"Jaune!" Yang's eyes went wide in shock, not understanding what had happened in these last few seconds, thinking that she was simply witnessing her life flashing before her eyes, only to have control of her body given to herself all at once again, and in that same instant, Jaune, her Jaune was right there to catch her in her first step.
"Hi, Yang." Jaune watched Yang, her eyes widening in shock as she sought to understand what had just happened. He stepped back a pace after he stopped Yang from falling and helping her back to her own two feet, giving her space to settle down as he assumed she might need a minute to adjust.
Yang didn't know what to think, her mind was to scattered to conceive of any idea on what exactly had happened, or was currently going on, all she knew that her Jaune was standing before herself, giving her a moment to collect her thoughts but she couldn't, she could only stare at Jaune, looking at him and making absolutely sure that this Jaune was hers. The answer was found in his eye's, each perfect blue sphere held a look that only he ever had when he looked at her, a look that grew even fonder as they had children and even now, none of what it had been was diminished.
Her thoughts began to come back to her and she found the look, still holding the care it always had but beyond that, there was a deep void, no word could explain what the void was but it's feeling was clear. Yang knew from the look that Jaune cared more for her than anyone could conceive but he had also spent so much time without her, his eyes were agelessly older from the last time she had looked into them, a depth to them that only someone who knew Jaune's history could even begin to notice.
She wanted to say something, anything, to Jaune, but words felt like they could not possibly be enough to respond to his eyes. While her mind was unable to find words to speak her body reacted all on its own as her mind was struck speechless, as well as thoughtless.
A tentative arm reached out and touched one of Jaune's exposed arms, the contact of her fingers against his flesh prompted her to step towards him, sliding her arm behind his back and reaching around with her other to hold Jaune in a tight embrace. It only took a single instant for Jaune's arms to wrap around her and reciprocate the tight, personal embrace.
Roman was a bit stumped by how exactly he was supposed to complete this robbery and make the failure look impressive enough to get Red some attention from Beacon. Normally his identity would be enough to fast track her into Beacon, or at least that's what he assumed, he really was short on a few details.
Jaune hadn't been exactly full of details when he asked about how this would work when the topic first came up.
His identity was still a major factor and he didn't exactly want to blow that here, he was rather enjoying the ability to walk down a busy street in the middle of the day and not be identified.
While stumped to know if his plan would be good enough he did have one plan.
The Red Axe Gang members with him were all made to change clothes. Gone were their usual suits and glasses, even the weapon they all carried that painted them as part of the gang were left behind, each member wore basic street clothes, simple enough fair that no one would be able to spot them in a crowd.
Their weapons were also fairly standard fare as well, no blades, or firearms, each man held a lead pipe or a short length of chain, more the fair of a run of the mill gang of thugs, which is precisely what Roman wanted them to be, the less they stood out the more likely his appearance would be taken more seriously.
He had similarly dressed himself down as well, but while his hired goons for the night looked like a gang of thugs he had the appearance of a cat burglar.
Decked from head to toe in black clothing, hiding away any distinctive feature, most difficult was his brightly colored hair but with enough patience, he managed that with a tight balaclava.
The plan was simple, so simple that the goons would have no way to mess it up for him.
They would shake down the dust shop, not for Dust but just for protection money or some other threat that would cause enough of a scene to get Red to step in. Each goon was instructed that their job was just a distraction so that he could slip into another business and acquire something else, once they had caused enough of a scene they were told to flee, each man was given a route that they should follow, all essentially leading to exactly where he himself would be exiting from his robbery. Hopefully in as perfect timing as he could manage to make him seem like the more important target for Red.
Then it was a simple process of exchanging a few hit's with the little Huntress making it just flashy enough that the nearby Glynda Goodwitch would appear and after that he would use a carefully placed and conceal Neo and her Semblance to escape, all in all, a fairly simple plan, now it was just a matter of putting it into action.
Jaune had placed Yang's normal favorite drink in front of her, the Strawberry Sunrise though had gone completely untouched as Jaune had spent the time since their long embrace had ended, and getting her back to an empty table, and getting them both drinks explaining everything about what was going on.
