suddenly I felt a weight and warmth embrace me.

"Jaune, I can't imagine what it must be like for you to have gone through this alone for so long." She said.

"It tears you apart, the suffering you caused. You know what that tells me?" she whispered.

I wordlessly shake my head.

"It tells me that you are already better then whoever you use to be. It doesn't matter if they were someone else or if they are you. The fact is that you are better than them, because you care about the lives of others now. You should be proud of how far you have come. I know I am."

I didn't think I could cry more than I was now but after that I was bawling into her shoulder.

After what felt like an eternity, I was able to pull myself together and get back to the dorms with my partner. Sleep took me as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was so emotionally drained.

Scene break

Therapists preach about how bottling up your emotions and stress is bad and that simply letting it out in a controlled environment can be cathartic and the first step to recovery.

I always thought they were smoking the really good stuff but the morning after my melt down in front of Pyrrha was the best I had felt in a long time.

I had hope.

Genuine hope that there was someone out there besides Ugin who could look past the gilded horns and tattered wings and see the human that I had become. We still weren't there yet and the history between me and her father was still a huge obstacle, but I can now see the light at the top of the mountain. I just had to keep climbing.

The first cliff was tomorrow. For tomorrow was the night of the dance.

I made my way to the hall being decorated by Yang and Weiss to see how it was going. Hopefully, their ideas of what a party should be wouldn't clash too badly.

With that I opened the door and was greeted with an actual dance hall. It wasn't some horrible amalgamation of a high-class reception hall and a club. Ikoria's mutated creatures had left me with a few nightmares. Otrimi was at least fun to play with when I was learning how to move around as a dragon.

"Is everything going smoothly? I have a lot riding on this dance." I asked.

"Blake is being blakey, and the blonde bombshell and snow pixie are arguing about fog machines and doilies." The blonde monkey replied smugly.

Guess the rumor mill had been hard at work spreading the word that I was going to the dance with Pyrrha and I had an obsession with perfection. Good, the fear of me was as close as I was going to get to the fear of god.

"Weiss, this is a school dance not a meeting of Remnant's rich and snobbish. Remember your target audience. You to Yang, not everyone enjoys clubbing like you do, tone it down."

"Anyone have any plans on Blake yet?" I asked.

"Oh, she will be at the dance." Was Yang's confident reply.

"Good, I'll go with you and make sure." I declared.

The collective drawn out 'what' that followed my and Yang's exist was totally worth it.

Scene break

Faunus in general, get offended if you make remarks about how similar to animals they are. Blake is not helping that stereotype by following the red laser Yang brought. Once the feline was close enough Yang grabbed her and made a break for the nearest empty classroom.

"Yang, if your going to tell me to stop then you may as well just save your breath." Was Blake's tired response to Yang's madness.

"I don't want you to stop, I want you to slow down."

I didn't expect such wisdom from Yang.

"We don't have the luxury to slow down." The black cat replied.

"Its not a luxury, it's a necessity." Wonders never cease.

"The necessity is stopping Torchwick." Blake stressed.

"And we are going to, but first you have to sit down and listen to what I have to say." Seriously, where is this mother hen routine coming from?

What proceeded was a heartfelt story about Yang and Ruby after their mom passed, and Yang's own obsession. I always thought that they looked a little too different for full blooded sisters.

"Yang, I'm sorry that happened to you and I understand what your trying to tell me. But this is different. I'm not a child and- "This is where I lost patience.

"You are still acting like one, despite your claims." I cut in.

Both young ladies jumped when I spoke.

"I don't want to go to bed mom, I have to finish this." I mocked.

That made her mad and she was about to reply but I cut her off again.

"No one is telling you to stop looking for Torchwick, just take care of yourself so that when you do find him, you're a little more useful then cannon fodder." I carved into her feline pride with the grace of a rhino.

"I could stop him." she stubbornly replied.

"You couldn't even tell that I had been in the room the entire time. Is it fear or arrogance that makes you think you could stop him when you have already put yourself halfway in your own grave?"

