Fractal Chaos Omake 1 - Shaking the Rust Off

Rusted Knight Jaune omake. I did not make this. This was made by Sleepless, who agreed to have it posted here for the sake of more feedback. This is just part 1 and the next chapter will be posted when he's ready.

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Yang wasn't sure exactly when everything started to go wrong but she was pretty sure it was around the time some angry Rusted Knight cosplayer punched her into a bus. It's a good thing it was empty; she didn't think any civvies would have survived her landing.

"SHOW YOURSELF, NEO!" The man screamed. "YOU CAN'T FOOL ME! I KNOW THIS ISN'T REAL!"

Well, at least he hates Neo too, Yang mused as she climbed out of what was formerly the bus driver's seat. Screaming filled the air as civilians scrambled for safety, many abandoning their vehicles on the road.

"Hey! Tall, rusty, and pissed! Neo's not here!" She called out, hands raised. "We've got her in a cell back at HQ!"

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" The knight screamed, suddenly in her face and bringing his broken sword down on her. "ENOUGH LIES!"

Yang's eyes widened as she barely dodged out of the way, He was fast. Deceptively so. She'd figured the armor would have slowed him down a little but he easily matched Uncle Qrow for sheer speed.

"Well, I tried," Yang muttered to herself, before slamming her gauntleted fist into the man's stomach and pulling the trigger.

The blast staggered him, letting Yang get in close for the followup. Right uppercut to the helmet, four jabs delivered in quick succession to the chest, finishing off with a rising knee to the visor and a double kick off the chest to establish distance. Near perfect execution, but it had been like punching a steel statue. The man's aura was strong and unyielding and she wasn't sure she'd made much of a dent in it.

Well, that's what the sticky bombs are for, Yang thought with a grin, pressing the button on Ember Celica's detonator.

The knight had just recovered from Yang's onslaught when the four sticky bombs on his chest beeped twice and exploded, launching him backwards and leaving a sizable cloud of smoke in his wake. There was a lull, and Yang's grin widened.

"Ha! Take that you- HOLY SHIT!" The brawler was forced to dodge again as a massive slash of golden-yellow light erupted from the smoke cloud and cut the bus behind her in two before carving a gouge in the facade of the building behind it.

The knight himself charged in screaming behind his Aura slash, and extended an arm, clotheslining Yang at the end of her dodge and knocking her to the ground. He reversed the grip on his broken blade, driving it downwards. Yang fired a blast to the side, letting the recoil spin her out of the way. She kipped-up before firing both gauntlets again, using the force to stagger the knight and launch herself on top of one of the bus halves behind her.

"I could seriously use some back-up here!" Yang shouted into her earpiece. "This guy's a freaking tank!"

"Already there," replied a cool voice, as a wave of ice swept down the street, taking the armored warrior with it. A Huntress clad in a white dress with a blue mantle slid down the glacier, launching herself off of a small ramp in the ice, before executing a perfect pirouette mid-air and landing next to Yang, her rapier held at the ready. Weiss had arrived.

"What's the situation?"

"Me and Jaune were-"

"Jaune and I," Weiss interrupted.

Yang blinked. "What?"

"'Me and Jaune' is grammatically incorrect."

"This is NOT the time, Weiss!"

The dust mage sniffed imperiously, "It's always time for proper grammar."

"Jaune and I were on patrol!" Yang growled. "And he started doing the dimensional glowing thing. We were going somewhere out of the way when he swapped out for the Rusted Knight wannabe you just froze. Tried explaining what was happening but he just punched me and started screaming about Neo. Guess they have history."

"Hmph," Weiss hmphed. "Well, he should be secure until we can-'' A deafening crack erupted from the glacier.

"No way..." Yang breathed, as she witnessed the knight smash his way out of the icy prison with his fists. "How strong is this guy!?"

The duelist sighed, raising Myrtenaster, "Let me just-" the rusty gauntlet of the warrior slamming into her face cut off whatever she had been about to say. She flew down the street, skipping off the ground several times before crashing through the window of a storefront.

"Holy fu-" Yang barely got her gauntlets up in time to block the slash from the knight's broken blade. The force of the attack still knocked her off of the bus and into the remains of the glacier that now covered the street.

Groaning, Yang looked up to see the warrior leaping down towards her, blade raised for a plunging attack. A burst of rose petals suddenly appeared behind the airborne knight and materialized into a red-clad Huntress wielding a massive scythe, already mid-swing. Ruby caught the armored man in the midsection with the blade of Crescent Rose and, with the earsplitting report of the integrated rifle, spun him around and slammed him into the ground. With a boom, the street cratered, scattering powdered concrete and asphalt into the air. Collapsing her weapon down to its rifle form, the reaper aimed downwards and fired at the knight's prone form, riding the recoil up to stay aloft. She fired twice more for good measure, then burst into rose petals once more, reforming at Yang's side.

