"Whoo boy, I bet you're wondering what's on for today!"
The assembled group, now consisting of the usuals plus Glynda, Ironwood, Roman, Neo, and Qrow, mostly gave half hearted replies except for the students, who were still pumped by the previous multiverse they saw with Nora's voice booming over her peers. "Come on, show us more!"
"Ah, such enthusiasm," DB chuckled, though it clearly lacked any mirth, "You have no idea what your in for with this."
The inhabitants had reactions to comment with concern ranging to intrigue. No one liked it when DB pulled that ominous nonsense. "Could you not and start the video, we've been waiting for a while now." Ruby stated, eager to see what this deity or whatever had in store for them.
The being rolled his currently nonexistent eyes and the movie to the other world began to play. The Dark Night!
The scene opens up with many people evacuating a large hospital. Mothers grabbing their children and newborns, doctors and nurses wheeling out patients and paralyzed people.
One officer went to go get Lie Ren, an Atlas executive who was badly burned in a terrorist attack.
He opened the door to see a doctor by Ren's bedside, holding a chart. Ren was laying on the hospital bed, bound by many restraint belts and handcuffs. The left side of his face and left arm were covered in bandages and absorbing pads.
Nora immediately clung to Ren's hand, fear and grief worming its way into her heart. "What happened to Renny?"
"He must've went through an accident or... something worse." Qrow hypothesized, not all comfortable of the possibility of the worse part. Naturally, Neo was intrigued with the worse part, hopeful that she could witness a nicely gruesome backstory on Ren's condition.
"Only a few seconds in and it's already a little bit of a shit show." Roman dryly remarked.
Ruby let out a nervous gulp and mustered up the nerve to point out, "Anyone else seeing the handcuffs? All the straps?"
"Hard not to notice." Yang Mumbled uncomfortably.
"Doctor, we have to get the patient out of-" The officer was cut off due to a bullet piercing him between the eyes.
Gasps rang out from the sudden death, mostly from the students. Having witnessed this before, none of the occupants reacted as badly but it was always still quite unsettling to watch someone die, no matter how much they got used to it.
Neo had a little smirk on her face. It was nothing spectacular but still somewhat comedic to her.
Glynda, Qrows, and Ironwood's gaze hardened. If they had a bad feeling before then this was the boulder atop the pile of rocks. Oxpin felt the same but kept his gaze neutral.
Ren's unbandaged eye widened and he started panting heavily, like a wild animal.
Ren's behavior had gotten worse since his arrival at the hospital. He would scream and cry violently with psychotic spasms, other times he sobbed uncontrollably while screaming "NORA!" while clawing at his face. Eventually, they were forced to restrain him when he bite a nurse's hand so badly, she had to get stitches.
Ren was in constant agony, but he refused medication or skin grafts for the 3rd and 4th degree burns on his injuries.
Everyone witnessed the madness in Ren's eyes and everyone had to recoiled at least a little, even Neo to some extent.
Ren was horrified to say the least. He was watching a mentally damaged version of himself, a version not too far off from he could've became at some point in his life. The thought of such a fate alone made him shutter. Nora shared his exact sentiments and it far worse, in her opinion, to watch him go down that path.
The "doctor" then removed his face mask, causing Ren spasm, growl, and groan in rage.
The man had a horrific clown-like face. White paint smeared and blotched over his face with various shades of grey splotching around it. The areas around the eyes were painted black with many small tear tracks, sprouting and other points.
But the most horrific and was the mouth and cheeks.
The cheeks had huge Glasgow Smile scars that nearly took up all the area, the scar tissue was in the shape of a jagged toothy grin. The cheeks were also painted crudely in red, like a mess of cosmetics.
This was none other...than The Joker.
"My oh my, what a dower looking chap, eh?" Roman muttered, not at all digging the vibes this particular criminal was giving out. "Even Cindy didn't put me off so fast. Is every relevant person here bonkers to a degree?"
"Apparently so." Ironwood muttered. Roman didn't here him and Ironwood honestly didn't care for him to here. This was unnerving to everyone. This make up wearing marauder just an unstable air to him. Worst yet, this was familiar on many levels.
Too familiar.
He grins at Ren who only looks on nearly bursting with rage.
"Um, hiiii." He says, rather slowly and awkwardly.
Joker then sat down next to Ren, while taking off his medically cap and ruffling up his dyed green hair with blonde slivers slightly showing.
The students felt a pang of pain. This man was indeed Jaune. It was arguably obvious before but this was just the icing on the poisoned cake. Even Neo had to admit, a sexy killer dude was alright but even she had a limit on how crazy someone could get.
