Across Worlds: Jaune's Odyssey

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"The temple - I think we've found it."

Ren strode into the impromptu camp, his face flush with the effort of an extended scouting run in the humid jungle. As the rest of his friends, the quirky collection of Hunters who comprised Team RRAYNBOW, gathered to him in the center of the camp, Nora handed him a full canteen and a wet cloth, both of which he accepted gratefully.

"How far is it?" Ruby asked as the weary scout wiped the sweat from his face with a contented sigh. Ren took a deep drink of water before answering her.

"For all of us, about five hours, less if Yang or Weiss burn some of the jungle down."

"Let's try not to leave tracks if we can help it." Jaune Arc stood to one side, the temporary removal of his black padded shirt being his only concession to the oppressive heat and stifling humidity of their environs. "Either way, we won't be making it there before nightfall."

Across from him, Blake looked much more comfortable in the jungle than anyone else, her tanned skin glistening with a light sheen. "We still don't know who might be following us. Ren, you take point, I'll watch our backs."

Ren nodded his agreement with the plan. He would better be able to judge the pace and ease of traversal his fellow humans could reasonably make, while Blake's advanced mobility and stealth techniques could help watch for pursuit from Salem's minions, both sentient and otherwise.

"Okay." Ruby stood and addressed the team. "Everyone get some rest. We move on the temple in the morning."

They had all been searching for the Temple of the Queen of Night, chasing down what leads they could. After Qrow had been incapacitated in a vicious skirmish, the Relic of Knowledge had activated of its own accord, with Jinn giving them a, quote, "freebie." To become whole once more, their team must find the Temple hidden in the jungle. Though the team had been very careful not to ask any questions of Jinn themselves, the entity had shrugged and told them that there were other powers that she had to answer to, and it was by that will that she came to them. Reluctantly, very reluctantly, they had left Qrow behind in a hospital to recuperate, under the watchful eyes of Oscar, Taiyang Xiao Long and Winter Schnee. Anyone looking to kick the old bird while he was down would have quite the fight on their hands. In the meantime, their search for clues lead them through this jungle and now, their efforts had been rewarded.

Following daybreak, the team quickly packed their camp and followed Ren through the jungle. Jaune followed first behind the scout, only very occasionally hacking some of the obstructing plant growth apart with Crocea Mors to clear the way for the others. It was hard going, but the young Hunters made their way without complaint. As Ren had predicted, it took them a solid five hours to reach their destination.

As Jaune pushed aside a thick curtain of vines, he saw Ren enter a clearing, one dominated by a massive, ancient ziggurat. Moss grew on dark grey stone, the multiple layers of terraced structure rising a hundred feet or more into the air. Behind him, the rest of the team joined to look at the structure.

Yang whistled. "That must've set them back a couple hundred lien."

Next to her, Weiss frowned. Out of all of them, she had been the worst off in the jungle, with her tasteful heels getting trapped in the muddy ground and her skirt tearing on passing thorns. "There's going to be deathtraps in there, I just know it," she huffed

"Well, duh!" Ruby's lighthearted - if somewhat feigned - optimism never wavered. "It'll be super cool, like Oleanna Bones and the Temple of Gratuitous Doom!"

"Didn't she die in that one?" Nora stretched.

"I mean, she didn't die-die, she came back…"

"Guys," Jaune waved for his friends to pipe down. "I think Ren's found an entrance."

Jutting from the stone ziggurat was a distinct rectangular protrusion, with a heavy roof held up by intricately-carved pillars, leading to an open entryway. Ruby poked around it, puzzled.

"Huh, why isn't it overgrown?"

Sure enough, the foliage around the temple entrance was short and neat, with the growth halting entirely at the entrance.

"Hm." Ren rubbed his chin. "Is it possible that there are people living here?"

Weiss carefully tapped one of the carvings - an image of an unbroken moon - with a stick, relaxing when nothing obviously nefarious occurred as a result. "Maybe opportunistic drifters? Needed the entry clear, but couldn't be bothered to scrub the whole place down?"

