Winds of Change (Part 1)

"Ozpin, you want to explain what the hell just happened and why we're getting reports talking about a severe global deduction in Grimm activity for the first time in history?" Qrow asked, surprisingly sober for the first time in forever.

Although his voice was laced with suspicion towards the Headmaster, this was easily the happiest Ozpin had seen Qrow since Summer died. "Have we struck a major blow against her or something?"

Qrow leaned forwards on Ozpin's desk with one hand before lowering his volume into a threatening whisper.

"Or did you strike a deal with the enemy without telling us?"

Three pairs of eyes all rested on the white-haired man's seat as General Ironwood tightened the grip on his curled up fist.

It was always like this with his friend. Ozpin always engaged in this clandestine crap and made decisions without consulting anyone else involved in his so-called 'trusted' circle.

Glynda, Qrow, and Ironwood all recognized the need to keep secrets in order to protect the public, but Ozpin was meant to be open with them and actually listen to them, something which he rarely ever actually did.

Ozpin quietly sipped on his coffee before placing his mug down nonchalantly as he stood up from his seat.

"Mr. Branwen, have you perhaps attempted to use the gift I bestowed on you ever since we started to get these reports?"

"Cut the shit and get to the point, Oz."

"As crass as Qrow is acting right now, he has a point, Ozpin." James Ironwood stood up and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "We deserve to know what's going on, especially considering that we lost the Fall Maiden's magic overnight."

Ozpin sighed and readjusted his glasses.

"You're certainly correct. You do deserve to know what is exactly happening." Ozpin paused cautiously as he gagged the reactions of the company surrounding him. "But at the same time, you're incorrect about one small detail."

"Sir, and that would be…?" Glynda prompted the Headmaster as her own finely-tuned scathing glare intensified.

"For the first time in all my lifetimes, I don't have a single clue as to what's going on either." Ozpin's eyes sparkled mischievously as Glynda shuddered. "And suddenly, my magic has almost completely disappeared. I speculate the same has occurred with her."

Whenever his eyes glowed up like that, Ozpin's curiosity drove him to make reckless decisions, much to his advisor's displeasure. It was the same expression he had made when he decided to admit Ruby Rose-a fifteen year-old girl-into Beacon Academy or when he examined Jaune Arc's own transcripts for the first time. With Ms. Rose, it was obvious why he had been interested in her, but with Mr. Arc, Ozpin refused to elaborate on what he found so interesting in the talentless young man when she asked.

"And isn't that just so…"

Oh Brothers, here it comes. Glynda frowned.

"... interesting."

"And what about the Maidens?" Qrow crossed his arms over one another. "You didn't mention them either."

"Well, isn't it obvious?" Ozpin's smile stretched from ear to ear. "If my own magic supply has basically disappeared, then what do you think happened to the Maidens' magic?"

"You don't mean…" Ironwood trailed off.

"Yes, that's right. Ms. Amber's loss was unexpected, but I don't think it was the result of the enemy."

"I believe it's because her magic-and presumably every other Maiden's-has vanished too. Along with the silver eyes."

Qrow was partly thankful for that-especially after what had happened to Summer thanks to that bullshit.

He never wanted Ruby to get involved in this mess either, but as a silver-eyed warrior, she would have had little choice.

Now though…

"Beacon will continue as normal in the meantime." Ozpin looked over to Goodwitch as his expression began returning to normal. "With one caveat, Doctor Oobleck recently requested for two of the first year teams to join him on a research expedition instead of having them take normal missions."

Well… that was odd for Oobleck to specifically request teams for his expeditions… but the man had always had his favorite students.

Glynda adjusted her glasses.

Of course, all the teachers at Beacon had their favorite teams or students, but Oobleck was the type of person to not get too strung up on the company he kept. The man put up with Professor Port after all. Anyone who was willing to put up with his 'manly' antics had to be either certifiably insane or unconcerned with what others thought of them.

It was clear that Ozpin's favorite team was RWBY. Much to her own personal displeasure. Ruby Rose was an admirable person with a good foundation of morals, sure, but…

Far more importantly, she lacked that ambitious drive to really be called a proper leader. The passionate kind of hunger that she had only ever seen in the truly magnetic team leaders at Beacon. Ruby Rose was more or less just content with her life as it was.

