"You're certain?" Cinder asked Mercury as after he'd reported what he'd seen earlier.
"Definitely." The silver haired assassin said as he sat with his arms crossed. "It was that Jaune guy. Came back from the Deathlands with a bag full of gold from some ancient civilization like something out of an adventure movie. You'll probably be able to see him tomorrow. I doubt you'd be the only one trying to catch a look."
"Interesting…" Cinder said softly as she considered the new information. "Truly unprecedented. I do not see it greatly impacting our plans, but it is still something to take into consideration. Once the news breaks, and the council will make sure it does, this will affect morale in the kingdom quite a bit."
"I can't believe someone managed to survive that hell." Emerald said wonderingly from where she sat on her bed. "Especially not someone as pathetic as him."
"It seems there's more to Arc than is first apparent." Cinder responded thoughtfully. "Keep an eye on him when you can. Like I said, it's unlikely that this will affect anything, but it is better to be safe than sorry. Any information on his current abilities would be good as well."
Mercury shrugged as Emerald nodded seriously. The dark haired maiden glanced out the window at the shattered moon. "Things are rarely boring in Beacon it seems…"
Pyrrha bit her lip the next morning as she stood next to the sleeping Jaune's bed, debating whether to wake him up or not. Watching him sleep peacefully made her heart swell with joy after their time apart.
She'd woken up that morning terrified that the previous day's events had been a dream and Jaune was still dead. When she'd finally forced herself to open her eyes and she saw him sleeping nearby she'd almost sobbed with relief and happiness.
Now it was breakfast time, and all of team JNPR but Jaune was up and ready for the day, having been very careful not to wake him till now. Pyrrha was about to wake him up so he could get showered and dressed when she stopped. She glanced at Nora and Ren, who were seated on their beds and finishing getting ready. "Should I wake him up? Maybe we should let him sleep and bring him back some food…"
Ren considered it before shaking his head. "He went to sleep pretty early last night. Better wake him up so he can get some food and get back in the swing of things. It's Saturday, so he can take a nap later if he needs it."
Seeing the sense in those words Pyrrha nodded before reaching down to gently shake Jaune awake. "Jaune, wake up. It's brea-"
As soon as her hand made contact with Jaune's arm his eyes snapped open and he lept up, one hand curling into a fist and striking out at the surprised redhead while the other scrambled for a weapon that wasn't there.
Fortunately, even when shocked and caught off guard, Pyrrha's champion instincts and reflexes went to work. She caught his wrist, turned with the momentum of his strike, and tossed him, sending him flying into the wall with a loud bang, the plaster denting from the force.
It had all happened in an instant, and when her mind caught up with her actions she cried out an "I'm sorry!" and rushed to the blonde's side.
Jaune stared up at the ceiling from his uncomfortable position on his shoulders, legs up in the air and against the wall. "...Ow…" He said before his eyes focused on his teammates, who had all gathered around him. "Guys?" He blinked. "Wait, it wasn't a dream?"
"I'm sorry." Pyrrha repeated miserably as she knelt by his side, trying to help him up.
"You okay, fearless leader?" Noras asked as the blonde of the team got off the floor.
"Yeah. I'm fine. This is nothing compared to some of what's happened to me." He smiled at her happily. "I'm just glad you're all real and not figments of my imagination."
They all smiled back, but before anything else could be said there was a knock on the door. "Hey guys, everything alright in there? We heard a bang that didn't sound like Nora's normal ones." Yang's voice said.
"We're fine, Yang. You can come in." Jaune said as he stretched, rubbing the back of his neck to alleviate the strain from the way he impacted against the floor
The door opened and Ruby peered in to fund her friends awake and surrounding a pajama clad Jaune. She smiled as she caught sight of him. "Good morning, everyone." She said, opening the door to let them see the rest of RWBY in the hallway. "Ready for breakfast?"
"Jaune just woke up." Ren said as said blonde stretched and yawned now that his head wasn't ringing.
"Wanna stay in and have us bring you something?" Ruby asked him.
"Nah." Jaune replied as he picked up some clothing and made his way to the bathroom. "I'll just hop in the shower real quick. Gimme five minutes."
"A shave might be good too." Nora said as she flopped back onto her bed. "Just sayin."