"Come on! On your feet sis!" Ruby cried as she pulled Yang out of the ice.

"Thanks for the save, Rubes," Yang said with a weak grin. "I owe you-" Her eyes widened as she saw movement in the dust cloud.

"MOVE!" She screamed, tackling her sister out of the way of the charging knight and taking the blow herself. She crashed through the glacier before bouncing off of the building on the other side of the street.

"USING HER FACE!?" The knight howled, turning to Ruby. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

"YANG!" Ruby wailed before the report of Crescent Rose's rifle drowned out all other sound.

"Alright, that's IT!" Yang jumped to her feet and activated her Semblance.

She burned through the air with a shriek of fury, melting right through the ice in her way. The knight, too preoccupied with Ruby, was blind-sided by the golden blaze of rage that began pummeling him into the ground.

"DON'T." Punch. "TOUCH." Punch. "MY." Punch. "SISTER." Grab, twist, throw.

The man spun through the air, completely uncontrolled, until a Huntress clad in a black jumpsuit and a white coat swung down from above and kicked him back to the ground. She flipped through the air gracefully, and Yang felt her heart skip at the sight, before executing a perfect three point landing right next to Ruby.

"Perfect timing, Blake," Ruby panted. "This guy is tough!"

"Pretty sure that took care-" Blake cut herself off as the creaking of metal heralded the knight getting back to his feet.

"Oh, you've GOTTA be kidding me!" Yang wheezed, falling to one knee. "What does it take to put this guy down!?"

"Take a breather, Yang. Check on Weiss" Ruby ordered. "We'll handle it from here."

Blake rushed in, both halves of Gambol Shroud deployed and launched a dizzying flurry of strikes, attacking from all angles. The knight didn't even bother blocking the attacks, letting them skate off of his Aura, while striking out at the Faunus girl with his broken blade and armored fist. Blake was forced to evade, the force behind the knight's weapon far more than what she was capable of blocking on her own. Fortunately, she wasn't alone.

The blade of Crescent Rose swept through the knight's defenses, carving off chunks of his Aura with prejudice. Whenever he tried to strike back, the head of the scythe would deflect the attack, whirling along in a mad dance. Blake took advantage of this to strike in between the tempo of Ruby's attacks. They weren't powerful attacks, but they put the knight off balance, creating holes for Crescent Rose to take advantage of.

Up and down the street the three of them fought, barely cognizant of their surroundings. Multiple street lamps fell victim to Ruby's scythe and water gushed into the air where the knight had ripped a fire hydrant out of the ground and used it as an impromptu bludgeon. The buildings and sidewalks were scored with innumerable slashes as Blake and Ruby carefully drove the knight backwards, whittling his Aura down bit by bit. But the knight gave as good as he got, lashing out with fist and broken blade, howling gibberish all the while.

The two Huntresses were forced to relent, putting distance in between them and the knight but leaving their guards up. The man was staggered, panting great gouts of steam into the air; the black void of his visor zeroed in on Ruby and Blake. He straightened up, his aura flashing white, and the girls braced for his charge.

A massive white greatsword plummeted from the sky, smashing the knight into the street. The armored giant wielding the blade raised it up before bringing it screaming back down. And then it did it again. And again. And again.

"Got it out of your system, Weiss?" Blake asked wryly as the former heiress rejoined her team. Weiss shot her an unamused look through a fresh black eye.

"Ease up, Weiss," Ruby ordered. "We don't actually want to kill him."

"Easy for you to say," Weiss muttered, but relented, ordering her Arma Gigas summon to step back. Through the haze of powdered concrete they could see the unmoving body of the knight lying in a pile of rubble.

"Is he breathing?" Ruby asked.

"I'm not getting close enough to check," Weiss replied.

"I'll do it," Yang declared as she limped over.

"Weiss, keep your summon trained on him if he tries to get up again. I'll check the area over, make sure there weren't any civvies caught in the crossfire. Blake, back Yang up." Ruby ordered before dashing away in a flurry of petals.

"You heard the lady, back me up."

Yang carefully picked her way through the debris, approaching the knight. She was about to flip the bastard over when he groaned and his aura flared.

"Oh no you don't!" Immediately, Yang dived on top of him, kneeing him in the small of the back and grabbing his arms to pull them behind him. He struggled mightily, screaming incoherence all the while, and for a moment, Yang thought she might lose her grip, when Blake rushed in and smashed Gambol Shroud's cleaver into the back of the knight's helmet. His thrashing weakened, his voice petering off into groans, and Yang was finally able to secure his arms with a grav bola.

