AN: Thank you all for your words of encouragement for this story. I'm glad my hyperfixation is at least entertaining.
Also I think its funny to point out I personally think canon-Jaune is literally the worst written character in all of RWBY. Worse than Hazel. His narrative roots are equally paradoxical with even less conviction and personality.
That's why I feel 0 shame in causing his character to grow in any direction I damn well please LOL
HEROIC SPIRIT(+bonus UwU) JAUNE GO BRRRRR. Rabbit/Dog Jaune go BRRRRTTTT
By all reasonable logic, Juniper shouldn't have existed in this form.
His time on Remnant was over. He was but a shadow, a shade. Losing himself slowly. A voice in an ear and nothing more.
When Jaune had drawn the SSR Rarity Consumable: Class Card Heroic Spirit Summoning (Saber) he'd even not considered himself as an option for it at all. Hell he'd been actually considering getting Jaune to use it to summon Ozma the Saint, the original version of the now parasitic entity Ozpin.
Juniper knew that he was just probably the worst version of Jaune Arc that had existed. A liar and a cheat who hadn't even noticed the love of his partner until it was too late. When she'd died to save him.
He was no hero.
But the Class Card only cared about the summoner's perception of Heros, it seemed.
And to Jaune?
The splintered form of Saving Grace crackled with power as it curled into an armored fist where his left arm once had been. The legend of the shield somehow transcended timelines, now being the arm that he'd given up to unlock his younger self's Aura.
To him, Juniper was the biggest hero he knew.
That was more moving and flattering than he could put into words.
More than that… air filled his lungs… he'd been summoned in a way that incorporated the whole of his history, if that even made any sense. And somehow it seemed, unknowing to Juniper himself, Pyrrha had been truly with him in an unexplainable way, her very essence, longing, faith, and love fused into his armor and arms.
He could feel her presence, faint, and slumbering, somehow within his own. He almost wanted to cry, but held on to maintain the image of the Invincible big brother Jaune was forming in his mind.
So he'd not simply been summoned as Juniper, formerly Jaune Arc, but somehow also as Pyrrha Nikos the Invincible Girl. A joint package, a sort of light fusion of the two, his armor and clothes having been completely changed to match Pyrrha's grecian North-Western Mistralian style despite maintaining his normal armor's colors.
"Mind giving me a little boost, little brother?" Juniper smiled, but it was different somehow. It carried Pyrrha's charisma, her ability to stand out like a beautiful rose in a blank canvas no matter where she went.
Extra unearthly now, as his current temporary form as a Heroic Spirit.
He saw Specialist Noire blush at his smile, feeling Pyrrha stir within him, a sensation of ever so faint jealousy. It made Juniper want to laugh out loud. It felt adorable within him.
He assured Pyrrha slumbering within that he only needed her. That he had missed her more than she could know. A pleasant satisfaction filled his being. She knew how much he'd missed her. But she reminded him gently.
Right now, they were together once more.
"Ok! No problem!" Jaune was bouncing in place, super proud of the fact for the first time he could see Juniper in action. Suddenly Juniper felt a tad nervous. He wasn't actually that amazing of a fighter, even with the magic coursing in his veins and making up his form.
But Pyrrha within assured that he'd be ok. She believed in him. Inexplicably she'd always believed in him.
"Flames have burned to ash, yet the Regalia of the Moon remains. Thus a second oath under the Shattered Moonlight is made!" Jaune raised his right hand, a burst of crimson prana erupting from his hand and flowing into Juniper.
The wall of Grimm approached from the desert, hoards of Deathstalkers, Bangaroos (a kangaroo Grimm that could fire bone spikes from their cannon pouches), and Creeps forming a black wave against the golden sands.
"By the power of this Command Seal, go not softly through the unending night! Servant Saber! Release your Noble Phantasm!"
"Roger!" Juniper roared with prana flooding his Saint Graph, was this what Ozma felt like at his peak? "By the sacrifice of my left arm, my shoulder protect thee! GRATIA SALUTARIS!"
The shattered pieces of Saving Grace erupted as for some odd reason, one of the ancient languages of Mistral erupted from his lips, the pieces of the shield blasting forward to form a perimeter around the whole of Menagerie and the Solar Farm from all but the ocean. As if to build the floating anchors for the formation of a wall.
