Live, Die, Repeat

by ThePhantomScribe

Tragedy at the Vytal Tournament leads to discovery as Jaune Arc discovers his Semblance and its ability to go back in time to undo his mistakes. Unfortunately, it only activates upon death. And... Jaune doesn't exactly have the best of memories. Will this knight be able to save his kingdom, and discover the truth behind the name of Arc?

14. Kiss From a Rose

Kiss From A Rose

---

"D'you think this'll work?"

"I... actually couldn't say."

"But c'mon! Your ideas are always like, super cool and stuff that everyone likes!"

"Yeah but this isn't one of times, sniffles! I'm pretty sure this is like one of those things you gotta... figure out on your own. I think..."

"Jauuuuneeee-ugh," the young crimsonette finally lamented as the two leaders walked side by side along the busy street, dramatically throwing hear head back before slamming her binder shut a few moments later to shoot the blonde a silver-eyed admittedly adorable glare, "And what'd I say about calling me sniffles!?"

"What can I say? It's sweet, rolls off the tongue, and I love it!"

Jaune erupted into laughter at her nonplussed reaction, Ruby meaning to correct him but unable to do so as a faint blush crept onto her cheeks at his admitted liking to the name, "W-Well... if you don't mean it in a bad way and like it that much..."

"What wazzat?" the knight asked, wiping a tear from his eyes and having missed her words.

"N-Nothing! But I still don't know how to end the day after so much planned for the next few hours... and the ending is like, supposed to be the best part!"

"I know, I know... cheer up, we'll figure it out," Jaune replied good-naturedly, meaning to have simply taken her to his side with a sympathetic side hug when he suddenly found a slender arm around his waist as well and shaking his head with a small chuckle when the crimsonette beside him gave him an ear-to-ear grin in apparent approval of their new walking position.

And so they continued down the street, the knight with his fellow leader wrapped in one arm and a bag holding that new board game she'd been raving about for a few days in the other. It had been a few weeks since the incident at the docks, and Jaune had found solace in the unexpected warmth his teammates and sister team had provided after the night he'd spent in the ballroom... in any case, whether it was instigated by Ruby, Blake, or even Pyrrha, he'd simply taken to accepting the companionship of the friends he held dear and taking every opportunity he could in the meantime to learn more about his strange, strange Semblance.

Jaune frowned as they paused at a corner to wait for the green light, the young leader beside him taking the chance to nuzzle her head against his shoulder with a beaming smile and heedless of the murky cloud hovering over her brooding classmate's head.

He'd been able to take the music player he'd borrowed from Nora and "train" with it on multiple occasions, reaching out in moments of solitary meditation to find similar strings like the one he had discovered that night with Blake. It was, needless to say, somewhat unsurprising to find that other "strings" existed all around him, each with their own color and vibrance with which a new feeling or image would settle into his mind when he reached out to it with his aura. However, most snippets would only be of scenes or moments - present or future, he couldn't tell - having to do with Beacon students unrelated to him, and the only thing that kept him pressing on despite the harrowing possibility of the infringement of privacy this ability granted him... was the fact that the mental exercise of threading along the string to its end seemed to result in many of them ending in the same spot. Or date.

"Green light."

Jaune blinked, his musing momentarily disrupted by the soft tug along his waist forward as his companion began making her way across the street as well. His mind wandering again to how many of these strings and moments never really settled on a definitive event, possibly because he felt that there was nothing that really happened in Vale in the first place between semesters in the original timeline, Jaune hedged a sigh at the realization that the night with Blake at the docks hadn't been the first time he'd reached out like that before.

Or, more precisely... it had been that "day"... except earlier that day, when he'd absolutely lost it upon connecting the dots surrounding that fateful day's events in the Coliseum. The knight gulped at the memory of the swirling storm of boiling emotion the realization had unleashed upon him, knowing for a fact that it was the first time such anguish had so consumed him in his life. Of course, loss itself was one thing... but nothing quite compared to the rage that would accompany the bereavement upon confirming the identity of the perpetrators for the first time. And the mystery had begun barely a minute after that...

First Pyrrha, then Blake. And now even Ruby, his earlier use of that particular facet of his Semblance during their foray into downtown Vale reminding him of the food fight they'd be soon to have today.

The haze of colors surrounding his vision framing memories he knew couldn't be his... it was as if it were all triggered by that-

"Crime scene."

Jaune froze at Ruby's sudden intrusion into his thoughts, his brief expression of concern slowly turning into one of despair as he followed where her finger pointed to the nearby store and read the name on the sign.

"Another one... can't believe it. I thought we'd ended all that weeks ago!"

He barely heard her exasperated words as he began trudging slack-jawed to the store, feeling the color draining from his face as he crossed to the other corner of the street towards the yellow tape, "No, Ruby... I don't think this was a robbery. This store doesn't sell Dust."

"Wait up!" she briefly called out to him, quickly zipping across the street to join him and cocking her head at the sign over the store, "Oh right... sold books. But who'd rob a bookstore?"

"They wouldn't," he replied to himself in a whisper, catching sight of an unmistakable spatter of red along an inner wall through the open door before his vision was blocked by a man walking out while jotting down a few final notes. Ruby let out a small eep when the man caught sight of Jaune and actually removed his shades, his brass badge glinting in the sunlight.

"Hey kid, ya got a real knack for running into active crime scenes, ya know that?" the detective began, recognizing the students who each recognized him in turn, "What. You knew the guy who owned this place?"

Ruby looked up at Jaune, her heart sinking a bit at seeing that empty expression Glynda had warned them against upon his face for the first time in days before he slowly shook his head.

"No."

"Eh, figures. Middle of the day, anyways, not many around the block that might've witnessed anything either... middle of the day, who does that?" the detective mumbled to himself before turning back to the inside of the store, his position blocking any view the shorter crimsonette could've had of the interior, "Ey Burnie! You done with the report yet!? Anyway kids, might as well scram. Don't you got school today?"

"R-Right! We'll head out," Ruby replied cheerily, albeit with a nervous crack in her tone betraying her true emotions beneath before tugging at Jaune's arm, "C'mon, Jaune, lunchtime in the cafeteria starts soon and everyone will be waiting."

Jaune took a moment longer to gaze at the golden lettering set on the green placard over the newly defunct store before turning away to follow the young woman.

"So... did ya know him?"

"...Hm?"

Jaune turned to face Ruby in earnest after they'd made some distance from the store, the two having continued towards the bullhead station with a heavier mood set over them. Ruby was glad to see that the expression had lifted somewhat, something about post-battle trauma that the ever-vigilant Professor Goodwitch had warned the teams about in private which the seven students had earnestly promised to help him through. Ruby couldn't imagine how hard it must have been for him to face those criminals, but in the end it only made her respect him so much more for his skill and admire him for his resolve to protect those who mattered to him.

So of course she'd gone out of her way to spend what amounted to more time with him over the past few weeks than anyone else... it was her duty! As a friend and fellow leader!

But mostly a friend!

In a friendly friend kind of way!

Totally not a friendly friend kind of way that was open to... more friendship!

"Nothing," she settled with replying, her warm smile causing him to return one of his own as they arrived to their destination with a bullhead already approaching from a distance before she held up her binder, "So, you think they'll like what I got planned for the rest of today?"

He shook his head as his smile grew into a grin, "Nope."

"Eh!?"

Tousling her hair a bit with a light chuckle, Jaune continued, "I know they will. Like my dad always said, all you need is a little confidence. The rest will sort itself out, trust me."

Her following retorts died down as the bullhead that would serve as their shuttle back to Beacon landed nearby, Ruby's eyes simply trailing the blond hair and broad back as she followed her fellow leader towards the shuttle door with a warm feeling inside her chest that she couldn't quite place.

"Confidence, huh?" she whispered to herself, her heart jumping at the realization of what she was feeling towards the young man whose side she wanted to be on as he changed the world like she always knew he would, "Yeah... I guess you're right. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do~"

"As for what you said earlier... no," Jaune added as he hopped onto the bullhead deck, facing Ruby as he helped her up by her hand in a gesture she was only too willing to accept, "I didn't know the guy."

"Oh, okay," Ruby noted aloud as the pair found their seats and she settled into a comfortable position to lean on his shoulder, "I just hope whoever the owner was is alright."

The irony was both tragic and somehow oddly comforting to the knight, who simply found himself content at his beloved friend's amiable innocence as the name of the store flashed a final time through his mind.

Tukson's Book Trade

He sighed as the shuttle lifted off and began making its way back to the academy, for Blake's sake resigning himself to keeping that specific detail to himself and himself alone for the rest of his days.

Another life he'd never know. Another life he'd never save.

---

A few hours later, and a series of events following that brought just the right amount of refreshment to his tired spirit that he needed, the knight mentally fist-pumped with the accomplishment of not having been painfully slammed against a window as he once had been before. In fact... it didn't take long for Jaune to come to a conclusive realization.

"I'm Queen of the cast-le! I'm Queen of the cast-le!~"

He'd missed that terrible sing-song chant a great deal more than he cared to admit.

But unwilling to take the taunt without retribution, Ruby stomped her foot on a nearby table before pointing dramatically at team JNPR and their veritable fortress of cafeteria furnishings, "Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! It-"

"I OBJECT!" Jaune roared, pointing in an equally dramatic fashion at his opposing leader before Weiss threw her hands up in the distance.

"To what!?"

His finger wilted a bit as he frowned in thought at his hasty rebuttal, "Er... I was hoping to come up with a good one-liner while I was objecting... I didn't."

"Ahahah!" Nora cut in to continue, her regal antics saving the moment, "Yell it at the top of your lungs, finger outstretched, ready to take on our opponents! What a rush!"

Taking the morale boost for what it was worth, team JNPR shouted with fists raised simultaneously, "Yeah!"

