Thursday, May 11th

"I mean… it sounds crazy, right?" Jaune said to Ruby and Blake as they all headed to the dorms together. "Why would Ozpin do something like that?" He put his hands up behind his head, letting his bag dangle behind his back. " He hasn't asked me to do… well, much of anything really." He held out his right hand, gesticulating as he spoke, still holding the bag behind him with his left. "I mean, sure he did some mumbo jumbo about being on my best behavior and… making my story into something worth talking about…. Or something."

"Do you think that's where his…" Blake paused for a moment, looking for a tactful way to say what she wanted to say. "His problem comes from?" She used her hand to pantomime drinking from a glass.

"I'd think so." Jaune said back, wracking his brain. "I mean, if Ozpin asked me to hurt my sister, I think I'd be in a pretty weird state too." He stretched wide. "Having these powers is really cool and all, and… to be honest, I don't think I was much of anything before…" he gestured to Ruby and Blake and himself. "Before this. Without this Persona, Grimm Hour, Musspell stuff, I was just a deadbeat kid."

"I'm sure it wasn't that bad." Blake responded quickly. "You were nice to me when we first met, and that wasn't in the Grimm Hour." She met his eyes, lips curling. "I think you might just be a nice person, Jaune."

"Aw, shucks." Jaune smiled a goofy smile back. "You're pretty cool too, you know. It's not every day you see someone strong enough to scare the crap out of their abusive boyfriend." He chuckled to himself. "I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if Adam wet himself on the way out after what you pulled with Freya."

Blake blushed slightly. She coughed into her hand, mentally regaining her composure for a moment in the silence after Jaune spoke. "I couldn't have done it without you." She blushed again slightly, then readjusted. "All of you, I mean. Working together."

"We're just glad to have you on the team, Blake." Jaune grinned at her. "Isn't that right, Ruby?" He turned and looked at Ruby, who had been quiet the entire walk back. Weirdly quiet, now that he thought about it. She seemed to be staring off into space.

"Huh?" Ruby's face shot forward with a sudden start. "Oh, um… yeah! Definitely glad to have you on board, Blake." She immediately regained a distant, not-quite there look as they kept walking. A silence dragged on between them as Blake and Jaune picked up that, just maybe, something might be wrong with Ruby.

"The stuff with your Uncle's pretty confusing, huh Ruby?" Jaune said out of the blue, stopping and looking at her. "Wanna talk about it?"

"It's… it's ok." Ruby said, wrinkling her brow as she looked at the ground and kept walking past Jaune. Jaune circled around her, stopping in front of her so short that Ruby almost bumped into him. Jaune held out his arms, and just stood there, staring at her. Ruby looked to the ground, then back up to Jaune, then took a step forward and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"I don't think it's ok, Ruby." Jaune said. He looked at Blake over Ruby's shoulder as she stood there awkwardly. He gave her a smile, and she walked forward, wrapping her arms around Ruby and Jaune for a group hug. "And that's ok, you know. That it's not ok."

"We're- I'm…. I mean…" Blake stuttered for a moment, then found her words. "We're here for you, Ruby. We're here for each other. We protect each other." She took in a deep breath, squeezing tighter around Ruby and Jaune. There was a silence, and when they finally broke after a few moments, Ruby was smiling with her eyes starting to water. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her sleeve.

"It's just… a lot to process." Ruby said, finally. "Uncle Qrow didn't just fight Shadows, but he had crazy powers like Jaune has?" She inhaled. "And not only that, but the guy giving Jaune powers wanted Qrow to kill Yang's mom?" She put her hands to the sides of her head, and looked up at the sky. "What even is this? It makes no sense!" She sighed heavily, looking at Jaune. "I'm worried about you too! What if these awesome Persona powers we're getting are really the work of some evil mastermind?"

"I don't think he's evil." Jaune said with a half-shrug. "He's only ever been nice to me. He seems really… smart. Like he's seen a lot of things." He tapped his chin. "I wish there were some way we could just find out what happened between Qrow and Ozpin. I don't think he's going to be available for questioning, though." He slumped his shoulders. "He didn't answer any of our questions before storming up to his room and slamming the door shut last night."