Then they erupted in Hard Light.
A bulwark against the darkness, the shattered pieces of Saving Grace, one of the two Noble Phantasms that made up Juniper's legend, formed a shield to protect the whole of Menagerie.
"Holy crap!" He heard Yang swear behind him.
He casually leaned back, looking over the shoulder with an amused grin.
"Language, young lady."
He held back a snicker as young Yang blushed in embarrassment and stepped behind Jaune's spiky back, his younger self encased in the SR Rarity Equipment: Augmented Drachen Mail (Female) from a world, a star called Hydaelyn.
It was the armor of a Dragoon, lance wielding heroic dragon slayers of Holy Ishgard. It also gave bonuses to jumping attacks and aerial combat which actually worked well with the Winged-Spear.
Reading that last bit about the armor's description, Jaune didn't even care that it was supposed to be woman's armor, too enamored with the bit about dragon slayers. Besides, the only thing oddly feminine about it was how it left the abdomen exposed. But why though?
"Well…" Juniper scratched the back of his neck with his right hand, looking sheepish as the Grimm collided with the Hard Light of Saving Grace, being blasted back by black bursts of Gravity and dissipating, following the fact that his version of Saving Grace included Gravity Dust in its design. "What shall you request of me now, Master."
Jaune groaned as Juniper teased him.
"I don't like this Master-Servant designation thing. You're my big brother."
"Well, you're the one that used the Card." Juniper shrugged casually, feeling oddly calm and content. "For the next hour while the Card binds me to the material realm, you're my Master."
"What the hell even are you?"
Juniper turned to Adam. Jeez. The fact that he might grow up into a crazed mass murderer made his hand itch. It'd be so easy to… no. He still had a chance to be anything but. Plus murdering a nine year old would be hard to explain.
"Didn't you hear my precious baby brother? I'm Servant Saber. Juniper of House Arc."
He might as well own up to it. The crest had been on the shattered pieces of his shield-arm as well as his breastplate for some reason. Which was weird, because it never had been in history.
But he'd admit the long flowy crimson combat tunic and robes he currently wore under his armor was comfortable. Even if they didn't make much sense either.
"Wait, you're real?" Yang's eyes were wide as Jaune turned to her, his mouth opened in shock as if he'd been betrayed.
"I told you he was real!"
"Yeah, but like, not like this! Since when could you do this?!"
"We only found the Card existed last week!"
"Found?" This time it was Specialist Noire that spoke, "What do you mean you found that Card?"
"Uhhhhhh." Jaune winced.
"Specialist." Juniper channeled a bit of Ironwood, putting some steel in his voice, supported by Pyrrha's Charisma, "I believe we have more important matters right now with the Grimm."
Specialist Noire blushed as she found herself saluting at attention by Pyrrha's magically enhanced Charisma.
"Y-yes, sir!"
Juniper couldn't help but smile.
"Please keep the children safe. Thanks to Jaune, Gratia Salutaris will hold for the next few hours even should I fade. However, there's still the oceanic Grimm to contend with."
"But-"
"Soldier. That's an order." Juniper demanded, channeling more Ironwood and feeding Pyrrha's Charisma with more prana.
"I… yes sir."
Before Jaune could say anything in his excitement, Juniper turned to his younger self.
"You stay here too. If any injured come by they'll need you. You've got battlefield medicine capabilities. And I'll need you to act if anything goes wrong here. I'm trusting you with this, Jaune."
"Ok, Big Brother Juniper!" Jaune saluted, just looking excited regardless.
He could feel the younger boy half-looking through his own eyes, already figuring out how their connection as Master and Servant worked. Juniper had the feeling normally a Master wouldn't be able to do that, but it was only possible because the Master was also the Servant in a way.
"And a favor to me, girls." Juniper turned to Blake, Yang, and Farbiglas, his most intelligent sister giving Juniper the most puzzled of looks, "Please keep an eye on Jaune and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."
"Big bro!"
Yang snickered.
"We'll keep an eye on him, uh, sir."
Blake nodded.
"We won't let you down." The black cat Faunus's eyes glimmered as they flicked at the wall bouncing away and dispersing Grimm. "Absolutely not."
