Memories Remade

by FellStroke

A mysterious phenomenon allows the weary war veteran, Jaune Wolves' Bane d'Arc, to return to a time untouched by calamity. What does this entail for Remnant? What needs to change in order to prevent the future he'd always known from becoming reality once again? And what is a Rose to do about her best friend who suddenly knew all there was to know about her inside and out?

10. Chapter 10: A Moment to Breath

I will not keep you long for I have done so already. Please enjoy!

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A Moment to Breath

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The feeling was like waking up on a nice and comfy Saturday morning but a hundred times more difficult. Were his eyes even open? If they were then it sure was dark, so dark that he kind of felt like he was floating.

"How is -e... d-... ng?"

'Ru-... Ruby?' As if her name were the key to unlocking the physics of this dark pseudo-world, Jaune suddenly felt gravity weighing him down onto something soft.

"Not ...-ood."

"...Wh-... is it?"

It was a bit distracting how their voices sounded like they were coming from underwater. Or maybe he was the one underwater? He could breathe though. 'Hm...' He wasn't making any sense, was he?

"He -ost... no aur-... Gone."

"No... No no, not Jaune. Oh, Jaune. [Sobbing.]"

Wait. She was crying? Ruby was crying. Why? Well, whatever the reason, he couldn't just sit there and let his best friend hurt!

"R... Ru-..." he tried to soothe her but could barely say her name. Tongue like lead and throat a Vacuan desert, it was a miracle that he could speak at all with how numb his mouth was—like copper coins were stuffed inside and then spat out. Swallowing his nonexistent spit, 'Tastes like it too,' Jaune groused as his throat pulsed with a sharp pain. What he wouldn't give for a glass of water.

What happened to him that he was in such a sorry state? Jaune tried to dig up the memory buried just at the edge of recollection, close enough to feel but not enough to grasp. It was frustrating.

"Jaune? Jaune! Oh, thank dust!" his fellow leader exclaimed though noticeably trying to keep her voice down for some reason. It didn't help with his hearing, but it was getting better the longer he stayed awake.

"Ru...by?"

"I'm here. I'm right here, baby," she made sure to let him know as she rushed to where he was. Jaune still couldn't see her, but he could feel her now when Ruby's gentle warmth and softness suddenly was on his right side.

His friend embraced him with a tightness equal parts desperate and subdued while the coolness of her nose nuzzled the heated skin of his neck right at the juncture where ear met jaw. The action was insistent almost as if she were trying to bury her face in his hair.

Her head on his shoulder, feeling the weight of her, filled him with a sort of reassurance that he couldn't quite understand; an assurance that she was safe, and breathing, and alive. Why does something so unequivocally quintessential make him feel so relieved?

Jaune tried to ignore the feeling, as well as the rather pleasant shock that shot through his nerves when Ruby got so close. There was a far more pressing detail in what she just said that deserved the young man's attention:

'...Baby?'

"Flustered" was just the adjective to describe the young Arc boy as the pet name buzzed inside his skull like an ornery bee. This was more intimate than he was used to Ruby being! They were close, sure, but not that close!

Jaune tried to open his eyes, the eyes he'd thought were already open, to try and make sense of the situation, but for the life of him, Jaune could hardly lift the steel sheets. "Ugh!" he moaned as unexpected pain, excruciating and almost cold in his skull, lanced through the entire left side of his face. The jolt was enough to dispel some of the lethargy that wracked his body allowing him to reach up to what was causing him such discomfort.

Ruby stopped his hands just before he could. "No!" she whispered harshly, "It's still healing."

That statement alone rose so many red flags in Jaune's head. Besides the obvious that he had been injured, for one: why hasn't his aura patched him up yet? And two: why did it feel like his eyes had been sealed shut? What exactly happened to him? So many questions, but Jaune found out that he had only enough air in his lungs for one word at a time, "Healing?"

Fortunately, Ruby knew him well enough to know what he was really asking. Or maybe it was unfortunate? Because though he could not see it, the look on her face as she straightened up would tell him that whatever the answer was, it did not bode well for him.

"Could you give us a minute, please?" Ruby asked the doctor.

She replied with an unseen nod and an all too apparent tone: pity, "Take as much time as you need, Major."

More questions he wanted to ask formed with the short exchange, but he kept them to himself for now. He would let her speak first. And when she did, it was with a stutter.

"H-How are you feeling?"

Scared. Lost. Confused. "Thirsty," he rasped even though it was not what Jaune meant to say.

Glass and the sound of water tickled his ears. "Sit up for me?"

He forced his body to do what she'd asked, and his efforts were rewarded with even more pain when the muscles in his face contracted. Again, Jaune recoiled as if he were being stabbed through the eye socket. "Mmm!"

"Easy. Easy does it, soldier. Mama's got you." A hand on his back helped Jaune to sit up against the headboard. Careful as Ruby was with him, he still groaned with the movement and the slowness of it. "Drink, sweetheart," she instructed as his friend held a glass of water up to his lips with one hand while the other cupped the underside of his chin in case of a spill. An excellent idea because when he drank, he did so greedily. There was no dignity in it, but Ruby didn't seem mind which was great.

Jaune came up for air only once he'd finished the entire glass. Finally, he could speak! Perhaps now he'd be able to get to those questions he'd been meaning to ask. While he was at it, maybe tell Ruby to back off a bit too? The impressionable lad desperately needed some personal space because, hoo boy, was this all just too much, too soon, and too close for his liking!

Ruby had always been weird, and he liked that about her, but this was pushing it.

"So..." he began his well-meaning intervention. Should he ask her first about what had happened to him? Maybe knowing would help him gather his bearings. Yeah, he should definitely start with that. "...what's with all the cute names, mama? Better watch it or I might just start to think that you like me or something."

What did he just say? What did he just say?!

"I think it's more than just 'like', Jaune," Ruby teased bashfully.

Jaune fake gasped, "You mean like 'like-like'? That's a lot'a likes!"

Holy cats! Were they flirting right now? By the gods, they were! What's going on?! Why could he not stop the deluge of cringe from pouring out of his mouth? 'Stupid mouth, stop! I said STAHP!'

"More like 'love', you doofus." A demure smile on her face, Ruby rolled her eyes playfully at him. Heat bloomed where the back of her fingers gently caressed his cheek. Without permission, his head leaned towards her touch. How red could one get? Jaune was finding out the answer to that question presently.

'L-... Love?'

"Ms Rose, need I remind you that to fraternize with a superior officer is prohibited? I could have you court-martialed, you know..." Jaune said dangerously.

Ruby recanted the threat with but a giggle while still drawing patterns of lightning on his skin, "Would you though?"

Releasing an exaggerated breath that would have passed for nothing but jest, Jaune folded almost instantly. "Well, damn it all if you weren't my best operative; I guess I'll let it slide... just this once," he pretended to relent as if she had twisted his arm.

Ruby hummed contemplatively. "Is that the only reason?"

"Pretty much. Oh, and I guess because I love you too, sure." He shrugged, the declaration an afterthought.

'Blargh! They're still going at it! Make it stop!' This was way worse than his parents' horrible flirting! Which was actually saying something considering those were the same two people who'd still go to sire eight kids despite the fact. Jaune was quickly coming to the realization that he might have found himself inside a dream. No, not a dream, a nightmare!

"Darn right you do, mister. After that stunt you just pulled, you better!"

Hold on, what stunt?

And just like that, the tone of the conversation changed.

Jaune began to regret wishing that they'd stopped flirting. Flirting with his best friend, no matter how awk-weird, was preferable to the feeling of dread that now occupied his lungs like a balloon slowly inflating, making it difficult to breathe. Trepidation resonated within Jaune as the person inside the dream began to expand his world beyond the admittedly charming version of his friend.

"I guess this is the part where I ask you how badly we lost," his mirror image asked Ruby nonchalantly. Or, at least, it would have been nonchalant if not for his hands that were presently strangling the bedsheets.

'Lost?' What did he mean lost? Did Jaune even want to know?

"Jaune," her voice was a warning, "don't."

Apparently, he did. "Don't what? I was just asking for a sitrep," he tried to go for an innocent smile, but Ruby knew him better than that. Too well, in fact.

"After so long of fighting alongside each other, you still don't think I won't know what you're trying to do every time you ask me that question?"

"Ruby..." he inevitably dropped the charade and was left pleading with his long time friend.

Ruby tried to remain firm but knew that she could not deny him, she never could—a fact that had yet to be true for Jaune Arc but had been for the longest time for someone else: Wolves' Bane.

An epiphany:

This wasn't a nightmare; it was something way worse. A memory. Wolf's. Even in the sanctity of his dreams, he could not escape his burgeoning shadow.

