Choices

By Lightningstrxu

A lone cloaked figure trudged through the moonless night. The ruins of buildings surrounded him. Echoes of happier times long since passed.

Beacon Academy at one point it had been an illustrious school for Hunters to face the creatures of Grimm. Now though it stood in ruins. Twice now had the academy become a battleground first there was the Fall of Beacon, where Cinder Fall had enacted her plan and had destroyed everything that he and his friends had held dear. They had lost their home that night, they had lost friends, and he had lost a partner.

The Second was the final confrontation with the queen of the Grimm herself, Salem. They had fought bravely every one of them. In the end, Salem had been defeated. But losses had been heavy. Eight; that was how many there were in the beginning. Gods' they had been young then.

Pyrrha had been the first to die. A senseless and pointless death, and though acknowledging that still stung it did not change the truth of her actions. She chose to fight an opponent she had no chance of beating. A mistake he would later make as well nearly costing the life of one of his friends. It was the last time he made that mistake.

Yang had been the next to fall. She had thrown herself in front of her partner, taking the full force of Adam Taurus' strike in their place. She had absorbed all of it, allowing her to make a crater where once the leader of the White Fang stood. But once the blow was struck the full severity of her wounds caught up with her; she fell on her feet a warm smile on her face. If only he had been there…perhaps he could have saved her.

Blake followed after; her world fell apart after Yang's sacrifice. She volunteered for a mission to destroy a factory in Atlas that was manufacturing artificial soldiers. Everyone knew she wouldn't be coming back from it, and yet we had all let her go. The factory blew taking Blake and Arthur Watts with it. A victory, well that's what they had all called it.

Qrow Branwen came next, the enemy slipped poison into his flask. A move so glaringly obvious it was a wonder that it had never been attempted before in the past.

The figure continued his lonely march coming to the base of Beacon tower, and his weary gaze fell upon the visage before him.

The Grimm Witch Salem and the Huntress Ruby Rose, they looked like statues. But he knew better. Ruby had overloaded the power of her silver eyes and froze the Queen of the Grimm in an eternal prison, but she had been sealed along with it. Forever a jailer. Ruby would outlast them all, as the slow march of time ticked on he would fade, but Ruby would last. Her life in exchange for the rest of the world. It's what she would have wanted.

"But not what you would have wanted." A disembodied voice sounded inside the cloaked figures head. "Isn't it Mr. Arc" Jaune grit his teeth in anger, he pulled the hood of his cloak down. Graying and unkempt hair framed his face, a scraggly beard in a desperate need of a shave made him look much older than most would assume.

"How many times must I tell you Wizard?" Jaune spat out as a figure wholly obscured by green robes materialized before him. At one point Jaune might have called the mysterious being Oscar or even Ozpin. But both of them had long since faded away. Only the Wizard remained. "Stay out of my head."

"I'm sorry." The wizard chuckled. "I'll try to remember that. Your head is a frightening place."

"You expected it to be?" Jaune asked derisively.

"I would think you would be happy, did you not just have a granddaughter?" the wizard mused. "Your second if I remember correctly."

"Third actually… I think." Jaune sat down on the ground and gazed up at Ruby her face still frozen just as it was decades ago. "I don't keep track anymore."

"I see…" the wizard whispered. "And Weiss how is she doing?"

"Haven't seen her in years." Jaune sighed.

"She misses you."

"No, she doesn't!" Jaune spat. "We were just two souls who needed each other desperately. So we took comfort in each other's company, in each other's arms and each other's beds." Jaune closed his eyes. "But over the years I realized I didn't love her…well, I do, but not the way she deserved to be loved at least, once the kids were grown, I decided it was time to wander off. Let her think I died so she can move on without me."

"The fact that you care so much…" the Wizard seemed to glide across the ground to stand next to Jaune. "Tells me that you're lying. Even so why come here?"

"I figured I'd say goodbye to Ruby before I wandered off into oblivion." Jaune stood, his old bones cracking heavily. "I doubt I'll see her ever again."

"Would you like too?" the Wizard asked cryptically.

"Of course I would." Jaune furrowed his brow in frustration. "You have a way don't you?"

"I might…"

"Why tell me now?" Jaune unsheathed his sword. "It's been years! Why now?"

The hood of the Wizard's robes inclined to the side as if studying Jaune.

"I had hoped that you would be satisfied with the life you have built." The Wizard whispered sadly. "But it appears you are not."

"Why would I be? Half my friends are dead and gone!"

"And yet the other half are still with you, one of whom you pledged your life to." The Wizard's voice grew stern. "If I offer you this there is a chance everything will change. Your life with Weiss, your children all of it could cease to exist. Are you sure?"

"I'd rather a life where all of us are happy." Jaune said plainly and clearly. "I want to take that chance."