She had no reply.

"You like stories Blake? Then let me tell you a little story."

"There was once a dragon who unlike his brethren was immortal. Time did not touch him. With his gift he travelled far and wide learning so many things. He watched empires rise and fall like the tides on the beach. He fought demonic leviathans and stood victorious." I recounted.

"But then, he found out that other, younger immortals had been warring for so long at a key point of the world against each other that the damage threatened to destroy everything. Without his help they found a way to fix what they had broke but in doing so they would strip him and everyone else like him of their immortality." Bit of residual anger at that last bit.

"This naturally, angered him. Why did he have to pay with his life for the mistakes of others? Do you think he stopped them from caring out their plan?" I asked.

Blake just shrugged.

"He didn't stop them. While what was rightly his was unjustly being taken away. He knew that it was the only way for him to keep living. So, with days left to use his unfathomable power. He traveled to a far away land that he once visited. This dragon had learned how to twist the minds of others. In this far away land, he slew all of the adults."

Blake gasped.

"He justified it with the argument that he had extraordinarily little time to plan and had to make violent decisions for his own survival. Killing so many people left the eternal guardians of this land vulnerable to his mind powers. He placed himself as their god in their memory and they trained the remaining children to be warriors. Warriors who would die and eventually made into undead elite soldiers for his personal army. Do you know how long he waited to collect his army?" I asked.

No response.

"He waited over a hundred years. An entire society killing itself before they reached thirty, the bodies being forged into killing machines. Just so he could regain what was stolen from him. Have you figured out the two points to this story?" I challenged.

"I know your trying to point out that pursuing something desperately will destroy you but what's the second one?" She asked.

"Patience, the dragon made a plan to get back what he wanted that took a long time to come to fruition. Time that was now limited for him. He rested when he needed to and plotted when he could." I explained.

"Torchwick is not going anywhere and I doubt you have made a big enough impression on him that he is going to try and get you when your sleeping inside a huntsmen academy." I pushed.

"Why do you care so much?" Blake asked.

I was stumped for a second.

"I'm not apart of your team and we barely talk to each other so why are you so concerned about me?" she queried.

"Ordinarily I wouldn't, but you are a friend of Ruby's and she has been bummed out about you not going to the dance tomorrow. And when Ruby's feeling down, everyone is feeling down, including Pyrrha, my date. Need I say more?" I explained.

The crickets were too stunned to comment.

Then Yang and Blake started laughing. That was unexpected.

"Don't ever change Jaune, life would be too boring otherwise." Yang wheezed out.

"I'm glad I amuse you." I drawled; with that I began to take my leave.

"Wait." Blake called out. I turned to face her.

"You didn't finish your story. Did the evil dragon and his army get what he wanted?" she asked.

I took a moment to think of a reply.

"No, he didn't get what he wanted, at least not in the way that he wanted it, but I like to think that he gained something far more valuable then true immortality."

"What did he gain?" Yang asked.

"Humility, and a second chance." I intoned.

Before they could ask more questions, I left the classroom. Nicol Bolas, I, myself, yes, I felt that the mending was a persecution of myself. That I was being attacked for no reason and that my response was good and right. The screams of Ravnica still haunt me but I think I'm learning to live with it. Slowly but surely, I think I am moving past my previous life.

Hi guys, sorry for the short chapter. This one has been a bit of a slog with my other stories begging for attention. Everytime I tried to think about this one my muse or whatever you call that she-devil, would lead me astray to Harry Arcstrider and Deku T3000. (BTW if you like the sounds of those go check them out and please leave a comment, I live off those.) So, I decided to cut this one a little short and save the opening for the next chapter to be the dance and all the scheming and drama I can shove into it. After I write a few chapters for my other stories and the muse changes things up, cause she is that kind of bitch. This is by no means a hiatus I still have lots of ideas for this story and a basic road map for it but the thought that I haven't updated Arcstrider since November must be addressed. Hope you enjoy this chapter and again, please leave a comment, they are my coffee since I went on a diet.

Justus3138