Chapter Text
Her subordinates never looked at her with the same kind of praise they did their original leader. Or, to them, their master. Dio, a stuck up wannabe, who thought he had finally surpassed all of humanity with his little stunt of becoming an immortal vampire with an all-powerful stand.
Controlling time? That's it ? That's all it was? A child with an ego too big for his tiny coffin to contain is all he really, truly was.
He had pawned off his fate to his followers, those who came upon him and begged with all their might to follow in their Lord's steps. What a sham. Teenagers and adults, turning to him for immortality, be it that intrusive flesh bud or vampirism through blood consumption. What a sad, horrible fate. Those who made it out without his "gift" of immortality were left to pick up the pieces of what he started.
She paid them no mind, though. They were all weak and lost without their oppressive leader, so she stepped up. Rebuilt the pieces of Dio's cult, dealing with the constant delusions of "bringing him back" or "ascending to complete his plan". They never had the will or mental fortitude to actually proceed with anything, though, and so they kept on planning and planning for something that would never come. Although, there was one follower who went off on his own, but she wasn't worried about him.
She was constantly brushed aside whenever brought up her own plans for the goals she wanted to achieve. While she may have been their leader, she never got the respect she deserved.
Which is why, when she finally realized that the pieces of the puzzle were finally being put into place for, and with lack of better words, her own accession. No one would ever go along with it, though. They were all too focused on Dio and everything he ever wished for, so she decided to push forward a fake goal. One of fully reviving Dio by forcing his descendent to put on the mask that made their leader an "all powerful immortal". That's what everyone thought was happening, and despite all the obstacles that kept getting in their way, her group managed to get her right where she needed to be.
Near the Requiem arrow.
Her goal from the beginning was clear---to take the powers of Requiem and to achieve what that bastard of a cult leader failed to accomplish.
And Silver Lining was the perfect stand for the job.
No Joestar was going to stop her. Even as she stares down the very man who took out Dio and countless other powerful stand users---the man who could manipulate time just like her old leader---running onto the water as his newly-acquired Hamon ripples through it as his feet make contact with the surface.
She locks him dead in the eyes, resolve steeling within herself to achieve everything she rightfully deserves. In the corner of her vision, she witnesses one of her subordinates--The same girl that gave the younger Joestars their Hamon--prepare her own stand to stop Kujo in his tracks.
She's summoning a hurricane to bring him up and up, away from the arrow, and despite everything, Wyv can't help but smile at Lidolp. She always was only one who would truly listen to Wyv. She feels a bit bad for never sharing who she truly was with Lidolp, but the young girl was the only one who knew her true plans , surely that makes up for the rest.
As soon as Wyv spots Lidolp's stand starting its work, gusts of wind beginning to blow under Kujo's feet, a manic grin spreads across her face and she summons her own stand, Silver Lining. She closes her eyes and-
And time stops .
Not literally in a Dio sense, or even a Jotaro Kujo sense, but in a...paused sense. Wyv opens her eyes to find a vast nothingness all around her. She can't move, but that's ok.
By manipulating the state of herself, she's able to put her own body and mind into a stasis of nothing. No one can move, not even her, and to her eyes, it's almost as if she's been transported to the endless void of space. She can't breathe, but it's not as if she needs to in this state. That's the beauty of her stand's ability on her--by changing her state of living to paused, Wyv's body becomes one that doesn't need anything that a human might need. No eating, no drinking, no breathing, only the bliss of nothingness.
Her eyes gleam in the void. She knows she---and everyone else---hasn't moved a single millimeter since her ability activated, and she knows she's staring Kujo dead in the eyes. He looked pissed, which, considering the situation, is fair enough, but no amount of anger will stop her from completing her goal.
"I am going to be what he could never ! That failure who called himself lord did nothing to deserve that title, just put on some dingy old mask and called it a day! He didn't understand what it takes to rule, but I do. And I will not fail! " She screams into the void, right at where Kujo would be if life were normal.
At her final breath, life returns to the world, and she is no longer in the void of a paused state. The water she stands on, in a state of stillness so that even she may be on it without any supernatural light powers, does not ripple when the Hamon comes upon it. Instead, it bounces off to the rest of the un-changed water, slowly fading at Jotaro's absence from the surface. She grips the arrow tighter in her hand, point tipped towards her and away from the Joestar.