Jaune thanked the stars above for his continued inter-loop physical training as his bubbly teammate leapt down from her fortress, his body settling into a natural stance with his eyes skirting over possible weapons with speed that far outpaced his past self. He'd had no chance the first time around, but now he smirked with the prospect of causing a little positive divergence for once.

"Nora! Watermelons!"

"Aye aye, cap!~ Off with their heads!"

And with a wood-crunching slam, the watermelon table that seemingly appeared out of nowhere - Jaune made a mental note to try and figure out that mystery someday - launched its juicy projectiles over the opposition party. In those moments, the knight set himself to begin learning the movements of his peers in earnest, beginning with the turkey-wielding brawler who stepped forward with intricate combos to make quick work of the oversized fruit.

"Oho, dearest Yang~ I'm pretty sure that's not what they mean with the phrase Beating your Meat."

The brawler coming to a stop at the unexpected appearance of the unarmed knight blocking her onslaught, her small smirk preceded a silent chuckle as she held up her turkey fists in preparation for battle.

"Heh, you must have more guts than I gave you credit for, coming at me without a weapon... and while I'm impressed you've also learned the dark arts of the lewd pun-"

And without another word, she sped towards her new opponent with a surprise attack, wholly and utterly surprised herself when her flurry of punches hit nothing but air... with fists held up, he would only dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge around every one with impeccable footwork.

Her surprise settling into a small grimace as her irises briefly flashed red, Yang growled, "Turn your aura on, Vomit Boy, unless you wanna become a pretty corpse..."

"Sticking with Vomit Boy, aren't we? But that nickname is so last semester~" Jaune taunted lightly as he weaved around another intricate combo she'd sent his way, "And it's not like I have aura dysfunction... it's just that you're giving me little reason to get it up~"

Narrowing her eyes at her confident - and nimble - adversary, Yang extinguished the growing blaze in her hair by slamming her turkey fists together, her irises flashing back to lilac with a small smirk after finding herself thoroughly impressed by his previously unknown fanciful footwork.

"Not every day you meet a dork with feet as fast as his eyes. Gotta give it to ya, you're still full of surprises," but now advancing forward with a mischievous gleam in her eye, Yang rolled her shoulders and lifted her fists once more while gaining speed, "But as I was saying, I'm afraid the only one really affected by those puns in the team is our lil Blakey-poo~"

"Funny you mention that. You didn't realize this was all about her in the first place?"

The blonde brawler stopped in her tracks, cocking her head in question, "Eh?"

"-Pwagh! Argh, yuck!"

The reply came from somewhere behind her, both blondes turning to see the cat girl in question now drenched in juice with pieces of watermelon still falling off of her, an affronted Yang turning to see a smirking Jaune before Blake shook off her distaste - and sticky soaked blazer - to pick up a pair of baguettes nearby in pursuit of what Jaune could vaguely recall would be his ginger partner.

"Y'know, I'm pretty sure there's a pun somewhere in the whole 'sticky cat ready for a sloppy second round' thing she's going for there..."

"Argh! Enough of your shameless punography, already!"

Planting her footing with a brief blaze of ire, Yang pulled her arm back in what looked like would precede a mid-range dashing punch.

Jaune smirked, partly from reading the real nature of her next movement through the split-second twitch of her arm and last-second shift of her back leg, but also because he knew he'd never forget the pain from being turkey torpedoed once before.

"Yah!"

Anticipating the flight paths of the roasted poultry in what otherwise would've been the perfect surprise attack, Jaune ducked and sidestepped both in rapid succession, nearly slipping awkwardly but regaining his balance right on time to shoot a knowing victorious grin at the fuming brawler.

"Aaaarrrc! How did you-?"

"Incoming."

Hesitating at his unexpected rebuttal, Yang barely had time to glance up and dodge the first two crispy baguettes before being taken down bodily by the third. Jaune turned back to give a brief appreciative nod to his partner, who returned one in kind with a winning grin before each went their separate ways.

He knew that as long as he didn't go down, it'd be one more variable for team RWBY to keep an eye on, and potentially one more distraction that could cost them the end game. Of course it was only a theory at this juncture, but Jaune always did his best to test said theories whenever on a vanguard loop, if only to figure out the nature of events relating to the timeline itself in terms of malleability. In this case, he was sure that if he could only help Nora and Pyrrha make a stand at the makeshift fortress, and somehow keep Ren in play long enough to support them, they'd have a chance...

whoosh

Narrowly dodging a random food tray that came out of nowhere as he sprinted back towards the JNPR castle, Jaune spotted his only male teammate coming to a stop at a table which was somehow not only still intact, but with a small assortment of vegetables on top.

"Stick with the leeks, not the cucumbers!"

Struck speechless and immensely curious at how his leader would've known his internal deliberations, Ren could only respond briefly in the moments Jaune sprinted by him, intrigued by what Semblance-enhanced wisdom the knight could provide about the stoic's fighting style and perhaps even of Ren himself, "Why?"

"Cucumbers are weird! Might as well fight with eggplants while you're at it!"

The stoic could only blink for a moment before a deadpan came over him, his drawled sigh at the sound of crumbling masonry - seemed like an actual column - on the other side of the cafeteria which could only have been caused by Nora now cut short by another unexpected addition.

"And whatever you do, don't look up her skirt!"

Ren visibly balked a the unorthodox advice before a roar behind him brought his attention to another fairly angry blonde who was rather clearly charging at her intended fellow blonde target. Despite the fact that the knight's quirks could occasionally even rival those of Nora's, Ren cracked a small smirk at his admittedly strange but beloved team, knowing he wouldn't change it for the world even as he passed up the cucumbers to take the pair or leeks and stand in the brawler's way.

Jaune returned to the fortress none the wiser, but able to turn and see the last of the skirmish right on time to witness Yang perform the mid-air takedown nearly exactly as he'd witnessed once before. Needless to say, the knight couldn't help but wimce and ruefully smack his forehead at the sight.

"...He looked up her skirt."

To his rather immediate concern, however, another roar from behind him which sounded like a half question, half exclamation, and half enraged battle cry preceded a rough shove to the side from a not so bubbly ginger as she passed him.

"Well I've got something to put up that skirt! And it's gonna. get. messy!"

Judging by the very dangerous glint in her eyes, Jaune quickly surmised that it had something to do with that oversized watermelon tenderizer the valkyrie was currently sporting.

But before he could decide wether that particular divergence was a good idea or not, or come up with a few choice puns to further annoy the brawler, a brief glint from the corner of his eye alerted him to a presence he knew he'd have to intercept. Dashing forward nearly on instinct, an impulse which even surprised himself, Jaune grabbed the first item he could get his hands on to hop onto a nearby table and block the meaty whip which was originally meant for the ginger bomber.

TWANG!

With the muffled sound of meat smacking against tin, Jaune thanked his usually abysmal luck that he'd actually gotten his hands on a decent trashcan lid before lowering it to find a nonplussed watermelon-stained ravenette glowering at her escaping target for revenge.

"Move aside, Jaune. Don't make me destroy you."

"It's no use, Blake," the knight replied pleadingly, raising his arms at his sides to further pronounce his stature, "I have the higher ground."

"You underestimate my power," she replied with a dangerous smirk, already beginning to twirl her weapon behind her.

He settled down into a defensive stance, making a note to find a more offensive weapon should he eventually get the chance, "Then I shall do what I must."

"You will try."

With that, the duel began in earnest, the ravenette looking to knock off her opponent from his footing and the opponent looking to buy his teammate enough time. However, after the third or fourth shadowclone-aided attack, Jaune found the edges of his vision clouding over unexpectedly with each strike... with a cloudy, violet haze.

Lately you've been quiet, antisocial, and moody!

"...Weiss?"

Thwok

Grunting in pain, Jaune received a heavy lash to the side, knocking him off his table. But unwilling to give Blake the opening she needed to engage Nora, he used the momentum to roll up from his side and block the follow up attack which was meant to smack him away.

I just, I don't understand how everyone could be so calm.

Curious about the unexpected vision, and the potent emotional transfer coming through with it, Jaune looked for an opportunity to test an aspect of this strange aural phenomenon by goading the cat girl into a sloppy attack. He had just the thing.

"So Blake, playing with quite a few wieners there, I see. Enacting some sort of deep-rooted fantasy maybe?"

As expected, and even more so, Blake froze on the spot. Quickly looking between her choice of weapon and the knight several times, she went beet red in her hasty attempts to stutter out a rebuttal before realization dawned on her face, her expression finally settling into a deep grimace with a scoff, "Yaaaaannng..."

Without another moment of hesitation, Blake whipped out the end of her meat weapon right at him with an audible growl.

Jaune took the opportunity for what it was worth, catching the whip by the last sausage link and grinning when the effect was immediate.

You're still thinking about Torhwick?

Torchwick, the White Fang, all of it! Something big is happening and no one is doing anything about it!

"So... the susages are aura enhanced," Jaune whispered to himself, now making sense of how all this food could seemingly take so much punishment without exploding, "And it makes these aural connections stronger..."

Keeping his grip firm as Blake tried to pull it away, Jaune took note of the surroundings of the vision - RWBYs dorm, by the looks of it - before using the counter momentum to his advantage and twisting around to begin wrapping the links around himself and inevitably dragging a yelping Blake closer.

"I'm gonna have to do something about that..."

But no sooner had the thought crossed his mind with his resolution set to be of aid when the background seemed to shift, the walls of the dorm surprisingly morphing into shelves upon shelves of books before his eyes snapped open to find a bewildered amber-eyed gaze inches from his own.

"A... a-about what?"