Ruby withdrew her hand and squinted at the general, second thoughts telling her to not let the man torture himself by telling him. Her shoulders falling in resignation, Ruby did so anyway, because if he didn't hear it from her, then he'd hear it from somebody else. In the end, Ruby chose the option that would allow him to stay in that bed the longest.

"Atlas... was overrun." She did not mean to sound so defeated.

Jaune's fists clenched tighter...

"We managed to get all of the civilians out of the cities using the evac protocols we've laid out; they're on carriers heading for Vytal Island as we speak." She paused to allow the words space to breathe before carrying on to less pleasant parts of her report. "We're currently on Amity floating towards the same coordinates... What's left of our ground forces is what we could fit inside the colosseum."

Amity was less than twenty-third of Atlas's landmass...

"Our airforce, by far, is the most intact, holding at sixty percent its original capacity. Next are the infantry and militia at eleven per cent."

'Eleven per cent...' Jaune couldn't wrap his head around the number. He really couldn't. So many lives lost and only a few lucky enough to die another day. The reality of such a thing almost knocked the wind out of him. All those men and women, Faunus and humans alike, that put their trust in his leadership to bring them home, buy them just one more day, and in return...

...he put them in their graves.

Jaune reached up to where he could still feel Ruby's touch lingering on his cheek. He felt cloth there, a blindfold covering his eyes.

"What of the Armoured Core division?" he asked to distract himself from the pit that threatened to swallow his soul. The question itself held more for him personally, however, than just simply knowing how many mechs they had left. Ever since rising to the rank of General, he had signed up all of his friends for the Armoured Core program, becoming the pilots of the first-ever Myrmidons to be manufactured. It was his attempt at giving them just a little bit more power, a little bit more protection, just a little bit more metal between them and the Grimm's claws and gnashing teeth. It was Wolf's hope that, if he turned his friends into demigods, it would keep him from losing anyone else.

Now Jaune would know just how well that theory panned out.

"Jaune..." Ruby's voice quivered with the effort of keeping such damning words from spilling out, "why do you do this to yourself? It wasn't your fau-"

"—Ruby, just tell me..."

Jaune's unseeing eyes looked to her, and though all Ruby could see was his blindfold, she knew of the torment there. Could feel it as keenly as if it were her own. How she hated it. Hated him for blaming himself-

"...please."

—Hated herself for seeing him hurt this way and doing nothing.

Her mouth moved wordlessly, stuck between not knowing where to begin and not wanting to tell him. It became a whisper, her words. "We lost Sigma lance."

Team CRDL: Sky Lark. Dove Bronzewing. Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester.

"Foxtrot."

Team CFVY: Yatsuhashi Daishi. Velvet Scarlatina. Fox Alistair. Coco Adel.

"Tango."

Team FNKI: Ivori. Kobalt. Neon Katt. Flynt Coal.

"Romeo 5 and Juliet 2."

Marrow Amin. Fiona Thyme.

"All of Echo except Sun..."

Callsigns, lance designations, names, names, and more names, each one like nails on the general's coffin. Faces he would never see again. Friends. Family. People he had watched grow and become their own; cut down before their time.

And there were still names Ruby had yet to speak. The ones that mattered most.

"Alpha and Omega?" he asked so quietly that, hadn't the room been quieter still, Ruby wouldn't have heard him.

Tears were in her eyes now; he couldn't see it, but he could hear it in her voice. "Jaune..." She sat sideways on the bed with him and cupped his face in both her hands with all the gentleness in the world. There was a tremble there that wasn't before. "It's. not. your. fault. We all knew what we were getting into when we signed up for this. We're hunters, and we wouldn't have become hunters if we didn't understand what was at stake." A watery smile was all she could give him. A branch offered. A way out of the guilt that would drag him down into the quagmire of his own thoughts.

Wolf reached up to where Ruby's hands were, held them... and brought them down to his lap.

Her smile morphed into a worried frown.

"Finish your report, Major."

Ruby drew in a fortifying breath and shook her head in dismay when it seemed that her partner was dead set on putting the world's weight on his shoulders. It was mentioned before that leadership was a burden he would bear so that his friends won't have to suffer the loss that came with it. He'd do so gladly, he said, but that didn't mean he had to take it all. Ruby, didn't want him to take it all. He did not deserve such a fate. If only he would let her then she would share in his pain.

"I-I'm so sorry..." Ruby broke down. "If I hadn't been caught by Cinder then you wouldn't have had to- I got careless, and now because of me, we lost- lost... I'm sorry, Jaune."

"Lost who?" he asked without emotion.

Deathly was the quiet that held that pause.

"Weiss a-and Nora."

Jaune didn't know how to describe it; he had never felt death so close to him before, and even accounting Wolves' Bane's experience, still, even the general was affected.

It was just this overwhelming sensation of his nerves, all of them, firing at the same time and then being sucked into the floor through the souls of his feet, husking him and leaving him numb. They were just memories; they weren't even his, but simply knowing that Weiss Schnee and Nora Valkyrie would and have died in a future already come and gone tore a hole through Wolves' Bane and into Jaune. A shared pain. An inherited failure that echoed through the very fabric of time.

Jaune was too young, too inexperienced to even fathom such a concept while Wolves' Bane could only bow his head in defeat.

"How?" he whispered.

"That night, after you brought me back..." Ruby choked, remembering that moment and what it was like being on the brink, "you burned your aura so close to the roots that you passed out. It was all Cinder needed to get a clear shot. She hit you with a fireball to the side of your face. W-With your aura down-... It was bad, Jaune. They had to get us out... Weiss and Nora stayed behind to buy us time."

"Us?" His tone darkened.

"Jau-"

"—YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT ME BEHIND!"

"Don't say that!"

"Come on, guys! Three for the price of one; do the math! If you had just left me there then there would still be three of you instead of- grrr! Damn it... GODS DAMN IT!" The heart monitor hooked up to him began to beep in alarm. It annoyed him so he ripped the sensors off of his chest making the tone go flat. Flinging the covers away, Jaune swung his legs over the side of the bed where Ruby was not and planted his feet on the cold tiled floor. "Where's my gear?" he asked with borrowed calm.

"Jaune, you need to rest," Ruby begged him, her voice slowly becoming hoarse with desperation.

Jaune ignored her and said aloud, "WNTR, are you here?"

["I am here, my general,"] responded his AI operator monotonously somewhere in the room.

"Scan," he demanded brusquely, "what are my injuries, and why haven't I healed yet?"

"WNTR, belay that order! Jaune, please-"

["—You have suffered severe burns to the left side of your cranium. Medical treatment allowed the restoration of your left auditory faculties as well as preserving your right optic. Your left, however, was too damaged to recover."]

Jaune didn't even flinch at the news of losing an eye—too far gone at that point.

"And the reason why I'm taking so long to heal; why hasn't my aura kicked in yet?"

["The reason, General, is because you have no aura."]

Now that was news to him. "Pardon?"

["It is as the Major said. When you pushed your semblance beyond its limit, when you gave Ruby Rose everything that you had left, you obliterated your reserves to the point that it can no longer generate aura to any capacity. Diagnosis: Soulburn, my general."]

For a moment, Wolf just sat there trying to comprehend what not having an aura meant for a hunter. Could one even remain a hunter without aura, Jaune wondered. Lacking the benefit of its protection, he was but one claw swipe away from death.

Wolf knew this as well but if that was meant to scare him then he must not have gotten the memo. That or he just didn't care anymore. "Could I still use power armour?"

Ruby could not believe what she was hearing, "Jaune!"

["Yes, General, provided that there is sufficient enough electricity dust, you could still don the Winter Cuirass."]

"Good." Jaune stood and began ambling over to where he had last heard WNTR's voice, intent on doing just that.

Quick taps, the sound of feet going around the bed to stop right in front of him pattered against the floor.

She put her hands on his chest, and in the sternest tone of voice her wavering resolve could dredge, "Stop," Ruby demanded. "Stop it, Jaune! Please, I am begging you."

"Get out of my way," he demanded, words flat with barely restrained emotion.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"

Jauned finally snapped...

"Well, if that's what it ta-!"

...and so did Ruby.

The sound of an all resounding slap faded into the air, and all that was left in its wake was Ruby's laboured breathing.

His face stung and his injury more so, but it did not sting half as much as the tears he knew he had caused the reaper to shed. Her tiny sobs brought him out of his suicidal stupor and brought him back to reality.

Ruby bit the words out through grit teeth, "Get. your stupid butt. back. in that BED! And if I hear you say anything like that again—so help me, dust—I will slap you unconscious! Maybe then you'd get some rest."

Jaune was still recovering from the surprise of actually having been slapped so Ruby took that opportunity to push him backwards. The bed hit the back of his knees and he was forced to sit.