With a quick move, she stabs it into her own heart.
"No!" Jotaro shouts as his feet are suddenly swept up from the water, becoming raised above and further away from the boss. He tries to reach out with Star Platinum, calling for
The World, but it's too late. Even in stopped time, he finds that he's too far up in the air for Star to reach the arrow. In the last moment of stopped time Jotaro has, he briefly glances behind himself to find a familiar face---the stand user that encountered them back in Italy and the reason Josuke, Giorno, and him are able to harness Hamon.
Now, she's back, and she's the reason he's unable to stop the boss from taking the arrow straight to his own heart. It's angled right to him and his stand, spelling out the end for everything they've worked for.
It feels like everything is crumbling around him as time resumes, realizing that he's now powerless to stop the end from coming.
Until the arrow diverts from the boss's chest and flies out of his hands, straight towards Star's heart. Jotaro isn't able to process everything in its entirety, but a few things happen all at once. There's a high-pitched scream from behind him, the wind circling around his feet suddenly drops from under him, the boss' stand flies and reaches out to grab the arrow, and the arrow pierces
Jotaro's own stand.
And then the world blacks out.
Josuke and Giorno run straight towards the water as soon as Jotaro takes off to the boss, but they don't get very far when someone steps in their way. Specifically, she steps in Giorno's way---who tries to shove past her to get to Jotaro---but before they could do anything else, a gust of wind comes crashing into their chests, blowing them to the ground.
Giorno notices Josuke groaning in pain and troubled breaths, but he finds that he's also unable to get up with a lack of air in his lungs. He tries to call out to Josuke, but his voice is cracked and noticeably void of any real air. He can only watch as the girl stomps a foot onto Josuke's chest, just barely out of Golden Experience's range. He tries to shout for him, but he is only able to witness as she presses harder onto Josuke, causing him to black out.
This is the girl from Italy , Girono suddenly realizes. She's careful to stay out of his range while he brings himself to recover his breath. At this moment, he tries his best to lift himself off the ground or get any closer to her so he can punch her into oblivion, but it's too late.
Her stand is summoned and activating whatever hurricane ability she has and watches in horror as Jotaro is lifted off the water, higher and higher into the air. Giorno is gaining his breath back little by little though, so as her stand activates, he's finally able to lift himself up from his prone position and ready himself for an attack.
But then someone else beats him to the punch. Literally .
The girl is suddenly knocked unconscious, and from Giorno's peripherals, he can see as Jotaro is suddenly falling back to the water's surface. He turns to look at who just socked the stand user out like a light, and to his utmost surprise, he finds Pandora standing over her, their breaths uneven, but suspiciously alive . He has many questions, but that's not the pressing matter at hand. He immediately rushes his way to Josuke, bringing him carefully but quickly to his feet.
Josuke's eyes blink open sluggishly before the events of what just happened rush back to him, eyes widening. He looks like he's about to ask what happened, but his eyes are suddenly turned towards the water and Giorno's gaze follows.
Josuke suddenly breaks out of Giorno's loose hold, screaming Jotaro's name and rushing out to the water. Josuke's breaths are uneven and his feet falter on the water, Hamon not flowing properly within him. Giorno runs right after him.
Jotaro wakes up not a second later after he blacked out, but something noticeably has changed . He can feel Star Platinum's looming presence, almost omnipresent, like he's harnessing a power not short of a god. He lands on the water's surface, golden light pushing the water away from his feet. Jotaro doesn't fully understand what the arrow did, and he's sure he never will, but what he does know is that familiar instinct to punch the shit out his enemy is still ever-there, and Star has no problem letting it happen. The boss is screeching out nonsense to Jotaro, something about how this is his plan, his goal, his power to have---like he'd even give the man any of his time.
