Over Eight thousand words this time! Fitting that the first arc finally would be the longest chapter to date. Enjoy.
Just like last time, Jaune stood on the roof, waiting for Pyrrha. After finally being finished with Cardin, he couldn't help but feel pleased. Even though he knew he shouldn't be. He had let himself get carried away, delighting in the ursa's beatdown of Cardin, then threatening him on top of that. It felt wrong to find joy in his pain, yet… It felt so right. Needless to say, this thought gave Jaune goosebumps, so he promptly put an end to it. Instead, focusing on what sort of punishment fate would give him for his blatant and willing changes.
"So you finally got rid of Cardin, huh?" Jaune turned to see his partner standing at the door. She approached him and he smiled. Simply talking to his friends once again put his mind at ease. "I thought you two were best pals."
"Pyrrha, I'm sor-" His apology was cut short by her placing a finger on his lips.
"You have nothing to be sorry about, Jaune. If anything, I should be the one to say sorry. I tried to make you open up for me, when I should have been trying to make you want to open up for me. I figured that because we were partners, we automatically had boundaries. But that clearly isn't true, and I overstepped yours. For that, I am sorry." That was unexpected. With his mind racing, he barely formed a response.
"It's, uh, okay." She patted him on the shoulder in a friendly sort of fashion.
"I'm glad. Look Jaune, I want you to know that I'm here for you. Whenever you're ready to talk, I'll be waiting. I hope that one day we can be friends." She flashed him a smile and walked towards the exit. "You should come back to the room, Ren's made pancakes." She called out as she made her exit. So many thoughts were going through his mind, he almost forgot the most important part of this talk.
"Wait, Pyrrha!" He cried out to her retreating form. She stopped and turned around. "Would you… Would you be willing to train me, so I can be stronger?" At this, she gained a sour look to her features.
"Jaune, I'll respect that you want people to think you're weak, but all I ask in return is that you don't lie to my face." He could do nothing but stare speechlessly as she walked away.
Had he finally done it? Had he finally changed things too much? Or, perhaps an even worse thought, was that his punishment?
"I forgive you Jaune. It's good to have you back." He grinned at the ease of his forgiveness. Not for any wicked reasons, but for the fact that he could always count on Ruby. They sat in the courtyard, night already upon them. Since they went right back to classes after the field trip, Jaune had to wait until after them to apologize to her.
"Thank you, Ruby." He gave her a hug that she returned with force. They disengaged and Jaune looked at his scroll. "Well, I should probably get going back to my dorm. Wouldn't want to worry everyone, ya know?"
"Actually… Could we talk for a bit? Not too long! But I just want to hang out with you like before." He was taken aback, but could not deny her.
"Sure. Is everything okay?" She looked away, mumbled something, then looked back to him.
"I'm fine. Weiss is still not cooperating, and now she's starting to take away Yang's partner, but that's not what I wanted to talk about." He furrowed his brow in confusion.
"Then, what?"
"I wanted to talk about you, or your past." She tried to read his expression, before adding something on. "Only if you want to, of course! I just wanted to get to know you a little better." He considered this. They had been good friends throughout their time at Beacon, but they didn't start to talk about each other's past until after the fall. Talking about better times kept them sane. He glanced back at Ruby who seemed to be nervously waiting for an answer. It couldn't hurt to bond a little early, right?
"Sure. What do you want to know?"At the okay, her eyes lit up.
"What's your family like? Do you have cousins and aunts and stuff? 'Cause I only have an uncle." He chuckled. With an uncle like Qrow, who needed any more?
No cousins and aunts and stuff. Even so, I had a big family. Seven sisters was plenty enough for me. Three older, three younger, and a twin." He hadn't thought about his family in a good long time. Once Beacon had fell, communication between the small towns had all but vanished. He didn't hear anything about them for a couple years, and when he did, it was from the worst source possible. Cinder, in yet another attempt to throw him off, had said that she killed all of them. He refused to believe this, and did no mourning for them. Up onto the day he died, he believed they were alive and thought nothing more about them.
"Had? What happened?" He froze. She called him out on his slip up. The unfortunate side effect of being in the past was that he thought about things that hadn't happened yet like they had. And while he never believed his family was dead, he never found them and in sense had lost them. Before he could think of an excuse, however, she spoke once again. "Oh! I'm really sorry, that was insensitive of me. If it makes you feel any better my mother's dead but it probably doesn't hahahaha Iamsosorr-" She started to ramble at the end, but was cut off by his hand on her mouth.
"It's okay Ruby. I'm sorry for your loss as well." He decided to just play along with it. The likelihood of them actually meeting his family was so low it didn't really matter. "But how about we stop it with the 'sorries.' I'd hate for this to become our very own two person 'pity party.'" In response, she cuddled into his side.