Even as the unusually subdued ravenette stared into the eyes of her captor looking for an answer as to what he meant, finding herself somewhat conflicted with what to expect after his earlier comment, he couldn't help but notice that her eyes did seem to show some fatigue... whatever he'd seen in the vision, it'd be happening soon.

His internal musings now interrupted by the rising body heat from the girl he realized he'd been left pressed rather firmly against - and a telltale crash through the roof indicating that Nora had exacted her revenge - he couldn't help but give a small chuckle at seeing the ravenette silently gulp with a faint blush rising up her cheeks from up close.

He had to admit, it was absolutely adorable.

"J-J-Jaune!?"

"Oops. Said that last part out loud. Sorry not sorry!" Jaune realized with a fair amount of color draining from his face, charging an aura push that promptly blasted her out of their meaty confines by several feet where she landed on her feet - unsurprisingly - desperately shaking her head to get it back in the game. Nearly by instinct with the memories of the first fight fresh in his mind, Jaune barked over his shoulder, "Nora! Soda!"

"...Jaune?"

Quickly turning at the unexpected reply to see his partner in front of their fortress giving him a quizzical expression, a few things clicked in the knight's mind in reasonably rapid succession.

He'd survived Yang's turkey attack.

Her pursuit of him had brought her to Ren sooner than intended.

He escaped Yang thanks to Ren but delayed Nora by a scant few seconds, letting Blake recover.

His intervention meant Blake would never lash Nora against the sodas.

Ergo, no sodas to grenade Blake - or for Pyrrha to bombard with.

Ruby would now have Blake as backup.

"Uh oh."

But in a belated answer to his orders, curiously enough, the sound of snapping electrical wires and groaning metal preceded the appearance of JNPRs second redhead holding a giant vending machine of grape soda over her head.

"People! Like! Grrrapes!"

The last word came out as more of a grunt, mostly because Nora made the olympian effort of actually heaving the entire machine at the dumbfounded ravenette.

"No, Nora No!"

Pyrrha's exclamation was then closely followed up with action, the Mistralian's hands going a subtle few shades darker with aura as she enveloped the metallic box in her semblance and threw her hands down, sending the machine crashing down in the process.

But almost by some strange twist of fate, not only did the machine crash on its side with the entire payload activating like some form of carbonated nitroglycerin, but the entire front was blasted off with enough force of spraying soda to take the unfortunate cat girl with it all across the cafeteria.

Alas, it was not meant to be enough, as the hapless knight soon came to realize.

Ruby saw her remaining teammate in play blasted in a spray of grape soda.

Her resolve redoubled, the final sprint was set to take the whole cafeteria with it if need be.

And most of team JNPR could only gape at the maw of swirling food, debris, and soda now coming at them like a convoluted, sugary hurricane.

Jaune, however, let himself be lifted in the air with a harrumph, actually crossing his arms as he flew through the air towards a potentially fatal crash without aura as he categorized the events for future reference. All it'd take is retracing the steps of the past few week-

"Wait. Few weeks!?" Jaune suddenly realized in shock, "NOPE!"

And just before he hit the large cafeteria wall along with Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren, the knight managed to activate his aura to avoid a life-ending impact before the four defeated students could lamely slip off the wall and back to the floor.

Next thing he knew, he came to at the sound of clicking heels approaching, looking up blearily to see the disciplinarian herself already putting the room back together with her semblance.

"Children, please... do not play with your food!"

Jaune audibly grunted, more than tired of his ill fortune of always having to listen to that woman and her soul-crushing heels stepping on the floor where his face was planted, an action that would've annoyed her had she not been busy rebuilding school property.

The team slowly stood, Nora burping aloud in her recovery when Jaune himself simply shook his head. Rocks thrown in a river... but ultimately the stream continued onward. It was a fun try for what it was worth, but he couldn't help but huff at the fact that his initial change was the fatal mistake in the end.

Somehow, it was all Yang's fault.

So much was he so convinced that Jaune even took the liberty of knowingly tossing a pair of turkeys onto a nearby table... just in time for a screaming Yang to come back crashing down through the roof and landing butt first right on top of them.

However, there was just one small detail that had Jaune's - and admittedly Ren's, not that he'd ever say so in a million years - eyes going wide as saucers once the dust settled. One that a very nearly flustered Glynda balked at from the very edge of her composure.

"M-Miss Xiao Long! Where! On Remnant is your skirt?!"

Jaune would never in a billion loops forget the sight of said brawler standing, the effect of the grease having splashed up and soaked into her light cottony undergarments and blouse working absolute wonders... wonders which, while having caused measurable alarm among her teammates as she stood and actually turned in a way that flashed both front and behind to those present without having yet fully realized her predicament, simply had a slack-jawed Jaune idly fist-bumping a very smug ginger bomber at his side.

"Found it! And for Oum's sake have some more decency next time, Xiao Long!" Weiss cried out some distance away, flinging a stained and inexplicably charred loop of fabric over to the grumbling brawler who quickly put it back on and knew full well why there seemed to be plenty of lingering static in the material.

"Aw shut it, I feel like my butt got broken..."

"Oh no, Yang, I doubt it," Jaune now began, a wide grin on his face as he drove the point home and the final nail in the coffin, "Every butt has a crack in it!"

With the round of groans that ensued along with a narrow-eyed glare Yang sent his way, Jaune was sure that violence may ensue but was completely unprepared to get his pun one-upped from a totally unexpected source.

"Keh, it would've done you a favor, Yang... you've got more butt than the end of my rifle."

"Ooo, burn!" Nora cried out, the rest of the students breaking down into a fit of laughter with even Yang giving her younger sister an utterly scandalized look before busting out laughing herself.

Glynda watched the scene with more and more reasons to pile on reprimands and punishments, but as she watched the amused students - even Weiss covering her face with a palm to suppress a chuckle and the brawler bringing in her sister for a congratulatory hug for her first pun - it was a genuinely happy and entertained Jaune in his fit of laughter which ultimately drew her attention... and doused the flames of anger.

By the time Ozpin had come to place a hand on her shoulder, she'd already done precisely what he was about to advise.

"Let it go."

Jaune had gone over to his team, each trading grins in their respectable loss and even getting a benign pat on the back from Pyrrha when his eyes caught Blake's in the distance. Sending her a warm smile in his resolution to help come what may, he was somewhat surprised to receive a similar smile from her in return. And with that, it was settled.

No longer would he let his team stand on the sidelines while team RWBY or its members needed help, timelines be damned.

The knight traded a glance with the headmaster as he seemed to be conferring with Glynda, a mercy no doubt, but with the amount of time having passed between his having spoken to either of them, it still felt like they were going to get a free pass just like the first time.

"We'll defend the world somehow," he mumbled to himself, "But right now I'll enjoy every chance we can get together... after all, it might not be a scene I get to replay forever."

For all he knew, their cooperation would be what it'd take to save Beacon, and he'd follow through with that goal even to the ends of Remnant.

---

"Have a little faith. You'll know what you need when you need to know~"

"O-Okay... then what now?"

"We're moving... to these coordinates."

"Those coordinates?"

"We're proceeding to phase two."

Jaune took a long-suffering sigh, setting his cards face down on the table and resisting the urge to pinch his nose.

"Weiss, we're on the same team... you've barely told me anything about phase one."

"A-And whose fault is that, hm?"

"Um... yours," Ruby began cautiously, furrowing her brows in thought, "Right?"

"Well... the game says four players, so forgive me if there are evident strategic disadvantages from adding a player to each team!"

Ren glanced up from the cards held in his hand, having taken point after his ravenette teammate playing Vale had delegated him executive powers so she could apparently ruminate over a few thoughts in her mind.

"Well, Jaune did keep you from attacking your own naval fleet two turns ago."

"Vacuo is in a desert! How was I supposed to know that was our fleet?!"

Drawing his lips into a thin line to keep from saying anything regrettable, Jaune merely nodded at Ruby to move things along, "Anyway. Your turn, Rubes."

And this was the woman he'd once fawned over. Jaune let out a slow, long sigh while going over the rest of his cards and memory of the first game they'd had.

"Hmmmmm... All right... All right!" Ruby began before exclaiming with a dramatic pointing motion at her sister, "Yang Xiao Long, prepare your kingdom for battle!"

"Bring it on!"

"I deploy the Atlesian Air Fleet!" the crimson state then proclaimed, Jaune's memory getting jogged as the card was played and Yang feigned a look of shock, "Looks like I get to fly right over your Ursai and attack your walls directly!"

"You fiend!"

"Curses on your Atlesian homes!" Nora added from beside the brawler, the two powerhouses having reconciled enough to join forces in this venture. But from across the library table where they sat, Jaune narrowed his eyes at his fellow blonde, knowing her indignance was only paper-thin and recalling that Ruby's attack could prove costly.

"And since Atlas is part of Mantle, it would seem your repair time is only one turn, Ruby," Pyrrha noted amiably, giving her temporary partner a supportive nod, "Well played!"

However, Yang simply winked at Nora with a haughty cackle.

"Pretty sneaky, sis, but you just activated my trap card!"

"Giant Nevermore!" The ginger bomber cried out triumphantly, slamming the card on the table as Yang continued.

"If I roll a seven or higher, fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two!"

"But, if you roll a six or lower, the Nevermore will turn on your own forces!"

"That's just a chance I'm willing to take."

Taking the challenge in stride, the two sisters glared at each other defiantly, Weiss turning to her temporary teammate to see him shaking his head consolingly at the crimsonette.

To the heiress' surprise, the act of consolation seemed to have some merit as her leader's last play turned out to deliver worse and worse results... in effect crippling her army, resources, and even losing two extra cards from her hands.

"Have you no heart?" Ruby finally eked out, collapsing on the table with a groan, "Nooo!"