Most team leaders nowadays though just seemed to be the type who just reacted with their surroundings or did whatever society told them that they should do instead of following their own dreams. Never delving deeper to discover what they really want and acting upon it. The same kind of people who didn't take an active role in their own lives, only doing what was expected of them or what they were taught.

Mankind is naturally drawn to passion after all.

"Any reason as to why you're indulging him, sir?"

"Well… like I said earlier." Ozpin paused as that mischievous glint returned. "What he described was interesting."

"Miss Goodwitch? You wanted to see us?" Jaune asked, a nervous bead of sweat flowing down the side of his cheek. He scratched the side of his cheek.

Ruby Rose teetered on her feet impatiently.

"I called you down here because I wanted to inform you of a possible mission assignment." Glynda looked up from the infernal paperwork on her desk. "You both were needing extra credit in Oobleck's course, right?"

"Actually, I've always done pretty we-"

"Oh sweet! We'll do it!" Ruby interrupted as she bounced forwards, meeting the headmistress face-to-face before Jaune pulled her back out of fear for her safety. "What is it again?"

"Well, you're not going to turn down an opportunity to raise your grade, are you Arc?" Glynda's eyes narrowed, choosing to ignore the young Rose. To be honest, she never did like the young man, but she did respect his desire to improve.

It was the only real thing Jaune Arc had going for him.

Jaune felt the sweat drop run down his neck and onto his chest. "Yes ma'am."

"Good. Then teams RWBY and JNPR will both be joining Doctor Oobleck tomorrow morning. You'll be heading to a recently uncovered historical site by Vale that's supposedly seen a bit of action according to a colleague of his." Glynda paused before adjusting her glasses once more. "If the expedition goes off without a hitch, then you'll both receive an extra 5 point bonus to your worst history test grade this semester."

Jaune raised a hand. "Actually, could I transfer that to my combat score instead?"

Glynda's green eyes burned into Jaune's soul.

"... Yeah, I should have figured." Jaune lowered his hand back down.

"Good. You'll be expected to be inside of Bullhead no. B-52 by 0800." Glynda pointed a single chastising finger at the blond before dragging it to meet Ruby's own gaze. "Don't be late."

The sky was painted an orange-yellowish color as the sun rose from behind the horizon, creating a picturesque view of Beacon as it was draped in the morning light.

Unfortunately, Jaune could not enjoy this sight.

"Yang, why are you like this?"

"Oh what ever do you refer to, my dearest little sister?" Yang's eyelashes fluttered innocently.

Ruby stomped her feet in the ground with a huff as Pyrrha looked on with noticeable concern as she crossed her arms over her stomach awkwardly, unsure of what to do in a situation like this.

"Yang! Could you stop choking Jaune please?" The reaper finished as Nora jumped up beside her.

"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I wanna have a turn, Yang!" Nora bounced excitedly, pumping her fists in the air. "I wanna give Jaune-Jaune a noogie too!"

Jaune's face went red, either because of the two rolls of fat pressing against his face or because his oxygen supply had been cut off for the past minute or so. He wasn't quite sure of himself if he was being honest, but then again, he had been raised in a household of eight women total. Add in the fact that the relationships he had with them were sort of a "love-hate" deal-the kind you see between people who can't stand one another but still try to get along-and, honestly, it was sort of miraculous how healthy Jaune had turned out.

Don't get him wrong, Jaune definitely loved his sisters, but he could stand to have them back off a bit. Especially after Dad ran off and died.

Words echoed throughout Jaune Arc's mind unwillingly.

"Why did you have to drive him away, Jaune?!" His mother sobbed as she-

Jaune shut that down before he could indulge it any further.

And they wondered why he was ignoring them.

So, yeah, he could safely say that he was pretty sick of blondes at this point.

"Ah please. You can tell he likes it! Having a strong, beautiful woman like moi boss you around as you get pressed up against my girls must really rock your socks off, huh?"

Ruby grimaced before looking off to the side. "Gross."

Yang squeezed him closer to her bust as she stuck her tongue out at her younger sister.

"Ain't that right, Jauney?"

"Guhhhhhhhhh…" Jaune choked out.

"See! He likes it!" Yang nodded, but her smug grin made it very clear that she had no genuine interest in the JNPR team leader. Her nonchalant attitude should have told anyone with proper social skills that she didn't think much of Jaune Arc as a member of the opposite sex.