"He's my brother, so naturally." Farbiglas nodded, her spectacles glimmering, "Are you an ancestor of my family?"
Juniper laughed.
"It's complicated. We're definitely related, though. That much I'm allowed to say." Juniper wove a half truth. "It's… well. Very complicated. Ok, I'm headed off."
The balls of his right foot dug into the sand, the looser silicate blowing back into a cloud as Juniper tore forwards with inhuman speed that he'd never had in life.
"Man, being a Heroic Spirit's insane." He muttered under his breath, feeling Pyrrha agree in a determined amusement.
He could see that Raven's Parabellum had set up a half decent perimeter despite being a bunch of former bandits.
But from his understanding was that the woman had more or less culled the weakest and most obstinate members of the Branwen Bandit Tribe and left only the most loyal and strongest members to be incorporated into her personal new army.
She'd apparently been running herself ragged as she'd gone and awoken the Aura of all of her followers, which was definitely no easy task even over months of effort.
She really was a monster.
"Incoming!" He called out from behind, as one of Raven's mercs turned to point their gun at him.
Naturally he ignored it, leaping up and above the defensive line of Jaune-made assault rifles, drawing Crocea Mors in an easy motion as he flipped through the air.
With a heavy grunt, he slammed into the earth, the swing of his blade cleaving through an octopus Grimm the size of a large house like butter as he tore through it like a human bullet.
He felt bad as he tapped further into Pyrrha's power within him, even though she happily lent him access to her Eternal Arms Mastery, becoming a crimson and gold blur as he spun about the battlefield, lopping off tentacles, through Sahuagin fish-man Grimm skulls, splitting the odd Sharkpedo flying shark Grimm into sashimi.
Out of the three Skills he had access to as a Saber, two came from his precious partner. Only Aura Amp, his Semblance, could be considered his own Skill. Honestly it was a shame he couldn't also use Pyrrha's Polarity, but he supposed beggars couldn't be choosers.
Pyrrha was tickled pink to lend her power, but Juniper just still felt embarrassed anyways. Especially as he could feel Jaune's excitement as his brother cleaved through Grimm left and right with only a single arm. He understood a bit better about his little brother's imposter syndrome now.
A Krab Kong lurched out of the water with a giant claw the size of a large van, but before Juniper could deal with it, Summer had finished a reload somewhere above utop of the Defiant Blue, the heavy rounds of S'more slamming through the back of the giant crab Grimm's shelled head.
"Good shot!" He called up with a wave of his blade, getting a quick wave back from Ruby's mother before she turned to blast more Grimm that burst from the surface of the ocean.
Meanwhile, he leapt up as black tendrils broke the beach sand beneath him, the maw of an Urchin opening beneath him.
The dashing blur of Raven's gray-black and red mercenary uniform swung by, her crimson Fire Dust Alloy odachi cleaving through sand and Grimm, leaving a glassed trail in her wake as she made a swing vaguely reminiscent of a golf swing.
"Who the fuck're you?"
"Would you believe me if I informed you I'm Juniper?"
Raven gave him a look like he was demented, before relenting with a grunt.
"I fucking hate that brat. Why the hell do you look so much like him?"
"I mean, we are related. It's complicated." Juniper grinned, in a shit-eating manner, happy to cause Raven a headache after what she'd done to him in his original life. "I'll let you figure out the details."
"God it's like seeing the brat as an adult, it's awful." Raven turned to slash two small Arrowcuda flying fish Grimm out of the air casually, the two evil creatures burning to ash. "Remind me to get Yang to beat that out of him when they start dating."
"Wh-what? They're like siblings!"
Raven's face was filled with disgust as it twisted into a tooth bearing frown.
"My god, there's literally fucking two of you."
Juniper snorted.
"Whatever the hell that means aside. We need to figure out what's calling the Grimm on this end." Juniper used Crocea Mors to gesture to the Hard Light wall that was currently Gratia Salutaris. "I've set up walls against desert Grimm, but if we don't isolate what's calling them, this will only get worse."
Raven whistled.
"Neat trick. What does it do against The Burrower?"
"I- what?"
"The Burrower. Giant tunneling worm Elder Grimm. It's the only one on Menagerie. What, didn't do your homework?"
