A lot of people thought Jaune Arc was a lucky man. He'd (officially) failed Initiation due to circumstances out of his control and instead of being kicked out he had a personal meeting with the headmaster himself. The details were a mystery, but somehow it had ended with him being assigned to the aptly named team CBNN (Carbon). A team consisting of four of the most skilled, powerful and attractive first years in Beacon. Truly, they thought, he was a lucky man.
Jaune would've liked to tell those people that they could all go fuck themselves.
Were they skilled? Absolutely, over half of the team could put fourth years to shame. Powerful? Even without the Maiden powers, they each had extremely strong Semblances; which only got stronger when you added his to the equation. Attractive? He couldn't deny that. Even at a glance it was clear they could all put professional models to shame...even if it was weird that they were all first years when Neo and Cinder were in their twenties.
So yeah, they were skilled, powerful, and attractive.
And almost all of them were also bugnut insane!
Where should he start? Oh, how about their illustrious leader, Cinder Fall? Also known as the world's worst attempted saboteur. Even ignoring the fact that she was twenty five and didn't try to pass off as a teacher or something, she had a habit of leaving evidence of her NEFARIOUS PLANS all over their room. Said plans often included ways to kill the rest of their teammates in exceedingly elaborate ways in order to steal their magic powers.
Normally he would've been worried, but apparently Ozpin knew and didn't seem to care. Hell, he thought that they could convince her to actually turn away from the big bad Grimm Queen. The plan was to tell her that Salem in fact wanted to destroy the world and Cinder kinda lived in the world too so working for her didn't exactly work out as a net benefit to herself. Ozpin was just waiting for the 'right time' to spring it on her. When that right time was, Jaune had no clue, and at this point he was too far gone to even care.
And then there was Bleiss Schnee, the twin of Weiss Schnee from their sister team, team RWBY, and the recently disinherited daughter of one Jacques Schnee. Not that it mattered much to her. She hated her family name and everything it stood for. She'd even struck out on her own and managed to become independently wealthy, something she loved to lord over her twin, who was still reliant on their dad for an allowance.
She was also completely obsessed with him. Now normally, having a rich, attractive Huntress who wanted in his pants would've been a dream come true; especially since her looks were just his type. Unfortunately, the girl had turned her aggression meter straight past a hundred then snapped it off. It didn't matter where they were. In their dorm room with the rest of their team, the cafeteria, Professor Goodwitch's combat class. He'd never felt so much fear as much as when she tried to get frisky with Jaune junior right in the middle of a lecture.
Of course, how could he forget their resident mute psychopath? Neopolitan, last name unknown, was a criminal. And no, that wasn't an exagerattion. She had an actual bounty of hundreds of thousands of Lien on her head along with her partner in crime Roman Torchwick. The exact details of how Ozpin managed to convince her to attend Beacon wasn't all known to him. All he knew was it took a lot of strings being pulled and the partners being offered literal millions of Lien in exchange for Neo being a student.
Not that she spent any of that money. Despite having enough cash that she couldn't actually use it even in multiple lifetimes, she still decided that crime was just a bit too much fun to just not do anymore; so of course she went around causing chaos around Vale whenever she was bored. What made her bored? Not commiting crimes, of course! And guess who had to be her 'partner' now that Roman Torchwick was spending his days swimming in his money pool like that greedy chicken?
The one bright spot in his miserable school life was Pyrrha Nikos. Unlike everyone else, she wasn't evil, obsessed, a criminal, or an evil obsessed criminal. She was some kind of famous tournament fighter, but outside of the ring she was the sweetest girl on campus outside of Ruby Rose. When she'd found out about his forged transcripts her first thought was to offer to train him. Just the two of them. Alone. She was very insistent on that part.
Unfortunately, she was also a bit of a pushover. She barely reacted to Neo's pranks or Cinder's not so subtle attempts to kill her, though in her defense, Cinder tried to kill everyone on the team except him. Bleiss ignored it cause she was just so incompetent about it and Neo seemed to find it funny to turn her schemes back against her, so no one on the team had an issue living with an attempted murderer.
Pyrrha did fight a lot with Bleiss, though; mostly about the latter's attempts to try and 'get the D'Arc', to use Bleiss' words. He appreciated it. She was such a good friend, being so protective of his teammate like that.
Oh, and did he mention that all these women had the power destroy kingdoms? Cause they had the power to destroy kingdoms. If he hadn't been so sapped of hope he'd have been scared of living with them. It was a good thing it died off so soon. He wouldn't have survived living with them for a semester if he actually thought things could get better.
Cinder Fall was not a good person. If he was being honest, he'd describe her as evil. That wasn't just him being dramatic. He liked to think the best of people, or at least give them the benefit of the doubt. A lot of the time there were understandable reasons for people to act the way they did. Few people were ever born evil and a part of him liked to think that, given the chance, most people would choose to do the right thing.
When you find a whiteboard with the caption 'NEFARIOUS PLANS' and not-so-detailed steps on how to 'Destroy Beacon', benefit of the doubt kind of went out the window.