"All right team, how do we want to do this?" Ruby put her hands on her hips as she addressed her friends.

Jaune squatted in the grass across from her as the team formed a circle. "Okay, so if there are people living here, would that make deathtraps more or less likely?"

"We would have to carefully observe if there are any trails or disturbances in the dust that could lead us safely through the hallways," offered Weiss.

"Can we just have one of Weiss's summons stroll through there? If there are any deathtraps, they would just go off on it and leave us unharmed," Jaune mused.

Weiss shook her head. "It might work, maybe, but what if the deathtraps reset themselves? The first person following behind would think themselves safe, only to fall victim to the trap. Or what if the deathtrap isn't meant to target a single person, but the entire room? Or even the entire temple? We need to play it safe."

'So, we send in the person with the best eyes and the sneakiest mind to look for deathtraps first," concluded Ruby. All eyes turned towards Blake.

"Oh, I see how it is," she deadpanned. "Send in the Faunus to check for traps. Why don't you just pick me up and throw me down the hallway while you're at it?"

"Do you think that would work?" Yang smirked. "Show of hands, who here has night vision, acute, superhuman hearing and literal catlike reflexes and agility?"

Reluctantly, Blake raised her hand while everyone else kept looking at her. The cat Faunus scowled at Yang, who just gave her a cheeky little wink, and then sighed, resigned to her fate. "Fine, I'll do it. But Yang, when we do finally get to move in together, you're buying us a couch and then sleeping on it for a month."

"Aw, you're the best, Blake!"

Ruby stood, brushing off her skirt. "Okay, let's get ready. Blake, don't take any unnecessary risks. I think Jaune should go second, since he's a big, muscley clog with a shield, then Yang. For punching. I'll follow up with Weiss in the middle, and then Ren and Nora can watch our rear."

Yang threw a mock scowl Ren's direction. "You checking out my sis?"

The quiet Animan was unphased. "You think Nora would have kept quiet if I had been?"

Nora said nothing, just pulling out her hammer.

"Fair enough," Yang said, conceding the point.

"Guys, focus," Jaune cut in. "The last thing we want is for one of us to get caught in a deathtrap because we were too busy goofing off."

The other teens shared a glance, thrown by the seriousness in Jaune's tone. They had all changed and grown since Beacon, to be sure, but in times like that, the sheer extent of just how much could still catch them off guard. When they had all met, Jaune had been the dorkiest of all possible dorks, even out-dorking Ruby. But now, looking at the grave and stoic expression on his face as he regarded the temple entrance… sometimes Ren wondered if Pyrrha would recognize the dorky knight that had won her heart in the more solemn young man they knew today.

With that, a cautious Blake led the way into the temple. It was readily apparent that someone had been living in the structure, as the hallway was well-lit with torches and utterly devoid of dust. They moved slowly, with the cat Faunus taking the time to carefully examine the upcoming floor, walls, and ceiling before signaling for the rest of the group to follow. As the light of the entryway faded from view, the hallway opened into a large antechamber, one lit by burning braziers and dominated by a wall bearing an enormous mosaic Nora started towards it, only to be stopped by Jaune abruptly holding up his arm.

"Hold!" he barked. "This could still be dangerous. Blake, if you would?"

She carefully checked the room, gingerly testing floor tiles and peering into shadowed corners. After a few moments, Blake returned to stand before them. "If there's anything in here, it's hidden too well for me. Might as well check it out."

"Okay, but make sure not to touch the mosaic, team," Ruby reminded them as the young Hunters spread out to begin inspecting the strange images. Some of them were easy to decipher - a large massed cavalry charge, a dragon, wings spread wide as it faced off against a team of four people stood on a tremendous tree branch, a wall of ice with people firing arrows down one side - but others were stranger and more difficult to wrap their heads around.

"I think this may be old," Jaune mused. "Very old."