His numerous lifetimes since they had been together, how he could basically force a peaceful world for at least the duration of his lifetime, How he was ripped through countless previous lives by a combination of Salem and the Relics from a previous lifetime, as well as the deal offered to him by the Relics if he could complete their task.
Of course, he didn't go into the finer detail right now, Juniors club was hardly the appropriate place to go into depth on what exactly was happening but he condensed everything as much as he could.
"So..." Jaune tried to prompt a response from Yang after bringing her up to speed on everything that was important. When he finished the two sat in a prolonged awkward silence he felt should have ended already.
"This is all so... weird." Yang finally took her drink and drained it in a single long pull, raising her arm and the glass with it in the air signaling for a refill which came in moments, Jaune having hired one of Junior's servers to cater specifically to his table. "I was dying a moment ago, and then I was watching my life play out before me all over again until I got to this point right here." Yang took her second drink and drained it as quickly as the first, though this time she didn't raise her arm to signal another, simply setting the empty glass before her. "Okay, you have told me everything right? No missing details you skipped over, everything you told me is the complete and honest truth as you know it?"
"Pretty much yeah, I mean, Roman is also back with us and I restored his memories first." Jaune looked away sheepishly, trying to act as casually as he could as he let Yang absorb that small tidbit of information.
To her credit, Yang kept her voice even and calm as she spoke. "You gave Roman back him memories before me?" The hint of threat in the calm tone could not be overstated.
Jaune put his hand up slightly, palms outward in defense, not cowed or intimidated in the slightest at Yang's slight effort at intimidation. He knew when she was simply putting on a face and this was one of those moments. "I have a legitimately good reason for that."
Roman walked through the closed weapon store with all the confidence of someone who was not only allowed to be here but that belonged here. Breaking in through the back door and disabling the security system had been almost too easy. The system was a couple of iterations old and barely took a minute to disable both the silent and auditory alarms.
Walking through the store he would quickly lockpick any display case that held something that looked interesting, each lock taking a portion of his limited time before his goons were driven away by Red so he didn't have a lot of time to window shop so he kept his attention focused on the large primary displays.
He need to gather a new weapon for himself, Melodic Cudgel having to be left behind because it was an identifier to who he was.
A dust revolver now sat on his hip, the first item he lifted from a cage, along with a belt and holster that appeared to be made specifically for it. The weapon's barrel was far to short for him, and he knew in a fight he would be sorely at a disadvantage but this was only a moderately trains Huntress he would be dealing with, and he would be abandoning the fight with Neo's help the moment Glynda showed up so he would manage.
After arming himself he just began to stuff a random assortment of weapons into the large duffle bag he carried with him, pause every few moments to listen for sounds of fighting. It didn't take long for the noise to appear or for the sounds of his goons losing to signal it was time to appear himself.
Hefting the partially filled back he ran for the back door he entered from and emerged into the alley just as little Red dashed past the exit.
Her eyes took in his appearance in an instant and her eyes widened in surprise and shock for a moment before they spotted the bag he held, a few weapons peeking out at weird angles.
Roman found himself frozen in shock for a moment as little Red's expression darkened as he had never seen in any of his previous lives, cold angry rage emanated from her.
"Don't worry babies, I'll save you."
"Wha-" Was all Roman managed before a heavy combat boot connected with the side of his face, Ruby had rocketed into him so fast that he hadn't managed to get his Aura in place to block the attack correctly.
"Okay, as far as reasons go that's a pretty good one for giving Roman back his memories first." Yang said walking alongside Jaune as the two had left the club in the midst of Jaune explaining his reason behind giving Roman his memories first.
The night air was refreshingly cool and relaxing after the stuffy, crowded atmosphere that had developed inside the club.
A quiet, comfortable silence was shared between the pair as they walked through the peaceful streets of Vale.
Jaune simply content to walk beside Yang again, where there was the silent knowledge that this was someone who knew everything about him and found a way to accept that knowledge.
Yang was silent for another reason, she was happy to be back, to have another life, but she was still trying to process all the new information, even if it was heavily condensed, for the time being, it was still a great deal to absorb.