"Well I'm sorry that I've been a formless spirit for gods knows how long!" Juniper spat, beginning to reach into his connection to Jaune.
"Jaune!" His eyes glowed as he spoke, reaching out for his Master as he spoke the words aloud, audible to both Raven and Jaune. "If you feel the ground tremble below you, RUN!"
Jaune really wished that advice had come just a few seconds earlier.
Specialist Noire had pushed the rest of the kids out of the way as a gaping hole erupted beneath them, sending that Atlasean Huntress flying up into the air, gasping for air as she was collided by a wall of force.
The Burrower was a thick black worm of probably a bit over twenty foot diameter, each ring of flesh with spiked white segmented pieces of bone plate, the tips of the spikes dyed a deep crimson.
The opening of its face spilled out a deluge of sand, revealing a blender of teeth within the giant hole of its maw that spun in place as the rings of teeth rotated in a ring, ready to rend earth, sand, flesh, and bone equally.
"Children! Run!"
Twin tonfa spun before a loud thump and the jittering of chain lashed out, hooking into the side of The Burrower, the chains being retracted by the powerful motors inside the Huntress's weapon as she collided into the side of the Elder Grimm, an echo of Aura rippling from the impact as she manipulated her Aura to cause more damage.
Adam grabbed Blake, dragging the younger Faunus girl along behind him as Yang grabbed Farbiglas in a fireman's carry over her shoulders, her training kicking in.
"W-wait! Yang! My glasses!" She protested, as the large circular spectacles fell from her face.
"I got it!" Jaune flicked his sister's glasses into his inventory. "I'll get it to you later!"
Farbiglas already knew what that meant.
"Jaune, don't you da-"
The ground beneath the kids rumbled again, the five kids, feeling their hearts drop into their stomachs.
"RU-"
Jaune's words were interrupted as a second Burrower head, the other end of the giant earthworm Grimm burst from the sand beneath them.
Spiked bone ground against Jaune's aura and armor launching him backwards and upwards.
He heard screams, but as a bone collided with the underside of his chin, thankfully armored by his helmet. It saved him more Aura, but his head rang from the impact.
He couldn't tell who screamed loudest.
The Drachen Mail granted the jumping capability and powers of a Dragoon, which included the ability to both land from any height safely…
His feet dug into the air as he launched himself up and to the side, leaping over a side swing from the Burrower's second end.
It also let him leap through the air itself.
His hands reached out, Durindana appearing in one hand in gold and black, the other closed around the Winged-Spear. The green length of otherworldly jade had a new wing aglow with unlocked power.
"I am…" The visor of the Drachen Mail's helmet twisted into a horned Yaksha mask twisting green streaks through the rest of the armor. "The Bane of All Evil!"
His feet dug into the air again as he twisted upside down, planting his crouched form against an invisible platform of air.
He could see blood on the edge of the Burrower's lip.
…Farbiglas and Blake didn't have any Aura.
No. NONONONONONONO!
"I'LL KILL YOU!" He roared in anger, seeing red.
Please don't be dead. Please.
Air rushed through and over him, shrouding him in green-gold light as he added an application of Lemnascatic Wind Cycling to his descending plunge, diving straight through the fleshy maw of the Burrower, the piercing power of both Durindana and the Winged-Spear meeting forward in front of him like a drill as he spun.
Bursts of air and wind erupted into the form of green phantom replicas of the Winged-Spear and Durindana as they tore the mouth of the Elder Grimm from within from the enhanced state Jaune had entered from The Bane of All Evil.
Like a bloody bullet he burst forth from the other side of the Grimm, covered in inky black Grimm flesh and shattered bone.
He slammed into the ground, another splash-zone of jade wind forming replicas of legendary spears that jut forth from the ground.
He roared as he leapt up at an angle, dodging the slam of the Elder Grimm's body. He could see Specialist Noire, tearing up the exterior of the Elder Grimm's other end, slowly but surely tearing a deep crimson gouge, seeming to be seeking something specific.
Did it… did Grimm have brains? A critical point?
He recalled the description of the Winged-Spear. That it magically sought critical blows.
It would have to be enough! Jaune had to believe. Not in the Gacha, but in his own damned luck. If there was a critical point, he'd have to find it!