"He's probably still in a stupor right now." Blake said, scrunching up her face in thought. The trio all looked at each other and shrugged, then continued on their way back to the dorm. After about twenty or so steps, Blake stopped suddenly, looking at the two of them, then making eye contact with Jaune. "You could… just ask Ozpin?" She stated blatantly.

"Oh." Ruby said, eyes widening. "Oh!" She looked up at Jaune, smiling. "That's such a good idea! You can just go to the room and chit chat with him, right Jaune?"

"I… um…" Jaune felt very put on the spot. A million excuses ran through his head in that moment; what would he even say? What if Ozpin didn't want to tell the truth? Didn't this conversation prove Ozpin might not be able to be trusted? Or that he was dangerous? Then, he looked at Ruby's face and saw how happy the prospect made her. "Yeah." He said, straightening his back and looking Ruby straight in the eyes. "Yes, I can."

Jaune had to admit to himself, too, that he wanted answers. Ozpin had been nothing but straightforward to him up to this point; so maybe he'd be willing to give the answers they needed to make sense of this situation after all.

"Mister Arc." Glynda said with a smile, sitting on the edge of Ozpin's desk. "It's good to see you join us again."

"Hey Glynda, same here." Jaune said casually as he looked about the strange indigo hued classroom around him. The desks were, as always, occupied by a number of dolls. Weiss's head still sat facedown, and the room had shifted somewhat slightly to make room for a new desk at the very back of the class, away from the other occupied desks. This one held a doll of Qrow, one arm draped casually over the back of the seat with his left leg stretched out onto the desk in front of him. Jaune idly glanced over at his desk and realized there was no card.

"So I see you've made a new friend, Mister Arc."

Ozpin's voice echoed throughout the classroom. The strange tonal quality, the hypnotizing calmness, seemed almost eerie to Jaune. For the first time since coming to the Velvet Room, Jaune felt a sensation of something other than safety. He slowly turned around, waving a hand in the air at Ozpin, who sat with his fingers steepled in front of him, his eyes hidden behind the light reflecting on his glasses.

"H-hey Ozpin. Yeah, got us a new buddy, neat Persona powers… haven't established a social link or anything so um, should probably get on that. The whole 'we're stronger together' thing, it's pretty cool and all." He glanced around nervously, a slight bead of sweat forming at his brow. "So um, how are things?"

"You could cut to the chase, Mr. Arc." Ozpin said calmly as he glanced up at Glynda. He was showing small signs of amusement all over his face. "That would save Glynda having to watch this whole embarrassing display."

"I do, however, enjoy it so." Glynda said with a smirk as she adjusted her glasses.

"Haha.. ha… yeah…" Jaune coughed into his hand and played with the hem of his shirt for a moment, straightening himself up. "So… about the whole… um…" Jaune kept looking around nervously, stepping away from Qrow's desk and gesturing at him with both hands. "Qrow being a wild card… thing…"

"That's correct." Ozpin said, calmly. Glynda nodded beside him as he spoke. She slowly stepped away from the desk at the front of the class. As she did so, Jaune could see that there was text behind her. The word on the chalkboard read 'GUILT' in large, bold letters.

"You are not the first, Jaune. I suspect, in all things, that you shall not be the last." Ozpin slowly came to stand from his desk. As he did so, he grabbed at a cane that was leaning up against the wall behind him. He took a step forward, using the cane, which elicited a staccato *tick* every time it hit the ground in front of his foot.

"We are at a war, of sorts, young man." Ozpin said, finally, looking up over his glasses. "I must admit, I was only partly honest with you." He gestured to the room around himself. "This place is… special. It can only be entered by those bound by a contract. It is true that my goal here is to shape your narrative; to help you shape your story to a full one, a strong one. A story worth telling."

"Did… did you say the same thing to Qrow?" Jaune said, looking back at the doll. His face scrunched up with confusion as he remembered Qrow's conversation from the night before. He wanted me to kill my sister. Jaune played that phrase over in his head as he turned his gaze back to Ozpin.

"I said something… similar." Ozpin admitted, calmly. He took a few more steps away from his desk, glancing toward the door that left the Velvet Room. "I said a great many things, you see. Qrow had a great deal of promise in him." Ozpin lifted his cane and tapped Pyrrha's desk lightly. "Like you, he had the power of the Wild Card." He returned the cane to the floor. "Unlike you, however, he could not share this power with others. Instead, he had the ability to use those multiple personas himself." Ozpin turned to Glynda and nodded.