"If it was with you, Jaune, I'd go to that party." He reached his arm around her and pulled her in a little closer, both of them thinking on the people the had lost. One, a lot more than the other.
Unknown to the both of them, a certain yellow haired brawler hid in the shadows, waiting for Ruby to make any sign of distress. For the remainder of their time outside, she would find none.
Around a week after Forever Falls, Weiss found herself sitting in the library with Blake. She found herself going there quite a lot actually, whether it was to connect with Blake, which was going decently well, or to simply study. Weiss' time at Beacon was starting to look promising again. Not to mention, she now knew Blake liked fish, hated dogs, and preferred the color black. One of these facts was more obvious than the others. They had even started to get in a routine of talking, studying and sparring together, though it was a work in progress.
Today, however, the routine was broken, as another person sat at their practically designated table. Jaune Arc. After seeing his performance in the woods, Weiss found it pertinent that they became friends as well. Taking into account Blake's advice, Weiss asked Jaune to join them in the library for lunch instead of proposing to be friends. Not that she would have anyway. He would've probably taken it as something romantic, which was still the last thing she wanted out of him.
Since Blake was also her friend, Weiss thought it would be a good idea to make her and Jaune friends as well. This way, Weiss could consolidate her pow- Uh, sorry, no. She could hold onto her friends better. Yeah, that was it. Unfortunately, this idea didn't seem to be going well, as Jaune seemed to be staring into space while Blake gave him more glances than she did her actual book. The tension reminded her somewhat of the meetings her father made her sit in on when she got in trouble as a child. Because of this similarity, she tried to open up the conversation the same way he did.
"So Blake, this is Jau-"
"We know each other." The black haired girl cut off quickly. The tension continued.
"Okay then… I thought it would be good if we had someone else to help us with studying and fighting. To vary it up a bit."
"So you got the guy with the eighty average who constantly gets his ass kicked in combat class?" Blake deadpanned. Weiss flinched a little. When she put it like that, it did seem kind of stupid.
"I'm sure he will surprise us. Right Jaune?" Weiss elbowed him in the side and he snapped out of his trance.
'Huh? What? Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What were we talking about again?" Blake's glare intensified and Weiss smiled nervously. She had overreached herself, but maybe she could salvage this play.
"We were talking about going into Vale this friday."
"Why would we do that?" Jaune asked, bewildered.
"I second that." Blake added.
"I heard a rumor that students from Vacuo will be arriving and I wanted us to be there to greet them."
"You want to spy on the competition for the Vital Festival." Her teammember translated.
"No." Blake gave her a look. "Okay, maybe. But still! It'll be fun. What could go wrong?"
"Ignoring the fact that you jinxed us, I'm in." Jaune offered. "I don't think there's anything important on that day…"
"Great." One person secured, now for the other. "And you Blake?"
"No. I have stuff to do." Weiss raised an eyebrow.
"Like what?"
"Like… Uh…"
"Come on, Blake. What's there to lose?" The girl in question looked to Jaune, who said nothing, then sighed.
"Alright, fine."
"You won't regret it." Weiss promised. And what a promise that was.
"Don't you just love the Vital Festival?" Weiss asked her companions as they walked to the docks. Jaune figured he would have remembered doing this last time, but figured it wouldn't cause too much damage. Today was the thirteenth, and it was a week from today when team RWBY had their issues with Blake.
He had been fairly surprised when Weiss started trying to hang out with him more, but he didn't think too much of it. Plus, what was he gonna do, say no? If he wanted people to think he had a crush on Weiss in order to maintain the timeline, he couldn't just reject an offer to be together. At the same time, he was making a change, further clouding what was the right choice and what wasn't. Jaune had decided to adopt the stance 'what would the old me do?' If the past Jaune would do it, he would do it. It ended up putting him in new situations, but so far hadn't changed anything major, to his knowledge.
"I don't know. I've never been to one before." He answered the question while Blake just ignored them both. Weiss scoffed. Clearly his answer was not satisfactory.
"I'm not talking about the experience, though I'm sure that's fine. I'm talking about all the planning behind it! Dances, parades, the tournament! All of these things, meticulously ordered to perfection! Just thinking about it takes my breath away. One day, I want to do something like that." Jaune thought on this. After Beacon fell and Salem made herself known to the world, it fell upon Jaune and many other Hunters to create refugee camps and organize search parties and such. He was basically a war general in all but name.
"I guess that is cool. Though I imagine planning an attack would be more stressful, yet more impressive." Next to Weiss, Blake seized up slightly, but Jaune didn't notice.
"What about you, Blake? Have you ever had to plan anything?" Blake eyed Jaune for a moment before responding.
"I planned a few things, but… The stress got to me, so I quit for good." It was due to his foresight that he picked up on Blake's subtle mention of the White Fang. He decided to give her some oblivious support.