There was a lull in the confrontation, both of them gathering their thoughts. It was Ruby who eventually broke the reprieve. "It hurts, Jaune. It hurts so much," she admitted wearily. "We just lost Atlas. We lost so many of our friends. We lost... Weiss and Nora." Just saying their names made her voice crack. "But do you think that this is what they would have wanted?" When Jaune did not reply, Ruby furthered the question, "If you're just going to throw your life away then Weiss and Nora's sacrifice would have been for nothing... Would you really do that to them, Jaune?"

No, but it was still a mistake that they bothered saving him at all.

"They shouldn't have-"

"Well, fuck me then because they did, okay?!" she screamed but quickly lowered her voice. "They saved us, Jaune, and all you're doing is spitting in their faces! When you deny their sacrifice, when you tell me that it wasn't worth it, you dishonour what they chose to do for us..."

Honour? What was honour worth if you were dead? Again, Jaune was left without a reply as he just couldn't get it. How was one life worth more than two? Weiss Schnee and Nora Valkyrie for the price of one Jaune Arc, in what world was that not fair trade? More than fair; it was a bargain!

"Nora and Weiss saw something in you that was worth dying for. The least we could do to show that we value what they did is believe in what they saw—what we see—even if you don't."

And there she wilted, the fight wrung clean out of her.

"Please stop. Everything hurts enough as it is without you doing... this to yourself. You take and take and take, Jaune," she sobbed as fists held to her sides clenched tighter with each repetition of the word, "and leave nothing for the rest of us to carry. You tear yourself apart and you. make. me. watch... Please. Please, stop, Jaune."

Jaune bowed his head in guilt but not regret. Guilt for the pain he had caused but not for the reason why. If it meant keeping them all safe then he'd do everything in his power.

Even if it meant hurting the ones he loved.

"You said that you loved me."

Exactly.

"I do," Jaune swore too readily.

"Then why? Why are you making the man I love go through all of this alone?" Ruby begged the question as she began to weep in earnest for him, for her friends, for everything they had lost. Jaune hadn't been the only one to bottle everything up. Here, now, with him, only Jaune was ever allowed to see her weakness. Only with Jaune did she finally allow herself to grieve.

Jaune got off the bed and embraced her for all that he was worth. He might not have agreed with her—with them—but that did not change the fact that hurting his friends hurt him too. Clutching her head flush against the crook of his neck, there was no resistance, her arms all too eager to wrap themselves around her rock, the one constant on which everything in Ruby's topsy-turvy world now stood upon.

"You saved my life that night and it cost you an eye and all of your aura. How could you still think that you haven't done enough? Sacrificed enough? Been punished enough?" She mumbled into his skin. "Promise me you'll stop blaming yourself. I can't-... I can't lose you too, Jaune, not to this. Please, please, pleeeeease?"

A beat and then he hummed, not a yes, not a no, just an acknowledgement that the words were said.

Nothing more.

"I'm sorry if I made you worry."

No, he wasn't.

Ruby knew that he wasn't just as she knew how he would never stop going to lengths for them. Knew because he did not promise as an Arc should. But for just this moment, she chose to believe...

For both their sakes, they pretended that the apology was enough.

~ • ~

Jaune Arc awoke with a soft gasp, and the first thing the young man did was look. Look—he could see again! Thank the gods he was back!

His relief was quick to pass, however, when he remembered the events prior to his nap. 'Where's Ruby?!' was the question to pop inside his head as soon as he'd gathered his wits about him. His neck swivelled to the left then to the right. Another wave of relief washed over him, one that lasted longer, as soon as he'd laid eyes on the dark red of Ruby's hair poking out from under one of the hospital blankets, her back facing him.

She was alive.

"Oh, thank you," he whispered.

His head flopped back down onto his pillow as his hands rubbed his face wearily. He was surprised to see them come back wet. He'd been crying in his sleep, it would seem. The memory of an older Ruby crumbling in his arms made Jaune turn his head towards the reaper sleeping in the bed next to his. Jaune wanted to make sure at least that his Ruby was okay.

Gods. He'd never seen her cry like that before. Jaune thought that he never wanted to see Ruby cry like that again if he could help it.

'What a sad dream,' he ended up thinking.

He let out a breath and refused to fall back asleep. Little did the knight suspect that...

~ • ~

...on the other bed, Ruby lay awake with her own tears staining her blanket. How her eyes flickered this way and that, one could see it plain as day that she was trying her best to make sense of something no fifteen-year-old had any business figuring out. No matter how hard she tried, however, she just did not have it in her young psyche to decipher what it all was, what it all meant: the characters, the setting, the emotions behind the words said, and everything in between.

Still, she had tried at least, but soon as it always did, wakefulness began chasing away many of the dream's details until all that she was left with were dregs, bits, and pieces, like sand through splayed fingers.

'What a sad dream,' she ended up dismissing as she hugged her pillow tighter, refusing to fall back asleep.

~ The Following Morning ~

"You're awake!"

"Ak! Nora... can't... breathe..."

"Oh! Sorry, fearless leader!"

Nora had been the first one to check up on Jaune—surprising, but at the same time, not. The last Ruby saw her, she'd hurt her arm, but knowing the sturdiest of her friends, she probably just shrugged off the injury soon as her aura had replenished enough to heal her. Now here the pinkette was in her and Jaune's room hugging the living daylights out of her leader to speak of her quick recovery—the support bands on her elbow and knee the only giveaway of yesterday's kerscuffle.

"It's okay, Nora, but you might want to keep it down; Ruby's still sleeping.

Nope, but she pretended that she was. Ruby wasn't quite ready to carpe that diem just yet and was wholly content on being a clinic-bed slug for the time being.

"Yeah. Poor trooper must have tuckered herself out after saving my life yesterday..." Nora noticeably lowered her voice but it did not diminish her words of thanks.

"That was the first time she'd used her semblance on another person. The shock would've put her body through the wringer, made her burn more aura than she ought to," Jaune explained in his all-knowing super-serious-professor Jaune voice.

"Not as much as you did though."

The off-handed comment perplexed Jaune. "What do you mean?"

"We were in the red, Jaune, but whatever you did to Ruby yesterday rose her aura levels through the roof! In the end, you were in worse shape than we were. And we were the ones who got beat up!"

Jaune doing something like that felt... eerily familiar to Ruby, but darn it if she couldn't quite place why.

"Was," she stretched out the vowel, "that your semblance?"

Nora had asked the question in a way that made it sound like she wasn't actually expecting her leader to tell her anything. And if Ruby had noticed then surely so did Jaune. They were reminded of the elephant in the room swaying its awkward trunk.

Jaune hesitated.

Ruby held her breath. Would he tell Nora or keep it to himself? Would he open up to his teammate just as he had with her, or would he think that it was too much of a risk? Ruby could almost imagine the cogs in Jaune's head turning, and just when she began to fear he wouldn't, her friend answered, "Yeah... Yeah, it is."

Only too relieved, Ruby let out the breath she'd been holding.

Nora visibly perked up, not expecting his honesty. "You could boost aura?"

"I can give aura; share mine."

He corrected, and curiously, Ruby's relief was replaced by a sense of Déjà vu. Had he ever told her about his semblance before? Thinking back, no; this was the first, and yet Ruby couldn't shake the feeling that she'd heard of it before. She wasn't even surprised in fact. Why? She tried to remember and was rewarded with wisps.

You saved my life... it cost... you still think... haven't... sacrificed enough?

Words. Faint. They were there; Ruby could feel them, but they just wouldn't come. Instead, they floated in between her ears like muck on a murky pond.

Or a dream where you didn't have to sleep to get to.

Nora laughed under her breath, "That is so you."

Ruby's attention returned to the conversation with a shake of her head.

"What's 'so me'?"

"Your semblance. It just makes total sense that it'd be something that'd help others instead of yourself. Aaaaand of course it would be Ruuuuuby, right?" She waggled her eyebrows at him. "You really must care about her a lot, huh?"

Ruby blushed from underneath the covers. 'Noraaaaa, whyyyyy?' she lamented yet subconsciously anticipating his reply.

"Of course I do."

[Badump!]

'Darn it, heart! Stop doing that! It's hurting my chest!'

"I care about all of my friends."

'Oh. I-I knew that.' It wasn't disappointment that she was feeling just then. It wasn't! It was... something she had no intention of finding out. She was just being dumb anyway.

"If it were you, I would have done the exact same thing."

"Mm." There was a thoughtful pause there. "You always did care, Jaune," Nora said quietly.

No words followed for a time, silence settling over the two like a stuffy blanket until, "Jaune," Nora attempted almost fearfully.

Gentle like coaxing a frightened deer out of the safety of her forest, "Yeah?" Jaune encouraged.

"Could I give you another hug?" the bombardier requested, her voice now close to tears.

Ruby couldn't blame her. 'Awww, Nora.'

"Nora..."

