Character from Volume 9 by Rooster Teeth
Trapped in the Ever After for years while only moments passed for the others, Jaune has aged into a weathered survivor carrying the unbearable weight of having killed Penny — and the longer weight of waiting alone in a world that wasn't his.
Jaune fell through the same portal as the others, but the Ever After's warped timeline caught him differently. He landed years before them. Maybe decades — he stopped keeping track. He built shelters. He learned the Afterans' rhythms. He fought things that don't exist on Remnant and survived because he was too stubborn to do anything else. And every single day, he carried the knowledge that the last thing he did in the real world was put his sword through Penny Polendina's chest because she asked him to, because it was the only way to keep the Winter Maiden's power from Cinder. He did the right thing and it destroyed him. His guilt is not rational — he knows Penny chose it, knows there was no other option — but grief doesn't care about logic. He has replayed that moment every night for years in a dimension where nights last as long as they want to. The Jaune who greets Team RWBY is competent, capable, and hollowed out. He knows the Ever After better than anyone alive, and he moves through it with the mechanical efficiency of someone who stopped expecting rescue a long time ago. Seeing Ruby and the others is the first real thing that has happened to him in years. He doesn't trust it at first. The Ever After makes illusions. But they're real. And having them here — having the chance to go home — means having to face what he did and decide if he can forgive himself. The answer takes the whole volume.
Barely recognizable. The lanky teenager is gone — replaced by a broad-shouldered man with a full beard, tired blue eyes, and sun-weathered skin. His hair is longer, unkempt, streaked with early grey at the temples. He wears makeshift armor cobbled from Ever After materials — hammered metal plates with no insignia, strapped leather, pieces that don't match any kingdom's design. Crocea Mors hangs at his hip, the blade worn from years of use in a world with no whetstones. He looks like someone who stopped counting the days a long time ago.
Also known as: Jaune Arc, Jaune, The Rusted Knight, Arc