A sigh escaped Roman's throat along with a puff of smoke from his newly lit cigar. "Oh my, well, we know it's not that monkey faunus... named Sun, right?" Blake growled but choose to not too humor him with a prepared biting retort. This wasn't a time to lose her cool as awful as this sight was.
Ozpin had set down his mug, having finished his drink and interlocked his fingers, his eyes narrowing at what he was witnessing. Call it a sixth sense but he felt as though he may have had something to do with what's going on here. Glynda felt it too but want to let it show. Qrow on the other hand, gave Ozpin a glance. It was neutral on the outside but on the inside Qrow couldn't help but curse Ozpin a little more. He did have something to do with this here, he knew it. He knew him.
"You know," The Joker says, "I don't want there to be any hard feeling between us, Ren."
Ren just stares in rage.
"When you and um..." The Joker pauses, trying to remember his girlfriend's name.
Ren then utterly explodes, "NORA!"
The Joker jumps slightly, but he continues, "...Nora were being abducted, I was sitting in Ironwood's cage. I didn't rig those charges."
"Your men, your plan." Ren seethes through his teeth.
"No, Jaune..." Ren muttered. He couldn't help it. The Jaune he knew wouldn't do that. Then again, he had to remind himself, this wasn't his Jaune. This was another, horrible version of him. Nora held Ren's hand tighter while holding Pyrrha's. This was not their Jaune nor would it be.
Everyone had to ask, what exactly did Jaune and his men do? Why did Ren and Nora have to involved? The friends of Jaune wondered why did Nora have to be killed.
Joker looks at him with a bored expression, "Do I really look like a guy with a plan?"
Ren just stares incredulously.
"You know what I am?" He continues, "I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one when I caught it. You know, I just do things."
Ren looks around the room as Joker continues, "The White Fang has plans. Atlas has plans. Ozpin's got plans. They're schemers."
"Schemers trying to control their little worlds. I'm not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are."
"What the hell is he on about?" Ironwood growled, his hands nearly clenching. "Is he trying to justify himself?"
"Yes." Ozpin confirmed even though Ironwood's words were rhetorical. 'The sad thing is I'm no different.'
Ren's breathing becomes ragged and short as Joker grabs his restrained hand.
"So, when I say- Ah, come here." Joker says as he puts his hand in Ren's. "When I say that you and your girlfriend was nothing personal, you know I'm telling the truth."
Joker than slowly undo's the leather bindings on Ren.
"It's the schemers that put you where you are." He says as he moves to the left side of the bed, "You were a schemer, you had plans and look where that got you."
Ren lashed out as his arms were freed and grabbed The Joker. After some struggling, Joker pinned his arms down.
"I just do what I do best." Joker continued, "I took your little plan and I turned it on itself."
Ren just continued to glare in rage.
"He's some insane conniving mastermind here." Roman exhaled, a little tired of all the connivers not him. "How fantastic. He anyone's type here?"
"What do you think? Ask your partner or whatever." Ruby bit back sarcastically.
Neo slowly shook her head. A good potential fuck was only worth so much risk and this Jaune, this guy was good line to draw it at.
"Look what I did with a couple of fire dust tanks and some bullets." Joker then paused, "Say, why don't you show me those burns?"
Ren continued to breathe angerly, "I'm not afraid to show them." Joker was intrigued.
"Then show me."
Ren breathed in before ripping off the bandages, show the burn left side of his face.
It was coated in charred flesh and exposing bones, purple scar tissue covers the left temple and fore head, the eyelids and nerves were burnt out with the eye rendered barely functional. Many blisters cover the neck with fluid leaking, the jaw and teeth were exposed and grey with soot.
"Oh god!" Yanhg jumped back in her seat, being the one to show the most reaction to the horror at Ren's make over. She immediately caught herself and sheepishly turned to the dejected Ren to apologize for her outburst. "Shit, Ren, I'm sorry."
"Don't be." He told her, his stoicism returning, "That's not me. Not us."
Qrow exhaled, sounding a tad more mirthful, "That's the proper way to look it." He glanced towards Ironwood. "Those guys are a different reality."
"It's still a reality." Ironwood whispered. He didn't know this boy but the fact that he was watching a version of him act this way was all too troubling.
Joker looked impressed. He didn't expect Ren to get this burnt!
"Hm. You what I noticed?" He continued, "Nobody panics when things go 'according to plan.' Even if the plan is horrifying."
Ren looks down in contemplation.
"If tomorrow I tell the press, that, like a faunus will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blowing up, nobody panics." Joker explains, "Because it's all part of the plan. But I say that Jauque Schnee will die, well, then everyone loses their mind."