Comfort and care welled up within the red huntress herself with how warmly Jaune spoke Nora's name softer than a cloud.

"The day you need to ask my permission for a hug is the day I make you stop eating pancakes, and we both know that that's never going to happen."

The quick hiss of fabric. A muted thump of a body hitting another. In her mind's eye, Ruby imagined a teary glomp.

"M'sorry..." Muffled by fabric Ruby still heard the apology and the remorse that went with it. "I'm sorry I ran. I just-... I got scared. I thought that- that you would-"

"—Shhh, hey. You're allowed to be scared. No one ever said that you weren't. You don't need to explain to me why." His arms wrapped tighter around her tiny frame. "I'm just glad you're safe."

"Mhmm."

"Awwwww..."

"Ruby?" Nora's head lifted off of Jaune's chest.

Said girl froze; she had not meant to say that out loud! 'Whoopsies...' Ruby remained still in case they'd let go of her little slip.

"Ruby!"

She really should have known better with Nora.

"Oof! Nora- ak! You're squishin' me!"

Nora did not get off of her one-dog dogpile. Instead, she only squeezed tighter. "Ooooo~ Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for saving me, Ruuuuubyyyyy! MMMFF!"

"H-Help... Lights growing... dim..."

"Nora."

The Viking's vice-like grip eased some, and Ruby wasted no time sucking in the life-giving antiseptic smelling vapour that the clinic was couth enough to call oxygen. "[Wheeze!] Thanks, Jaune," Ruby rasped.

But it wasn't Jaune.

"Renny! I was just about to come and get you. Jaune's awake! Isn't that great?" Nora chirped, and Ruby envied the girl's ability to not notice the heavy silence that suddenly pervaded the room.

The quiet teen didn't even look at Nora. No, the intensity of his gaze was solely on her fellow leader. The tension, palpable, made Ruby fear that the ninja had entered to start something with Jaune.

Long purposeful strides made their way to Jaune's bedside, and the blonde just laid there as if resigned to whatever was to come. She had to stop this before-

Before Ruby could get a foot out of bed, she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. Looking behind her, she saw Nora with a proud smile on her face. Why would she be smiling at a time like this? Ruby faced forward again, intent on intervening. She was surprised, however, to find the quiet teen on the floor, forehead touching his hands that were folded in the perfect Mistralian kowtow.

"I ask you: forgive me, Jaune. I put your honour in question when you have done nothing but prove its integrity."

'Say whaaaaa?!'

"Ren, buddy, come on; you don't have to do that-"

"I challenged the sincerity of your character, and you rewarded that shame with kindness."

"Lie, you're embarrassing me over here. There's no need to-" Jaune tried to get his friend to stand.

But Ren interrupted him one last time, "You saved Nora when you had no reason to. That alone shows me how wrong I was; how cowardly my actions were." The bow that had already been pretty down there lowered even further if it were possible. "And for that, I am sorry."

Ruby watched on in anticipation at the unfolding exchange. It was a surprise, for sure, but a pleasant one! On the edge of her seat, she sat waiting for Jaune's reply.

It wasn't like with Nora where Jaune comforted her until she was okay. Which made sense because Ren had a different set of problems with Jaune besides the secrets. Ruby was curious how JNPR's leader would go about handling such contrasting personalities.

Jaune let out a very long, very loud, and very tired exhale, his head leaning back against the wall his bed was placed against.

"What the heck are you talking about, 'no reason to'? I had every reason to, Ren." he firmly stated whilst staring at the ceiling. His eyes then lowered to the man on the floor, "And would you get up, please? Come on, man, jeez! I know how protective you are of her, and that's cool. Don't ever think for a second that I'd hold that against you. Never stop being that way ever, and never apologize for watching out for family."

"The whole family," Ren straightened his back but still sat on the ground. His magenta eyes met Jaune's blue ones meaningfully, "The whole family, Jaune" he repeated for emphasis before finally standing up. "I let my fear of the past blind me of that, and that is wrong."

The reaper sniffled, touched by the scene. What is this? Was this the fabled "bromance" Ruby had always heard about but never before witnessed? 'It's- It's so beautiful...' Feeling like she was intruding upon something sacred and ancient, older than the dawn of time itself, Ruby wondered if she should turn away but found that she couldn't! 'More,' she demanded, 'I demand more bromance!'

Nora ran around Ruby's bed and glomped her two teammates. "Oh, yeah! JNPR's back in business, baby! Look out!"

"Nora, be careful. He's still recovering, you know."

"N-No!" Jaune protested almost sounding desperate, "It's okay. I... I missed this. Missed it a lot, actually."

"Awwwww! Jaune, ya big softy. C'mere!"

The leader in her couldn't help but smile at what she was seeing. All her hard work was finally paying off! Everything was going to be okay. Everything was finally going back to normal. Ruby breathed out a sigh of relief.

But then Jaune's eyes found hers over Nora's shoulder and they instantly turned cold.

Ruby shivered.

~ • ~

For Jaune, it had only been a short while since he'd received a hug from Nora Valkyrie. For Wolf, however, it had only been too long.

Far too long.

Wolf savoured the warmth of their embrace and didn't stop himself from reminiscing. 'There would be more of these,' the veteran swore to himself, and with that, swore to keep them safe. He would keep them alive. He would make the future bend to his will if he had to all for a hug. A promise as lofty as they came, but one an Arc would choose death over breaking.

Jaune squeezed her tighter. 'Nothing like yesterday would happen again.'

His gaze found Ruby's and the picture of her lying motionless on the concrete floor flashed to the forefront of his thoughts. He'd almost lost her yesterday. Just imagining it made Jaune want to avert his gaze, but Wolves' Bane kept staring at her, weighing, analyzing.

This is what he had gathered:

The White Fang, unexpectedly competent as they were in this timeline, should have been as nothing to Jaune. To lay them low would have been more a matter of expedience rather than of probability. Paltry. Minute. Trivial. Yet they had done more damage than Wolf would have ever allowed them to. They had almost killed his partner, and the reason, Wolf realized, was simple: Fear. And not just Jaune's fears, but his own.

As much as it would have been convenient, Wolf could not blame just Jaune for what had happened yesterday. After all, Wolf himself had agreed to attempts a parley with the White Fang on Blake's behalf so he couldn't even point fingers at the younger's compassion and naivete. No, it was fear. In that one crucial moment, Wolf had been just as scared as his innocent counterpart, maybe even more so. And the 'why'...

...was Ruby.

The very fact that she had been on the battlefield at all kept his mind from fully committing to the fight, his attention always going to her and how best to keep her safe.

It was Cookie all over again, but a hundred times worse. At least his wife had been a soldier and knew when to follow orders. Ruby, like Jaune, was but a child—youth in all its impulsive and unpredictable vainglory. Compound that with his levels of attachment concerning the red reaper...

It was no wonder Wolf's hold over Jaune slipped when it mattered most. He cared about her too much; worried about her too much, and it was affecting him.

This could not stand.

For a commander to be effective he had to be logical. For a commander to be logical he had to be impartial. But to ask Wolves' Bane to be impartial with Ruby Rose—you might as well have asked him to glue the moon back together. That was to say it was impossible for the general, inconceivable even. But... not so for Jaune.

The epiphany robbed his eyes of their lustre, and he closed them before Ruby could see the decision made there.

That was the crux of it, Wolf guessed. It would seem that he had finally found use for Jaune's lack of experience. For it is with experience that one forged attachments, and Jaune, as of right now, had little with Ruby, which would do just fine. From then on when Wolves' Bane had to deal with her, he would do so as Jaune Arc; he would be the one to prevent the bond that had yet to be, for the good of all.

Were they in agreement? Wolf searched within himself.

After the rending his soul had gone through when Jaune thought that he had killed his best friend, yes. Yes, the two halves were in complete agreement.

Wolves' Bane didn't know if he should be happy about that or sad.

If he did this, then the life he and Ruby had shared would all but be eradicated. On the other hand, she would be safer for it. There would be pain every time he looked at her, sure, but, at least, it would be just him. After all, what Ruby didn't know couldn't hurt her. How could she feel bad for something she had never known?

Contest the choice was not.

Jaune drew away from Nora and he resumed talking with his friends. Not to be a snob, but he only paid their words half a mind as he was too busy thinking of how to go about the decision he had just made.

Wolf suggested that he do it slowly. Be there for her but draw the line at "friend" and not a step further—as if Jaune needed convincing. It was no different from how they were now anyway; shouldn't be too hard. The impulsive teenager just had to remember to avoid falling for the damn girl.

'Pretty straightforward,' Jaune thought, but Wolf wasn't as certain. Her professor then; he would only just be her professor. That should be enough, right?

Wolf hoped it would be.

"Where's Pyrrha?" the question slipped out.