"It was a strange circumstance, you see." Glynda said as she walked over to the blackboard and leaned against it. "One Wild Card is rare enough, but… in this case, we had two."

"Wait… Qrow wasn't the only one at the time?" Jaune said, raising his eyebrow at Glynda. "There was another Wild Card with him?"

"That's correct." Ozpin said. He took a few steps toward Jaune and the desk Qrow sat at. As he landed his final step, the cane tapped the ground and echoed for a moment in the silence that followed. "The young man was accompanied by his sister. Ms. Branwen also possessed this power; though you may know her as Raven."

"Wait, wait." Jaune held his hands in front of him, shaking his palms as he shook his head back and forth. "If Qrow's sister was a Wild Card, why did you tell Qrow to kill her?" Jaune looked up at Ozpin, whose stare remained as calm and careful as ever. "Wouldn't two Wild Cards make it even easier to explore Muspell?"

"It did." Glynda stated from across the room. "Very, very briefly." She leaned her head back to the wall. "However, as my Master said, we are at something of a war." Glynda straightened herself from the wall, letting out a deep sigh. "And in this case, Ms. Bronwen chose the… other side."

"You mean she teamed up with the Shadows?" Jaune said scratching the back of his head. "Aren't they just crazy monsters? How could anyone try to team up with them?"

"Not quite." Ozpin glanced at Qrow's doll, and then at the dolls around him. "The shadows are the allies of no one. They're loose, wild emotions that pray on the weak of heart." Ozpin sighed, glancing up at the ceiling. "Our enemy is a little more… complex. People who think that saving the world takes a much more callous heart than the one that beats inside your chest."

"So they're… other people?" Jaune said, looking around the Velvet Room. "Do they have a place like this?"

"I'm afraid I couldn't possibly give you the specifics, merely the name." Ozpin adjusted his glasses for a moment. He walked back to his desk, set his cane back against the wall, and sat back down. He once again sat his face behind his steepled fingers. The light once again obscured his eyes behind his glasses. "Salem." He said, finally. "We call them Salem."

"What a rush!" Adam stood with a wide-eyed smile, his pupils strangely large as the small group of shadows disappeared in front of him. They were in a place that seemed to be a large, frigid tundra. Ice blasted by them in sheets, but none of them seemed to notice the cold. Next to him stood Cinder and the rest of her group, looking on as the black particles vanished into the sky. Cinder started to clap, which was followed by her dark skinned, green haired friend and then the pale silver haired young man. Adam raised his hands to the applause. "This is what I'm talking about! I'd like to see Blake try to mess with me now!"

"Oh, I'm sure she'll get the chance soon enough." Cinder said with a smile. She turned to the silver haired man. "Mercury." He stood slightly straighter as she said his name. "You should let our teacher know that we've found something… quite interesting."

"That… won't be necessary." The green haired girl said with a hand to her head. "I can feel her. She's here." As soon as she finished speaking, another clap began from outside of view.

Adam's eyes shot around, and his eyes began to dilate further as his body began to shake – but Cinder's hand on his shoulder calmed him. "Don't worry." She said, calmly. "This one's a friend."

"Not bad, kid." A woman's harsh, commanding voice echoed throughout the tundra, followed by her appearance from out of the white blasting snow. As she stepped into view, her applause ceased. The woman's long, jet black hair fell in wild streaks down her back to the back of her knees. She wore black tights that stretched up to her maroon colored jacket. "You've got promise."

"You haven't seen half of what I can do with this." Adam said, his eyes still eerily wide and his smile still going from ear to ear. "This stuff is great!" He held an empty syringe in his visibly shaking hand. "I'll show everyone! No one's going to question what I can do again!"

"Patience." The newcomer nodded cautiously. "But don't worry, the time will come. Soon, I think." She looked around the tundra, back at the small, barely visible road that lead through the snow to where they were now. Far, in the distance, was a large, white tower that had a small door at the bottom of it, featuring the roman numeral four. "We just have to wait for them to catch up."