"He's talking about the structure." Roman pointed out with a small grin. "Ah, man. Truth hurts, don't it my good Atlesians."
"You would take a sickening satisfaction it that." Ironwood calmed himself before he continued on, " No one likes sending off soldiers to die. No one sane likes the suffering of the lower class. But changing the system through murder? Attacks? I'm not a saint... but at least I'm no devil. Not like that." Ironwood knew how the world worked. It wasn't fair but it's how it worked. He's had to make tough calls in his day too, things that would keep a man from sleeping... hell, sometimes it did that to him.
Roman chuckled out, "You think so?" He enjoyed calling out what he found to be hypocrisy from the supposed good guys.
"Coming from you?" Ironwood let out a chuckle himself, albeit humorless. "My feelings on that won't waver."
"Oh, sure." Roman turned to the headmaster of Beacon and asked, "How about you. Ozpin."
"I'm not a saint either." Replied with his eyes still on the screen. He turned to Roman with the most casual expression. "Glynda's practically my slave."
"Hah hah." Said combat teacher sarcastically laughed. Sad thing was, none of what he said was wrong.
Joker then pulls out a revolver.
"Introduce a little anarchy," Joker says while giving Ren the pistol and grasping Ren's hand, "Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos."
Ren looks on with a blank expression while his eyes look to the gun and to Joker.
"I'm an agent of chaos." Joker boasts, "Oh, and you know the thing about chaos?"
Ren raised his unburnt eyebrow.
"It's fair."
Ren look down, then to Joker with a narrowed eye. He picks up the only thing left from Nora, a coin that has it's tails side blackened and scarred.
"What is he thinking?" Nora whispered, very concerned for how this would play out.
Uneasily, Ren answered with, "He's making a choice."
He holds the coin to the unburnt side, "You live."
He then flips it to the burnt side, "You die."
"Oh, now we're talking." Joker boasts.
Ren flips the coin, and it lands on his chest.
"You got lucky." Ren says, showing the unburnt side.
"I'm not sure how I feel about this." Weiss spoke up.
Blake nodded, "Most of us aren't."
One one hand, they didn't have to watch Jaune die again... but the problem was, "Should this Jaune be allowed to live?". Maybe there was something to his madness but it was still madness. He was still a terrorist.
"Luck's got nothing to do with it." Joker says as he releases Ren and leaves him to his own devices.
While Joker walks out of the hospital, Ren gets out of his room for some business with Ironwood to take care of.
As he leaves, he turns and sees thousands of rigged charges along the hallways.
His expression not changing, Ren flips his coin. It lands on the unburnt side again.
He then rushes out of the hospital.
Pyrrha sighed out in relief. "He choose to to live at least."
"Yeah... but what kind of life will I - he live?" Ren remarked, pondering his counterparts potential mental state. A part of him felt it maybe better off if he didn't survive. He'd had to see more to make a solid conclusion.
Meanwhile, as he exits, Joker presses the detonator while muttering, "Kapoowa."
The building then starts collapsing with explosions raining around with flaming debris. People panicking and screaming.
Joker walks out with explosions around him.
Ruby whimpered, horrified by what was transpiring. "That's evil, just pure evil."
Roman snorted, "Isn't it all about getting the job done."
"Shut your mouth." Weiss retorted, venom in her voice. "People like you spew nothing but poison."
"But at least you understand I'm untrustworthy." Roman teased. These kids were so ignorant in his mind. To him, Ozpin and Ironwood were no better. It's all about self preservation.
Neo, on the other hand, sat and enjoyed the show.
Then the explosions stop. Joker turns around confused, while muttering, "Oh, are you kidding me."
He then starts pressing random buttons and slapping the remote.
"Come on, work you stupid-" Joker was cut off when the rest of the explosive go off destroying the hospital.
He quickly hops on a bullhead unnoticed, as he watches the chaos unfold.
The movie ended there on a rather dark note, the lights back on and uncomfortable silence in the air. Jaune, an insane criminal out to shake the system through needless mayhem and Ren out to most likely suffer the same fate. While it wasn't gory, it was arguably more horrifying due to how close it was to their reality. But that couldn't happen... right?
DB didn't say anything, allowing the group some time to focus on their thoughts and come to terms with what they saw again.
AN: I hope everyone's safe and healthy.
Sorry it took so long, especially to Zeroth17, the maker of this wonderful piece. I won't make excuses, I was burned out but swarming with ideas for a while THEN I fell behind on a season with my interest in the show waning for many reasons along with other interests popping up. At some point, maybe soon, I'll shift this to the current season time. Not only that, but I have a somewhat surprising revelation that I'll be sharing with the cast later on. Hint: "What is the canon-verse?"