"I… I wouldn't be so sure of that," Weiss said. Her voice trembled as she spoke. "Unless someone can explain what an airship is doing depicted on the wall of an ancient temple?"

Jaune and Ruby shared a glance, then quickly ran to the far side of the hall, where Weiss stared up at the image. It was, unmistakably, an airship, but of a design that none there recognized, appearing almost daggerlike. Weiss peered closer at it, though she remained careful to avoid actually touching the mosaic. "I can even see something printed on the… well, the fuselage," she said. "S….S….V? There's something else on it, but I can't make it out."

"What does that mean?" asked Ren. "That isn't standard Atlas ship designation, is it Weiss?"

"No," the Atlesian girl shook her head. "And the design is like nothing I've seen before." Her eyes darted down to an image of a man in some strange looking armor. "Does 'N7' mean anything to anyone here?"

Upon hearing a chorus of negatives, Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose and stepped back from the wall. "Is it possible that this is a hoax of some kind?"

"Pretty elaborate hoax," Nora mused. "Maybe someone found the old temple and made the wall to troll whoever found it?"

Jaune shook his head. "I don't think that Jinn would have led us to a hoax, let alone one out in the jungle. We know that the history of Remnant is a lot different from what we learned in school. Is it possible that this is… I dunno, some kind of holdover from the gods' first attempt?"

"Close but no cigar."

At the sound of a strange woman's voice, the young Hunters all fell into battle stances, their weapons drawn and alert to any danger.

"Wow, rude."

The wall with the mosaic split apart, with the grinding sound of stone sliding over stone. From the gap stepped forward a single woman, barefoot, and dressed in a simple cotton shift. She was tall, broad, and dark, reminding them uncomfortably of Elm, one of the Ace Operatives that Team RWBY had contended against in Atlas. Unlike that soldier, this woman had long dark curls that fell wildly across her shoulders. She came to a halt before the wary Hunters, putting her hands on her hips as the mosaic wall closed up behind her once more. The woman gave them all an appraising glance before she spoke.

"So, do you normally greet people with weapons drawn, or am I just special?"

It said something as to their previous experiences that the assorted young adults all kept their weapons at the ready. The woman just sighed. "What, exactly, did you expect to find here?"

Ruby and Jaune shared a glance, and Ruby stepped forward to address the stranger. "We, um, we were told to come find the 'Temple of the Queen of Night.' And that sounds kinda spooky, so, you know, we were kind of expecting to have to throw down with some scary Grimm lady, maybe even Salem herself. So if you're gonna go all 'muahaha, I will devour your souls!' on us, could we just kind of skip to that part and get it over with?"

They tensed as the woman began to laugh, though in place of the diabolical villain laughter as described by Ruby, it was more of a low, throaty chuckle. "Wow," the stranger huffed. "Mistaken for a Grimm. That's gotta be an all-time low."

From behind his shield, Jaune spoke up. "Then who are you? What are you doing here?"

"I have many names, little knight. I am here because this is my temple. I have many names - Selene, Luna, Chang'e, Metzii - but for you, the name Mahina shall suffice. I am the Queen of the Night, the Goddess of the Moon."

They looked at each other, skepticism clear on their faces. Mahina sighed once more and raised a single arm into the air. As the Hunters braced themselves for whatever attack she may have been preparing to throw at them, the room went utterly dark as the braziers extinguished themselves. The darkness held for a moment before beams of moonlight streamed in from carefully-arranged openings high on the wall. They converged into a single point above the mosaic wall before Mahina twisted her wrist and sent the moonlight into a large column in the center of the room.

Nora was the first to speak. "Huh. Well that's neat."

Mahina chuckled again. "'Neat' indeed, young Valkyrie. Now, if you're convinced that I'm not a Grimm, would you all care to take a seat?" With another gesture, the woman conjured a set of fine chairs and couches, arranged in a semicircle facing the mosaic wall, and another chair for herself. She sat, folding one bare leg over another. The young Hunters still seemed wary, but seeing that this woman was possessed of unknown magical abilities but had made no overtly hostile movements towards them, opted to at least put their weapons away and have a seat.