Pyrrha tried to maintain the calm, inoffensive public persona she had made for herself, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep up appearances as this blonde h-h-harl-

This blonde jerk manhandled her partner!

Let it be known that Pyrrha Nikos-the Invincible Girl who submitted to no one-wasn't very good at making insults.

Plus, what if Yang liked Jaune?! Then that'd make a love triangle, and Pyrrha did not take kindly to competition.

"N-n-not… muh… tieph..." Jaune struggled to reply.

Yang flashed Pyrrha a dangerous smile before winking knowingly… for some reason Pyrrha herself wasn't aware of.

"What was that? Could you say that a little louder for those in the back?" Yang, in an act of mercy, loosened her grip on the boy's neck for him to speak.

"N-not my type."

Yang's face scrunched up with faux anger as she resumed.

"Oh, so I'm not good enough for Vomit Boy?" She dramatically placed a hand over her chest and gasped as she pretended to keel over. "Ahhhhggg! My heart! You've beaten me!"

Yang Xiao-Long finally released her chokehold as Jaune gasped for air, collapsing on the ground as he panted. Bending her knees, Pyrrha placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, which he pushed off instinctively-much to her own hidden disappointment.

"Jesus! I'm sorry about what I said regarding your bedhead hair." Jaune replied as he rubbed his throat.

The blond brawler's face shifted into a smug grin as she brushed him off with a waving hand. "Don't worry about it, Arc. You've learned your lesson." Yang's grin widened. "And that'll be the only time you'll ever score a victory against the great Yang Xiao-Long, Vomit Boy!" She said in jest, leaning into the character she was playing as and prompting Jaune to pout resentfully.

Jaune felt like he was forgetting something.

"MY TURN!"

Oh yeah.

Nora pounced on Jaune's shoulders only for her face to be stopped by Jaune's right palm when it collided with her right cheek.

"You suck." Jaune replied as he attempted to hold Nora back, prying her face away from him like she had some sort of infectious disease. His blue eyes drifted over to Ren as he gave him a pleading look. "Dude, could you take care of her please? I don't want to lose any more brain cells via asphyxiation."

Jaune made a sheepish grin at his own self-deprecating sense of humor, much to Pyrrha's own disapproval when the joke flew over her head.

"I don't think my grades couldn't take it."

Outside of combat, his grades weren't even that bad! They were average at worst! Pyrrha didn't get it. Why was he acting like they were?!

Ren shrugged as he reached into his pocket.

Like a prairie dog, Nora stood up and sniffed the air before charging at the pink-streaked young man with the force of a truck. Then, much to Jaune's surprise, Nora somehow stopped completely as soon as she was practically a centimeter away from colliding with Ren.

The ginger's palm opened and curled towards her as if asking him to give her something.

"Gimme!"

And then Ren slapped her hand with a somehow still fresh pancake that had been covered in syrup without spilling any of the sticky substance onto the floor or, impossibly, even onto his hand itself. Even the pocket Ren had taken it out from had no trace of the maple syrup.

Jaune performed a double-take.

"Did… Did you just pull that out of your pocket?"

Ren's eyes sparkled, and Jaune decided to stop asking questions when it came to Ren and Nora.

Weiss stood in the corner of the stationary bullhead filing her nails, trying to distract herself from the idiocy going on in front of her, but ultimately unable to ignore her friends' antics.

"Hey Jaune, do that thing again! You know, that thing!" Ruby asked.

"Are… are you sure? Last time I did it, I ended up causing someone to faint."

"Yeah! Look! Yang, look!"

Weiss closed her eyes as she attempted to drown out the noise, but… her curiosity got the better of her.

"WOAH! How'd you do that? You gotta tell me, Vomit Boy!"

One eye opened to take a small glance over at Arc, but her eyes widened as she registered what the blond team leader was doing.

Jaune Arc had somehow stuffed his entire ear into his head, folding it inwards like it was a piece of paper.

"Yeah, I learned it as a kid." Jaune paused as if he hadn't just ignored several aspects of basic human anatomy. "I don't get what's the big deal."

"Ewww! See! See! Isn't that gross, Yang!"

"I don't ear what you mean by that, Rubes. I honestly thought it was kinda cool. Like, how the hell does it work?" Yang elbowed the scarlet champion next to her. "What do you think, P-money?"

