The Once and Future King

01 - Prologue - My King

Jaune looked at the instructions in the letter he was given before scratching his head as he wondered just how the heck he was supposed to understand where he was supposed to go.

Well, it wasn't that he couldn't read, it was more of how he didn't really understand which transport was which. There were many weird designations for the airships and bullheads here, he honestly wondered how anyone in the Kingdoms could even understand this…

He suddenly bumped into someone having not paid attention to his surroundings. Falling to the ground and hearing his weapons clang against it, he groaned, looking up to apologize to the person he bumped into before freezing as he stared, eyes wide, into the barrel of a gun, a black and orange robot pointing it at him.

Jaune, somehow being lucky enough to avoid being blasted immediately, quickly rolled to the side and bolted away from the area, running away as fast as he could.

"W-What the hell?!" Jaune shouted, ducking as he saw a sign up ahead, somehow dodging a shot that would have very much blown his head apart. "A-Aaaah!" he screamed, running as fast as he could, jumping over cars as he crosses a road, dodging literal bullets as he tries to avoid the random obstacles in front of him, before eventually finding himself inside an abandoned building.

He continued running, ignoring how tired his legs were, but he was just doing his best to stay alive, actually, he didn't really know why he was still alive, he wasn't that fast anyways.

As soon as he thought of that, he tripped on a construction pipe, falling head first to the ground, feeling hot air pass his back, signifying just how close he was to dying once more. What the hell?!

Jaune frantically tried to get up and ended up trying to pitifully crawl away, but he was trapped. He looked in front of himself and saw a wall, turning back to where he came from, he saw the robot that was chasing him. Or, more precisely, the robots that were chasing him down.

Robots covered in black, with some orange highlights, they all held large guns that, from what he could see now, was actually shooting lasers, as evident from the red glow that was appearing inside the barrel.

This was his last moment. He didn't even get to go to Beacon. How… pitiful.

Clenching his fists, he pushed himself up and glared at the robots aiming their guns at him. He grit his teeth, he may die now, but he wasn't going to do it lying down. Screaming, he felt something snap inside him, and a bright white light shot out of him, and before he knew it, the robots around him were gone.

Surprised at what had just happened, he stepped back, staring at the space where the robots had just been surrounding him. As he stood there, frozen in shock, he heard clapping. Jaune's gaze snapped towards the dark corner, where the clapping was coming from, and watched as a man appeared out of the darkness.

A smiling man, wearing a monocle and elegant white clothes emblazoned with golden patterns. What stuck out the most, however, was the scorpion tail that was protruding from behind him.

A scorpion faunus, Jaune's eyes widened, making him stand on edge as he placed his hand on his sword, before realizing that he had dropped it lately. Out of options, he clenched his fists and got in a stance, but the man simply stopped and stared at him with a frown.

Then, he spoke, "Oh, dear. I seem to have forgotten my manners." the man smiled apologetically, then kneeled towards him, "Forgive me, but I am Tyrian Callows, a humble servant of yourself, my king." the man said, offering Crocea Mors towards Jaune.

"T-Tyrian Callows?" Jaune's eyes were wide, he didn't know who the hell this person was, but with the way he was acting… "K-King…?"

"Ah… yes." Tyrian looked up towards him, a small smile upon his face, "Yes, King. You are King Jaune of Arc, the one who inherits all of Remnant. The Once and Future King of Remnant." chuckling, Tyrian continued, "My King, please receive Crocea Mors."

Jaune was absolutely shocked, as he grabbed ahold of Crocea Mors, he noticed just how much his hand was shaking.

Steeling himself, he gripped at Crocea Mors hard, taking it from Tyrian's hands. Holding it in his hands felt different now for some reason… as he stared in wonder at the weapon in his hands, Tyrian suddenly stood up and exclaimed,

"Rejoice! For the path of the Once and Future King of Remnant has begun! Taking his first step towards conquest, the world will soon know the name Jaune Arc!" Tyrian grinned, looking extremely excited as Jaune simply stared at his reflection in Crocea Mors with an uncertain feeling…

It felt as though he had taken one step into something he absolutely shouldn't have.

And yet, he felt invigorated.

Glynda was currently en route to Beacon Academy when she suddenly happened upon some papers that were on the ground. Frowning, she picked it up, feeling annoyed at the nerve of people these days.

She stared at it and raised a brow, Jaune Arc… transcripts? These… these certainly don't look right. Instructions to get into Beacon…

Narrowing her eyes, she looked around but saw nobody who seemed to match the image in the transcripts, sighing, she decided to hold on to it for now. Hopefully this Jaune Arc kid would just go to Beacon to enroll, he was lucky that she'd picked up his transcripts.

Deciding to hold on to it, she went on towards the docks, not noticing the pair of pink eyes that were staring at her from afar, an ominous smile on their face.

"And so it begins…" the pink eyes suddenly shifted to brown, before disappearing.

A new legend has begun and the clock ticks forward… onto a different, and uncertain future.

A/N: A fairly lackluster start after me not being on for a long time, but, hopefully, I won't be too busy with college. What fics are still up for me will probably continue, I won't say which, but hopefully it's not too late yet hahaha. Chapters of this story should be longer after this though.