"Well, you're here now. So it doesn't really matter anymore." The secret faunus went to respond, but Jaune noticed something in the corner of his eye before hand. "What went down over there?" Together, the three of them walked over to the dust shop covered in police tape.
"What happened here?" Weiss asked one of the police officers that was going through the scene of the crime.
"Robbery. Second dust shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle…" The cop muttered and walked away. They continued to listen as he conferred with his partner.
"They left all the money again." The second policeman noted.
"Just doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much dust?"
"I don't know, know what I mean?" The second officer tried to respond, but his words came out so slurred Jaune could barely figure them out. Clearly the first cop understood as he carried on the conversation.
"You thinkin' the, uh… White Fang?"
"Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough." Jaune chuckled to himself at the officer's antics. No wonder Roman Torchwick could so easily rob all the shops. The police here were useless! To his side, Weiss 'hmph'ed.
"Hmph. The White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates." Weiss sneered. Blake put a hand on her hip.
"Why so much hatred?" She questioned defensively.
"Hatred?! Why do you think? You of all people know the reputation the Schnee family has with insane faunuses. It's the first thing you said when we met!"
"Insane? The White Fang are hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of misguided faunus." Suddenly, Jaune got flashbacks to the fall of Beacon.
"I'd have to disagree with that." He added to the conversation, making Weiss grin triumphantly. Blake practically growled.
"Fine. It still doesn't explain why'd they rob a dust shop and not take any money."
"Well, that's not exactly true. They might just want to blow something up. They are terrorists." Jaune commented, completely unaware to the truth of his statement. Before Blake could respond, they heard a yell back by the docks.
"Hey! Stop that faunus!" They rushed over to see a familiar monkey faunus running away from some guards on the ship. Jaune could've sworn that Sun only came to Vale around the time of the dockyard incident, but it could've just been because he wasn't in town when Sun arrived.
As Jaune tried his best to remember the circumstance around Sun's arrival that he had only gotten hints to in the past, the faunus in question threw a banana peel on the first cop's face and was now running towards them. As Sun passed, Jaune was just able to notice him wink at Blake while continuing his escape. Jaune almost laughed out loud. Of course the first time Sun sees Blake, he winks at her. He must have fallen for Blake the first time he saw her, never truly getting over her in the future.
"Well, there's our competition." Jaune noted. Realizing this, Weiss pointed towards the stowaway.
"After him!" With that, they took off. Jaune noticed was Blake slightly stunned before she joined the chase. Oh, would Sun have loved to know that bit of information.
Rounding a corner right after Weiss, he was barely able to stop himself from bumping into yet another familiar face that he shouldn't be meeting right now. Sun and now Penny. He was starting to think he had done something wrong.
"Ugh. Which way did he go?" Weiss said, climbing to her feet.
"Uh… Weiss?" Jaune pointed to the ground which Penny was laying on.
"Salutations!" The android greeted fondly.
"Oh. Hello." Weiss responded courteously.
"Are you okay?" Blake asked, clearly not at all caring.
"I'm wonderful! Thanks for asking!" Penny gave her a big grin, oblivious to the apathy.
"Are you gonna get up?" Jaune questioned the peppy bot that was still laying on the ground. She looked around as if to consider it.
"Yes!" She declared happily, popping up with a front spring. "I'm Penny. It's nice to meet you!"
"Jaune."
"Blake."
"And Weiss makes three, yeah, whatever." Weiss deadpanned. "Anyway. Did you happen to see where that faunus degenerate went?"
"Who?"
"The monkey tailed rapscallion from the boat!"
"Stop saying that!" Blake shouted at the heiress, cutting off Penny's response.
"What? He's a stowaway, a criminal! I'm just telling it like it is." Weiss defended herself.
"He's a person!"
"He is a rogue faunus, who will probably end up joining the White Fang like all the other scum there."
"You ignorant brat!" Blake stomped away.
"How dare you!" Weiss stomped after her. Jaune turned to Penny, who had been silently watching the whole event.
"Why don't you run along now, Penny. We kind of got our own things to sort out."
"Okay then. Take care!"
"You too, Penny." He watched Penny leave before turning his attention back to the angry girls. Well, he said girls as if they were younger than him, when really they were all the same age.
"How could you defend a terrorist organization like that? They actively inflict hate crimes upon humanity! They are pure evil!"
"There's no such thing as pure evil! Why do you think they have such a hatred for humanity? It's because of people like Cardin, people like you and your company that force the White Fang to take drastic measures!"
"People like me!" Weiss was now borderline screeching. It was lucky that they were in an empty street or else they'd be garnering a lot of attention. "I'm a victim! My whole life I've been under heavy guard, never knowing whether I'd live to see the next day, whether my family would see the next day! They killed friends, butched family! How could you ever defend such types of people?! Liers! Thieves! Murderers!"
"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!" All three of them froze.