"I dunno, he doesn't look half bad with facial hair. Just needs a trim." Yang said, giving her opinion.
Jaune cocked his head as he was closing the door, considering it. "I'll think about it."
The other seven teens chatted as they waited for their last member to join them, all of them in high spirits for the first time in months.
"Must be nice to have your room at full occupancy again." Blake said from where she leaned against the wall.
"It's been lovely." Pyrrha agreed. "It feels like things are as they should be. It'll probably take a bit for things to get back to normal, but we'll manage it."
"Now that you've got a full team again, are you going to reenter the Vytal Tournament?" Weiss asked with interest, looking far better than she had for some time.
"That's up to Jaune." Ren said. "He might not feel up to it."
"Besides, we need to get back into the groove of fighting together." Nora added from her bed. "Jaune-Jaune has been fighting alone for a while. He has to get used to having people helping him again."
"Good point." Weiss said with a nod before turning with the others as the bathroom door opened and Jaune walked out in a t-shirt and jeans, apparently going for comfort over looks. Not that anybody was going to blame him.
"Went with the clean shave, I see." Yang sad as he dumped his wet towel in the nearby hamper.
"Eh, I considered keeping the beard, but this is more… me. Besides, you wouldn't believe how itchy facial hair can get when you can only bathe once every week or so in cold, Grimm infested streams."
His fellow blonde ran her fingers through her long, luxurious hair. "Ugh, I can't imagine doing that. Just think of the split ends…" She said with a shudder.
Her sister shook her head in exasperation with a cute little snort. "Whatever, Yang. Let's get going before breakfast is over."
"Sounds good to me. I'd like some pancakes." Jaune said with a smile. "In the wilds I didn't get options like 'savory' or 'sweet', so I want to have as much variety as possible now that I can."
"No sweets for months. Now that's a nightmare." Ruby said with her own shudder, prompting an eye roll from Yang.
Jaune glanced at Pyrrha, who was sticking close to him as they walked. "By the way, I'm sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have attacked you like that."
"It's alright, Jaune." Pyrrha said, a soft, sad smile on her face. "I'm sorry too. I should have expected you to react that way after what you've been through. I'll be more careful in the future."
When they entered the cafeteria a hush fell upon the place when people caught sight of Jaune. His friends expected him to hunch his shoulders and hurry for his food in embarrassment, but instead, after a moment of nervous shifting, he straightened his shoulders and walked through the room proudly, eyes locked on the food and not paying attention to the people who stared and whispered as his friends followed him.
Grabbing a large pile of pancakes, bacon, fruit and some coffee, he glanced around to look for a place to sit, finding Sun and Neptune motioning him over to their table, prompting him to walk in their direction.
"Hey guys." He said as he sat down, the rest of JNPR and RWBY quickly following suit.
"Hey man." Sun said in his usual upbeat manner. "Didn't get a chance to talk yesterday. Glad to see you're okay."
"Definitely." Neptune agreed as he sat overtly coolly, and empty breakfast plate in front of him. "You have no idea what it's been like here while you've been gone."
"I didn't think my being gone would have much of an effect beyond our circle of friends." Jaune said in confusion as he poured more syrup than was strictly necessary on his breakfast.
"It was a big blow to morale." Neptune explained. "You're the leader of one of the two most prominent first year Beacon teams, you 'died' in a pretty awful way, and it was close to the Vytal festival. It's not surprising."
"Plus I hear Cereal Girl's sponsors weren't happy." Coco said as CFVY joined the group.
Jaune turned his head to her in surprise even as Pyrrha grimaced. "Why would they care about me?"
"Normally they wouldn't unless you knocked her up or something." Coco said, smirking slightly as the teens erupted into blushes. "But in this case, you going missing meant that she wouldn't be able to participate in the tournament since you need a four man team for it. I think you see the problem."
Jaune swallowed the bit of pancake in his mouth thoughtfully. "Huh. I hadn't considered that. The tournament hasn't really been on my mind the past few months."
The group of friends proceeded to enjoy their meals, most of the conversation involving asking Jaune for further details on things he'd talked about the previous day.
Once they'd finished off their food Jaune was getting up in order to relax with everybody out on one of Beacon's areas of greenery when a scream of "Jaune!" preceded something slamming into his side, arms wrapping around him.