"Hm? Oh! Uh, you know what? I don't really know." Nora scratched her cheek, and it was almost funny how easily his friends slipped back to old mannerisms now that the air had been cleared. Gods was it good to have his team back. "She said that she was going to check something out this morning."

"Yes, she's been acting odd since yesterday. Then again, what happened at the docks was rather... harrowing."

"Is she okay?" Jaune asked, concerned.

"She is fine as are all our friends, Jaune; do not worry," Ren assured him. "There weren't exactly any White Fang left to fight after you-"

"—After you went all ham with a capital 'HA!' on their sorry dust-pinching butts!"

Jaune was confused. "Ham?"

"Yeah! You should have seen it—White Fang parts all over the place. An arm here. A couple of heads there. It was epic!"

'...What?' Jaune thought as a numbness began to creep in through his toes and fingertips to the rest of his body.

"I never really got to see, but I would admit that it was very impressive how efficiently you dispatched them."

Ren too? Since when had his friends been this bloodthirsty? 'I think I'm going to be sick...'

There were so many of them. Did he really just massacre all those people? He couldn't have! He just... couldn't have... Could he?

Jaune tried to grasp what he did, the sheer implication of his actions, but to do so was an impossibility akin to looking up at a colossal mountain from the bottom of a steep cliff and knowing you had to climb.

A pit opened in the bottom of his stomach, and his head felt like it was shrinking entirely too small for the thoughts occupying it. He had killed. He, Jaune Arc, had taken a life.

Taken lives.

What had he done?

Breaths coming in quicker, the poor boy began to hyperventilate. Was this thinking too much about the fact or was it just him?

"What?!" Ruby exclaimed, aghast.

Oh, good. So it wasn't just him.

Before Nora had the chance to reply, and before he could barf up the nonexistent contents of his stomach, there was an authoritative knock on the door prompting the girl to walk over and open it. "Headmaster Ozpin!"

Willing his nausea to pass, 'And friends,' Jaune noted as he spied the rest of team RWBY from behind Ozpin trying to peek over his shoulder into the room.

"Ms Valkyrie," greeted the headmaster before his eyes turned to the blonde in the room. "Mr Arc, we really should stop meeting like this," he joked, but Jaune could detect the subtle hint of disapproval in his tone. Ozpin stepped inside allowing Yang to rush over to her sister. Weiss, seeing Ruby taken care of, walked over to his bedside instead to ask him how he was fairing.

"Ruby! H-How are you feeling?" Yang asked worriedly.

"I'm fine, Yang. See? Not a scratch on me," Ruby turned her head left and right to show that she wasn't just saying that. Yang gave her a bone-crushing hug once she'd made sure that she wouldn't add to her injuries. "So... many... h-hugs... m-my poor spine."

"Don't you ever do anything like that ever again! If you do, I swear-" Yang drew back and held Ruby's shoulders at arm's length. "Do you hear me, Ruby Rose?!"

"I'm sorry, Yang," Ruby's head bowed before meekly raising a finger, "but in my defence, I didn't really expect that to happen."

"And that's why I told you to go back to Beacon where it's safe." It wasn't so much the words but the way they were said that made the temperature in the room plummet below freezing. The young Arc was reprimanding her, true enough, but more than that, he was telling her with as few words as possible just how furious he was with her, livid however veiled by his calm demeanour. Jaune tried to reign himself in but Wolf's own frustrations bubbling just underneath his skin made it difficult. "If you just did what I'd asked then what happened at the docks wouldn't have happened at all. You wouldn't be in that bed, and I wouldn't have had to-" 'kill all those Faunus' he didn't say, instead, sucking in a ragged breath to centre himself.

It wasn't the slightest bit effective.

He didn't care that he was being harsh or unfair. It didn't matter that, for all his bluster about being impartial, he was still showing bias towards the reaper when he chose to scold her but not the Viking that was just as guilty as she. All that mattered to him was how Ruby put her life at stake. If she thought that he would let that slide then she was dead wrong.

Hardened steel cobalt blue eyes glared down discomfited silver, and the atmosphere grew taught like a rubber band ready to snap. But before tensions rose to the realms of palpable, Ozpin broke their heated stare with a loud clap, gathering the focus of the room away from the two leaders. "What is important is that everyone is safe and sound."

The soldier relented his ironclad vigil with a quiet breath. At least that Jaune could agree with. In this way, he could almost understand why Wolf was the way he was. To him, as long as the ends were met then the means deserved no second thought. They were safe; that was all that mattered to the soldier. Nothing else.

Why concern himself with the many ways this was destroying his soul? There was only the mission, and Wolf would see it accomplished.

"Though unexpected, you three handled the situation well." Jaune scoffed not quietly, making Ruby and Nora's heads duck in shame. Ozpin ignored him and went on, "Next time, however, do let the proper authorities handle things, yes?"

"They would've been too late!" Nora protested. "Not to mention: outgunned, and out of their league, and-"

"—Be that as it may," the interruption was stern yet well-meaning, "there will be moments in battle where astute observation would yield better results than interference. Yesterday was one of those moments."

That felt like it was meant for him more so than it was for Nora. Jaune gave Ozpin a dirty look that went unnoticed by all except the man in question.

"You want me to do nothing?" The expression on Nora's face looked almost betrayed, but that did not keep Ozpin from being blunt.

"Precisely."

Brusque to the point of unfeeling, the shortness of the confirmation made everybody cringe, and Jaune knew why. If there was one thing that could be said about his friends, it was that they were movers. They could not stand to let such injustice go uncontested. That was what was so beautiful about them—they genuinely cared.

It was also the reason why he was left all alone in a world full of Grimm. Jaune let Ozpin carry his point across. Better that they learned this lesson sooner rather than later.

"But why?" it was Ruby who asked the question sounding lost and confused. "Aren't we supposed to help people?"

"Do not mistake me, Ms Rose. We are huntsmen, and as huntsmen, we are charged with the safety and protection of those who can not defend themselves from the creatures of Grimm. The Grimm, Ms Rose, not our fellow man." Could such a technicality actually condone so irreparable an inaction, Ruby's face seemed to beg the question. Ozpin breathed out a sigh of sympathy, "Let me tell you something, Ms Rose, and let this serve as a warning to all of you," eyes that looked over the rim of his glasses roamed and met the stares of all his students, "I admire you all for your willingness to help those who are in need, however, fighting Grimm and fighting people are two completely different things."

"Well, duh. Of course, they're different! People are way smarter than Grimm."

"I don't think that's what the headmaster meant, Norah," Ren urged his friend.

Ozpin nodded at the deduction. "You are young, so nobody blames you for your innocence." Straightening his back and leaning slightly forward on his cane. "What are Grimm?"

The question had come out of nowhere. Those present shared understandably confused looks with each other. "Professor?" Weiss asked for clarification.

"You heard me correctly; do not worry. Now, please, if you would?"

"They are..." Weiss paused as if expecting Ozpin to interrupt. He did not. "They are evil."

"Kindly elaborate," ever the patient one, Ozpin prodded gently.

"They are what they are drawn to—negativity. Grimm are the physical manifestation of malice, hate, and anger. To seek, kill, and destroy are what drives their actions, and their actions are to fulfil their one purpose on Remnant.

"And what would that be?"

"Death. That is why they are evil."

"Death. Interesting." He paused to allow her words the chance to sink in before expounding on the subject, "Well then, what are people? What are humans and Faunus? What are we?"

A question a lot harder to answer. "I- I'm not quite sure how to answer that, Professor."

"Understandable." Again like the last time Ozpin had gone to visit him in the infirmary, the headmaster grabbed a nearby metal chair and took his time dragging it across the room to Jaune's and Ruby's bedside. He proposed as soon as he had settled onto his uncomfortable seat, "Let's look at it this way: The Grimm want death so they kill. But what do they kill?"

"People(?)." Yang supplied but looked to Blake unsure if the answer had been too obvious or not. "It's people right?" she asked under her breath.

"Right, Ms Xiao Long," the headmaster answered in place of her partner, making the blonde girl jump in surprise at having been heard. "Going by what Ms Schnee said, we could say that the Grimm equal death. And so, if Grimm equal death, then we, the people, must equal... what?" Ozpin let hang so that they could answer the question for themselves.

"Life," Ruby whispered.

~ • ~

"Life," Ozpin ratified. "Life is what people are. People are change, and progress, and forward motion. That is our nature. Death and life, children. Where am I going with this?" Ozpin asked rhetorically as he endeavoured to sink himself further into his chair only to frown when he found out that there wasn't much chair left to sink into. "Think about how we have no qualms with killing Grimm but not so with people. 'Kill', it's the same action, so why? In fact, it could even be said that it is only natural that we cull these vile creatures."

Ruby couldn't even begin to hope of answering that question. She was only fifteen; questions like that were way above her pay grade. (And she didn't even have a pay grade! What is even "money" to a student thriving off a scholarship?) So she kept silent.