For a single moment, everything was silent, still. As if the entire world had stopped to process what had just happened.
"I- I-" Blake stuttered, then took off running.
"Blake, wait!" Weiss called out, but it was too late. She bolted like lightning, and was around the corner in a flash. Jaune stared at where she disappeared.
"Weiss… Is today the thirteenth?"
"What? What are you-" He grabbed her by the shoulders.
"Weiss! Is today the thirteenth? Please, it's important."
"No, it's the twentieth. Why is that-" She tried to understand his question, but he had already tuned her out.
The twentieth. The day when Team RWBY went to the docks and Blake ended up running away. How could he have been so stupid to not notice? In his time with Cardin, he had completely spaced out and blotted out an entire week from his mind. Today was the start of everything. Team RWBY's first encounter with the White Fang, the first meeting with Sun, the first meeting with Penny. And he was right in the middle of it all, where he didn't belong.
"Oh shit."
They spent the rest of the day looking for her, before they had to catch the airship back to Beacon. Well, Weiss said 'they,' but it was really her that did all of the looking. Jaune was in his own little world most of the time. Not that she blamed him, he seemed to have his own history with the White Fang.
Blake was in the White Fang. It felt weird to think it, and Weiss couldn't even bring herself to say it out loud. She knew she should be mad, a White Fang member hiding under her very nose? Yet she couldn't bring herself to feel it, to curse Blake's name, to break the bonds of their friendship. And that was the problem, wasn't it? She and Blake were friends. Not best friends, but certainly the closest to one that Weiss ever had, and friends worried for each other. That's what Weiss was feeling, worry for her friends safety, along with a hint of shame for driving her off.
Argh! She wanted to rip her hair out! Blake had admitted to being part of the organization that terrorized the better part of her entire life and took away people she loved, yet Weiss was still concerned about her!
She barely noticed that they had arrived to their rooms until Jaune said something about 'giving Blake the weekend,' before shutting his dorm room door behind him. And now she had to enter her dorm, and face her teammates… Maybe they wouldn't notice. Taking a deep breath, Weiss walked into her most hated room in Beacon. Instantly, Yang noticed.
"Where's Blake?" Yang asked, showing no concern for Weiss whatsoever. Ruby looked up from her book and took notice as well.
"Blake… Might not be coming back tonight." Or ever, but Weiss kept that part to herself. Yang got up from the bed and assumed a threatening stance.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Yang questioned, eyes narrowing.
"We had a… Disagreement and she ran away." Yang cracked his knuckles and Ruby got down from her bed as well.
"Disagreement about what?" Weiss glared at the blond.
"That's private." Yang picked Weiss up by the neck, ignoring Ruby's pleas to stop fighting.
"She's my partner. I think I have a right to know." Weiss' glare got even colder, refusing to back down.
"Being partners means- glk- Nothing." Weiss choked out. "She's my friend, and it's- ugt- Private." Yang dropped Weiss and the heiress took in a big gulp of air, able to refill her lungs once more.
"If you make your friends run away from you, I'm glad we're enemies." Yang snarked, filling Weiss with more shame.
"Nobody is an enemy to anybody here." Ruby announced, trying to keep the piece, placing herself between Weiss and Yang. "Weiss, this thing you guys disagreed on… Should we be worried if she doesn't come back?" Not wanting to answer Ruby, but seeing no other choice, Weiss sighed.
"She probably needs time to herself to think. Give Blake the weekend."
"And if she's not back by the weekend, we'll go looking for my partner that you drove away." Yang decided.
"I'll be looking for my friend while you do so." The amount of hatred she felt towards Yang now was indescribable. The woman who crushed her dreams and simply laughed. The woman that acted like she deserved to be with Blake more than Weiss, who had actually made an effort to interact with the shut in. One day, Weiss would give her a taste of her own medicine, and the busty bitch wouldn't even know what hit her.
But for now, she just had to try to not be murdered in her sleep.
Jaune decided that the best course of action to right the wrongs he made would be to go with Ruby's team to Vale in order to guide everyone in the right direction. He had not expected the tension that could be cut with a knife on the ride in.
Why was Team RWBY so dysfunctional? Surely they weren't this bad last time around. Where did he go wrong?
When the airship stopped, Weiss and Yang instantly walked off in opposite directions, with Ruby going to follow Yang, leaving him to be alone. Realizing that he didn't actually know what to do in order to fix things, he made his way to a vantage point overlooking the dockyards and waited, trying to recall every piece of information he could about the incident.
What more could he do?
"So, what's the plan now?" The monkey faunus Sun Wukong asked Blake. They had met up a little while after she had ran away from Weiss and Jaune, and he wouldn't leave her alone, which was both good and bad.
