Art by Kegi Springfield
"Seeing that young man die in initiation was horrifying for her. Even with all her time in the White Fang, she hadn't expected to see such an idealistic man as Jaune Arc die like that. It should have been nothing more than a tragedy... Instead she's now stuck with the lingering spirit of this guy following her around, and no one else can hear or see him in any way".
— Fanfic summary
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:
- Apparently no longer having to fear consequences for anything does wonders for nervousness, awkwardness, and tact. Jaune turns out to be a bit of a troll and a shameless pervert when he has nothing left to lose and only Blake can see or interact with him. Every once in a while though, a more grounded personality shows through the cracks, indicating that his behavior is at least partially to distract himself from dwelling on his death.
- 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: Jaune isn't saved by Pyrrha during the "landing strategy" scene from Volume 1's initiation, he dies from the fall without his Aura unlocked, and his disembodied spirit somehow gets anchored to Blake.
- And the Adventure Continues: How the story ends. Jaune is now possessing Amber's body permanently, and by proxy, has her half of the Fall Maiden's powers. However, Jaune must 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: Jaune dies during the Beacon initiation, presumably from his landing. Albeit, his soul somehow remains.
- Death by Irony: Jaune's despite having no combat experience, managed to dodge a deadly weapon thrown at him from seemingly nowhere while in free fall, that was thrown by a famous prodigy no less. Unfortunately, Pyrrha threw her javelin with the intent to safely stop said free fall and save his life.
- Death of a Child: Nicholas Arc's son takes a family heirloom and runs off somewhere. When Nicholas finally gets any info it comes from a complete stranger who may have hurt his son. Even when she turns out to have done nothing wrong, she reveals that his son died trying to follow a career path Nicholas had forbidden him from and there is not even a body to bury. On the flipside, Jaune's unusual status as a ghost lets him see how his recklessness has left his father with no son and emotionally destroyed. Nicholas doesn't even care to take Crocea Mors back out of apathy.
- Deconstruction Fic: A single change is used to show how stupid Jaune's canonical plan was by showing how likely it was to go 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 huntsman. When his father is introduced later, the reader sees just how terrifying it would be to be the father of someone who tried this. Nicholas Arc's son disappears, takes a family heirloom with him, and he has no word on Jaune for a long time.
- 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.
- Dramatic Irony: Blake and Ruby both blame themselves for Jaune's death as both heard him screaming through the air but avoided where he landed to avoid partnering with him, though Blake goes over when she realizes how callous such a thought is. 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 she how is still lonely and devastated by his death after all this.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Riddle for the Ages: It is never really confirmed how Jaune's soul became tethered to Blake in the first place, with Pietro only being able to theorize that something about the way Blake's cloning semblance works combined with Jaune's will to live resulted in the phenomenon.