He leapt up again, positioning himself for another plunging attack.
He'd try to end it all with Durindana now, but he didn't know what would happen if he ran out of Command Seals, nor was he positive that would be enough. The Nuckelavee had managed to deflect the blow enough to survive by sacrificing the whole of its arm.
If he missed the kill shot, that might be the end for his friends and sister.
Which one of them was it?!
His panic and worry was choked down and to the side as he instinctively focused on the foe in front him, the beat of his heart hammering like a battlesong.
With another battlecry he pierced through the Burrower, ripping through the Grimm with thornlike green Winged-Spears appearing like phantom blades through the flesh where he'd make contact, alongside from below the Grimm that had been slammed back into the ground by the force of Jaune's impact.
The Burrower made to move again.
"Dammit! C'mon! Where is it?!"
He leapt up at another angle, boosted by another Lemnascatic Wind Cycling, leaving another trail of spear phantoms in his wake.
He took a second leap, feeling the last edges of The Bane of All Evil beginning to leave him.
"JUST DIE ALREADY!"
He slammed down again, drilling a hole through the end of the Burrower, this time hitting gold, as the end of the Grimm shuddered and fell limp as Jaune hit something strangely hard that split like glass beneath the force behind his SSR spears.
Just in time, too as The Bane of All Evil ran out, making Jaune feel weak at the knees.
The empowered state had been draining percentage chunk's of Jaune's Aura. According to the enhanced Yaksha's Jade Winged-Spear (Enhancement Stage 1) it would consume a mere two percent of Jaune's current Aura every second. With a fifteen second duration, it took more or less a third of Jaune's remaining Aura every time he'd use it.
After taking a hit or two he definitely couldn't enter that state again without running out of Aura entirely.
Whatever he'd done to crush the brain or core of the half of the Burrower had seemed to slow down the other end, hampering it.
But the Elder Grimm tugged the ruined other end of it as it rose in the air, head twisting down to burrow into the ground.
"...Bastard's trying to run!"
Jaune saw a glimmer in the sand.
His messenger bag had been torn off. Or fell off. It didn't matter.
Within the bag he'd been carrying little locked containers of Dust, as that was the one object he couldn't carry in his Inventory.
He threw the Winged-Spear to the side as he dove for the glimmering Dust, rolling as Durindana shifted into it's Spada form, having acknowledged his new master just enough to do as such without the use of a Command Seal.
His memories flashed to Durindana's description.
"The hilt… is hollow."
The golden pommel twisted open on its own without Jaune's prompting as the description window flickered erratically.
"MISS NOIRE! RUN AWAY!" Jaune warned as he unleashed the prana within his last Command Seal as he slammed the Ice Dust into the hilt of D̴̨̾ȕ̸̲ŗ̸͑i̴̥͛ņ̷̈́d̷̬͒a̶̘̚n̶̯̕ā̸͖/̴̔͜P̵̤͘r̸̞͝ȯ̸̢t̴͇̆o̷̗͝-̷̘͒D̴͎͌u̵̙̍r̵͔̓a̴̻̾n̸̪̽d̵̗̚a̴̬̍l̵͔͠.
"For my flesh shall be the Grail itself. My vessel: a wish-granting miracle. By the power of this Command Seal I unleash this True Name!"
A ripple of magic and icy wind erupted from the now currently Proto-Durandal, the description window stated it was in a temporary state. That he was diverging from its legacy and history. That the weapon was entering an unstable history.
Jaune didn't give a single fuck.
"The miracle of Winter! Endless Sheer Frost! PROTO-DURANDAL!"
A wave of winter snow and frost ripped through the air like a sideways tornado, encasing the currently half-buried end of the Burrower he'd managed to kill, curling to incase the rest of the landscape, completely washing over and shattering his Multi-Fabricator, as it reached the remaining living head of the Burrower.
The Elder Grimm let out a final roar of hatred as it was encased in ice, a statue of frost, the ice extended in a thick long curling series of magic permafrost that now decorated the edge of the settlement of Menagerie like a series of artistic curls of arctic shell had been slapped onto the center of the island.
Jaune collapsed to his knees, feeling his lungs burning, the frost from Proto-Durandal, now already returned to being Durindana having encased his right arm in a mundane, and thankfully not magic, icy shell.