"So… a goddess," Weiss cautiously began.

"Indeed."

"I was under the impression that there were only two, the Brother gods."

The moon goddess rolled her eyes. "Those two. They created Remnant, and its inhabitants, and set in motion the path of this world's story. This world's. There are… other worlds than this."

Well. That got their attention.

"Are you… not from around here?" asked Blake.

Mahina smiled ruefully at her. "Well, yes, but also no. It's complicated, to say the least. Needless to say, seeing my sigil shattered in the night sky brought this world to my attention with a quickness."

Ruby's little brow furrowed as she thought hard. "How can you be from here but also not from here?"

"How can you be leader of Team RWBY and Team RNJR?"

"But Team RNJR was something that we just put together!"

"So is Remnant."

Ruby fell silent as she ruminated on that one. Jaune spoke up next. "If you're here now, does that mean that you're here to help with the Salem situation?"

"Once again, both yes and no. You see, I had already taken action, but my plans went… awry."

"If you're a goddess, can't you just 'poofle' and make Salem and the Grimm just kinda explode?" Nora asked, her head canted like a curious puppy.

"There are… rules. Conventions, that deities follow. Generally speaking, just 'poofling' as you say, another deity's work is… well, it just isn't done."

"Just isn't done?! You're letting all this bad stuff happen because you're worried about being rude?!"

Mahina leaned back in her chair, casually conjuring a coffee table and full tea set, with a cup of hot tea in her hand. She took a sip before answering the orange-haired hammer wielder. "Let's suppose, for the sake of discussion, that I simply snap my fingers and have Salem explode in slow-motion. Just ludicrous gibs, real chunky salsa, that sort of thing," she said, drawing a smile from Nora at the visual. "The brother gods of Remnant, assuming that they don't just undo the act, may well decide to retaliate across some of the other worlds in which I manifest, releasing Grimm on worlds poorly-suited to face them, or having random silver-eye powers throwing things out of all balance and generally making a bloody mess of things. That's the sort of overt action that you are no doubting thinking of."

Yang crossed her arms under her bust. "If you can't just fight them, than what were you planning to do about it?"

"My portfolio includes the moon, the cycles of the tides and… fertility. I gave to Remnant a daughter." Here, Mahina's smile became wistful. "I granted to her a talent for combat unmatched in her world, and tempered it with an equally-deep love for the mortal lives around her. She could be the new goddess that Remnant needs."

Jaune sat forward. "That sounds great! When can we meet her?"

"You already have," the goddess said sadly. As she spoke, the moonlight coalesced into a flat screen hovering in the air. It formed an image, one that stunned the Hunters.

Their lost comrade. Pyrrha Nikos.

"The goddess of victory."

They all stared at it for a long moment, before Jaune turned to Mahina, his mouth hanging open in slack shock. The goddess shrugged, then smoothly transformed into the short, red haired woman that he had met in front of Pyrrha's statue in Argus.

"Hello, again," she told him softly.

Jaune's mouth worked as he struggled to find the words. Mahina just shrugged once again, transforming back into the form in which she'd greeted them.

"How?" Jaune finally asked. "If she was a goddess, then how did she…" he forced himself to speak past the tightening of his throat. "How did she die?"

"I had not accounted for the power of the Maidens and the cleverness of mortals. Beyond that, she was still young," Mahina told him, told them all. "She was yet to come into the full extent of her power. But even in her ignorance… though she perished, she still persists, in a way. Infinite in distance. Unbound by death."

The goddess stood. "What if I told you that there was a way to bring her back?"

"We're in." Jaune said immediately.

She favored him with a smile. "Of course you are. That is why I have called you here."

"What do we need to do?" asked Ruby.