Nora simply let out a dark chuckle with her new significantly larger hand of cards, "Muahaha! We might as well finish it now and go back to reading!~ Cuz... we are in a library and stuff."

"Thank you!" Ren conferred wholeheartedly, actually throwing up his hands a bit at the remark in agreement.

"Not just yet," Yang retorted proudly at her teammate, "We still got a couple more fish to fry, and a white knight duo to boot. Weiss? Your turn."

Not missing the dangerous smirk and mischievous undertones that the cunning brawler was sending her way, Weiss narrowed her eyes, unwilling to take any chances as she now consulted with her teammate in earnest.

"I have..." she thrusted the few cards in her hands out for Jaune to see, "Absolutely no idea what's going on."

Jaune cocked a brow at her, Weiss' small wince and ghost of an apologetic smile reminding him that while she was still somewhat immature - or maybe he was getting more mature? Tough to say - she was still coming into herself as a young woman. With marked improvements as well, if this small gesture of willingness to work with someone even outside her team were anything to go by.

Deciding to look over the few cards she held of their shared hand, the knight mumbled aloud as he scanned over each card and its attributes mentally as well, "Let's see, you've got Sandstorm, Desert Scavenge... ladies, it's impolite to eavesdrop..."

The two powerhouses of RWBY and JNPR immediately made a not so subtle attempt to lean away from the center of the table where they were trying to listen in and back into their seats whistling; Nora, who was unable to whistle, was making more of what sounded like farting noises.

Each rolling their eyes at their opponent's respective antics, Jaune and Weiss' gazes met before they each chuckled at their shared reaction, the heiress then pulling up a third card she found interesting, "There's also Resourceful Raider-"

"Oh, oh! Resourceful Raider!" Yang interrupted, once again moving towards the center of the table and completely reaching across it to take the card from Weiss' hand, "See, now you can take Ruby's discarded Air Fleet—"

"Nooo!" the crimsonette cried out, bewildered at how the initially entertaining flow of events had somehow completely turned against her.

"—and put it in your hand!"

"Aaaand I think not," Jaune now retorted, taking the brawler by surprise when he snatched the card out of her hand to return it to Weiss', "You're making this too easy for us to defeat your enemies, Yang... I sense a trap."

The brief moment where the two blondes began eyeing each other with suspicious glares giving Weiss the time to actually read her cards for once, she then spoke up.

"I'm not so sure, Jaune... we could mount the offensive against Ruby and Pyrrha, and use the Sandstorm card Vecchian ground advantage to disable Yang's ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate Vale! It'd be a formidable two-pronged attack!"

Both blondes then turned to face Weiss with raised brows, each impressed by the accurate deduction when Ruby's excitement at the observation brought her to exclaim in realization, "Which means you're just three moves away from conquering Remnant!"

Satisfied with her improving strategic gaming prowess, Weiss stood with overjoyed psychotic laughter, "Y-yes! Fear the almighty power of my forces! Cower as they pillage your homes and weep as-"

"Nope. Hold it."

The dark thundering cloud of doom instantly dissipating around her, Weiss visibly deflated with an almost despondent tone in her reply, "What?"

"Still too fishy," Jaune continued, never having taken his eyes off the brawler as they narrowed now into realization, "Yang's been playing us from the start, getting us to make the first moves and capitalizing on our mistakes with counters and traps... all reaction, no real defense. I see your style now..."

And with a knowing smirk, Jaune pulled out a card from his half of the hand and placed it on the table, several eyes going wide at the little black rectangle of plastic now on display for all to see, "I'll draw... Armistice!"

Ruby gasped with building elation, reaching over to pick up her discarded offensive card, "That means, not only do I get to retrieve my lost airfleet, but now Atlas and Vacuo can launch a joint offensive against your ground and air forces while disabling all trap cards for the next turn!"

A slack-jawed Yang simply slumped back into her chair while Pyrrha reached over and rearranged the pieces, effectively removing Mistral from the game while Nora simply gave Jaune a smug smirk with crossed arms, "Welp, that's our fearless leader for ya!"

"Meh, Weiss helped too... kinda..."

"Hey!"

"And it was really thanks to Ruby putting all the pieces in play. Couldn't have done it without the best leader I know, y'know?"

Absolutely beaming at the praise, Ruby actually blushed as red as her cloak as she gushed, "Nooo, you don't mean thaaat! D'ohhh~"

But with a small cough bringing everyone's attention back to the more silent side of the table, Blake was seen silently shrugging impassively at an increasingly impish Ren before he glanced at his leader with a gleam in his eye, "Well played, Jaune. But I believe that's the only counter-cancelling card in the whole deck. How unfortunate... for you."

And with only two more cards played from his hand, Ren had conquered Remnant, mostly everyone else sitting slack-jawed like Yang as they gawked at the four kingdoms now waving Valean banners.

"Not too difficult to understand the mechanics once you get the basics. Elementary, really. Silently watching, waiting... then striking from the shadows."

Weiss simply glared at the two silent ninjas, eyeing each of them in turn before crossing her arms with a huff, "It was a mistake putting you two together. I demand a rematch!"

But surprising everyone, the ravenette who up until then had remained silent simply stood up and pushed in her chair, "Right, well, I think I'm done playing actually. I'll see you guys later."

Nora simply threw up her hands as Blake began picking up her things and leaving before glancing at everyone and giving a one-armed shrug.

"...Women."

Ignoring the exclamations from her teammates and the quizzical expressions from his own team - including Nora's shrug and comment - Jaune simply took a moment to regard their little alcove in the library they'd taken to play their game, looking over the shelves upon shelves of books in growing recognition before giving a small scoff in realization.

"Blake."

"What."

The catgirl turned to face the knight with a cold, impatient gaze before she could round the corner and escape their line of sight, the young man in question refusing to back down at the intensifying tension and simply steepling his hands at the desk while choosing his words carefully, "I get that there's something on your mind lately... why not share it with us?"

"Yes, come to think of it," Weiss continued in realization herself, pointing at the ravenette indicatively, "Lately you've been quiet, antisocial, and moody!"

"Uh, have you met Blake...?"

"No, this isn't that," Jaune continued, his gaze never having left Blake's even as Weiss and Yang cut in until Blake's amber eyes slowly began to soften at his reply, "This isn't that. In fact, it's worse, because something is wrong enough to continue bothering you. And if it bothers you, it bothers us... and we want to help. I want to help."

In the silent moment that followed, Blake merely took a scant few steps back into the area, enough to be just inside the exit to their space before giving a small sigh.

"...Am I truly so transparent?"

"Nope," Jaune replied without missing a beat, instead simply giving her a small, comforting smile, "I'm just paying attention."

Giving an appreciative nod at the knight, Yang turned to face her partner now that she had opened herself up to talking, "So... what's wrong?"

"I just, I don't understand how everyone can be so calm."

Jaune's gaze dropped as he gave himself a minute nod... so the vision had ben accurate... somehow. Had he foreseen the changes he was going to make before they'd even happened again...?

At Blake's words, however, Ruby spoke up while the rest of the teams respectfully listened, "You're still thinking about Torchwick?"

Jaune looked up just in time to see the catgirl subtly avert her gaze from him at the last second before she continued, "Torchwick, the White Fang, all of it! I was lucky to have Jaune with me that night... otherwise things could have been so much worse. But that doesn't change that something big is happening and no one is doing anything about it!"

The knight could relate... in fact, he was still completely stumped as to why the Beacon staff had yet to act himself.

"Yeah, we know," he found himself mumbling without realizing.

"Well if we know, then why don't we do something about it?" Blake retorted, though with less bite than her usual comebacks due to the source.

"Ozpin told us not to worry-"

Yang would've continued her train of thought, but it was lost when the knight couldn't help but scoff aloud. The reaction received a few quizzical glances, but had unknowingly to him garnered a small congenial smirk from the ravenette herself.

Weiss then cut in, now having had some time to gather her thoughts, "Look. Why don't we listen to the voice of reason for once, hm? The fact of the matter is... we're students! We're not ready to handle this sort of situation!"

"Well yeah, but..." Ruby began before being cut off by the heiress.

"We're not ready!"

"And we may never be ready! Our enemies aren't just going to sit around and wait for graduation day," Blake now replied, heat finally beginning to grow in her words as she tried to get her point across while gesturing towards the library exit, "They're out there, somewhere, planning their next move, and none of us know what it is, but it's coming! Whether we're ready or not!"

"Shh!"

Blake turned to see a blue-haired teen with yellow goggles giving her an accusatory glare from over his shoulder from a nearby table, three other teens around him that were presumably in his team poring over an assortment of textbooks and comics. She cared for none of it, her ears going flat under her bow as she returned the gesture with a snarl.

"YOU 'Shh!'"

Blake's attention was brought back to her own team in the library corner at the sound of a scroll ringing, the eight students briefly checking the source before it was confirmed to be coming from Jaune's. The knight in question silenced the device before opening it anyway, admittedly curious as to the possible source from within his otherwise meager contact list before noting the familiar sender name.

[-o-]

TO: Jaune Arc
FROM: Ozpin
CC: Glynda Goodwitch, Q.

I do hope you have found your semester break to be as refreshing as you deserve. With current matters no longer able to afford any more reprieve, however, I am afraid to say that there is much to discuss of utmost importance pending urgent attention. I would like to invite you to come to my office - with prior notice of your arrival - as soon as possible during this week, if convenient.

[-o-]

With Jaune temporarily distracted, Ruby was now the one to take advantage of the momentary silence in order to speak up with resolution and excited hand gestures, "Okay, all in favor of becoming the youngest Huntresses... and Hunters... to single-handedly take down a corrupt organization conspiring against the Kingdom of Vale... say aye."

A slow but eventual round of affirmative mumbles and nods from Jaune's team while he read the message preceded Yang's reaction of pumping her fist enthusiastically.