She somewhat felt vindicated when nobody else seemed too keen on saying anything as well. Not even Weiss. 'Huh, go figure.'

Ozpin answered his own quandary well before the silence got too awkward, "It's because the Grimm are not alive, to begin with. You can not kill that of which has no life." Both teams wore thoughtful expressions. "You see? You didn't even consider that; you just thought that because they were evil it makes it okay. But then what about those men who tried to kill you? At that moment, you could say that they too were evil, but still, you thought twice."

In the corner of her eye, Ruby saw Blake bristle and didn't know why. She chose not to mention it, however, recognizing that this wasn't the time or place.

"It is your souls. It knows to such an instinctual degree that, though one can not be without the other, life and death can not coexist. It is why we fight the creatures of Grimm with no reservations. It is life's nature to oppose death."

Was that really the reason? Ruby wasn't sure, all she knew was that Grimm hurt people and that she had to protect those who couldn't protect themselves.

"Reverse the paradigm," her professor suddenly demanded. "What do you think would happen when life opposes life?"

Ruby's thoughts went back to the docks. She remembered hesitating firing upon the man on the crane, a foe, someone bent on hurting her and her friend. Maybe even kill? (Just the thought of it made a shiver course through her tiny body.) Ruby had every right to shoot that man lest she be shot at instead, yet still, she paused. Why?

As if to answer her unspoken question, the professor explained, guiding the impromptu class to an epiphany, "Suddenly it is your own nature you stand against, not hate. Your very soul now defies you because it also knows that the reverse is true: life can not, or should not, oppose life. To do so is to scar your soul."

What did that mean 'scar the soul', Ruby wondered but did not ask.

"That is why you shouldn't have been there at the docks," finally, the roundabout came full circle, "The foes you faced that day were ready to destroy you..."

He paused.

"...but you were not the same. Because of this, you put not only yourselves in danger but those around you as well."

Ruby and Nora looked at each other guiltily. "We're sorry, headmaster-" the apology was swiftly turned away with an abrupt word and the waving of a hand.

"No. No, never apologise for not wanting to take a life, Ms Valkyrie. Like I said: I do not blame you for being innocent and wanting to help. Instead, I urge you all to take this lesson that your actions, no matter how well-intended, will always have repercussions. Now it is your responsibility to decide whether your good deed is worth the price."

The professor turned his head to look solemnly at Jaune.

"Just be thankful that your professor was there, someone who knows the price and understands it very well."

A weight seemed to settle over the room when the words spoken did splendidly to inspire a sense of foreboding.

Never one to let the mood drop, however, Nora valiantly made the attempt of lifting everyone's spirits. "Well, it's a good thing that they were all just robots then, huh? No need to worry about all that messy stuff, am I right?" She preceded to laugh a laugh that just barely dodged sounding awkward.

'Robots?' Ruby wondered.

A pregnant pause where nobody picked up the conversational ball Nora let drop wafted through the spaces between each individual. That was until a bewildered voice repeated the question that Ruby didn't ask, "Robots?"

The utterance piqued the interest of one girl in particular, and she turned to Jaune with what looked to be alarm in her eyes.

"Wait... You didn't know?" Blake asked Jaune slowly.

Her best friend shook his head.

"And you still tore them apart..."

Her teammate curled her arms around her sides almost fearful in the way she retreated into herself.

It was wrong. How she looked afraid of Jaune felt wrong to Ruby. Misplaced.

Ruby was by no means a skilled conversationalist, but even she could deduce the words Blake purposefully left in the air, and it stirred within her an intense desire to defend her fellow leader. And she wasn't the only one.

Nora cut her short with her quick rebuttal, "Woah woah woah! That's not fair! Jaune gave them plenty of chances to give up. What? Was he supposed to just stand there and take it? Well, he did that too! And they still didn't stop!"

"It's true, Blake," Ruby swore. "They didn't and Jaune still wouldn't fight back." But her knitted brows clearly showed that Blake wasn't quite sure what to believe at the moment.

And when Weiss added, "And so what if they weren't robots? The White Fang are still just a bunch of murdering terrorists. They got what they deserved if you asked me," it didn't help at all.

"How could you say that?!" Mortification turned the question into an accusation. "To condone such- such brutality upon a people who are only fighting for what they believe in-"

"—Fighting for what they believe in?" Weiss tone rose with incredulity. "Is that what you call almost killing Ruby and Nora?"

Whatever Blake had to say, Weiss's point-blank retort cut it to the quick, and the girl's mouth thinned into a tight line.

Weiss was far from done, however, "Why are you even defending them? They've done nothing but hurt society and for what? They're thieves. Murderers! They kill people. Innocent pe-"

"—Weiss."

He didn't raise his voice; there was no need to. Jaune only spoke her name, but it was with such authority that it demanded quiet—as Weiss was made keenly aware. The heiress faced her professor, startled that he had spoken against her. Jaune met her surprise with a frown more disappointed than angry. It made the snowy-haired girl look at the tiled floor with 'scolded' painting her mood blue.

Saying nothing, Blake made for the door, intent on walking out with her tail tucked between her legs. But Jaune's soft call of "Blake" froze her with her hand on the doorknob. "Blake," he implored again with his gentle voice. Her soft-spoken teammate did not meet his gaze but she did turn her head towards her left shoulder, telling him that she was listening. "I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologiz-"

Jaune cut Weiss off by grabbing her hand and squeezing it. His eyes, however, did not leave the ravenette. "I'm sorry, Blake."

There was nothing more to it than that. Just an "I'm sorry", albeit sincere. There was no explaining what he was saying sorry for, no words to try and make her understand why he'd done what he did. "I'm sorry" that was it. But whatever Blake was looking for she apparently found in the apology when she turned and faced Jaune with a small, sad smile on her face.

"Thank you, professor. Now, if you'll excuse me, I-I have to go study." Then she left.

It amazed Ruby to no end how Jaune knew, when she, Blake's leader, did not. This new Jaune sure was good at reading people. From herself to Nora, to Ren, and now to Blake, it seemed like he always knew just what to say. It both scared her and made her jealous of the skill.

"Way to go, Weiss."

"What? You know I'm right."

"You couldn't have said it nicer?"

"Nicer? Nicer?! Your sister was almost killed!"

"Yeah, by robots!"

"White Fang robots!"

"You don't know that."

"Oh, but I do, and do you know why, Yang? Because they're thieves! It is obvious that they've been stolen to fight in the White Fang's self-righteous crusade. And speaking as the heiress of the Schnee Dust company, trust me when I tell you: it wouldn't be the first time." Weiss shook her head. "This is ridiculous, I can not even believe you're taking her side!"

"Because there are no sides!"

"Ah, teenage drama truly is the spice of life. Do you not think so, Professor?"

How the amused commentary did not fit the charged atmosphere at all burst the bubble that Yang and Weiss were in, and they were verily reminded that not only had they been arguing in front of team JNPR, but their professor and headmaster as well. Safe it was to say that their ardour took a few hits.

Weiss decided that, to save herself from further embarrassment, she too would take her leave, "If you'll excuse me."

"You going to go study too?" Yang sassed.

Weiss turned her nose up at the blonde, "Yes, as a matter of fact," and headed towards the exit, but not without squeezing Jaune's hand first that was still held by hers. Weiss graced him with a sincere smile. "Thank you for protecting my partner, Professor. I am also very pleased to know that you are safe. Will I be seeing you in class?"

"Uh," caught off-guard by her sudden change in demeanour and the sudden realisation he'd been holding his crush's hand, Jaune had trouble articulating, Yeah, s-see you, Weiss."

She nodded, happy to hear it and let go of her grip. Then to Ruby, she instructed with a word that brokered no arguments, "Rest."

Yang huffed in time with the door closing, her breath blowing her hair out of her eyes. She would agree with the Ice Queen on one thing at least: "Rest," much more gently she told her little sister. Yang gave her a kiss on the top of her head before standing from where she sat at Ruby's side.

Her eyes landed on the occupant on the adjacent bed, her face unreadable. For a second, Ruby feared what she would say to him until her shoulders fell and her hand rubbed the back of her head.

"Look, Jaune I-... Me too I, uh..." She struggled to find the words. "I wanted to... say 'thanks' for saving my sister." That was supposed to be it, but it wasn't, not if her constant feet shuffling had anything to say about it. "A-And—better late than never I guess—sorry for shooting you and... stuff."

'Oh, Yang.' Ruby was proud of her sister. Apologizing was never something that came easy to Yang; to see her face her pride and tell it 'not this time' made Ruby smile.

Jaune simply nodded, not knowing what to say if ever there was anything to begin with.

"J-Just do me a solid and we're cool, okay?"

