Fanfic / From Beyond (RWBY)

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Art by Kegi Springfield

From Beyond is a RWBY What If? Fic by Coeur Al'Aran in which Jaune dies during initiation... only to stick around as a ghost only Blake can see.

Contains examples of...

• Adaptation Personality Change:
  • Discussed. Jaune turns out to be a bit of a troll and a shameless pervert as a ghost, but when Blake snarks about his behavior, he muses that he was actually pretty shy and awkward when he was alive, and that all his newfound sarcasm and perversion would have been inner thoughts at best. Every once in a while though, a more grounded personality shows through the cracks, and it is implied that at least some of it him deliberately trying to distract himself from his current un-alive status.
    Jaune: Maybe… what's that saying – in vino veritas?
    Blake: Perhaps in this case, it would be 'in mortem veritas'?
  • While the canon Pietro is a bit of an Absent-Minded Professor, here he's a full-on Bunny-Ears Lawyer, being incredibly literal minded, prone to go on bizarre tangents, and constantly making statements that have the bareness shred of logic. And that's when he isn't supposedly Obfuscating Insanity.
    Pietro: Absolutely! I'll have you know my dear, I'm not quite as insane as the good General thinks I am. Here, hold this -– [hands Blake a long cucumber] — it will stop anyone overhearing us.
• Alternate Universe Fic: The fic immediately diverges from canon due to Jaune avoiding Pyrrha's attempted save during initiation, and thus dying upon impact with the forest floor. After which his disembodied spirit somehow gets anchored to Blake.
• And the Adventure Continues: Jaune and Blake start dating, with the former now possessing Amber's body permanently and, by proxy, has her half of the Fall Maiden's powers. However, Jaune must also now join the fight against Salem and start training for a rematch against Cinder, who is still on the loose with Maiden powers herself.
• Death by Adaptation: The basis of the entire story is that Jaune dies during the Beacon initiation, but his soul somehow remains, tethered to Blake.
• Death by Irony: Jaune, despite having no combat experience, managed to dodge a deadly weapon thrown at him from seemingly nowhere while in free fall. One thrown by a famous combat prodigy no less. Unfortunately, Pyrrha threw her javelin with the intent to safely stop said free fall and save his life, and Jaune isn't exactly thrilled once his eventually learns that this single moment of competence was what killed him.
• Death of a Child: Nicholas has to cope with this. From his perspective, his son ran off with a family heirloom, he only gets information about his whereabouts several months later from a complete stranger who may or may not being ransoming him, and when it turns that she didn't do such a thing, she instead reveals that his son died and there is not even a body to bury. Nicholas is too distraught by this to even want the sword back when Blake offers it to him.
• Deconstruction Fic: In regards to Jaune's canonical plan, not only showcasing how it could have easily gone wrong (while Pyrrha did try to save him as in canon, Jaune causes the shot to miss and he dies due to lacking the necessary skills and abilities of a proper huntsman-in-training) but the ripple effects it would have on his family and others (Nicholas is stunned with grief over the incident, while Pyrrha still muses about his death several months later herself).
• Demonic Possession: Jaune is capable of this. He can freely possess any inanimate object, though actually moving around as one is difficult if said object has nothing to facilitate it — for example, he can only move around as Mr. Tiddles because the toy bear has stuffing he can manipulate. Meanwhile, possessing a human requires said person to either be unconscious or willingly give him control, and grants him the memory, knowledge, and skills of the host for the duration of the possession.
• Despair Event Horizon: Jaune's father reaches this when he learns his son is dead. He just leaves and lets Blake keep Crocea Mors.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Adam died during the battle for Beacon, rather than several months later.
• Dramatic Irony: Blake and Ruby both blame themselves for Jaune's death as both heard him screaming through the air but initially avoided where he landed so they wouldn't have to partner with him. The narration makes it clear he died instantly upon hitting the ground, so neither could have actually saved him.