"Yes! I love it when you're feisty!"

Jaune looked up to contribute in the discussion, but another blearing ringtone from his pocket had him fighting back the heat rising in his cheeks from embarrassment instead.

"Sorry guys, one sec..."

[-o-]

TO: Jaune Arc
FROM: Ozpin
CC: Glynda Goodwitch, Q.

If inconvenient, come anyway.

[-o-]

"Well, I suppose it could be fun," Weiss concluded, more conviction in her voice.

"None of you said aye!"

"Aye!" Jaune then added, the crimsonette's face positively lighting up as she fist-pumped as well.

But noticing Blake's face invariably doing the same as if she were waiting for his input or something, Jaune watched a larger smile adorning her face before she concluded, "Alright then, we're in this together!"

He had to admit, it was quite an alluring sight whenever the ravenette smiled in earnest, too.

"Let's hatch a plan!" Ruby now proclaimed, smacking her fist against her open palm while getting the double-gun gesture from her sister.

"Yeah!"

"Good luck surviving the rematch, Ren! Vale is going down and we won't underestimate you this time!"

Balking at the realization that her leader had been actually referring to the board game, Weiss audibly facepalmed.

"We're doomed."

Blake shook her head at her team's antics, her mood having been lifted considerably thanks to their support and due in no small part to their sister team's leader who now currently stood from his seat.

"I think Weiss has the hang of it now, I'll have to head out for a bit and might be gone a while, so don't wait up for me," Jaune began slowly as he placed his cards on the table and pushed his seat in, deciding to add a small white lie to assay any prying questions lest they be too difficult to answer, "Uh... family stuff."

Making his way out, he was momentarily slowed by Blake's warm gaze and smile following him before stopping him briefly when he was within earshot of her quiet remark, "Thank you. Again."

Jaune returned her smile, now having ascertained that she no longer felt the same weight on her shoulders as before, "It's like you said... don't wanna lose my team, don't wanna lose this life. And I definitely don't wanna lose you either, Blake. That's just how it is; we trust each other with our burdens and we'll push through it together, because we care about each other."

A flash of a very rare, if unfortunately brief, grin from the catgirl before simmering back down into a content smile at the knight.

The fact that his actions over the past few weeks had backed his words only lent additional emotional impact for the usually reserved young woman, the two having met on a few additional occasions in the ballroom after the night at the docks to spend more time together listening to music and reading books. It'd surprised her how much she missed sharing those hobbies with another, more than aware that she was comparing the knight to her old mentor but aware all in the same that this was entirely different as well. Even if Jaune had a penchant for using antique comic books as reading material.

She'd been sure to change that after the second time or so, anyway. In fact, she was very nearly impressed at how quickly Jaune caught onto the more mature themes and intense plot undertones in the adult reading material she had begun providing him, almost to the level as if he could relate to them... and was further elated to see that while he looked forward to spending time with their teams and his fellow team leader during the day, he seemed just as eager to enjoy the next chapter or volume of whichever novel they were on during the occasional night he'd spend as her reading partner as well, which eventually dispelled any nagging doubts that their newfound habit was a bother to him or that it was from some sort of or racially-influenced pity.

Now... she was not introducing him to those adult novels... but at this rate... who was to say?

Her present reply had as much conviction as he'd had of his words... and of her... from the beginning.

"We do."

The two parted, Jaune exiting the library as a pair of silver eyes silently followed his trajectory after having finished his brief parting words with her teammate.

"Jaune has family?"

"Duh," Nora retorted at Yang's question, making not so subtle hand gestures involving the intertwining of her fingers as she repeatedly slapped her palms together with meaty smacks, "How else would he have been born?"

Ren merely sighed while covering his face with his palm, "Nora..."

"Actually guys, I'll be right back!" Ruby suddenly blurted, standing from her seat before awkwardly shuffling her way around the table and almost tripping while talking in a hurry, "I, uh, I, think I forgot something somewhere!"

Yang simply chuckled, shaking her head as Blake rejoined the table as a spectator and the teens rearranged the pieces, "Sure, Rubes... meh... Vomit Boy better know well enough to say no if it's this soon..."

Meanwhile, the blur of red sped out towards the library exit, the crimsonette in question eager to close the gap between her fellow leader and nearly bumping into a trio of Haven students as she exited the library.

"Whoops! Sorry! Excuse me!"

And already speeding away in the same direction of the one they were following, the golden-eyed student in the center simply purred out, "Hmm, she has... silver eyes."

"Should we add her to the list?"

The woman paused, a lock of jet black hair covering an eye before she unexpectedly turned to begin idly walking the other way, leaving the somewhat confused silver-haired teen at her other side to shrug at his red-eyed partner inquisitively.

"No... We'll wait and see how they both handle our upcoming plans, first~ Then we'll see if they're worth the trouble."

"Ma'am?"

"I've just noticed... something rather intriguing."

The three faux students walked along past the library, the one in the center sporting a dangerous gleam in her eyes as they disappeared into the evening.

---

"Jaune? Jaune!"

The knight turned to see his fellow leader coming up behind him near the courtyard, wide arches and other masonry casting long shadows around the quiet outdoor halls underneath the moonlight. He'd been wondering about the implications of this summon and idly trying to piece together any parallels between this vanguard loop and the original timeline... and was coming up empty, something that had his nerves on edge since it meant going into a new situation - apparently totally new, in any timeline - completely blind. He did his best to quell any growing apprehension as the young woman arrived, hiding his concern under a veil of curiosity instead.

"Ruby? What's up?"

Her conflicted expression not necessarily doing much to help his nerves, he found it somewhat odd that she couldn't exactly bring up her gaze to meet his.

"Well um... I, just wanted to say thanks, for helping us out with Blake back there," she drawled unsurely before her face lit up with what looked to be what she was really trying to say and looking at the knight, "And, I thought you were really cool, in the game!"

"Uh..."

"No no, not what I meant to say," Ruby quickly amended, groaning to herself a the unexpected difficulty her mind was having translating what was in her heart into actual words, "I mean... ugh, your face so isn't helping right now..."

"...my, face?"

"No, I mean it's perfect! I mean fine!" Ruby blurted too quickly, facepalming with rapidly darkening cheeks before huffing out her backup plan in dejection, "I guess I was wondering... you hadn't had a top up for a while, so...?"

Jaune blinked, realizing that it wouldn't actually be a bad idea considering the time lapse since their prior top up, before his face softened into a small chuckle, "So much circling around just to ask for a top up? Ruby, you know you can do it any time without worrying to ask, you're my best friend!"

Her eyes lighting up with increased silvery intensity under the moonlight, her grin proved to be infectious to the knight as she replied, "Really!?"

"Of course. And it's actually not a bad idea; top me up, partner!"

Ruby was only too happy to oblige, relishing in the warmth his Aura provided as they linked their life energies once more and letting her joy run freely through their connection as she let hers intermingle with his and ensure it was at optimal capacity. It seemed to serve as some sort of anchor for him and his semblance... but she'd had to admit that it turned out to be an incredibly euphoric experience for her, so strange yet appealing to the point that she'd longed to be able to hold that warm presence all day if she could get away with it...

So lost was she in the revelry of energy and emotion that she barely felt when it was slowly tapered shut by the knight, her mind brought back to the present when she felt his hand tousling her hair.

"Thanks, Ruby. You really are the best. I'll be back later!"

His warm words preceding his departure towards what Ruby was noticing was Ozpin's clocktower, she could only blink in her indecision over what to do until he walked into the open area by the edge of the courtyard behind the Great War statue and was completely bathed in moonlight.

His armor... clothes... even his hair... they all glinted under the silver moonlight and shone in white. Her breath utterly taken away at the sight of the tall, broad knight... her white knight... as he made his way away from her, she found her little fists balling up at her sides in their own accord. She could tell that by now she might not be the only one noticing how amazing Jaune really was... whether from someone in his team, or her team, or any other, someone else was bound to notice him eventually, whether he had his abilities or not. He was just that kind of guy - a good man not because of his skills, but regardless of them... his accomplishments only made him a little easier to notice by everyone else, that's all.

Which was why even the young woman inexperienced in the ways of life could realize that her window of opportunity wouldn't last forever before someone else took a shot at her bestie...

She had to try. She had to try.

"Confidence, confidence, confidence," she began muttering to herself repeatedly, the knight's words from earlier that day becoming a sort of mantra that seemingly fueled her shaky feet which slowly began taking one step after another with increasing steadiness and speed, "C'mon, Ruby... c'mon... um, Jaune?"

The knight turned again to face her, both teens now in the open and under the moonlight with his face only registering muted confusion at her second attempt to get his attention.

"Hm?"

Confusion turned into surprise when the young woman stood in front of him and boldly took his hands in each of hers.

"Jaune. I told you a long time ago that there probably wasn't a world where we wouldn't get along, remember?"

"...I do."

She nodded with a small smile, affirming his acknowledgement as if she'd already always expected him to remember it, and letting it give her fuel to continue, "And that I knew that you were gonna be a great leader, and that I'd want to be by your side as you changed the world, right?"

"Right."

He watched the young woman take a deep breath as if to calm herself, feeling the comforting warmth emanating from her hands sending waves of inexplicable joy through him. If anything, it was a second of reminiscence of the time they'd spent together over so many loops as trusted friends who'd do anything for each other, in the next second finding his heartrate slowly rising as she shuffled a little closer towards his immediate space.

"Well... I was able to say that cuz, even if I still don't know how, I can't help feeling like you're always gonna be there for us... and for me... even if we never knew each other before Beacon, and even if I'd, well... never met anyone like you before. But I think that's special, cuz I don't think I'm ever gonna meet anyone like you, and I wouldn't wanna have it any other way, wouldn't you?"