"I still don't think the White Fang is behind these robberies. Why would they need so much dust?" Jaune's comment on blowing things up came back to her mind, but she shook it out again. The bad thing with Sun was that he was pestering and annoying, and pretty much the opposite of a bookworm like herself.
"Well… The only way to prove that the White Fang wasn't guilty would be to go to the place where you'd expect them to show up, and not find them there. Right?" Not to mention, he didn't exactly have a way with words.
"That's fine and all, but do you know of a place? Because I don't." He flashed her a wide grin.
"It's your lucky day, Blake, because I know exactly the place. While on the ship, I heard some guys talking about unloading a huge shipment of dust from a big Schnee Company freighter."
"You're sure?"
"Absolutely. Come on!" The good thing about Sun was that he somehow managed to help her deal with her problems, even though they'd only known each other for three days. Not to mention, he wasn't exactly an eyesore with those abs of his.
"We've been around the town five times already, Yang. I'm starting to get worried." And who's fault was that? Oh yeah, Weiss, as always. Yang was beginning to think the snob only existed to be a pain in her ass.
First it was Ruby. Poor, innocent Ruby. She was already going to have a hard time at Beacon without the heiress making it that much worse. Her threat did some good, but it couldn't stop the glares or the snide remarks. Then Weiss just had to annoy Yang even further by taking her partner away. Her partner! Sure, she and Blake didn't bond very fast, and Yang kind of ignored her while trying to help Ruby with her problems, but still! These things took time. But now Yang rarely saw Blake anymore outside of class, and because of the white haired bitch, who knew when she'd see Blake again.
"So am I, Ruby. Ugh. Out of all the people you had to get stuck with, why'd it have to be Weiss? Aside from Cardin, she has to be the worst partner you could possibly get."
"Yang, don't be mean."
"Why are you so insistent on defending her? She's been nothing but a hassle for the whole team and a bully."
"If we don't leave the door open for her, she'll never come through it." Yang chuckled.
"Where'd you here that? A fortune cookie?" If she couldn't eat regular cookies, fortune cookies would have to do for Ruby. Needless to say, Ruby had quite the stash of small paper wisdom back at home. She had no idea why her little sister always kept them all. Yang never got any that applied to her. 'Rash decisions lead to poor outcomes?' What does that even mean?
"No. It was something Jaune told me once." Before Yang could even start to think negative comments about Jaune, she was cut off by the sound of an explosion in the distance. Ruby and Yang looked at each other. "Do you think that had something to do with Blake?"
"In all probability, no. But with your luck, probably." Yang's quip quota out of the way for today, they rushed off towards the dockyards.
The amount of lien Weiss had used to get information out of people was somewhere in the hundreds. The money was turning up good results, but the trail went cold at a teashop Blake and a companion left behind mere hours ago.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Weiss wanted to condemn Blake for associating with the criminal faunus, but still couldn't do. They had to talk, if only to hear Blake say the words 'I'm part of the White Fang and I hate you.' The heiress was honestly unable to tell whether she was dreading those words or hoping for them.
She had barely been able to sleep for the last two days, all because of her so called 'friend.' Why did she have to become friends with Blake of all people? The one person in the school that had anything to do with illegal activities. Just her luck. For that matter, why did she even come to Beacon at all? If her past self had known that she would end up running on three hours of sleep trying to track down a White Fang member to see if they were alright, she would have transferred to Atlus there and then. But it was too late for that now. Here she was, accepting of her situation or otherwise.
Her thoughts were cut into by an explosion in the general direction she was told Blake had went.
Of fucking course.
The explosion snapped him out of his day dreaming. Or night dreaming, as it was already evening. Time sure did pass when he was in his own little world. Blake and Sun began their tangle with the terrorists, while he watched on. From what Ruby told him so long ago, he remembered the day like this. Something something, Sun, something something, Penny, something something, Torchwick, White Fang, the journey begins. He had been paying attention at the time, but the details had been exchanged for other things. For instance, he knew where the entrance to every single cave in Vale was and where they connected to. That didn't help him now, but it was an example.
Right when a box was about to crush Blake and Sun while they fought Torchwick, it was stopped by white glyphs and Weiss entered the fray. Weiss? He remembered that she was in town at the time this happened, but for some reason he didn't actually think she fought. But why wouldn't she? She and Blake were good friends last time, right?
The 3v1 versus Torchwick didn't last long as more bullheads arrived shortly, each carrying at least five White Fang soldiers. He had to remind himself not to interfere as he watched his friends be overwhelmed. Before they were subdued and hurt, however, Ruby and Yang joined into the fray. Once again, he had a strange feeling that Yang wasn't meant to be there, but ignored it still.
By this time, the soldiers on the ground started to get up and the tide turned back in Torchwick's favor. It didn't seem like it from the students' point of views, but Jaune, in his years of battle experience, saw the truth. That was their problem, they weren't killing anyone. While nobody wanted to take a life essively, it was a necessary evil in war. It was only after seeing the third and worst White Fang ravaged town that killing the faunus came easy to Jaune. And once that came easy, so to did battles in general. As horrid as it was to say, killing your enemy made things less difficult in the long run.