Their time together this evening was limited though, at a certain point Yang would be expected back at her lodgings for the night to prepare for Beacon tomorrow, in anticipation of that, the pair had been gradually heading that way from the start.
"So, the Relic's offer, do you think it's possible?"
A frown marred Jaune's otherwise happy expression for a moment as he was forced to once again reflect on how little of a plan he actually had currently. "I honestly don't know, this is a single chance opportunity. There are no second opportunities to fix my mistakes, I have this life and only this life to complete this task." Jaune paused and grabbed Yang's hand, cupping his free hand over their two combined. "I can't say I don't want to try to complete this task, but I also don't want to ruin a sure thing. I can force this life to be long and peaceful, I have already taken the first steps to make sure that will happen but, attempting this, I could start a war that would ruin this world, so If I don't succeed, I take away your chance to have one final long peaceful life."
"I asked you once, years ago for me, lifetimes for you, to be selfish. And you allowed yourself to be selfish for me, even knowing what that would mean better than anyone. You could ask the same of me." Yang gently squeezed Jaune's hand.
"I could, but I won't. I want to try, but I equally don't want to ruin a chance for you to have a complete and full life, so in the end, the decision to do this, or do not, is up to you. That being said though, you don't have to decide right at this moment, or anytime soon either really, we have years before I would even begin to have some form of a plan I might feel super confident in."
Roman ran for his life, an angry tornado of Red rosepetals furiously following behind him, angrily shouting at him to let go of the babies, a very incorrect and confusing thing to be shouted at, anytime it was shouted by Red if people were nearby he could just imagine the confused looks they were getting, well if anyone they got near wasn't running for their lives in fear of the angry red reaper.
Wasn't he the criminal here?
His choice of theft had apparently struck a deep nerve as he had never seen Red behave like she was right now, apparently she was a weapon nut and to steal a weapon might as well be the worst crime conceivable in her mind.
He had attempted briefly to fight back, not wanting to hurt Red cause her sister would definitely make him pay if he did but it was clear after the first couple of blows that Red was not going to be dissuaded by a couple of gentle taps.
So now he was running, trying to keep to the general vicinity where Neo was hidden for when he needed to make his escape.
The whoosh of air after a crack of gunfire had him abandoning the bag of weapons he had attempted to hang onto throughout this chase, not wanting Red to give up if she considered the weapons safe from his hands, but now they were slowing him down too much and he needed to put some space between himself and Red, the added weight of the bag making the hard corners he needed to navigate inside Vale's alleyways harder than necessary.
Making several hard corners, forcing the much faster Huntress to constantly be forced to slow down lest she slam into a wall, silently thanking whoever was looking out for him that she had yet to master high speed turns yet.
The corners gave him some breathing room but not much as he emerged out into what should have been a relatively busy street but currently was empty of almost all traffic, he understood why when he spotted the person he had been stalling all this time for to show up.
A wide grin, concealed by his mask was all the relief he could show right now as he wheeled to a stop and brought his stolen Dust revolver to bare, firing a couple of shots down the alley he just emerged from.
Red hadn't had time to catch up and turn the last corner to be visible so both shots were fired without fear of accidentally harming Red.
The walk was coming to an end, it was not that late yet but both Jaune and Yang were expected at Beacon tomorrow and at least in Yang's case had to deal with Taiyang chaperoning the trip into Vale since Ruby had also accompanied them.
Chaperone was used very loosely in these terms, as Tai had left both his daughter to freely wander through Vale on their own while he relaxed back at the hotel he had booked for the trip.
Only a block from the Hotel Jaune stopped on at a quiet corner and pulled Yang to a stop as well.
"Yang, before we go our separate ways tonight I have to say, before things get to busy with teams and whatnot at Beacon, that just being with you for this short time, it... it has been the best thing I have experienced in so-so long."
Yang could see the struggle in Jaune to keep his emotions in check with his softspoken statement, the man that could keep his feelings in check so masterfully that it took her experiences alongside him to begin to even notice these things. She had no words to respond to Jaune's emotion though and instead leaned forward and cupped Jaune's cheek's with her hands, smiling ever so slightly while she did as she placed a short but meaningful kiss on Jaune's lips.