"Oh! Well, I thought it was actually pretty…hot..." Pyrrha trailed off suspiciously as a light pink blush sprinkled across her face.

Yang cleared out her ears as she swore she misheard the massively popular celebrity say something.

"What did you just say? You kind of mumbled there at the end, chief."

"I said I thought it was actually pretty... not cool." Pyrrha corrected.

…

What was wrong with these dolts!?

…

Okay.

She, in retrospect, should have expected this, especially given her own partner's antics. Team RWBY tended to get involved in some crazy stuff. That was to be expected.

Weiss sighed as she pressed a palm up to her face.

But Weiss thought that she'd at least find some sort of reprieve through Pyrrha and Ren, but they proved to be their own separate brand of weirdos as well.

At least Blake was reasonable. The cat faunus was normal enough. Maybe she could strike up some conversation with her to distract her from-

Blake was currently invested in her novel in the corner of the bullhead. Some book titled "Ninjas of Love: Knights of Cydonia."

Judging by the cover, which currently depicted a knight in what Weiss could only describe as "functionally useless armor" caressing their "sword" in a… rather sensual manner, it didn't seem like it'd be anything worth discussing right now.

Or, rather, it didn't seem like it'd be anything Weiss would ever want to discuss with someone else.

So nevermind.

Weiss wisely decided to get back to filing her nails as she waited for Doctor Oobleck.

Pyrrha rubbed soothing circles into the back of her motion-sick partner as he tried to hold his guts in.

"Don't worry, Jaune, it's not too much longer now, see?"

They were approximately twenty minutes off-schedule to take off. Not because of any of them were late. No, they already had their combat gear on and ready at 7 a.m.. Doctor Oobleck, however... well he certainly took his time bringing out all of his recording equipment for the journey.

"So what exactly will we be doing on this mission, Doctor Oobleck, sir?" Jaune asked, being extra careful not to accidentally refer to the green-haired teacher as 'professor.'

"Tell me, Mr. Arc, what do you know about curses?" A chill ran down the spines of the students.

Jaune put his hand to his chin.

"Hmmmm… I can't say I'm very familiar with modern fairy tales or anything about the Brothers…" Jaune raised several eyebrows with that statement.

Ruby's gray eyes tightened in confusion. "Wait-if you don't know anything about fairy tales or the Brothers, then why are you a-"

"Not fairy tales, Mr. Arc. History." Oobleck interrupted.

"What do you mean?" Interjected Pyrrha. "I can't see where you're going with this, sir."

"You see, every fairy tale or even rumor has some truth sprinkled in it."

"You mean like the four Maidens?"

Oobleck dismissed Pyrrha's question. "No, that one is wrong. There's nothing true about it. Ignore it. It's dumb."

Pyrrha frowned as she continued to write her name on Jaune's back with her fingers. Even in her mother's lessons about destiny or her bedtime stories, Pyrrha absorbed her parent's words as truth, and while she definitely tried to be open-minded-unlike her mother-it was a struggle for her.

With Jaune, it was different. He was Jaune. Her precious partner and best friend (and maybe crush but Pyrrha didn't want to admit that). Pyrrha knew he was a sweetheart, and thus, she was willing to compromise her own faith for him.

But what her professor was implying was something she had never heard of before.

"No, there used to be a legend that was passed around Vale for a long time as an old wives tale." Oobleck cleared his throat as he adjusted his glasses. "Back, even before the king of Vale, there existed a civilization of faunus that mysteriously disappeared one night for reasons unknown. Supposedly, in search of supernatural power, they engaged in human sacrifice rituals meant for the Brothers, who were displeased by their needless destruction of life made in their name."

Blake's bow twitched, and she lowered her book by an inch.

"Because it displeased them, the Brothers then cursed the civilization by melting them with the Sun's heat, forcing them to move underground." Oobleck paused as his explanation slowly sped up. "In their suffering, the faunus civilization promised to strike down the gods one day, only for them to fade into history as myth."

"Sir, this is interesting and all, but what does this have to do with where we're going?" Ren spoke up as he attempted to wake Nora up from her nap.

"That's what I hope to find out." Oobleck took a swig from his thermos. "My colleague Professor Thorogood was looking into the myth before he sent me the emergency signal. We'll be meeting with his student soon."