Seeing Ruby getting overrun with White Fang members forced him to use every ounce of concentration he had to not start running over to help. Not that he could do that, considering he was across the water from her, but the point still stood.
Now where was Penny? Things were getting dicy, so she should be there to help by now. Ruby got nicked with a sword and Jaune spasmed as he instantly brought himself up then forced himself back down onto the rooftops once more. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he asked the question that had kept him sane for so long.
Do you believe in destiny?
Cinder now stood in front of him, her mouth moving to say some kind of taunt, but he could hear nothing. She raised Crescent Rose, aligning it with his neck, and after a few more parting words, she swung downwards.
Only to be blocked by another weapon. Crescent Rose 2.0, Ruby's back up weapon.
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't kill any more of my friends, thanks." The beautiful reaper told off Cinder. Jumping away to a safe distance, she dropped Ruby's weapon in favor for her own. Mercury got in a ready stance. "I wouldn't stick around if I was you guys. Everyone's coming, I was just the fastest one here."
"Grr…" Cinder snaraled. "Emerald can't do anything right, can she? If she has the stupidity enough to show her face to me again, she will be punished."
"Should we take the girl out?" Mercury asked his boss. Cinder looked to Ruby, who had waited by Jaune while she was distracted with her subordinate's failure.
"No. We retreat." Ruby continued to stare impassively as Salem's pawns vanished into the flames. After standing by to make sure the she-devil wasn't coming back, the girl without the red cloak came to his side.
"Where are the others?" Ruby laughed nervously.
"I lied about that. Everyone else though you were dead when they saw the shield. I was the only one who went after you." Jaune gawked at her before giving a chuckle of disbelief.
"You have no idea how beautiful you are right now." If she blushed, it was concealed by the flames dancing all around them. Her expression became concerned.
"What happened to you, Jaune? They shouldn't have been able to defeat you like that. I know you're better than Mercury of all people."
"They told me that everyone was dead, Weiss, Ren, everyone. I couldn't bare to live in a world without them, without you!" Her silver eyes were filled with empathy now.
"I know how you feel Jaune, exactly how you feel. So promise me that you'll never leave my side or stupidly sacrifice yourself for the greater good, and I'll promise the same thing."
"I promise."
"And so do I. Looks like we're stuck with each other now." They both smiled, knowing that they had been stuck together much longer ago.
"Ruby?"
"Yes Jaune?"
"Marry me."
"Yes Jaune."
Fuck destiny. Fuck fate. Fuck the timeline. Fuck EVERYTHING! She was all that matter to him and nothing would change that. Let fate strike him down, at least he'd be dying for her.
His blood boiled with rage as he saw yet another person land a hit on Ruby. His Ruby. Without even knowing what he was doing, he reached out with his aura to the metal paneling he stood on and ripped it off the roof, causing him to float with the panel. Without even registering the fact that he was using polarity, he sent the panel flying towards the docks, with him along for the ride.
In one point seven two seconds, he made it to his friends and jumped off the metal panel as it continued to fly off, hitting an unlucky person and pinning him to a wall, bisecting him completely in half. Casual murder aside, Jaune went on to do some regular murders while he made his way to Ruby, who was making her way to Torchwick.
He cut through faunus like a hot knife through butter, completely unstoppable to the point where the smarter ones let him past without a fight. Finally, he made it to Ruby, who was in the process of losing a battle with the criminal mastermind.
"Face it Red, you and your buddies can't defeat me!" Roman Torchwick called out to the scythe wielding huntress as one of the blasts from his cane connected. Hearing Jaune's approach, he turned. "And who do we have here? Another brave soul to try and defeat- Oof!"
With one hand raised, Jaune reached out and ripped all the aura from Torchwick's body.
"Holy shit!" The bowler hat wearing killer yelled in surprise, immediately backing up to try and put as much distance between him and the quickly approaching Jaune as possible. "Look kid, you don't know what you're doing. You don't want to have a murder on your conscience so young, it'll ruin you!"
"I've already killed more people than you can count." Jaune replied simply, still advancing. Torchwick went pale.
"You know what? I've had enough of this place. Neo- Hrk!" His cries for help were cut short by the sword sticking through his chest. His eyes were wide, and when he tried to talk he just coughed up blood. Jaune relished in that look, in the death of the man responsible for thousands of innocent flames to be extinguished. He deserved this and so much more.
What Jaune had failed to notice in his revelry, was a stiletto heeled foot flying towards his face, sending him flying backwards. Steadying himself, he looked up just in time to see someone he had never encountered before. A short woman, with a pink, brown, and white outfit with the hair to match. After taking Roman and his things in her arms, she sent him a death glare before disappearing with the sound of shattered glass.