"Very well." With a wave of his hand, the Wizard caused an object to appear before him. A small brass balance scale. Jaune's eyes narrowed.

"The Relic of Choice!" Jaune said through grit teeth. "All this time it could have fixed things."

"It can… in a way." The Relic floated through the air toward Jaune. "Touch the Relic and make your demand, tell it what you desire."

"No lie?" Jaune glared at the Wizard. "No half-truths, or misdirection?" The Wizard shook his head. Jaune reached out and grasped the relic. "I wish for myself and my friends to have had a happy life that all of the tragedy we faced never came to pass. The scale began to glow brightly, it became hot in his hands. A bright flash of light blinded him when his vision returned he saw he was no longer at Beacon but in a forest. The Relic and Wizard nowhere to be seen.

"You have made your wish. Now you must make your choice." The Wizard's voice sounded in his head.

"Make my choice?" Jaune rubbed the bridge of his nose. Even after all these years, the bastard was still cryptic. With a heavy sigh, Jaune wandered off, not sure where he was or where he was going. For hours he trudged when in the distance he saw a large plume of smoke rising into the air. It was the only clue he had seen in hours. Sprinting towards the smoke he reached its source, a village under attack…by Grimm.

It had been a long time since Jaune had faced one of the creatures of Grimm, while they did not vanish with the sealing of Salem, without their queen they were directionless and could no longer restore their numbers, over the intervening decades they had been hunted to near extinction. But pockets remained, and one had found this village.

In an instant instinct took over he drew his sword and unfurled his shield. His aura flared as he charged the nearest Beowolf cleaving it in two with a single slice. The other Grimm heard the death cries of their companion and sprang to kill the one who would dare to destroy them; they were cut down in an instant. It took no time at all for the seasoned huntsman to dispatch the Grimm, sheathing his sword he made his way into the village.

"Anybody here!" He shouted. No one responded, and bodies littered the streets. He was too late, the village had fallen. "Please anybody!" he shouted once more. Silence was the only reply. Jaune combed through the village searching for any signs of life he was about to give up when the sound of crying reached his ears, it was soft and muted, but it might as well have been deafening compared to the silence of the village. Sprinting to find the source he stumbled upon a ruined house the remains of two occupants littered the floor. Going up the stairs, he saw a child's bedroom, the sound coming from the bedroom closet.

He inched towards the closet and opened it slowly. Curled up in a ball on the closet floor was a young girl, perhaps no more than four. She was shaking, crying and afraid.

"Are you alright little girl?" Jaune asked, his voice whispering. The girl gasped and inched her way back into the corner of the closet.

"No!" the girl whimpered.

"It's alright." Jaune knelt down on the ground to be on her level. "You're safe now."

"Go away!" the girl curled tighter into her ball. "Mama said to never talk to strangers."

"Well, my mother always said that strangers are friends you haven't met yet." Jaune smiled. "My name is Jaune, what's yours?" The little girl looked up at him golden eyes meeting his faded blue.

"My name is Cinder." The girl sniffled as she spoke still scared out of her mind.

Jaune froze as he felt his heart skip a beat. This was Cinder Fall. The same Cinder who had killed Pyrrha and destroyed Beacon. A broken woman who could take life without a thought or care. But here she was before him. She was nothing more than a child…weak, crying and defenseless. Instinctually his hand went to his sword.

Time ground to a halt as the visage of the Relic of Choice appeared before Jaune.

"In three days' time, Salem will find Cinder and take her in as her own." The voice of the Wizard boomed in his head. "You can either strike Cinder down now, changing the future perhaps for the better."

The scale tilted heavily to the right.

"Or you return home to certainty, a world where you have won, and yet you despise it."

The scale tilted to the right.

"Now make your choice."

Jaune stared at Cinder; it would be easy. A quick motion of his sword and the woman who had taken so much from him would be dead.

"Mama!" Cinder sobbed. Jaune's hand trembled on his sword; he looked back up at the Relic; the scale was tilting back and forth waiting for him to make his choice. This scared and crying girl's life in exchange for his friends, or let her go and go back to the world where he had lost so many. Where he existed as just a shell of his former self.

The scale tilted back and forth again.

He had made his choice.

Jaune held out his hand to the girl.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Cinder." He smiled warmly. "Come on it isn't safe here." Cinder looked hesitantly at his hand before placing her hand in his. "Don't worry I'll take care of you."

"Thank you!" the young girl latched onto him, he was now her pillar of safety.

Jaune slowly brought a hand up to stroke her hair to calm her down. His eyes fell on the Relic once again.

The scale's sides stood even in perfect balance.

"You have made your choice."

Well, so this is a thing, not really sure what this is just a little idea that popped into my head.

As always Read and Review, and check out my other RWBY stories if you want.