Officially her original plan was to come here and kill the other Maidens in order to steal their power. Something about Vaults and the things inside being of interest to Salem. Ozpin still didn't pull out the trump card for some reason, though Jaune assumed he wasn't too worried anyway. Maybe he was hoping to convert her by showing how much better life was when you didn't live in a Grimm infested hellscape? Who knows.
Jaune sighed as he trudged behind her. The two of them were alone in the Emerald Forest, and while normally he would've been terrified of being on his own with a multiple attempted murderer, Cinder didn't actually want to kill him. Oh no, she was very adamant about keeping him alive once she found out about his Semblance. A skill that not only strengthened her Aura and Semblance, but her Magic as well? She was practically salivating at the thought of it.
"Are we done here?" he called out.
"Not just yet." Cinder hummed. She was currently planning their team's next training exercise. Translation: her next attempt to do a near-total party kill. Probably trying to lead the other three to some kind of Grimm Nest and letting them die. Ignoring the fact that they all had Huntress level training on top of their magic, it was still a dumb plan considering there were cameras everywhere around here. That and Neo would find a way to turn it back on her like she always did.
"If you say so."
She stopped when they reached the shade of a particularly large tree and put a hand on his chest, "So Jaune, have you thought any more about my...offer?" She smirked, one eye hidden, and gently placed her right palm against his chest.
Jaune sighed and looked to the sky above for strength. Yes, her 'offer' for him to be her minion and personal Aura slave. She'd been very generous with her terms. A full salary, vacation and sick days, a nice condo in the Grimmlands, and even dental. Say what you will about Cinder Fall, but she was apparently a pretty good boss to be a peon under. Better than under Ozpin, at least.
"I can't. I told you I want to be a Huntsman, remember?" Though he had to admit, every day that dream felt further and further away.
"Why spend your life fighting an endless amount of Grimm when you can live a life of ease and luxury instead?" She drew closer, her both breath brushing against his ear, "I'm sure I can give you some more personal incentives."
"Still no, sorry." A few months ago he would've been a blushing, stuttering mess. Now he just felt tired. Was this was true despair felt like? "...Actually, you know what, I gotta tell you something."
"Oh?" She stepped back, still smirking.
"Salem's planning to destroy the world."
The smirk fell and she looked absolutely flat-footed, "What?"
"Yeah, apparently she really wants to die and she if she gets whatever she wants from those vaults then Remnant blows up." He shrugged, "Ozpin knows. I dunno why he didn't tell you yet, but that's her endgame."
"What do you mean told me? D-Does he know about my true allegiance? How could he?"
The wonders of the universe, Jaune thought, "Not sure. You've been so subtle." She really wasn't, "But he's not lying either. Did Salem ever tell you what her plans were?"
"I...assumed she wanted to rule the world. I would've been her right hand."
"She's got more magic than the entire team combined and her enemy's a guy who reincarnates into a teenager every time he dies. I'm pretty sure that if she wanted to rule the world she would've done it a long time ago." How this war was even still going was beyond him. You would've thought there'd be a winner by now, "No, she wants to blow up the planet. And I don't have to tell you that you can't exactly be an all-powerful goddess when there's no world to conquer."
"Indeed." She crossed her arms and her eyes literally burned with the anger of betrayal, "To think that she would use me like this." Huh, he actually believed her. He expected more denial. Then again she was a sociopath. It wasn't hard for her to think that everyone was a scheming liar only out for themselves. That's what she was, after all.
"So you might wanna work together with Ozpin. You know, just to make sure the world doesn't blow up."
"Quite. If anyone deserves this world, it's me." How heroic, "Fine. I'll talk to Ozpin about this and we'll see what comes next. My former mistress is going to pay for making a fool of me." And not cause she planned to blow up the world. Good to know she had her priorities in order.
"So...are you gonna stop trying to kill the rest out of our team?"
"Why would I do that?" Jaune sighed. That would've been too good to be true, "If I'm going to go against Salem then I need all the power I can get."
"Or...you could work with them? Like a team?"
"Don't be silly, Jaune; they wouldn't make good peons." Oh Gods, he was getting another headache, "Speaking of, my offer still stands. While I can't give you the full benefits now that I'm out of my old job, I'm sure I can find some other thing to tempt you." She gave him a sultry smile that would've had other men bowing and kissing her feet.
"...I'll think about it." If Neo got too much she might actually let Cinder off her, "Until then let's just finish whatever we're doing here."
The plan failed, of course. Neo had (somehow) covered Cinder in red sap and kicked her down the pit where the mating Ursas were. Red sap apparently acted like an aphrodisiac to said Grimm, as Cinder soon found out. No one bothered to help her, not even Pyrrha.
Bleiss Schnee was not a good person. While he wouldn't describe her as outright evil like Cinder - and she had a lot of good qualities if you managed to look past her personality - it couldn't be denied that she could be a downright bitch at the best of times.
Case in point.
"Ugh, you are impossible!" Weiss yelled, glaring at her dark mirror. The two of them were arguing in the cafeteria, and as always no one paid them any mind. Even the teachers knew at this point to not get between the Schnee twins.
"Puh-lease, bitch, you're just jealous."