"There will be a part for each of you to play," Mahina stood from her chair, dissipated her tea into nothingness, and began to pace. "But the bulk of the task falls to him," she nodded towards Jaune. "She loved you dearly, you know. And that's why you must be of central importance in this endeavor. I will send you across worlds, where you must weave yourself within the respective stories found therein. As you sojourn, your efforts will draw mythopaeic energies to me. Because of your connection with her, those energies will naturally coalesce into Pyrrha. Though others may come with you from time to time, you must attend to each world's quest, and there will be times when you will have to face them without your friends alongside you."

The goddess halted and stood before Jaune. "Will you do it? Will you brave unknown dangers to bring back the girl that we both love?"

Jaune stood and, surprising himself, took the goddess's hands. "I will. I'll bring her home, no matter what."

Mahina nodded, then strode over to the moonlight screen. "You will take with you your own native abilities." As she spoke, the screen pulled up an image, showing humans engaged in a desperate hand-to-hand battle against undead bodies in various states of decay ranging from near-perfect to outright skeletal. A man in a black cloak led a desperate charge.

"Night's Watch on me!"

"In some worlds, those abilities will make you akin to a demigod," Mahina explained.

"Why… why isn't their Aura protecting them?" Blake asked, appalled by the carnage she was witnessing on the screen.

"They don't have Aura on this world," the goddess told her. "On this world, your abilities would make you a warrior without equal." As she spoke, the image on the screen shifted again, showing a man in an orange martial arts gi fighting against some strange… alien-looking creature with a tail. Both the man and the creature levitated in the air as they exchanged rapid kicks and punches.

"Ka….me….ha….me….haaaaaa!"

As they watched, the man generated an enormous ball of glowing blue-white energy, sending it at the alien. The screen washed out in pure white. "And in others, you may well be hard-pressed to keep up."

Jaune nodded, then began double-checking his equipment.

"Time will flow differently when you're away from Remnant," she added. "Those not accompanying you can view your adventures here at my temple, and even communicate with you. They may see things that you could not, so heed their perspective."

"Can you tell me where I'm headed first?"

The goddess nodded. "You must attend to this first journey alone. Look at the screen."

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He turned and peered at the screen. It went black, then golden words began to form.

And so the Golden City is blackened

With each step you take into My hall.

Marvel at Perfection, for it is fleeting.

You have brought Sin to Heaven

And Doom upon all the world.

A man began speaking as hand-drawn images flashed across the screen. "The Chantry teaches us that it is the hubris of men which brought the Darkspawn into our world. The mages had sought to usurp Heaven, but instead… they destroyed it. They were cast out, twisted and cursed by their own corruption. They returned as monsters, the first of the Darkspawn. They became a Blight upon the lands, unstoppable and relentless."

The screen then showed burning fires upon a stone bridge underground, as oddly squat humans dragged their wounded behind the front ranks of their assembled army.

"The dwarven kingdoms were the first to fall," the narrator intoned. "And from the Deep Roads, the Darkspawn drove at us again, and again, until finally, we neared annihilation."

As they watched, the heavy stone doors blocking the tunnel the dwarves defended finally sundered, and a horde of Darkspawn, blackened, bestial humanoids whose combination of oily shadow and protruding bone reminded the Remnans of nothing more than sapient Grimm. A few truly massive, horned specimens filled their ranks as well. In flashes, the dwarven forces were annihilated, with the screen lingering on the silhouette of an impaled dwarf before raging flames.

As the screen went black again, the narrator's tone took a turn. "Until… the Grey Wardens came. Men and women from every race." A mixed-race unit charged through the woods as a heroic theme swelled. "Warriors and mages. Barbarians and kings. The Grey Wardens sacrificed everything to stem the tide of darkness… and prevailed." The Grey Wardens tore into the Darkspawn ranks, bringing blade and arrow, shield and spell to bear on the enemy. A village burned, screaming peasants cut down as two of the Wardens, a human and a dwarf, stood back-to-back, fending off all comers. The scene ended with the dwarf slamming the heavy head of a warhammer onto a Darkspawn, bringing black back to the screen.

