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Jaune Arc groaned as he tossed from his deep unconsciousness. The bad news: he was in horrible pain all over his body, and he ached with every breath he made. The good news: he was alive to feel this pain and had survived the fall from the bridge. His eyes snapped open, and he sat up quickly, before groaning in agony from the pain.
He remembered everything: the bridge, Cinder Fall and Neopolitian, Team RWBY; all of it flashed through his mind. They managed to get everyone out of Atlas, but it seemed the price of this victory was to fall into the depths, something he and the others were warned of before their plan.
"Are you okay?" Jaune looked up to see a young woman looking at him from the edge of the crater. He looked around the surrounding area. There were tall trees all around him, reaching to the sky. He imagined his fall left an impressive impact, no pun intended, judging by the crater he was lying in. "Do you need help?"
Jaune squinted at the woman as his aura healed himself. She gasped, her eyes going wide. Her silver eyes. For a moment, he recognized her as Ruby Rose, his close friend from before the fall, but this woman looked... older. Not much older, but old enough to be distinguished from the girl he knew before.
"I'm fine." Jaune groaned as he grunted to his feet. Looking around, he noticed there was no trail into his landing. He fell straight down. He looked to the young woman. "Where am I?"
"You're in Patch." The woman answered. She was dressed plainly, wearing a dark gray cloak over her black and white dress. "You fell from the sky, like an angel!"
"Or an alien." Another voice grunted. A woman with black hair and red eyes approached, looking like a dark-haired duplicate of Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's half-sister. She also looked like a younger version of her mother, Raven. "Who are you, and how did you get here?"
"My name is Jaune." He answered. "And, well, I, uh..." he looked up, then around himself, "I fell." He chuckled. "Thankfully my aura saved me!"
The cloaked woman gasped again. "You do have aura!"
Jaune quirked an eyebrow. "Doesn't everybody?"
The two women looked at each other before the red-eyed woman answered. "You should probably come with us."
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Jaune finished his glass of milk. Heaving a sigh, he stared at the glass. "And that's everything that happened."
He looked to the two women, and their friend, who was undeniably a younger Taiyang Xiao Long, Yang and Ruby's father, which meant he was the lover of one of these women. He remembered him as a polite, older gentleman, more of a dad than even his own. This young man, however, was more like an untamed stallion, constantly flirting with both women. Somehow, Jaune had traveled back in time to the past.
And not just the past. The cloaked woman, who introduced herself as Summer, and the other woman as Raven, explained that he suddenly fell from the sky this morning, scaring them all to near death, and that this world was a Remnant where there was no Grimm, no Salem, and only a select few possessed aura. Those few were sought out for "stock," where they would be housed and trained as the king's personal army.
"That's crazy." Summer said. She looked to her team and gave them a worried look. "We have to help him."
"Do we, though?" Raven asked. "If he wanted to, he could join the stock as a Kingsguard."
"But you've seen what happens to the people who don't make it." Summer argued. "They're treated like slaves, becoming testing dummies for the ones who do make it."
"That's assuming he doesn't make it, though." Taiyang commented. "He seems capable enough. He even has a weapon, too."
"An unregistered weapon." Raven sneered. "He's probably strong, but those Kingsguard are monsters. We all saw what happened to my brother."
"What happened to Qrow?" Jaune asked.
Raven gave a sigh. "Last month, he was found out by a Specialist from the Atlas frontier. He was reported to the general, who reported to the king. The king sent a guard after my brother, and after... 'persuading' him, we never saw my brother again." She looked out the window. "He's probably that specialist's punching bag right now."
"What's the difference between a Specialist and a Kingsguard?" Jaune inquired. The more he learned about these 'stocks' the better.
"Specialists work in the frontier," Summer explained, "where they expand the borders of the kingdom as far as they can go. Qrow took a messenger job for the king's wizard to the frontier, where he was found out."
"Ozpin." Jaune grumbled. "Who was the Kingsguard that fought Qrow?"
"You mean beat down?" Tai corrected. "That'd be Hazel Rainart, one of the King's Four. He's tall as a mountain, and twice as tough. Broke Qrow down with his bare hands. Wasn't even fazed when Qrow stabbed him with a sword."
"Who are the King's Four?"
"The four Kingsknights." Raven answered, staring out the window. "The four strongest of the Kingsguard. Hazel is probably the second strongest. The weakest, but craftiest is..."
"Raven?" Tai asked, noting her silence.
"Shit." Raven whispered, gripping the counter with as much force as she can. "It's him, and he's not alone."
Outside, walking up to the door with a stoic face was a man in a long, purple cloak and wearing thick brown gloves. His tunic was white with the neckline torn down to the chest, where a black bush of hair exploded from underneath. To his left was a much smaller man, greatly contrasting his size. He wore a long, brown trenchcoat with no shirt visible underneath. He wore his hair in a long, braided ponytail.
The smaller man knocked. "Hello~?" He practically sang. "Is anyone home?~"
Summer opened the door wide, holding a calm expression on her face as she did. "Yes? Can I help you?"
"Good afternoon, citizen." The larger man greeted, his voice gruff with ages of experience. "We have a few questions for you, on behalf of the king."