The single moment lasted only an instant but it reciprocated to Jaune, that everything he felt in this night, all the feelings he had about everything he had done and still had to do was somehow worth it for this simple moment. The knowledge that this moment could happen again and again in this singular life allowed his mind a moment to relax and not worry about anything for a sweet peaceful minute.
The kiss ended with a mutual sigh of contentment from both individuals.
"I'll see you tomorrow Jaune." Yang spoke with a light airy voice, her mind intoxicated from all the emotion that went into her simple kiss.
Jaune said nothing as Yang walked away, his jaw slack and eye's befuddled as the aftereffects of the kiss played out all over his body, his skin rippled with electricity, as it soaked in everything that was that singular kiss. Long moments would pass as he finally came to his senses and realized he had been standing dumbstruck in the middle of the street, alone, for several long minutes.
Clearing his throat and straightening the already straight clothing he looked around in every direction for a few quick moments, like he was somehow lost before turning quickly on his heel and marching awkwardly away.
Neo was doing the equivalent of what would be considered pointing and laughing at him, her mouth split into a wide grin as tears streamed from her eyes as she kept looking at him and then away as she continued silently laughing away.
Silent laughter was the only saving grace he had, not having to listen to it audibly was a mercy, though it didn't make him feel much better, looking at Neo and her body contorting in silence was embarrassing on multiple levels.
With Neo's Semblance, he had managed to make a somewhat dramatic escape, only somewhat because Glynda Goodwitch had seen fit to ruin the epicness of his heroic departure with some Semblance shenanigans.
He had masterfully evaded Goodwitch's barrage of projectiles, showcasing an impressive degree of agility that he was not known for, preferring other means of combat normally.
Ducking around a corner out of sight he latched onto Neo's Semblance and used it to travel to a nearby rooftop instantly, intending to perform a flourishing bow and taunt Red for a moment by displaying that he had kept one of the stolen weapons, well beyond the revolver that Red might have just assumed was his too begin with.
His moment of triumph was undercut though by a loose brick of all things. Appearing on his roof of choice, a nice three story he scouted well in advance for this exact purpose, primarily to high for either Huntress to be able to immediately reach him. At least physically with their own hands.
Glynda Goddamn Goodwitch and her overpowered Semblance though, made the brick he stood on crumble from the building, causing him to fall backward and bang his head hard against a commercial air conditioning unit on the roof of the building, ruining his impressive escape and causing him to have to slink away shamefully with another use of Neo's Semblance.
Neo who had been positioned on said rooftop in advance saw the entire thing and, thank god for her being a mute or Glynda and Red would have had no problem following him all the way back to Juniors club through all the laughter Neo would have been doing the entire way there.
Back in his hotel room Jaune couldn't help but continue to smile, even after his face began to sting with the constant expression it still sat in place, even if he needed to act, somber or dour right now, even with all his experience, to act as the occasion would dictate he doubted he could manage anything but pure happiness in this moment of time.
His body was filled with energy and he doubted sleep would come easily to him tonight. So in an effort to push that impossible task back for at least a couple of hours, maybe even let the euphoria he was feeling slowly bleed away at the same time he sorted through his equipment one more time.
Making sure Celica Mors and Crocea Mors were both sharpened to perfection.
Crocea Mors was given some extra attention as he took apart and cleaned the dust mechanism that resided inside the sheath.
There was little he could do with his armguard, maintenance on it required several hours to properly disassemble the firing mechanisms and he didn't consider his hotel room a proper environment for all the small components that could be easily lost so he left the armguard alone after giving it a quick polish.
His only other piece of equipment was his breastplate which hung freshly cleaned over the back of one of his chairs, folded underneath were his combat clothes, also freshly cleaned and ready for the next two days.
Everything was ready and waiting for the following day, the only thing that wasn't currently was himself as he still found it impossible to even consider the thought of sleep as he turned his eye's out the window of his room, looking past the darkening horizon as night grew ever deeper and he sighed, waiting for tomorrow to start.