"It has been four centuries since that victory," the narrator continued. The screen showed a man, dark of skin and hair, bearded and bearing grey and silver armor, who surveyed a burnt caravan on a cliffside road. "And we have kept our vigil, have watched and waited for their return. But those who once called us heroes have forgotten."

The man came upon a corpse with a twisted dagger planted into his back and chest. He rolled the body over with his foot and knelt to examine it, but as he did so, whispers flitted across the screen, and a pair of Darkspawn emerged from the woods, seeking to ambush the man. With preternatural perception, the Warden caught the extended blade of the first attacker, throwing him to the ground before simply gutting the second. He then used his boot to roll the first attacker off the edge of the cliff, sending it crashing heavily to the ground more than a hundred feet below.

"It may already be too late," the Warden continued, as he wiped the blackened blood from his face. "For I have seen what is on the horizon." Across the way, a massive fire burned in the forest. "Maker… help us all."

The screen faded back to white.

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"Your mission will be to join the Grey Wardens and fight this evil," Mahina told Jaune. "Prepare yourself well, for it will be dangerous, as you have seen." With that, the goddess stepped back to allow the young knight to speak more privately with his friends.

"I don't like that you're going alone," Ren said, without preamble.

Jaune merely shrugged. "Maybe, but you heard the lady. This one, I have to do on my own."

"But-"

"It's for Pyrrha," the knight insisted.

Ruby came up to Jaune and patted him on the shoulder. "We'll be looking out for you the whole time. I know that you can do this, Jaune!"

He looked around, seeing the looks of support from his friends. Finally, Lie Ren nodded his assent. "Just… make sure that you come back," the young man told him.

"Well yeah, Nora would break the bonds of time and space to kick my ass if I didn't," Jaune laughed nervously. With that, Jaune took a deep breath and walked back to Mahina.

"Okay. I'm ready. What do I do?"

Mahina, goddess of the moon, Queen of the Night, pulled Jaune Arc into a hug. "Thank you for doing this," she told him. Jaune was clearly flustered by having a literal deity express affection to him.

"I… sure," he said. "Just try not to murder me for not having got her hints earlier."

She smiled widely at him, with bright white teeth. "I was watching over you, the both of you, during your little moonlit training sessions. For all that you drove her absolutely mad, you also gave her great joy. So go on, and show all the worlds what you can do." With that, she opened the mosaic wall, revealing a silver, shimmering portal.

Jaune took a deep breath to steady himself. He turned and gave the thumbs-up to his friends, and then stepped into another world.

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Chapter Endnotes: So, this is going to be a multi-crossover type story, featuring just a whole bunch of my favorite franchises. Here are the ones that I for sure know will be in the fic, not necessarily in this order:

Dragon Age

Monster Hunter World

Star Wars

Game of Thrones

Mass Effect

The Lord of the Rings

The Outer Worlds

Dragonball Z/Super

The Elder Scrolls (either Oblivion or Skyrim)

Final Fantasy VII

Firefly/Serenity

Fallout New Vegas

And there could well be more. I'm debating the "Acts of Caine" franchise, for instance. It's awesome, but it's also insanely violent, moreso than even Game of Thrones, and would rate an 'M' rating all on its own. For franchises with more than one entry, they may not take place consecutively. (For example, I could do Mass Effect 1, then a Game of Thrones bit, then Mass Effect 2.) Hopefully, the rules of the game are pretty well clear. The more that Jaune does, the more "goodies" he gets rewarded with, such as having friends go with him, or possibly alteration to his equipment to mesh better with the current world he's journeying through.

Also, yep, I totally self-inserted, but as a goddess. That's pretty much shameless indulgence on my part. Hopefully, that makes a solid framing device to explain why and how RWBY characters are traipsing through, say, outer space, or a post-apocalyptic wasteland, as well as giving them damn good incentive to do so. I hope you all enjoy this new effort.

-Mahina