"Should probably get his legs too," Blake said absently, inspecting the knight's armor. "Is it just me or is he supposed to be the Rusted Knight?"

"Nah," Yang replied as she bound the man's legs with another grav bola. "I thought he was a cosplayer when he first showed up. He's got the whole package: rusty armor, broken sword, incredible power."

"No jackalope though."

"Don't think it came across with him."

"Hmm," Blake murmured as she kneeled down to retrieve the knight's weapon. "... this is Crocea Mors, isn't it?" She asked, holding the broken blade up. "I recognize the wrappings on the hilt."

"Would make sense. It's only the seven of us and Ice Cream Bitch who are supposed to be swapping between worlds. I guess this is Jaune then?" Yang said, looking down at the man whose back she was sitting on. "Damn, who woulda thought Vomit Boy would end up being a powerhouse? Who dresses up as the Rusted Knight for some reason?"

"There's some strange realities out there. But yes, it seems particularly weird that this reality has a Jaune who runs around in rusty plate armor and wields a broken sword. Especially since both are apparently still combat grade."

"Wait, let me see that." Yang held out her hand for the knight's weapon and Blake lobbed it to her underhand. "I frickin' thought so. Aside from the tip, this thing is completely blunt. He was using his aura to make up the difference. I bet you if I actually punched his armor it would fall to pieces."

"Alright, so, Jaune is running around in gear completely unsuited for combat. Why?"

"Beats me. Maybe this version of him is crazy? He just keeps screaming about this not being real and Neo-"

"NEO!" The knight suddenly screamed, bucking hard enough to fling Yang off.

Blake slammed her cleaver into the man's helmet once more, hard enough to bounce his head off of the ground. His screaming ceased.

"Thanks," Yang said, getting to her feet. "Okay, no mentioning Ice Cream Bitch in earshot of Rusty here. But you see why I think he's nuts?"

"I certainly do."

With a flutter of rose petals, Ruby appeared next to Blake. "Looks like most people got clear before things really kicked off. Apparently, the other swap this time was Neo-"

"No!" Blake shouted, covering Ruby's mouth but the damage was already done.

"NEO!" Screamed the knight as he thrashed against his restraints. "I'LL KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO RUBY! I'LL KILL YOU EVEN IF IT'S THE LAST THING I EVER DO!"

Blake swung her cleaver again but his words made her flinch and the armored man twisted out of the way, his pauldron taking the strike instead.

The knight continued to howl."YOU CAN'T ESCAPE ME! YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM ME! YOU CAN'T-"

Yang's fist slammed into his helmet, silencing him once more. She looked up at her teammates, lilac eyes wide.

"'What you did to Ruby,'" Blake whispered, a chill crawling up her spine as she glanced at the girl in question. Ruby herself was white as a sheet.

"I suppose he must be from a world where things were worse?" Weiss said as she walked up, her tone and face ashen.

"I- we'll figure it out later," Ruby declared. "Let's get him loaded up and back to HQ."

"Just a moment, we've been hitting him in the head pretty hard," Weiss said. "Take his helmet off. We should make sure he isn't concussed."

"At this point, he probably is," Blake muttered. "But, we should still check. Let's get him up and..."

Keeping the already woozy knight restrained, Blake and Yang carefully maneuvered him into a kneeling position and Ruby and Weiss began working at the straps of his helm.

"Just a second, it's being a little stubborn," Ruby growled, fiddling with the last strap. "Stupid rust. Okay, there we go and-"

The helmet came off and Team RWBY froze upon seeing the face underneath.

It was definitely Jaune, but in a worse state than they'd ever seen him before. His hair was tied back with a frayed red cloth in a low ponytail and an unruly beard covered his jaw and mouth. Both were speckled with white and age lines creased his face. His blue eyes were wide and manic, sunken into his skull and shifting rapidly yet he seemed barely cognizant of the world. With the helmet off, they could hear the stream of low muttering constantly spilling from his lips.

"-the fingers check the teeth there's always a mistake she's never this perfect there's a flaw somewhere this isn't real don't let her in there's always a flaw there's always a flaw-"

Blake and Yang were speechless, eyes filled horror. Ruby gazed down in shock at what was left of her best friend.

"Wha- what happened to him?" Weiss stammered, despair and pity filling her voice. "All of the alternates we've seen have been from the same time period as us. Did it grab a future version somehow?"

Ruby shook her head, steeling herself. "We'll figure it out later. Let's just get him out of here for now."

"Wait," the Heiress spoke up. "Put his helmet back on. Let's keep this... discreet for now."

Ruby silently acquiesced, covering the older Jaune's face once more.

They waited in silence for the shuttle to arrive, deeply disturbed by the state of their friend.