Taiyang was absent when she returned, no doubt at ht police station already dealing with Ruby's situation.
She didn't expect either of them back tonight if the usual events happened as they should. Ruby would get offered a place in Beacon and would accept, and Taiyang would agree to her decision.
Then the two would hastily take a Bullhead back to Patch to pack Ruby's things, sending her a quick scroll message so she wouldn't worry.
Seemingly thinking about them caused her scroll to flash and a brief look at the message told her that everything had gone right, a pleasant feeling of relief came with that knowledge.
She hadn't been looking forward to a change of pace, while she had all the memories of this life, having been witness to everything that she had done before she had control over her body.
She felt herself, mentally, there was no weird disconnect in her mind that something was wrong or out of place, everything felt so normal and right, a feeling that on it's own would make her paranoid that something was seriously wrong but she could feel all sorts of things that were still out of place.
Running her left hand over right arm, the portion that she had lost in her first life, and had kept in her second. The wound and lack of it after her first life kept her mind sharp, it kept her focused in a way that told her what was happening was real.
In her mind, she felt herself touching the skin on the arm, feeling the muscle underneath as she would clench her fist, or extend her arm before bending it back once again.
She controlled every action, felt every movement as it happened, but her arm still tingled ever so slightly, her mind remembering the lost limb and reminding her in its own way.
She treated this sensation as a signifier that she was herself, not some amalgamation of other Yang's but she was the one and only, that she as a person existed at this moment.
Relief came with the tingle every time it happened.
Lying peacefully on her bed, not attempting to sleep as she just found it relaxing enough to simply experience the sensation of being for sure, herself.
Thing's were not making sense to Neo.
Since shortly after arriving in Vale Roman had begun to act differently, not enough to really be noticeable from a casual observer but to her, Roman had changed just enough to be noticeably off.
His attitude and demeanor were still intact and he didn't let anyone outside of herself mess with him still. It was little things that changed. She would catch him sitting and staring off into space from time to time, like he was thinking about or reflecting on something, it wasn't frequent, but it was enough to be noticed.
He had also, for the most part, stopped smoking entirely, gone was his near ever-present cigar in his mouth, instead, they were kept in his breast pocket, seemingly forgotten about for days at a time.
She didn't really find the loss of the cigars all that of a bad thing, the awful odor that came with them when he smoked ruined her appreciation of her favorite vice.
Thinking about her Vice, sweets, it was very suspicious of Roman to suddenly know where all kinds of places she would like to eat, especially in a city neither of them had spent all that much time in during their longish criminal careers.
So she had started paying closer attention to Roman, even following him when he thought she was occupied with something else.
It hadn't taken much to discover where Roman was going, he would head to Junior's club, a fairly predictable place for a criminal of any level to spend their evenings.
What was unusual was the company Roman kept when he arrived, choosing to remain in the club proper instead of vanishing into one of the back rooms that would be more in line with the entertainment Roman typically preferred.
Roman would share a table with the same person every time he went to the Club, a well built blonde teenager who appeared supremely confident in his surroundings. The teen would be found at the same table every night, she knew, she checked, and he was never approached by anyone but Roman or one of the Waitress's, she could feel him giving off enough of a presence that anyone who considered approaching him that wasn't welcome would understand that, it was even enough to dissuade the more rowdy or drunken patrons, who usually only steered clear of Juniors spot at the bar.
While the blonde teen's attitude towards others intrigued her in the end that mattered little in comparison to how he and Roman interacted.
She wouldn't consider Roman and the teen friends in any sense of the word, more so they simply had a mutual understanding of some situation that kept them on pleasant terms with each other, though as far as she could tell there was no underlying hostility. So the arrangement that the two shared was mutually beneficial in some way, and possibly for the way the teen seemed to tip generously whenever a drink was brought to him could explain away the seeming windfall of good fortune Roman had happened to have at making easy and legal Lien, enough to set the two of them up for a good many years even if they started to blow it all on stupid things.