Jaune couldn't help but break out in a wide smile at her unbelievably caring words, "Of course."

"So," she breathed out slowly, only momentarily breaking eye contact before reengaging his as her breath left a small mist against the cool nighttime air, "I wanted you to know that I always want us to be friends no matter what happened to either of us before Beacon, and no matter what happens to us from now on... but it's also why I need you to know how I feel about you Jaune, so you can remember that I felt this way no matter what happens to us after Beacon, or even after tonight..."

"Always, Ruby you know I-"

"And which is why I gotta do this-"

Jaune was startled when she suddenly hopped up into his arms, her hands letting go of his to wrap themselves around his neck while his own came up to hold her light frame instinctively without any trouble, any exclamation suddenly cut short when the most peculiar thing happened.

If there was a chill breeze he'd felt or heard before that moment, his skin and hearing had all but gone numb to the air around them as all bodily sensation was now entirely focused on the point where her lips suddenly closed around his, the contact suddenly sending an incredible rush through his body with the softness and faint scent of strawberry he got from her skin. Though she'd puckered up and braced herself for a rough impact against his mouth, she found the result to be quite the opposite as, ever the markswoman, she'd hit her target spot on and found it to be soooo much more tender than firm than she'd ever imagined.

Savoring the new level of warmth and every sensation of her body held in his, Ruby found herself slowly exhaling in pleasure which left her lips soften and sink even deeper against his before the moment finally passed and both teens slowly pulled away with pounding chests and heavier breaths.

"I-I needed you to know... s-so that maybe someday, you decide to let whatever happens to you after Beacon... include me at your side, like this..."

His mind a whirl of sensations and questions and endorphins, Jaune couldn't help but miss the soft presence against his lips that somehow was the only thing that still made any sense, a feeling that had immediately erased the need for questions between them. Alas, he was afforded no such mercy a second time as he was left to babble incoherently.

"I... wh, wai.. I..."

Ruby let herself down, more than aware of the increasing weakness in his body as he tried to process her emotions before she simply hugged him tightly instead, tight enough to feel herself beginning to squeeze out tears of utter joy and elation from her own eyes.

"I love you."

The knight felt his breath completely escape him at her words muttered in her embrace, his arms regaining a mind of their own and immediately wrapping themselves around her as he felt his own chest tighten with unexpected elation.

He'd no idea how he hadn't noticed it from her before... but presented in front of him, he now realized how obvious it should've always been. How obvious.

How right.

He nestled his chin onto her hair, lightly turning his head down to plant a soft, tender kiss on the crown of her head as they remained in their embrace... how dense he was not to notice that this had gone undiscovered, unfelt, unsaid for so many loops. And the fact that in some way he couldn't quite place... maybe it was how things were meant to be when it was all said and done.

When Beacon and everyone were finally safe from the grime and filth in this world.

"I love you, Jaune," Ruby finally began again as her head pulled back up to gaze at him with a soul-warming grin, his own eyes glazing over with the emotionally surreal nature of the moment before he could finally regain enough coherency to speak.

"I l-"

And maybe in the end, it was the surreal nature of the moment which aptly made the utter contrast of the sudden shattering sound of an aural construct that much more appropriate to his return to reality.

shlllick

Jaune's eyes widened as Ruby's weapon wielding arm went slack over his shoulder, an all too familiar blade protruding from her own shoulder before flicking up with an audible pop from the crimsonette's shoulder joint in protest before receding and leaving the girl to fall to the floor clutching her mangled shoulder in screamless, stunned pain.

But like the flip of a switch, Jaune was all but screamless and stunned, roaring as he pulsed out a wall of aura to force the mute assailant back and away from her quarry.

"WHYYYYYY!?"

Neo lunged at him, expecting his emotions to have begun meddling with his defensive accuracy by now but floored - literally - then the opposite proved true, the knight having somehow fed aura into his attacks to deflect her small flurry of blows with terrifying speed and power before dazing her when he practically flicked the flat end of the blade like some sort of cane to the side of her head faster than the human eye could perceive.

shlllick

The mute assailant's body curdled and writhed in pain when the strike with the flat end of the blade preceded a stab with its point, deep into her shoulder and practically pinning her where she lay as she sent back a silent roar of agony at her injurer that actually came out at the noise level of a shaky, heavy breath.

"Didn't even have to die once, you little insect," the enraged knight spat out with teeth bared at the assaulter, grinding his blade sadistically into her flesh until hearing the satisfying pop of her own shoulder and drawing it out only to stab at it again, and again, and again with every stressed word, "Just like a bug, even you leave a hint of where you're gonna go since you still move the air around you. So guess what. Just like Dirtbag Torchwick, now I know EVERY LITTLE TRICK IN YOUR B-!"

But with his fifth or sixth stab rebounding against the floor, having shattered through an illusion instead of flesh, Jaune growled loudly at his oversight and hastily looked around, sparing a brief glance at Ruby but knowing better than to give the bleeding student his full attention while Neo was still around. Ruby was still paralyzed from the injury, no doubt well into a state of shock, but Jaune's expression shifted somewhat to relief when he spotted a young woman he'd never seen before rush into the clearing.

She had dark, if not entirely black, hair done up in two ponytails as well as green eyes by what he could tell under the moonlight, and while he was somewhat unsettled that her monochromatic outfit with ivory ruffles and accessories sticking out at random locations bore a vague sort of resemblance to a Grimm's hide, he figured it must've been a foreign student thing and ventured it safe enough to drop his gaze down to the pained crimsonette and assess the damage before speaking up.

"Hey, we need your help! We got attacked and my friend is bleeding badly," he began loudly at the foreign student indirectly to indicate a new presence to their attacker and ward off any follow up attack now that there was a third witness on the scene, wrapping Ruby's cloak around her shoulder in a makeshift tourniquet before standing, "Please get her out of here and call for help, I'll stay to make sure you're not followed. And be careful, it's dangerous and I think the attacker might still be-"

Before he could take his eyes off of Ruby and turn back to face the new young woman who'd yet to speak up or otherwise acknowledge his words, he instead saw her eyes widen in utter horror as he felt a thin blade pierce him under the armpit and slice up through flesh and bone in a single clean cut that took his arm clean off its socket.

"...oh."

The knight looked between his exposed, bleeding socket and the young woman who held the telltale chokuto he'd become familiar with to the point of intimacy, at least as far as its intimacy with his innards were concerned, with a quiet tsk at himself for having let his pride affect his guard. Noticing the missing weapon beforehand, or the way her arm lay clearly limp at her side as she made her way over, would've been child's play, otherwise.

Even then, he couldn't help but furrow his brows as he stood between her and Ruby when he noticed her grinning sadistically at his wound.

Needless to say, the mute assassin was utterly and completely taken aback by his reaction.

"pfft... BAHAHAHAHA!"

Jaune's nearly manic chortling echoed throughout the courtyard, Neo actually taking a step back in confusion when he dropped his sword just to cradle his gut as he seemed to be on the verge of tears from his amusement, "You think... pfft... you think this, that this actually MATTERS!?"

"Your face! Haha! What a stupid face!" he continued impishly with another hearty chuckle before wiping a tear from his eye and leaving a smear of mixed blood from the two leaders in its place from where Ruby and he had bled out onto his hand, "You think... you truly believe... that this actually makes a difference, oh man that's rich...!"

Neo scowled, readying her weapon and admittedly feeling another surge of heat from her nether regions when he simply raised his only remaining arm out to the side and jut his chin out at her in defiance with The Crazy written all over his eyes.

"What! You wanna kill me? DO IT!" he roared with a grin that was equally mocking and enraged, "Do it so I can come back and take those pretty little pink eyes of yours out myself with my bare hands!"

She couldn't help but pause once again in her tracks... Neo had always laughed her heart out - soundlessly - at idle threats from psychotic marks who knew they had no chance of survival. The futility of it was so ironic that she couldn't help but see the humor in it as she would usually then enact their very threat onto them in some sort of twisted final death wish.

Of course Jaune had now just given her the perfect idea to torture him and that little red riding twig of a woman who'd dared touch her property, but something in his tone sounded so entirely and unequivocally sincere that she couldn't possibly understand how he could still be so convinced after how she'd essentially crippled him. It was both confusing and oh so arousing.

Or maybe it was the seldom experienced confusion fueling her arousal... oh, he was just too much fun teaching her so much about herself like this!

Apparently, however, Jaune had had enough of their one-way banter.

"Okay, so you're not gonna kill me?" the knight began with a disturbingly casual tone before grunting as he bent down to pick up his sword in a reverse grip, "Fine. I'll do it myself."

shlllick

Neo actually jerked her head back in surprise, eyes widening under furrowed brows as the knight actually ran himself through with his own sword.

Okay. Now that was just plain weird.

Positive now that there wasn't some kind of secret semblance or elemental spell that would manifest upon a fatal blow, Neo simply walked up to the dying knight with a cocked brow as he lay sprawled on his side in front of the weakly weeping crimsonette while bubbling out more of his lifeblood onto the school pavement in frothy clumps from his mouth. Skilled as he may be as a swordsman, he was clearly no pro at assassination if he couldn't even take his own life painlessly. What a pity.

Jaune slowly looked up to see the mute assailant's head now block the moonlight above him, catching an almost benign look in her eyes before a slight pressure on the side of his neck preceded the millisecond realization that from a single swift slash, his head was being separated from his body.

---

As if only a second later, red swirled back to pale white as eyes opened once more to see a faintly glowing crimsonette in perfect health enjoying the residual effects of the top up with closed eyes. Right now, protecting his best friend - and who knew what other labels applied now, if that last loop was anything definitive to go by - was Jaune's number one priority, even if it now meant facing another round of loops against Neo.