God he hoped he didn't catch Specialist Noire in that. Ah.
He spotted her hanging off a curling twist of magic permafrost, hanging from a length of tonfa chain curled around the ice and her arm, her dangling a bit in the wind, unconscious.
"Thank the gods."
The ice hissed as Jaune collapsed face first into hot sand, the cold condensate not liking the heat of desert silicates.
Jaune just rolled over onto his back, feeling the gritty coating of his sand-mingled sweat upon the skin of his stomach with only a sheen of Aura preventing from getting it in his armor.
He slowly took his other arm and started to lifelessly beat at the frozen arm to try to break the ice shell, cracking it after three hits.
Then he shot to his feet, adrenaline hitting his system once more.
There had been blood.
"FARBI! BLAKE! YANG! ADAM!" He screamed in panic, running as he SLAMMED at his frozen arm, breaking away the frosted shell. "WHERE ARE YOU?!"
There was no response.
They must have been buried somewhere under the sand unconscious.
He began digging around with his hands in the sand, trying to find his friends, moving purposefully but slowly, afraid to accidently trod upon them. Both Adam and Yang's Auras might have broken if they were unconscious.
Jaune was scared.
Thankfully Jaune could feel Juniper from their Servant-Master link, which was a small solace.
He was now fighting a Leviathan that seemed to be acting as the anchor for the rest of the aquatic Grimm, using his Charisma to command Captain Ral Tai of the Defiant Blue to drive the vessel at the Elder Grimm.
He'd be using the last of the Prana that made him up at the moment to unleash his offensive Noble Phantasm in its incomplete state to take it down in a single blow.
He knew that his Big Brother Juniper could pull it off.
He'd sent back that they'd taken care of the Burrower, but either Farbi or Blake had been injured and he didn't know who.
"God dammit."
Pyrrha sent a comforting sensation as his heart was gripped in fear.
Juniper thanked her, holding onto hope.
As long as they were alive, Jaune might still be able to save them. Please let them be alive.
Juniper stood on the prow of the Defiant Blue, his blade drawn. The Atlasean Light-Guardian vessel had focused all of the Hard-Light shielding on the port side, Summer and Raven keeping the starboard side of the vessel clear of all approaching and boarding Grimm in perfect harmony.
It was his turn.
His version of Crocea Mors was most powerful with Gratia Salutaris to form it into a greatsword, but it was still needed just in case. He'd have to take it in a single shot with what he had available.
"Today!" Juniper roared, the full brunt of Pyrrha's Charisma B blasting him and all his current fellow crewmen with POWER. "We fight for the future!"
Pyrrha's Eternal Arms Mastery filled him with strength and power, an understanding of the blade that he'd never be able to compare to alone. She was always talented. Now he could feel exactly how much of a martial genius she'd been.
His own personal skill Semblance: Aura Amp rippled, amplifying not only his Aura, but the remaining Prana within his current Saint Graph, raising the power of not only his Noble Phantasm, but the stage of damage it could unleash.
Ok. That was a surprise. A pleasant one.
"A foe." Juniper spoke an aria that matched Jaune's own. "'Tis a most mighty, a most terrible foe!"
His lone arm rose, the tip of his ancestral blade rising to the air, erupting like a mountain with a swirling twist of Pyrrha's scarlet and his white-gold.
"Crocea Mors!"
The ancestral blade of House Arc, originally a Lower House of Mistral, then renamed and titled in Vale, now returned to their Mistralian roots, swung down with finality, disintegrating the Leviathan.
"Holy shit. I want magic bullshit like that too."
Juniper burst out into a deep bellied laughter at Raven's response to his attack as his body began to astralize, looking to all the world as if he was fading into motes of white-gold and scarlet prana.
Against the near setting sun, his body visually disappeared into motes of light starting from his feet in the wind on the tip of the Defiant Blue's prow, Juniper faded from view.
He'd have just enough to ride out the last of the hour of Servant Summoning granted by the Card if he stayed astralized thanks to Aura Amp saving him some Prana.
It was selfish of him, but he wanted to spend it with Pyrrha.
Her embarrassed but happy warmth resounded from within the core of his Saint Graph.