Jaune immediately reacted without thinking, twisting and breaking the hold while swinging his arm around to punch his assailant, his fist stopping inches from his mother's face when Yang grabbed his arm, holding it in place with a grip like iron.
Clementine Arc flinched back at the sudden attack by her son, hurt in her eyes as she saw recognition fill his own once he got over his instinctual reaction. He blinked slowly before yelping and tripping backwards as he realized what he'd almost done. "M-Mom!?"
"Jaune…" She said again, this time in a whisper as her husband moved to her side, resting a hand on her shoulder as Ozpin and Goodwitch kept a respectful distance after having guided the Arcs to the cafeteria.
"I-I'm sorry! I just- my body just reacted." He hunched over guiltily, looking at her with pained eyes.
Clementine smiled softly before moving forward again, pulling him into another hug. "I understand. I'm just… so glad you're okay…" She began sobbing with joy.
Ferrus Arc made his way to his wife and child, pulling them both into a hug without a word, a palpable sense of relief evident in his actions. Jaune, for his part, closed his eyes and let a tear or two leave his eyes as he basked in having his family with him again.
Jaune's friends, along with the rest of the student body, remained respectfully silent as they watched the reunion take place.
Eventually the three blondes separated, looking at each other with smiles. "We didn't believe it at first when Ozpin called us last night and said you'd been found alive." Jaune's father finally said after a bit of time enjoying being with his only son again. "It felt like a cruel joke to play. But we still rushed here as soon as we could."
"I'm glad you came." Jaune said softly, looking from one parent to another. "I really missed you both while I was gone. I thought of you every day."
Clementine caressed her son's cheek lovingly, eyes still bright and wet with happiness. "Well, no need to worry about that anymore." She stepped back, still him. "Now, are you packed? Ready to head home?"
Jaune wasn't the only one stunned by the question. "W-what?" He asked, sure he'd heard wrong.
"Your room is just as you left it." His mother said,obviously looking forward to having him back home.
Jaune took a step back. "Mom, I'm not going home. I've got a ton of school to catch up on."
Clementine looked shocked and confused by his words as her husband took his turn to speak. "Son, be reasonable. There's no need for you to stay here any longer. Do you really want to stay after what you just went through rather than come back home and not have to fight anymore?"
Jaune's face turned serious as his friends looked at him apprehensively. "I just survived the Deathlands, Dad. I've become a halfway decent fighter. I won't just let all the hard won skill and experience go to waste out of fear or laziness. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to move back home, take over the inn, and marry Rosemary like you always tried to urge me to do. I'm not leaving this school unless I either graduate or Ozpin finally gets sick of me and kicks me out." He glanced at Ozpin who shook his head.
"But it's so dangerous!" Clementine urged. "You've got to see that now! It's not a game!"
"I've known that for a long time now." Jaune said with a scowl. "I was there at the Breach. That's the kind of thing I'm fighting to prevent. And I can hold my own. You haven't seen me fight."
His parents both opened their mouths to say something when Ozpin cut in. "What an excellent idea." He said lightly, though his eyes were sharp. "I'm sure we're all interested in seeing how much Mr. Arc has improved. If it would set you at ease, why don't we have Jaune spar with somebody to display his skills? That should help reassure you, I believe."
"Sounds good, sir." Jaune said firmly before turning to his friends, who had all remained silent as they watched the drama unfold, fearful that Jaune would be leaving. "Pyrrha, up for getting your ass beat?"
Pyrrha blinked, not expecting Jaune's words, or the way he said them. Jaune was being a lot more confident and direct ever since he returned.
She kind of liked it.
The redhead nodded with a smile, a competitive glint in her eye. "Of course, Jaune, don't think it'll be so easy, though…"
Jaune grinned back.
Fifteen minutes later it seemed like the entirety of the population of Beacon was gathered in one of the outdoor training areas that were scattered about the campus. Closest to the arena were Jaune's family, friends, and teachers. The rest of the students were gathered behind and around them, all of them eager to see a fight between the Invincible Girl and the Survivor of the Deathlands.
Soon enough the two fighters walked onto the combat arena, Pyrrha in her normal combat attire and Jaune in the gear he'd arrived back to Beacon in, though this time he was wearing clothing under the armor that was intact and clean.