Under his breath, Jotaro mutters "Gimme a break," and with a single lunge, his is able to close the distance between the two and deliver a solid punch straight into the boss' cheek---and Jotaro feels something crack underneath it. Not the cracking of bones, but almost, the cracking of a soul. The boss' life begins to flicker in and out of various states, going from full to broken to harnessed to laced to pixeled to rifted to gutted to alive to dead and to-
Everything in between
Star Platinum watches in a weird sense of amusement as the boss— she flounders and tries to grasp her own sense of self, constantly shifting between a real form to something broken. Constantly changing, never ending. It hurts and strains his eyes to look at, so he turns himself around and goes to make his way back to land---right as someone slams into him.
Jotaro braces the somebody, Josuke , by his shoulders and steadies him, suddenly concerned about the state his uncle is in.
"Jotaro," the younger one breathes out. He's clearly winded out from whatever happened on shore, but his breaths are even enough for him to be standing on the water, at least, which is good.
"You ok?" He asks, giving the kid a once over to make sure there's nothing else visibly wrong with him. Josuke nods--probably just tired, but Jotaro's taken aback when Josuke's head falls onto his upper chest.
"You're alright, thank god , you're alright," Josuke mumbles out, and Jotaro is realizing he should probably get the two of them back to land.
Thankfully, Giorno comes rushing up besides the two of them, looking similarly out of breath as Josuke. "Come on, we can talk things out later, let's just get back."
Always ready for the next step. Jotaro expects nothing less from Giorno.
He nods at the blond, but before they can make their way back, Josuke lifts his head and looks out past Jotaro's head. "What about...him?"
Jotaro sighs, then with a shrug, "Her time is up."
Josuke's eyes squint in confusion, but Giorno has a knowing look on his face. Josuke seems to give up and turns around, but he still must be unsteady as one of his feet dips into the water, temporarily unsupported by his Hamon. Jotaro slings an arm over Josuke's shoulder, giving him a steady person to lean on as they make their way back.
It's been a long day.
The three Joestars are seated in their hotel room's common area, taking the time to sort through today's events. Jotaro rolls the wooden stem of the Requiem arrow carefully in his palm. He never really processed it before, but the arrow has an intact stem and tail, unlike how Giorno had described it when Golden Experience was stabbed with it. He wonders if that's a property of the Requiem arrow specifically, if someone had replaced the stem, or if this was a new one entirely. There's a nagging feeling inside his head that he doesn't need to worry about it, though.
Maybe something else that Star did while in Requiem form.
Josuke chuckles to himself lightly. "We've got GER, which kinda sounds like grr , but then we've got SPR, which is just- spur ."
Giorno snorts at that, looking to Josuke in an almost-judging look. "It's not like cuhderr would be any better."
That has Josuke full on laughing and Jotaro can't help but chuckle along too.
Once Josuke gathers himself again, he lets out a deep sigh. "What even was today?"
"A fever dream," Giorno says without faltering, looking Josuke dead in the eyes.
Jotaro leans his head against the couch cushion. "I wish."
"What happened with the boss?" Josuke asks, finally deciding to get the final events of the day sorted out in an insane timeline of a single 24-hour period.
"I don't know," Jotaro says honestly, "All I know is that in the midst of the chaos, the arrow chose me over the boss, and while she was going crazy over it, I ended the whole thing. I'm just thankful it chose outside over theirs."
"Like me, then," Giorno responds.
"Oh yeah, with you and your 'powers beyond understanding', huh?" Josuke states. He closes his eyes, head leaning into his palm where his arm is propped up on the arm rest.
"Ones of which we hopefully never have to use again." Jotaro says, eyes locked on the arrow in his hand.
"What do we do with it?" Giorno asks, looking up at his nephew.
"Break it. Destroy it. Make sure it never gets into the wrong hands again," Jotaro suggests.
"What a nightmare this has been," Josuke groans out before reaching his hand towards the arrow. Jotaro lets him have and Giorno nods, all three clearly on the same page. If anything were to happen while attempting to destroy it, neither Jotaro nor Giorno want their stands near it. "What ever happened to that girl from Italy?" He asks while putting the arrow securely into his backpack.
"She got decked in the face." Giorno answers, looking a bit puzzled himself. "I think by that same vampire you had saved before."
"Pandora?" Josuke asks, now a bit more alert. "They’re alive ? How? That area had no shade! And- and I gave them Hamon previously!"