• Embarrassing Cover-Up: When Blake and Jaune nearly die in the aftermath of the Mt. Glenn arc, Dr. Polendina realizes that the two must have a bizarre parasitic relationship; while both of them are perfectly fine when Jaune is in his ghost form (beyond him being restricted to a certain radius), he needs to actively make use of her aura whenever he's possessing an inanimate object and exiting that radius; as such, Blake and a teddy-bear bound Jaune being several kilometers away from each other put a heavy strain on that bond. To explain why Blake nearly died because she wasn't holding a toy, the doctor tells the rest of Team RWBY that Blake has an STI.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: While Jaune is still the protagonist, since most of the cast only knew him for a single day, no one dwells too deeply on or talks about his death after their initial shocked and saddened reactions. Subverted much later, when Pyrrha confides in "Mr. Tiddles" how much she wanted to get to know Jaune and how she is still lonely and devastated by his death after all this time.
• Haunted Heroine: Blake ends up being this, as Jaune's soul somehow ends up tethered to hers, leaving him as a ghost that only she can see.
• Help Mistaken for Attack: Jaune reflexively avoids Pyrrha's javelin that would have saved him.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every chapter title is a pun on a TV show, film, or book title using either Jaune or Blake's name.
• Internal Reveal: Jaune learns that Pyrrha tried to save him in Chapter 61 when she confides in what she thinks is an inanimate teddy bear. While he does note that he and Blake most likely wouldn't have become friends if he did survive, and he wouldn't trade their relationship for anything at this point, his initial reaction is exactly what you'd expect.
  Jaune: Fuuuuuuuuuckkkkkk...
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: Blake first suspects something has gone wrong with Jaune's landing when despite his earlier screaming, he isn't making any noise anymore.
  Blake: Curse, moan, scream... rant about your landing. Anything.
• Last-Minute Hookup: Blake and Jaune, naturally. Though technically, due to him being permanently stuck in the woman's body, you could say that the fic ends with Blake and Amber instead.
• Life Saving Misfortune: Inverted. Jaune dies because he managed to dodge Pyrrha's javelin despite having no training or skill at combat.
• Love Interest Apotheosis: Inverted. Jaune and Blake don't bond and become love interests until after Jaune has died and become a ghost, and at the fic's end, Jaune gains a permanent new body to be with Blake via possessing Amber.
• Not Enough to Bury: While Jaune's death left a full corpse behind, when Blake returns to look for his sword, she finds that his body has been eaten by Grimm.
• Not What It Looks Like: Blake having a conversation with Jaune in the bathroom is misconstrued by the others as a flirty scroll-call with her boyfriend due to their inability to hear Jaune.
• Oh, Crap!: Jaune's ghost tries to possess Penny, with Blake reasoning that since she's a robot with an AI, he might be able to move her. In the instant where Jaune tries, he realizes that unlike a normal person, Penny is fully self-aware of every tiny thing that occurs in her body. In other words, not only did he fail, but she noticed the attempt.
• Paranormal Romance: Pietro Polendina immediately assumes that this is the situation between Blake and Jaune when they first meet. While he isn't exactly wrong, he goes even further and insists that he isn't in the business of creating robotic sex toys when questioned how quickly he can make Jaune a new body.
  Pietro: Pftt, I've read that crazy crap you women call "dark" romance nowadays. The fact that he's dead is probably the main turn on. Well I'll be damned if I'm making a robot that can suck out your blood.
• Point of Divergence: Pyrrha did not break Jaune's fall in this continuity (though not for lack of trying), resulting in his death when he hits the ground.
• Required Secondary Powers: It's noted that a Huntsman's Semblance alters their body (and sometimes mind) in ways to allow their power to work. For example, if her body wasn't adapted for it, Ruby's Super-Speed would liquefy her internal organs, rupture her eardrums, and shatter her bones. It's theorized the reason Jaune's ghost has attached to Blake is because her Semblance has left her capable of dispersing and controlling her Aura outside her body, which Jaune uses to move any non-living body he possesses.
• Riddle for the Ages: It is never confirmed how Jaune's soul became tethered to Blake in the first place. At most, Pietro can only theorize that the way Blake's cloning semblance works somehow combined with Jaune's will to live to result in the phenomenon.
• What If?: What if Pyrrha Nikos couldn't save Jaune Arc at the initiation and he died?