"Why did Jaune bring his bow?" Nora asked, confused. "He doesn't have any arrows."
"I don't know… I'm sure we'll find out, though." Ruby said, though her head was cocked as she wondered the same thing.
"Ready for this?" Jaune asked his opponent with a glint in his eyes. Pyrrha responded by smiling and adjusting her stance.
Glynda, who had her scroll out to monitor the fighters' aura levels, gave the signal for the fight to begin, prompting Pyrrha to rush Jaune, who raised his shield to block.
The redhead leapt up, intending to step on his shield in order to get more airtime and attack from above. She was not expecting the shield to glow white at the last moment and blast her back when she made impact.
Despite her surprise she landed on her feet, her own shield up and ready to block a follow up that never came. Instead she looked to see Jaune smirking slightly. "What was that?" She asked, confused.
"My semblance." Jaune said with a grin.
"You discovered your semblance!?" Pyrrha asked, delighted. "What is it?"
Jaune motioned her over. "Come find out."
Pyrrha's eyes narrowed before she switched Milo into it's rifle form, firing on Jaune who once again blocked with his shield as he took the opportunity to attack.
He rushed at his opponent, closing in quickly. When Pyrrha shifted her aim at his legs he jumped forward. He quickly brought his sword down in an overhead strike which she easily parried with her shield as Milo shifted into xiphos form. What she wasn't expecting was for him to switch his shield into sheathe mode, grabbing it by the wide end before swinging at her side like he was dual wielding with another blade. She barely got her sword up in time to block as he was moving faster than she expected, and he impacted with more force as well.
He'd obviously grown in strength along with skill. The thought made her smile.
Jaune quickly disengaged before throwing the sheathe at her face as he activated the mechashift, the shield bursting open a few inches away, making her flinch in spite of herself and letting him dodge roll behind her as she swung at him, coming up in a rising strike.
Pyrrha knew better than to remain stationary and batted Jaune's still airborne shield out of the way as she moved forwards so that his strike only scraped against her aura, avoiding serious damage. Then she whirled around in a strike, her blade coming around to impact with his fingers as he finished his upwards swing, making him drop his weapon with a surprised yelp. Then she took a strong step forward and performed a double palm thrust she'd learned from Ren against his chest in order to push him back. Unfortunately she did not expect his breastplate to glow white, sending her flying back like his shield had, making her roll backwards before hopping back onto her feet.
"Force redirection?" Pyrrha asked with interest.
Jaune shook his head as he picked up his weapon and shield. "Nope. Is a nifty effect though, isn't it?" Then he sheathed his blade to his side and unslung Vanquishing Thorn.
In the crowd, Yang was the one who decided to give voice to the obvious question. "What's Jaune going to do without arrows? It's not li-HOLY CRAP!" She exclaimed as she saw Jaune begin peppering a surprised Pyrrha was a barrage of glowing arrows made out of pure aura.
Ruby's eyes were shining. "That's so cool!"
Pyrrha was dodging and blocking the arrows that Jaune was shooting at her, having more trouble than she usually would under such a barrage since these arrows were made of energy and didn't contain any metal she could redirect with her semblance.
"I can't believe how much better Jaune's gotten." Weiss said softly. "When he disappeared he couldn't last ten seconds against Pyrrha."
"I guess that's the difference between school training and real world experience." Blake said thoughtfully. "It was learn or die for him, while we have the luxury of not needing to fear for our lives every second of every day. That's some serious motivation."
Pyrrha changed tactics after several seconds of dealing with defending herself from the barrage, switching Milo into javelin form and throwing it at him, the booster in the back adding force and speed to the throw, before running behind it, shield held up to protect her as much as possible from the painful aura arrows Jaune quickly dodged, but Pyrrha had closed the distance by then, and she began to attack using the edge of her shield as a melee weapon, forcing him into evasive actions as he used his bow to redirect what strikes he could.
Eventually Jaune was unable to avoid all of the strikes from his still superior opponent, and she caught him in the gut with a strong kick before he could infuse his armor with aura, sending him flying and rolling on the ground. He quickly got to his feet, aiming his bow again now that she'd opened up some range, but stopped when Goodwitch's voice called out. "That's it! The winner is Ms. Nikos!"
Jaune blinked, caught off guard. "What? But I can still fight!"