She did not like secrets when it came to her relationship with Roman, and neither did Roman. Secrets ruin great partnerships and theirs was one of the best. Roman would include her in everything and she would do so in response, except for this instant.
She considered approaching Roman and forcing the information out of him but decided upon that being her second option. The blonde teen would be first, he was young and even if he was confident, she had broken confident men before.
On one of the many nights, Roman and the teen did not meet she left Roman behind this time to visit the Club herself, intending to lean on the teen a little.
The teen had proven elusive though, she wasn't sure at first but after a couple of nights in a row, she knew for a fact that the teen was avoiding her, and in a way that made it look like he wasn't at the same time.
She never actually managed after multiple nights of unsuccessfully finding a way to corner the teen she had given up that approach and instead tried to find out what she could the criminal way.
She had left a note with Junior, with the customary Lien fee, and a nice tip to show that she wanted answers and she wanted them quickly.
Sadly what she learned from Junior that night was everything that she would learn.
The blonde's name was Jaune Arc, he was set to attend Beacon at the start of the new semester, and he was god damn intimidating when he wanted to be.
The information wasn't much but it did highlight a couple of things.
This Jaune Arc, was scary enough to intimidate Junior and his entire gang into essentially ignoring his presence in their club, and Junior had been very specific in his wording. It was Jaune who intimidated them, not the people he worked for or people he ran with, no, Jaune was the one who intimidated them.
The second piece of information was Jaune was set to attend Beacon.
Now, why would someone so capable want to attend a Huntsman school at all? If he was a criminal he could simply acquire a license in Vacuo for a nominal fee, entirely legit too, Shade academy would make anyone a Huntsmen for enough Lien, so crooked was the academy, much like the kingdom in existed in.
No, a legit license wasn't the goal either, Jaune Arc wanted into Beacon for another reason and needed a credible way to get access and being a student was the simplest way to do so.
Her decision to do what she was about to do was not an easy one to make but it was at least likely to be entertaining. While Roman and Jaune had been meeting from time to time she had been collecting the proper forms, and bringing them to the best forgery experts she could find in Vale, by the time that tonight rolled around she was registered as an accepted applicant into Beacon.
Being a criminal she found out how exactly the Huntsman teams were formed and with that knowledge she intended to attach herself to Jaune, see if he is as intimidating as Junior and his goons seemed to think and maybe, after finding out Jaune and Romans relationship, maybe torture the teen for a while, that seemed fair considering her time spent on this.
Laying down on her comfortable bed she found sleep instantly, her mind totally at ease with the world.
Sun Wukong stepped off the late night Bullhead, and groaned in agony slightly, stiff muscles due to the long flight from Mistral causing untold aches and pains.
He didn't have any time to relax for a moment as before him appeared easily one of the strictest looking women he had ever laid eyes upon, so commanding was her presence that it took him a moment to notice that another figure actually stood in front of her, his presence much less domineering.
These were the two people in charge of the best Huntsman academy in all of Remnant, the academy every Huntsman applies to seemingly on the off chance they might get accepted. He hadn't, it was kind of to be expected he had guessed, Vacuo students weren't usually considered at other academies, normally ending up having to complete there training at Shade. He had actually been one of the lucky few who got accepted outside of Vacuo, Mistral had extended an invitation to him and he had accepted.
That was until a week ago when he was asked to attend Beacon seemingly out of the blue. He didn't get much of an explanation as to why the sudden offer but what he had figured out was a couple of potential applicants had to withdraw which opened up some places in Beacons initiation, his name had come up as a suitable replacement and like any aspiring Huntsman he jumped at the opportunity to come to Beacon, he had already left all his friends behind in Vacuo and he hadn't really had time to make any new ones in Mistral so the offer had been easy to accept.
I bet this is gonna annoy Jaune.
So I hope this chapter appeases everyone who was a little miffed at me for only giving the reunited pair a single line each last chapter. To be fair I did that for me to see how many angry or annoyed messages I might get, the number was decently high.
Alright, not much I'm gonna add here this time, I would rather you guys have fun with speculating on what's going on or gonna happen so I'll leave this at this for now.
As always lemme know what you think, even if it just to tell me that I suck!