"Anything, Yang."

"No sex."

If there were crickets, they'd be chirping.

Jaune did three blinks—two quick and one long—before asking, "I'm sorry what?" with the tilt of his head as if it would help him hear better.

Her hands flattened parallel to the floor similar to how one would lay them on top of a table. She spoke more loudly, "What I'm saying is: I'm okay with you dating my sister-"

"Yang!"

"—and I'm going to let that one kiss slide-"

"YANG!"

"—but no sexy stuff until she's older. She is only fifteen."

"U-Uhm..."

"My my."

"Woo!"

"I did not need to hear that."

Embarrassment the likes of which the world had never known burned her cheeks a painful crimson.

"Ack-flbght! [Cough! Cough! Gasp!] YANGUGH!" That was the sound of Ruby choking on her own spit followed by two syllables—one that reached a pitch so high it would've made Weiss jealous, and the other low like she had just been punched in the gut—that told of the, literally, red reaper's mortification.

"Yang, we're not-"

"—Yup-ah! I'm gonna go ahead and peace out," the blonde quickly dismissed with no small air of indifference. "Gotta go do some damage control like a mature adult. See ya, teach." Yang then pounded her chest with a fist before following up with the customary deuces saludos. And just like that, her sister had promptly ducked out on her, leaving Ruby mouth agape and eye twitching. But just as she was beginning to think that the worst had passed, Yang had one last thing to say, "Bye, Rubes. Have fun with the professor." Yang winked at her before quickly shutting the door to evade the projectile pillow that had been thrown at her cheeky and annoying self. The door opened a second time and one lilac eye peeked through the crack; her sister had forgotten the 'P.S.' apparently. "But not too much fun, ya hear?" she warned with an 'I'm watching you' hand gesture.

The second pillow as well was unjustly denied.

Ruby could just feel all the attention go from the pillow that slid down the door to her, real slow-like. Like molasses. Really thick molasses. Lowering her throwing arm, Ruby tittered, playing it off, but on the inside, dying. "Sisters—gotta love'em (even when you wanna choke'em out)," she whispered murder under her breath. "Heheh...heh... Yeah." What she wouldn't give for her semblance to be invisibility just then. 'Yang, I will kill you... I'll replace all your conditioners with glue, I swear on Crescent Rose.'

Ozpin chuckled the way a grandparent would—with a pinch of good-natured derision. "Ah, youth," he mused while shifting his weight forward to stand—the chair he was sitting on made nary a squeak thanks to his seemingly ever-languid disposition. Unlike the others, he didn't say goodbye. What he did was place a hand on Jaune's shoulder and leaning down to whisper something in his ear.

Ruby tilted her head at the exchange, curious.

The hand that was on his shoulder patted him there twice before retreating. Then the headmaster straightened his back, turned and headed for the door. As he was making his exit, he spoke in a tone that almost sounded like it expected something of them, "It would seem that your students have begun to learn what it really means to be huntsmen. You should be proud... and prepared"

Jaune didn't respond; he just stared at his legs tucked under his blanket.

"I will be seeing to your release; it shouldn't take long, but do use this time to gather yourselves, both of you." The headmaster looked over his shoulder at Jaune then at her. "Your teams will be needing their leaders very soon."

'What does that mean?' Ruby hesitated to ponder.

"Ren. Nora." Her first time hearing the headmaster use anybody's first names, Ruby was understandably caught off guard, and so was the aforementioned duo who stood stock still at being named. "I believe your leaders would appreciate some time to recuperate. Why don't we leave them alone for now?"

It had been phrased as a question, but it couldn't have sounded any more like a dismissal than if Ozpin had the two frog-march out of the room.

Nora looked at Jaune with hesitance written all over her face. That was until Ren placed his hand on the small of her back, gently guiding her out the door. "We'll see you back at the dorm?" She asked hopefully.

"For sure." Jaune gave her the most reassuring smile knowing the girl wouldn't leave if it were anything less.

"Okay, cool. Bye, Ruby," she bid her farewell as well, warming Ruby's heart that though they weren't exactly teammates she still worried about her like one.

Ruby waved, "Bye, Nora."

The small chorus of footsteps grew more distant, and like the tolling of the evening bell, the door closed with a bang that had a sort of finality to it.

And so there were two.

For that one morning, many a silence had passed inside that room from tense to awkward. This one—the reaper felt, this one was the worst by far.

An unsettling weight that had never been there before hung between the two friends like a noose for whosoever challenged the stillness of the moment. Jaune—who wouldn't even acknowledge her presence—looked decidedly determined not to be the one to do so.

Ruby was not as stoic.

"Weird morning, am I right? Heheh..."

A commendable attempt by her however futile when all Jaune did was lay down on his side so that Ruby faced his back. Classic cold-shoulder move. It was super effective. Classics were classics for a reason, it would seem.

Ruby knew full well why he was upset, and the guilt strummed at her heartstrings like a poorly tuned guitar. "Jaune," she called out softly. "Jaune, you okay?" Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. Ruby winced even before the words had left her mouth.

"I'm fine."

'No, you're not.' Ruby frowned. "Jaune, talk to me," she pleaded and pressed when silence looked to be the order of the day, "Okay, I know what happened at the docks was a mess. I'm sorry, aright? I-"

He cut her off before she could apologize fully, "—I said: I'm fine. Just-" Ruby noticed the pause, "Just be more careful next time."

She was only too eager to nod her head. "I will. I promise," Ruby swore but flinched as if struck when, as she was speaking, Jaune had pulled his blanket over his head. The young girl sat there awkwardly not knowing what to do. She and Jaune had never fought before. They had argued about comics, which superhero would win against who, and other dorky stuff of the like, but never anything serious. The feeling had novelty in its sting... but at the same time, it was almost as if she had expected it; like it had happened before.

Ruby just couldn't remember when or how that was even possible.

In the end, the poor girl simply gave up, mimicking Jaune laying down, facing away from him. The sleep that had evaded her in the wee hours of the new day came easier this time. Ah, sweet escape.

Thank dust for little miracles.

~ • ~

'Gods. That was horrible,' Jaune berated himself. He knew that it was necessary, but trying to push Ruby away was going to be harder than he thought. Not only were Wolf's feelings fighting against him, but his own friendship with the reaper made what he did feel extra douche-baggy. 'Alright, suck it up, Jaune Arc,' he fortified himself before exhaling in a whisper, "This is for your own good Ruby."

Some time had passed in silence, and Jaune was pretty sure that Ruby had fallen back asleep. He was feeling pretty drowsy himself despite having just woken up and was about to rest his eyes when he heard a quiet noise. The door opened and closed quickly to avoid it squeaking. Whoever this person was that just entered the room didn't want to be noticed.

But—notice—he did.

Jaune's senses honed in on the intruder with a clinical calm, assessing them with just the sound and weight of their footsteps.

By the door, they lingered—probably to check if the occupants of the room were truly asleep. Jaune remained on his side but slowed his breathing to a crawl. For a moment, Jaune thought that he had been made, but the ruse worked, apparently, when the muted clacking of 'heel-step heel-step' drew closer and closer to where he was. They were right in front of him now standing over his prone form. If they planned on striking him down, that was the most opportune time to do so.

Oddly enough, they didn't; opting to kneel by his bedside instead.

Jaune did not waste the moment; in his book, mistakes made were mistakes punished. From underneath his blanket, his hand shot out to grasp the neck of whoever thought it a good idea to sneak up on him. Baleful blue eyes opened to glare...

...and was surprised to see beautiful forest green staring right back at him.

His grip immediately slackened but remained where it was, and for a while, all they did was stare—him surprised and her strangely calm.

"Pyrrha," he whispered.

The Spartan did not reply. Instead, with a deliberate slowness that felt like she was weighing his reaction, her hand went to her back. There was a quiet click before the appendage returned to her front, but this time, it was not empty.

Jaune's eyes grew in diameter before repeatedly switching between her face and the thing gripped in her hand. Sirens in his head blared in alarum because there propped up from the floor by the tip of its blade was his sword, Briar Rose.

Usually, nothing to fuss over, but if one were to remember what consisted the other half of his weapon, then it would become apparent why Jaune looked like he had a knife to his throat.

To emphasize this, Pyrrha twisted the handle of his sword, and with a click, his shield,—or should he say: her shield—fanned open like a beloved book. Akoúo̱. All the while, her eyes never left his, no doubt seeing every little nuance that spoke of his guilt.

"You will explain this to me," she said quietly, and it wasn't a demand. No, she said it as if it were only a truth, a truth she dared him to try and deny. "You will explain, and you will be thorough."

His mouth opened to speak the lie that sat ready on the tip of his tongue but found that he could not. What would he even say? That he just so happened to own a shield that showcased the exact same wear and tear that hers did? Even if she couldn't prove anything, Jaune knew she never would have believed whatever sham he came up with. Nothing short of the truth would sate her now; he could see it in her eyes.