And unlike last time at the docks, this would have to be something the knight did alone, considering what that pint-sized monster deserved for what she'd just done. Jaune wouldn't let anything come to harm the young woman in front of him who's face currently looked nothing short of angelic.

He'd wondered why Ruby looked like this the first time around, but future occurrences considered, he now knew the reason, as well as why this had not been the first time she'd come out of a top up like that, either. It was an expression of total peace and contentment, one with a pretty unique touch of longing that couldn't be faked with something as simple like an unreadable mask often worn by-

Jaune's jaw slowly went slack with the sudden realization that a very similar expression of peace and contentment and longing was often also worn around him in his original timeline... by Pyrrha Nikos.

Of all people.

His realization came out in a long, drawled out remark in utter disbelief, "Nooo... Wayyy..."

So lost was he in the dizzying whirl of self depreciation at having missed something so incredibly obvious, that he barely heard his fellow leader trying to get his attention until she tapped him on the nose the second time.

"Jaune, you okay? You were kinda making a funny face there for a second."

Quickly shaking himself out of it, at least momentarily, Jaune quickly put on his practiced lopsided smile before tousling her hair.

"Never better, all thanks to you, Ruby. You really are the best. I'll be back later!"

His warm words preceding his departure as he headed towards the courtyard, his mind was still dumbfounded about the discovery and its implications before he took a silent sigh in realization.

Sure, Pyrrha had possibly had some feelings for him and his scrawny self, and even before he had any skills to speak of... but that was another timeline. Another reality.

He paused, his feet stopping just short of the end of the final shadow cast by the archways before he could be enveloped by the ample moonlight cast around the courtyard. With a small huff, Jaune recentered his thoughts on the much more recent turn of events.

Right now, Ruby was more important than his conjectures on his partner. Even if this was just another loop, those feelings were current for her regardless. Pyrrha was a past long gone, but Ruby was real.

Jaune turned around, walking back to his fellow leader who hadn't moved from where she'd been left and with eyes closed seemed to be muttering to herself with fists balled to her sides.

"Confidence, confidence, confidence..."

"Ruby?"

Needless to say, the effect of his words was immediate as it nearly caused her to jump out of her hood, "Eep! Jaune!"

He couldn't help a small chortle at that, knowing how adorable she could be and beginning to blush as memories of the kiss resurfaced in his mind. As a short silence befell the pair, he scratched as his head as he momentarily tried to put aside their current peril to organize his thoughts and address this situation as best as he could.

"I was just thinking about something... back when you told me a long time ago that there probably wasn't a world where we wouldn't get along, remember?"

Her face lit up, eyes smiling as brightly as her lips in recognition, "Yeah!"

He nodded with a small smile before continuing, "Well... I never got to tell you, how much I'd truly come to believe what you said that night."

"Well, I mean it's just a figure of speech..." she trailed off as Jaune gave her a meaningful chuckle while shaking his head, his own mind coming to realize how much more meaningful her words were becoming even now.

"No... I'm pretty convinced that it'd be the case literally," he replied with a small grin, "And I never got to tell you how much you helped me in the beginning... the very beginning... to give me a chance to believe in myself as a leader and a future hunter before anyone else could."

She cocked her head a bit at the possible undisclosed meaning, but smiled regardless, "I mean, even if I can't really put my finger on why... you just seemed like someone cut out for it," she then added with a mischievous chuckle, "even if you had a long way to go."

"Heyyyyy," Jaune muttered in protest, lightly shoving Ruby in the shoulder as they both fell into a warm round of giggles. But taking his hand as it fell, Ruby gave it a small squeeze as she held onto it and continued. Jaune wasn't fazed in the slightest.

"But I knew that you were gonna be a great leader, and also that I'd want to be by your side as you changed the world..."

"Right. And that's why I wanted to tell you," Jaune began, watching the young woman take a deep breath as if to calm herself from her expectations and feeling the comforting warmth emanating from her hands sending waves of inexplicable joy through him at the time they'd spent together over so many loops as trusted friends who'd do anything for each other, "How deeply I feel for having had someone like you in my life."

The knight, while doing his best to keep calm, couldn't help his heartrate slowly rising as he shuffled a little closer towards her immediate space.

"I want you to know that even if we never knew each other before Beacon, the times we've spent together and everything we've all had are things I wouldn't change or want to give up for anything in the world... but it's more so with you than anyone. You believed in me while I was struggling to believe in the impossible. And you stayed by my side until I could finally become the impossible... I wouldn't be standing here if it weren't for you. So I want you to know, I'll always be there for you, Ruby."

He took her other hand, the young girl's eyes shimmering under the dim light in pure happiness.

"No matter what it takes. I promise."

"Jaune, I..." Ruby began with a small crack in her voice before letting out a shaky breath out of the building emotion, "I-I never thought I'd get to meet someone like you before... a-and I wouldn't wanna have it any other way..."

Jaune couldn't help but break out in a wide smile at her unbelievably caring words, gently bending down to bop her forehead with his, "Of course not. You only get one bestie, after all."

He breathed out slowly, only momentarily breaking eye contact before reengaging hers as he watched her breath leaving a small mist against the cool nighttime air, "I wanted you to know that I always want us to be friends no matter what happened to either of us before Beacon, and no matter what happens to us from now on... but after Beacon... heck, maybe even after this year..."

The knight didn't miss how her hands suddenly began instinctively gripping tighter against his, practically to the point he could feel her accelerating pulse against his skin. He'd already meant every word he said, and this only gave him all he needed to know that what he was doing was the right thing.

"I wanna see where this goes... you know, us... d'you wanna, give it a sho-?"

"Yes!" the crimsonette practically yelped with the most excitement he'd ever seen from her, quite bodily throwing herself on him in an easily Nora-level sloth hug, "Yesyesyes ohmygosh yes!"

"O-Okay," Jaune grunted under the pressure, though relishing in the warmth from the side of her head pressed against his along with the faint scent of strawberry from her hair until he could bear said pressure no longer, "Kinda... r-restricting some air flow now..."

"Oops," she replied simply, hopping down and holding both hands behind herself while rocking back and forth a bit excitedly, "Hehe..."

Jaune grinned, deciding to go so far as to reach out and brush a lock of Ruby's hair behind her ear before tenderly cradling the side of her face in his hand, "Thanks for today... gotta go now."

The crimsonette simply nodded, watching him with silver eyes that almost sparkled as she nuzzled her cheek a little deeper into his touch. Each leader slowly moving apart, Ruby couldn't help her breath hitching as she saw him walk into the courtyard and into the moonlight where his armor... clothes... even his hair... all seemed to shine white.

Taking the moment to bask in the sight of the tall, broad knight... her white knight someday, if she played her cards right... she giggled to herself as she entertained the thought of how he had the stature and gait of a future Headmaster as he walked towards the clock tower before she finally turned back around to the library.

This had gone much better than she'd originally imagined - she'd neither been too soon nor too late, and she was more than happy to give their friendship time to really grow in the meantime.

The blissful crimsonette even gave herself the liberty of a final bashful smile before opening the library door, mentally checking off the final item that she'd been sure not to show her co-planner from her "borrowed" planner binder.

"Best. Day. Ever."

---

"You did the right thing, man. You did the right thing."

Jaune muttered the same thing for the second or third time as he stood near the statue in the courtyard, his earlier mirth having faded moments after Ruby had left.

He did love her, this he knew. In fact, as he'd come to realize before turning back to speak to her, he loved all of them. It hadn't taken too many hundreds of loops after his first day at Beacon to really think about why he was doing this in the first place, and while he'd thought for the longest time that this was about Beacon, justice, or as he'd seldom been so lofty to imagine, the safety of all of Remnant... his spat at the docks had painfully uncovered the fact that he cared for none of it.

Not Beacon, not Remnant, not even the ideal of right and wrong.

He didn't care. All he wanted was his friends to be okay. RWBY, JNPR. No one else really mattered, and in the weeks between semesters he'd only had that realization reinforced, the reality that those seven students were truly the only life he knew. In any timeline.

It kept him going long beyond what his mind should've logically been able to handle, but as long as he could reach another reset point with the ones he loved all alive and accounted for, then Jaune was willing to bear all the world's evils until they could finally live their Beacon lives in peace.

So while he truly loved Ruby, while he couldn't help but notice how their auras hadn't just happened to resonate in a way that healed them, but had resonated ever since the beginning, though time and space... he couldn't let himself feel that way about her.

Not while he couldn't be sure if this timeline would be his last iteration of events, not while he couldn't be sure if that's what whatever higher power there was had meant for him to have when everything was said and done.

But... for the safety of his friends, the knight certainly wasn't going to let anyone stand in his way of finding out.

"Wherever you are, I know you're watching," he began firmly, his voice carrying across the moonlit marble and granite and through the shadows of the archways surrounding him, "Show yourself. No point in surprises."

At that, a young woman walked out from between a few arches in the direction of the clock tower, a look of innocent confusion on her face and a glint of curiosity in her green eyes which only had Jaune's scowl deepen to the point of grinding teeth.

"Or halfassed disguises. That Ursa outfit makes you look fat."

A splitsecond glare of genuine offense going over Neo's face, her expression morphed into an insidious smirk as her eyes flicked from green to alternating pink and brown as she flirtatiously flitted her eyelashes at him.

Not biting the bait, Jaune drew his sword but was taken aback when she suddenly blipped out and back into existence in front of him with an expanding lacy parasol that came out of nowhere.

"What the-"

His momentary surprise having cost him, Jaune didn't even get to finish his words before a second teleport preceded Neo forcefully bashing him in the back of the head with the hilt of her chokuto while her parasol harmlessly floated down at his feet.

The knight was out cold before he hit the ground...