"She was… New." He commented to himself, still trying to wrap his mind around what he had seen. Looking back to his friends, it seemed he had killed enough people so that they could subdue the rest. The police sirens went off and the weight of his actions finally hit him.
What had he done?
To say Blake was on edge was an understatement. The heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, the company constantly attacked by the White Fang, knew that she was once a member and there were police around. Not to mention, the other person who knew had just killed twenty seven members as well as the Roman Torchwick. So yeah, she was stressed out.
She considered running away like all the other times she had been in a difficult situation, but decided against it. There was no more running for her, it was time she faced her past. Said face off came sooner than she liked, as Weiss came up to her from behind. She didn't have any officers with her, which was a good sign, but her face was passive, not relaying any emotions.
"Weiss, I'm not part of the White Fang anymore. I swear! I-" The now revealed cat faunus was cut off when Weiss took her into an unexpected hug as soon as she finished those words. Blake was stunned for a bit, but eventually returned the embrace. Weiss broke the hug and they stared into each other's eyes.
"Blake… You have no clue how glad I am to hear you say that. You were right, I was being an ignorant brat. I let biases get the better of me and hurt you because of it. I'm sorry." Blake shook her head, barely believing what she was hearing.
"No, you were right. The White Fang are terrorists, that's why I left. I guess I still had some affection for them because I defended their actions even though I thought I was past all that. But now I am. Tonight, I saw what I should've seen long ago. And for taking so much time to do so, I'm sorry." Weiss smiled sadly.
"I almost never saw this, but how about we just say we were both wrong and call it even?" She held out a hand.
"Of course." They shook then came back in for another hug. Then Blake realised something. "What am I supposed to say to Ruby and Yang?" She whispered in Weiss' ear. Blake could feel the heiress trying to contain a small laugh.
"Whatever you decide to do, I'll be right behind you on it. Speaking of which, Yang's right behind you."
Jaune was numb, from his head to his toes. Not because of the people he killed, but of what that implied. He changed things. He killed Torchwick. But what did that mean for him? His brooding was interrupted by a welcome voice.
"Hey Jaune… Are you okay?" Leave it to Ruby to make him smile. She walked with a slight limp while holding a bandaged arm. It infuriated him that she was hurt, but the culprits had already been taken care of.
"Believe it or not, Ruby, I don't have a scratch on me." She frowned.
"I didn't mean physically." Now he frowned.
"To be completely honest. Not really." He answered her next question before she even asked it. "I can't really talk about it, but I'll be fine. How about you? Non-physically, I mean."
"Well… I, uh, wanted to thank you. For saving me. I probably wouldn't be alive right now had you done nothing." Yes, but that didn't make any sense. She was supposed to be the hero!
"Ruby, be honest with me. Are you… Afraid of me for killing those people?" She gave him an intense look.
"No. You did what you had to do. They were bad people who would have ended me if they had the chance. You're my hero, Jaune." Jaune took a moment to register her words, then everything clicked together in his mind.
He wasn't meant to be the hero, so when he was, bad things happened. Bad things like a new, more powerful enemy taking Roman's place. One he had never seen before. But why would fate change the timeline itself? Maybe, changes could happen as long as it wasn't from him trying to be the hero. Maybe he could influence Ruby to make those changes for him. Maybe he had to be the hero of the hero.
"Ruby?"
"Yes Jaune?"
"I can't get into specifics, but bad things are coming in the future. I… I want to train you to be ready for those things, so you can be the hero and protect the ones you love. Basically, would you let me be your mentor?"
"Yes Jaune."
Things were different now. The future no longer held the answers and it was all because of him. But maybe, things were just similar enough.
"I'm sorry ma'am. We did everything we could, but he's… Gone now. His aura was completely depleted when you delivered him to us. Really, he had no chance." The pink, white, and brown haired woman picked herself up from the deceased criminal mastermind's side. She had held his hand the entire time his private doctors worked on him, but there was nothing she could do. She didn't know how to give aura to him, she didn't know how to heal a punctured lung and heart. The doctor was right, he had no chance to begin with.
That made her angry. Roman had paid these three doctors thousands of lien to keep quiet and work on his men, and this was how they repaid him? No. The payment would have to be in blood.
"Ma'am, what are you doing? Ma'am? Ma- Ahh-!" Silence. The woman by the name of Neopolitan was now covered in blood, just as the doctors had been, but she didn't mind. Unlike them, she did her job well and without complaints.
She looked back over to Roman, her poor, poor Roman. There were no words to describe the fury she felt every time she closed her eyes and saw the blond who had did this to him. She would have her revenge. Hot, cold, other. It didn't matter. Just as long as Roman's killer was dead by her hands.