Glynda turned her scroll to face him as the crowd began to clap and cheer at a good fight, showing that his aura had dipped into the red. "Your arrows expend little aura individually from what I can tell, Mr. Arc, but a sustained barrage like the one you used drains your reserves remarkably quickly. Something you should keep in mind going forward, I think."
Jaune sighed before stowing his bow and scratching the back of his neck. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I knew I was getting low, but not that low. Didn't really have an aura meter out in the wilds."
As Glynda nodded, satisfied the lesson had been imparted, Jaune's friends quickly moved to congratulate him. "That was amazing!" Ruby said with a big grin. "You've improved so much!" She reached out for his bow. "And Vanquishing Thorn was so cool, too!"
"Gotta say, you've impressed me, Vomit Boy." Yang said with a smirk on her lips, hands behind her head. "If you'd told me you could have held Pyrrha off like that when we first met, I'da laughed in your face."
"Indeed." Weiss added in. "You've truly proven you deserve your place at Beacon, if you hadn't already." Blake nodded from beside her in agreement.
"Fearless Leader is awesome!" Nora cheered. "We're going to flatten the competition in the tournament!"
"At least till you face us!" Yang said back competitively.
Jaune turned to the approaching Pyrrha as Ren tried to keep his partner's enthusiasm contained, the redhead having just retrieved her weapon from the tree it had embedded itself in. "They're right. You've improved by leaps and bounds." Pyrrha said with a smile. "You're more than at the level of the other first years. Nobody can say you don't deserve to be here." Her eyes flicked to the side. "Not even your parents."
Jaune smiled. "Thanks Pyrrha. That means a lot." Then he took a deep breath and turned to face his approaching parents, who were looking at him like they'd never seen him before.
"Jaune, that was…" Clementine began before going silent, apparently lost for words.
Ferrus was more articulate. "Jaune, when you left home you were a boy that could barely swing his sword without injuring himself." He began, looking into his son's eyes. "Today I saw a competent warrior that could probably teach any of the Huntsmen that come by the village a lesson or two." He let out a deep sigh before wrapping an arm around his wife. "Seems you're right, and your place really is here, with your friends." Clementine nodded in agreement, her eyes sad yet still full of pride in her son.
"Thanks Dad, Mom." Jaune said with a smile before pulling them both into a hug. "Cmon, let's go find some place we can talk."
"That would be nice." His mother said softly.
He glanced at his friends, where were standing unsurely. "Well? Come on."
Teams JNPR and RWBY brightened, quickly following him as he led the way to the leisure areas.
Ozpin glanced at his deputy as he watched the group walk off, the other spectators of the match having all wandered off, talking about what they'd seen. "It seems Mr. Arc has taken great strides, hasn't he? He should do well going forward."
Glynda sighed. "Fine, you made the right call in letting him stay despite the fact his transcripts were fake. He'll be a splendid Huntsman some day."
Ozpin's mug hid his smile.
Yay, update!
Been a few months. When I put this up on the Patron poll it, surprisingly enough, didn't win until this month. It was a surprising, but I didn't complain too much. It was nice to do something else. Still, I have been looking forward to continuing this because we're getting to the fallout.
Speaking of, we haven't seen too much of it yet. It's only the morning after the day Jaune returned. I know I got lots of reviews stating people were looking forward to how people and the world at large reacts to this change, but those will happen gradually. The wider world hasn't heard of his return yet. Jaune's academic paper with Oobleck hasn't been published yet (that's gonna be a shitshow among academia XD), his lectures for Port's class obviously haven't happened either. He hasn't gone to see the Malechites yet either. So many things that still have yet to happen…
Of course, because of this, it'll be a while till we reach any more action heavy chapters. This is pretty much it for a while. It'll mostly be character interaction going forward.
Also, any romance won't be for a while. Things need to settle first. Ruby and Pyrrha aren't suddenly going to show up naked in Jaune's bed. (Wouldn't that be funny, though? Yang would murder him soooo fast…)
That's all for now. Next thing to be posted will actually be the winner of the new story poll. I hope to have it up next week. If not, it'll be the week after that.
Don't forget that you can have a voice in what I update, whether it's this or another of my stories. Just become a patron at Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis, and you get an amount of votes equal to your donation size.
Till next time!