"Okay" the word slipped past his lips before he could fully grasp what he was agreeing to. "I'll tell you, but not here. Not now."

"Jaune..." her tone was warning him no more escapes. No more detours.

"Tonight. I promise."

~ • ~

"When you are ready, come see me at the clock tower; there is something I have to show you," Ozpin had instructed him back at the infirmary. That was a week ago, and oh, what a week it had been.

First off: Pyrrha Nikos. True to his word, Jaune had told her everything.

And it was funny in an ironic almost cosmic sort of way how Pyrrha thought he was lying the one time he was actually being honest. Jaune would have laughed if he weren't so worried about the repercussions of her knowing the truth laid bare.

At the same time, it was all so freeing. After weeks and weeks of keeping it to himself, one of his friends finally knew the truth. Whether or not that truth is accepted did not subtract from the feeling of a weight being lifted off of his shoulders, no matter how minuscule.

For it to be Pyrrha of all people, one wouldn't be wrong in saying that it was only fitting that she be the one to have found him out.

When the red-haired girl saw no lie in his eyes and in his words, Jaune witnessed the exact moment her world flipped end over end. Speechless, she was, and he pitied her. How does one even respond to learning they never got to live past seventeen?

She asked for time, and Jaune was only too happy to oblige. Good thing that the semester break was coming up; that should help with that.

Secondly was Ruby. Jaune had been avoiding her. Enough said.

Just thinking that phrase shot a pang of remorse through the young boy's heart. Every time it did, every time she would ask him to hang out, every crap reason he would give her just so he could bail, Jaune would remind himself that it was for her own good. He could not afford to be distracted. Jaune could not afford another "Battle at the Docs".

The only time he would interact with her was during class where he had to keep her engaged with the subject, and even then he kept words at a minimum.

Jaune tried not to remember the disheartened look on Ruby's face every time he dismissed her. He kept telling himself, "It will pass. It will pass."

Jaune was still waiting for when that sentiment would become true. Again, he was hoping that the semester break would help with that.

Thirdly. Was there even a thirdly? Oh, there was Weiss. They've been around each other a lot lately. Whether it be to help her with her studies—Jaune still didn't get why the smartest girl in school would need his help studying, but hey, he got to spend time with his crush; a win's a win is a win, bro—or just having a cup of coffee, many a time he would find himself in the Schnee's pleasant company.

Besides all that, things have been pretty standard. He was back to staying at JNPR's. His friends were talking to him again. Classes were still just as much a pain as he remembered, only now he was on the other side of the table being a professor and all. Things were settling down.

He had had his time to rest. Now Jaune had to go see about a wizard and the thing he wanted to show him.

The young general walked the hall to Ozpin's office with his arms folded neatly behind his back—habit, some things you can never unlearn—when an unexpected surprise met him along the way.

"Pyrrha?"

"Professor."

"Jaune. Please." His hands unclasped to let his arms hang more at ease. "Call me 'Professor' in class, but not here. Not when there's only the two of us," he requested of her. Jaune was relieved to see a smile pull at the corner of her lips.

"Okay... Jaune."

"Thanks, Pyrr," he spoke her name with gratitude.

Pyrrha did not allow the exchange the chance to drift off into another silence. "Jaune, I've given it some thought."

Said boy drew in a silent breath before letting it out as quietly as he could. He didn't need her to tell him what it was she'd been thinking about; he could already hazard a guess. "And?"

"And..." the Spartan held her head down in shame. "...And I still don't know what to do."

"Pyrrha, you don't have to do anything. You could go home and let all this blow over."

"How could you tell me that?" Jaune didn't understand why she sounded so indignant. Did she not realize that he was only trying to keep her safe? "Knowing what I know now, do you honestly think me capable of just turning around and walking away?"

The obvious answer to that was 'no'. But it wasn't so obvious, apparently, when Pyrrha continued on to say, "I don't know what to do, but I want to find out. Maybe learning more, would help me decide."

"Pyrrha." Her name had been a plea.

"You're worried about me."

As if it needed stating. "You know I am."

She gave him another smile, apologetic this time. "All the more reason to know then. This way I will be better prepared."

Damn her. Jaune let out a loud sigh and let his hands rub roughly at his face. They then slicked his hair back and settled behind his neck. Jaune kept them there as his eyes flickered towards Pyrrha's, prodding her resolve with a raised brow. He let out another sigh when it looked like she wasn't going to change her mind any time soon. "Fine. Follow me."

He began to walk and Pyrrha jogged to catch up. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"To Ozpin's. There was something he wanted to show me."

~ • ~

"Ah, what a peaceful morning."

Ozpin's doors slammed open.

"And now it isn't," he deadpanned to himself before greeting, "Why, Mr Arc, please, come right on in. No. No need to knock. What are doors for, after all."

"You wanted to show me something?"

Ozpin was just about to reply with a clever retort when he noticed the girl standing just behind the professor. His eyes returned to the blonde with a question.

"She knows, Oz."

Narrowing his eyes at the general, he asked, "Knows?"

"Everything."

Take his peaceful morning and shove it up Monday's posterior because this was the last thing Ozpin needed to hear.

The headmaster let out the loudest, longest, most petulant sigh he had ever sighed in all his immortal life before returning his attention to the promising student. "I trust you grasp the gravity of the situation, Ms Nikos, yes?"

"N-Not completely," she stuttered but eventually found her courage when she finished more steadily, "But I want to."

"Of course you do." Ozpin's tone was not impressed. He glared at Jaune for a moment before realizing that, really, there was nothing he could do at that point. "We will discuss this further [sigh]... but later. Right now, follow me, both of you."

The headmaster led them to a table off to the side where something metal sat on top of it like a centrepiece. "Observe," the bespectacled man instructed.

"This is what you had to show me? A piece of scrap?"

"Now now," Ozpin conciliated the dubious man sarcastically—sarcasm, like coffee, was his forte and he shall have his cup for the one Jaune spoiled that morning—"I know how hard it is for you, but do try to not be too hasty." The headmaster punctuated the jab by flicking his gaze at the redhead then back at the blonde. Jaune began to growl; Ozpin couldn't have cared less. "Look closer; tell me what you see."

To the uninitiated, that piece of metal would have meant little, but if Jaune was as learned as Ozpin thought he was, then he should spot what was so interesting about it. The general tilted his head to the side, noticing something curious.

"Zercon?"

"Exactly."

"I'm sorry—zircon? That is a gem, correct? Why is that weird?"

With his hand, Ozpin motioned for Jaune to take the floor.

Jaune began to speak, voice adopting the tone he oft used during his lectures. "Zercon with an 'e', Pyrrha, stands for Zero Contact alloy. It's a type of metal used for mining dust because of its unique ability of not blowing up the raw mineral upon forceful contact."

"Oooooh," Pyrrha nodded her head slowly in comprehension before shyly raising yet another question, "and, um, what does that mean for us, exactly?"

Ozpin replied with a report, "When you fought those robots last week, Vale Police confiscated their remains for investigation. On transit, what was left of your attackers self-destruct—most probably to get rid of any evidence—and that piece of metal is all that's left of them." That elicited a gasp from the Mistralian champion.

Once again Ozpin looked to Jaune, willing his analytical mind to connect the dots.

"Dust, droids, and Zercon-"

Jaune spoke calmly and Ozpin saw how it unnerved Pyrrha the way he slate aside the news of the explosion. Had anyone been hurt? Did the drivers even survive? Jaune put those thoughts away in favour of cracking the code. Ozpin was not so convinced that she was ready for all this.

"—those three things have only one thing in common."

Hesitantly, Pyrrha asked, "What?" one last time.

The general's voice turned grave when he looked up from his thoughtful pose. He met their combined gaze with the steel of his own, "The SDC."

---

Yes, I am indeed alive. Thank you to all who were nice enough to ask and to those who kicked my ass over at the PMs. I appreciate it, truly.

Sorry if I dropped out of the radar there for a while. Work has just been busting my balls for the past few weeks. Had to work weekends and by the time I had a moment to myself, my mind was mush, and I just didn't have it in me to think anymore.

This chapter is the result of me taking my chicken dinners from COD and transforming them good vibes into writing. So to those who waited, I give you my longest chapter yet. The chapter that had fought me every step of the way.

Woo dolly! A lot to unpack with this one. Shared dreams, bridges mended, and one in the process of burning? I see WhiteKnight over yonder, and now Pyrrha in on the secret too?! And what of the SDC and the White Fang? What do they have to do with anything? Why are donuts so good and yet so bad for you? Will Covid ever end?!

Stay tuned for the answers to these burning questions on the next chapter of "Re-memory: The Wolf Chronicles Shippuden!"