Or at least, he'd assumed he must've hit the ground, because when he came to, he was still upright.

Eyes opened slowly to see that his surroundings had suddenly changed entirely, his gaze widening considerably as he realized he was in some sort of warehouse chained to the outside of a small shipping container... shirtless.

There wasn't much to help him gauge his current location; initially believing himself to be in a warehouse near the docks again, he could see outside a large window to his side - he was apparently on the second or third floor of a warehouse - that he was more likely in the Valean industrial district, his eyes narrowing as he watched a group of suspicious individuals hauling in a very large covered metallic object into the side of a neighboring warehouse.

Even in civilian clothes, he didn't miss how every one of them had several Faunus features. Or that they were well armed.

Jaune tried straining against the shackles restraining his arms, legs, and torso, but noticed it gave him very little wiggle room. His imprisoner must've been pretty good with bondage. But it also made him aware of how dirty he felt, his skin nearly crusty in some parts and his hands still sticky from an unknown residue.

Looking around what was apparently a sort of makeshift room consisting of a nearby bed, a mini fridge, and the ridiculously placed container he was chained to all on an upper floor deck area, Jaune finally spotted his gear sitting atop some of his clothes tucked behind the headboard. Looking at his hand and flexing his fingers with a small measure of disgust as the sticky substance seemed to give off a peculiar smell, Jaune coalesced his aura around it and tried using what little momentum it gave to attempt to whisk an aura projection at his gear and grab his sword.

He huffed in frustration when after a few tries, it was apparent that he had too little momentum and that his weapon was too far away. Strangely, he found his mind drifting to his night at the docks and the face of his fellow leader desperately trying to save him...

'JAUNE ARC YOU SNAP OUT OF IT RIGHT NOW, YA HEAR ME!?'

"I must've looked like crap at the time," he quietly lamented at the thought, sighing as he thought to how it must've looked to the young woman who cared for him so deeply.

But he didn't regret it. He'd still have looped back to kill them had it not been for Ruby, or his subsequent promise to Blake, but now that rage served more as a reminder of what was at stake instead of the driving force behind his actions... he cared about his friends too much to give up the very part of himself he'd pledged to them just for revenge for acts that didn't really matter in the end.

However. He'd still search for whoever was responsible for all of this, something he'd realized was much bigger than two petty psychopaths... and possibly... possibly even the White Fang itself.

And he'd make them pay.

"Hm."

His mind now taking him to its next train of thought, Jaune found his brows furrowing as he thought once more back to the night at the docks when he'd blacked out. Come to think of it, Ruby had often gushed afterwards about how that weird new girl somehow seemed to easily fight off hordes of White Fang with swords that she assumed were attached to the ends of a sort of aural strings.

Strings.

Jaune had often chuckled to himself at the incredulous probability of finding himself at the mercy of a student fighting with aural strings as he practiced manipulating real ones with his semblance. He couldnt help but see the situational irony in that, but now... it gave him an idea.

"Hmm."

Glancing back at his hands with renewed concentration, Jaune licked his lips - which he suddenly realized were also slightly coated with that same smelly substance - as he willed his aura around his hand and pursed all five fingers around a single point aimed at his sword before spinning them in tandem.

With the mental image of a spider slowly weaving its silk, he was delightfully rewarded as his aura complied, coalescing around the tips of his fingers in a slowly rotating funnel before it began reaching out as a shining white string. He couldn't help a small grin as the string began reaching much further than his projections could go, and would've reached the hilt of his weapon...

Had it not been for the sudden sounds of someone coming up the old iron staircase at the far side of the room in front of him.

His stomach fell at the sight of the pink and brown hair bobbing up and down as his captor skipped up the staircase into view, but his temper flared at the sight of what she was wearing...

His sweater... and apparently not much else.

"What the flying Grimm, that's my sweater! Where am I!" he growled out, suddenly stopping as his thrashing made him acutely aware of a lack of pressure down under and eyes going wide as saucers when he looked down, "And why are my PANTS unzipped!?"

His only reply was the young woman cheerily waving hello before cheekily pointing at his nether regions with a so-so hand gesture... before slowly making it a thumbs up with an approving smirk and nod.

"So Blake's murder at the docks was your idea..."

Ignoring the heat rising in his cheeks, he was about to snap a few choice words at the psychopath when the words stopped cold at the assassin's idle action of flipping open the mini fridge and bending down with her derrière perfectly aligned to him as his sweater rode up to expose what was underneath.

Jaune could only blink as Neo shut the door and stood up with a cruel smirk on her face and a single-serve cup of ice cream in her hands, the utterly gleeful glint in her eyes her acknowledgment that she now knew it was the first time the knight had lain eyes into the depths of a woman's... womanhood.

So much for Schroedinger's Panties. Even the Pumpkin Pete logo on the sweater now seemed to stare back at him with a taunting mirth.

Anger now mixed with a slightly increasing sense of alarm, Jaune began thrashing again as she simply teleported over to the bed, now seated on the mattress with legs crossed over the edge towards him as she popped open the top and undid the attached plastic spoon to begin her snack from maybe three or four feet in front of him.

He glanced at the shackles when forcing out his aura in a pulse didn't do anything, slowly realizing that sudden bursts were somehow dampened by the material that seemed to absorb aural activity over a certain level.

"What are these things?"

Neo's only reply being the very deliberate slow uncrossing of her legs, causing Jaune to unconsciously gulp as he once again caught sight of the assassin's open, well-trimmed mound, she took a spoonful of ice cream before standing with the spoon in her mouth and taking the step or two left to close the space between them.

Jaune's entire body lurched to the side when Neo leaned down, with ice cream still on her tongue, and licked him from the waistband all the way up to just below his chest.

"Don't you touch me!"

With rage rising, Jaune leveled the offending assassin with a death glare, the young woman's grin widening in seeming proportion with his growing anger as she tossed the ice cream cup behind her and let her hands settle tantalizingly slowly on each side of his waistband.

"Let me Go!" Jaune now practically screamed out, his alarm quickly morphing into sheer fury as she began applying light pressure downwards on the elastic of his underwear, "I said STOP!"

The pulse of white aura that somehow still managed to manifest caught the young assassin off guard, even though it hadn't been nearly enough to push her even halfway back to the bed, and it only seemed to fuel her elation as her eyes each settled on pink at the fallen knight of madness.

"You wanna kill me!? DO IT!" he roared as she simply closed the gap to flirtatiously wrap an arm around his waist, not even bothering to hide her evidently growing lust as she licked her lips and closed in to his waistline.

He thrashed violently the moment she came close enough, wondering if that had been the reason why she started planting small kisses upwards on his now well-toned torso - thanks to continuous rigorous training over the past few months - instead of downwards, yelling with even more impetus as he tried bucking as much as his confines would let him.

"Stop it with these stupid games! Just kill me now so I can come back and rip your worthless throat out!"

She paused only to look up and give him a predatory grin before returning to her ministrations on his chest and now to his shoulder, the knight yelling in pain when her other arm suddenly came up on his other side to forcefully yank his head back by the hair and expose his collarbone to her.

The body heat coming off this demented woman was tremendous by now, but Jaune's skin suddenly ran ice cold when he realized the heat was also due in part to aura - the pinkish aura unwittingly surrounding the hand which had the side of his head in a vice-like grip...

And the other she'd just placed on his chest.

"No..." Jaune practically whispered in muted terror as he felt her aura drawing out his and beginning to intermingle, "N-No, no!"

Neo paid his words no heed, making her way across his collarbone towards his neck as he could practically sense his semblance slowly resetting to this very moment.

"No! Stop, STOP!" he continued as the first long kiss was planted on his neck... eyes watering as he realized he was already too late, "NOOOOOOOOOO-!"

But his voice suddenly going hoarse and cutting out completely, Jaune felt a dull crunch in his neck and a searing pain briefly shooting up and back into full-body numbness aside from the sensation of some sort of liquid now cascading all over his abdomen.

With eyes slowly clouding over in death, all Jaune could do was watch the young woman in front of him slip her now sticky hand up from underneath his sweater to dip two fingers into her mouth now sticky with his blood...

All before pulling them out perfectly clean and placing that index finger to her pursed lips with a heavy exhale which came out as the closest thing to a real word he'd ever hear her use.

'Shhhhh...'

---

A/N: So, here's the thing.

I don't wanna come across as Johnny Raincloud, but I also know I'm spoiling people with these monster chapter lengths and I don't want anyone to get used to it cuz... well, some of the next chapters may only be like half as long or something! However, a lot had to happen in this chapter, going back to the second or third author's note I added to this story - there are multiple pairings, but it's not a harem. I mean, it is in a way, but kinda not. And as this arc gets started, you'll soon start to see why it also kinda maybe is.

What IS a harem, anyway?

Meh. I digress.

So, did anyone think I'd actually give Jaune a actual full chapter of actual fluff after a previous chapter like that!? *Laughs a robust Professor Port laugh* hahaHAH, my dear readers, he shan't have it! He shan't!

However... things will get interesting, so stay tuned for the next chapter.

*Fun fact: Ren was actually supposed to use cucumbers in the original food fight animation, but the idea ended up getting the axe because... well, cmon. Also, Remnant historical scholars (cough cough RT) agree that Ren could've won against Yang in the canon food fight had it not been for the generous momentary upskirt flash in midair. And there you have it, folks - facts of the day.*

In any case, leave a Fave, Follow, and Review if you haven't already since all support is appreciated for a slowly recovering writer like myself. Many of your reviews kept me motivated to make my return to writing more permanent, and I can't tell you how much all 800 of them have meant to me since the beginning. So to all you readers: Peace, Love, and all of the above!

And Happy Reading!

P.S.
Ah. And a final note for those who fear that the story may become too dark to handle:

Attendre, et espérer.