"Maybe something happened with your hamon and Stand? If Crazy Diamond is able to restore things back to their original state, and Hamon can give life, it might not be a stretch to say you were able to return her to becoming human again," Jotaro throws out. It's simply a theory, but it makes some sort of sense.
Josuke's eyes widen a little at the revelation before he leans back in the chair. "Huh."
"Did you ever learn more information about the boss? What she was doing here and wanted with Requiem, anyways." Giorno asks Jotaro.
Jotaro thinks for a moment before responding, "I think she held some sort of grudge towards DIO, and wanted to ascend beyond him. Other than that, my brain's still a bit foggy on everything that happened with SPR."
Giorno nods. "That's interesting. All her allies seemed dedicated to using me to bring back DIO—maybe she was the ultimate traitor of all."
Josuke hums, but no one says anything after. They're all exhausted but restless at the same time.
Then, after a minute of two, Josuke breaks the silence again. "So... what do we do now?"
The other two Joestars take a moment to think about Josuke's question, before Jotaro replies with, "Enjoy the rest of our vacation?"
His uncles look at him with eyes that say "Are you kidding?" And then all three of them break out into various laughter.
"I forgot we were technically on vacation," Giorno replies after his short laughing fit.
" Man ," Josuke whines, "That seems like forever ago!"
"I mean, we still have time," Giorno admits, "It'd be nice to take these next few days to hang around with everyone.
Jotaro nods, a slight smile on his face. "I'd wish for no more stand business here, but who knows. Good grief ."
"Me too, Jotaro," Josuke says, a tired smile on his own face.
"We should probably head to bed," Giorno says. "Some rest will do us good and we can figure out what to do next when we wake up."
All three are in agreement with that, and soon, they part to their own separate rooms.
The rest of their time in Morioh is...peaceful. There's nothing else to do besides a bit of cleanup, but besides that, the Joestars are pleasantly surprised that they can actually relax on this vacation. But their time soon comes to an end, and they have to part, back to their homes. They manage to get a picture together before, however, with the three of them and ever working Koichi, who'd been the one to get them to relax for the rest of their vacation. Behind the scenes, Koichi was doing most of the cleanup and arrangements to get everything back to some-semblance of normal. The biggest issue has been what to do with the remainder of the cult that had once followed DIO before turning to their new leadership that is now...retired, but he's not too worried about that right now.
The picture is a little chaotic, but it's definitely them. Josuke in the middle laughing, both arms slung over Jotaro's and Giorno's shoulders, with Giorno harassing Koichi's hair and the boy looking only mildly annoyed, but a smile still on his face, and Jotaro with an exasperated smile, hat covering most of his forehead, but failing the cover his eyes.
While looking at the photo, Koichi groans at the state of his hair. "Did you really have to mess it up for the photo?"
And then, to the surprise of everyone, Josuke and Giorno both mumble a "good grief" at the same time. Their eyes snap to each other’s.
"Jotaro's rubbing off on you guys," Koichi states plainly, a smirk playing on his lips.
At that, the man in question sighs and goes to say something before quickly closing his mouth. Instead, he tilts his hat mostly over his face while Josuke and Giorno blush in mild embarrassment, definitely wishing they also had a hat to hide behind.
The day after, Giorno and Jotaro head off to the airport to take their flights back home. "Don't forget to say high to the others for me," Josuke tells Giorno before turning to Jotaro and saying, "And tell Jolyne that I miss her and she should come visit soon."
"Gimme a break," Jotaro says, but Josuke looks at his nephew expectantly. "Alright, I'll tell her."
Josuke beams at him, and then wraps the older man in a hug, dragging Giorno into it too.
Giorno pats the top of Josuke's pompadour, whispering "there there, you sap". Josuke glares at Giorno, but ultimately doesn't do anything else.
Josuke lets the two out of his bear hug and lets them proceed on their way with a long wave.
"See you soon!" he calls out behind them, waving until he can't see them any longer. Then, he pulls out his phone to text Koichi, who was unfortunately too busy to see the two of them off.
12:07 - Wanna get something to eat at Tonio's?