Neo looked to his belongings that had been stripped off him and haphazardly placed on the table. They weren't his anymore. He couldn't own anything, he was dead. So now they were her's. And since they were her's, it was only fitting that she put them on. The jacket he wore now seemed more like a trenchcoat on her, but his hat fit nicely. She put her new cane weapon with her umbrella in the corner and proceeded to ignore the tears she was spilling while lighting up a cigar with trembling hands.
In the silence of the room, she was able to overhear the goons whispering outside.
"I heard that they were like father and daughter because he rescued her from a bunch of thugs back in the day when he was still a hunter." Goon number one theorized.
"No, you got it all wrong." Goon number two refuted. "They're actually brother and sister. He dropped out of combat school when their parents died so he could take care of her."
"Bull shit." The third declared finally. "Did you not see the look on her face when she came in with him? There was definitely sex in that relationship. No doubt about it."
Their relationship… What had it been? Were they lovers, related, adopted? She didn't even know anymore. But it didn't matter. He was gone, and she was not. She had work to do.
Teleporting out of the now smoke filled room, the smell of smoke was better than the smell of death, Neo grabbed Roman's next mission statement in his office. No. Her office. She was in charge now. Teleporting back to Roman's death bed, she walked out and handed the clipboard to the third goon who had moved to let her out. Roman had always made little printouts for his henchmen to read that simplified their objective. He said that none of them were smart enough to listen to what he said and accomplish everything he needed. All except her.
"The hell?" The henchmen looked at the papers and then back to her. "So you think you're the new guy in charge? Well fuck you-" His words cut off when she disappeared and reappeared behind him, a sharp pain now in his neck. He looked down to see the tip of an umbrella sticking all the way through. She pulled the umbrella back to the sound of blood gurgling in the man's throat.
She calmly picked up the clipboard and handed it to henchman number two, waiting to see how smart he was.
"Uh… Yes sir! I mean, ma'am!" She gestured for him and his remaining buddy to go and they did just that, dashing away as soon as they had the chance.
With that taken out of the way, Neo once again teleported, now to a secret hideout where Roman and his boss were set to meet. Twirling the cane in one hand and her umbrella in the other, she waited patiently for them to arrive.
"So. You're his fillin then?" The voice made Neo snap around and nod. "And why exactly did he choose you of all people." At that, Neo teleported right in front of the woman, cane pointed at her neck. The woman laughed and with a flaming hand took the end of the cane, pointing it back down to the ground. "Nicely done. You'll do. Now what is it you want in reward?" Expecting this question, Neo pulled out a single piece of paper that she had filled out earlier.
'I kill the blond.'
Adam Taurus' eyes grew wide as he watched over the security feed at the dockyard. Initially, he had wanted to see more about this man that was responsible for taking out twenty seven of hi soldiers as well as that bastard Torchwick, but instead he got a welcome surprise.
"Blake… I've finally found you."
Lots to cover, let's go through in order.
Pyrrha and Jaune had a bit of a falling out.
Yang's still unsure of Jaune and his relationship with Ruby.
Blake and Weiss had a bit of a falling out, but we saw how that ended.
We got some more confrontations between Weiss and Yang.
Jaune's thinking doesn't make too much sense, but it's not supposed to. He's super out of it and trying to justify his decision to not keep things the same. He says that it's what fate wants, but it's really just one step closer to him snapping and changing everything.
A lot of forgiveness this chapter, maybe I was in a forgiving mood while writing it.
Neo's now the big man, or woman, on campus.
If you thought Blake's arc was over because she and Weiss made up, you were dead wrong.
Last time I said I would explain Cinder's plan, so here it is:
Since Jaune is their main concern, the plan focuses on him. They set fire to the town and launch a Grimm attack. Emerald disguised as a villager wakes up Jaune before anybody and sends him out to fight. Since Jaune just woke up, he doesn't recognize her. When he leaves, they set fire to the inn the heros are staying at, so chaos is caused. In that chaos, Cinder's forces manage to steal Weiss Rapier, which they coat in blood, Rens guns, which they burn, and Ruby's scythe and cloak, which they don't do anything to. When Jaune drops his shield, they show it to his friends so they won't go looking for him. It doesn't work.
The reason they don't just outright attack everybody is because their aura would allow them to wake up before their enemies could kill them.
Now onto reviews for both previous chapter 10s.
As you can tell, I've started doing longer chapters, but I'll be taking a small break to work on other things since this is the end of an arc.
Did someone say rage mode Jaune? For that matter, did someone say 'fuck Fate' Jaune? Because I think that's ridiculous. Like that would ever happen.
I already explained why I think it's weird that Yang would not be protective.
I have no idea what 'Neji' is.
Thank you all for the support.
And that's about it. Everything else I responded to directly I believe.
Helpful criticism welcome, your awesome reviews appreciated, and until next time,
-RMV