"Jealous?! Of you trying to...fornicate Arc while we're eating lunch?!" Weiss yelled again. Jaune groaned slammed his head against the table. The rest of team CBBN wasn't with them, thank small mercies. Cinder was off trying to make yet another team-killing plan, Pyrrha had to meet with her manager about a new commercial, and Neo...actually, he didn't know where she was. Probably trying to steal candy from a baby or something.
Across from him, the rest of team RBY could only watch the argument with grim acceptance. He liked team RWBY, and at times he wondered how much better life would've been if they had the Maiden powers instead of team CBBN. Blake seemed so sensible and he had no doubt the other three would've been responsible once they found out they had kingdom destroying powers.
"Just cause you aren't getting any dick doesn't mean you can clam jam me, sis."
"It's obscene! How- do you have no sense of shame?!"
"Nope. Know what I do have? Money I made myself and the super special powers. Go cry about it." Bleiss smirked. She just loved to rub Weiss' nose in on the fact that she was the one who got the Maiden powers, not her. That it was Bleiss, the disowned twin and black sheep of the prestigious Schnee family, who got the powers that could help save the world and not her sister.
And of course it did actually infuriate Weiss knowing that the sister she'd looked down on, the crude pervert who seemed to relish everyone's discomfort, was the one who was seemingly chosen to be 'worthy' where she was not.
"Aww, what's wrong, sis? You wanna hit me? Go on, I'll give you the first shot." Bleiss leaned forward with her right cheek out. It was a trap. Not only would it make Weiss look like the aggressor, but they both knew for a fact that Bleiss would freeze her back to the ice age if a fight ever did happen. The two were normally equally matched, but the Maiden powers had stacked things heavily in the darker twin's favor.
With shaking hands, Weiss growled and stormed away without another word. The rest of her team decided that lunch would be too uncomfortable and left with her, leaving Jaune alone with his very aggressive admirer.
Bleiss sat down way too close to his left and looked up at him with a hungry smirk, "Now that the killjoy's gone, where were we?"
"Bleiss, please..." Jaune sighed. In any other world he would've thought himself blessed to have a prime Huntress-in-training so interested in him, but Bleiss was someone who went full throttle and didn't know the meaning of slowing down. The second he even showed a hint of accepting her advances, she'd probably strap a collar on his neck and tattoo 'property of Bleiss Schnee' on his butt.
He knew cause she made it clear that was exactly what she'd do once she got him into bed. Or a table. Or the floor. Or any surface, really.
Unfortunately, his lack of enthusiasm didn't deter her; quite the opposite. Her smirk widened and her hand crept up his leg, "Oh fuck yes, I love it when you beg. Go on, beg for mama." Oh Gods, how could something straight out of his adolescent fantasies sound so horrific right now? Where was Pyrrha when you needed her? Hell, he'd take Cinder right now if he could help it.
Not Neo, though. She was an equal but different evil.
"Bleiss!" Jaune hissed and grabbed her hand, barely stopping her from pulling down his zipper. At this point people had learned to ignore any of team CBBN's antics for their own safety, but his own sense of shame kept him from crossing the line.
"Come on, you know you want it." She licked her lips and looked hungrily into his eyes, "Now let me see what else you're-"
"OW!" The loud scream was enough to draw both their attention. Bleiss turned to the source of the noise, ready to bite the head off the one who dared keep her from her 'darling', and her scowl only worsened when she saw one Cardin Winchester pulling on a female rabbit Faunus' ear. No one else in the cafeteria went over to help her, which did not bode well for the future Huntsmen.
He expected Bleiss to ignore them and turn back to her attempts at 'flirting'. Instead she growled and stood, "Sorry, babe. I'll be right back." Huh, that was new. He'd never seen her look so angry before.
Cardin smirked when he saw Bleiss heading over. He had a crush on Bleiss and held a grudge against Jaune for monopolizing her attention. Oh, such a naive child, "Hey, Schnee. Here to show the animal-"
That was as far as he got before Bleiss pulled her arm back and punched him straight in the jaw. Even with Aura, he went absolutely flying. The till he hit a recently vacated table, splattering food everywhere. The rest of his team could only look on in shock before Bleiss froze them with a burst of Maiden power, leaving the three as frozen statuettes in the middle of the room.
"...You alright?" Bleiss asked the rabbit Faunus.
"U-Um, yeah." She nodded meekly.
"Good. Next time just rip his balls off, alright? Winchester's just a daddy's boy with a tiny dick so he acts bigger than he is. Trust me, you deserve better than that."
This was...different. Jaune watched as Bleiss talked to the girl (who introduced herself as Velvet Scarlatina) and sent her off to the clinic to get her ears checked. That done, she strode back to their table and sat next to him again.
"Sorry about that, babe. Now, where did we-"
"What was that about?"
"Huh?" She blinked up at him.
"That thing with Cardin's team."
"That? Just letting out a little aggression on some racist pricks." She crossed her arms and snorted, "Everyone thinks that cause I'm a Schnee that I'm just like Weiss and the rest of my shitty family. Well guess what? Faunus didn't do dick to me. They helped make my clothes, helped mine the Dust I use with Schwartz, and they they get treated like absolute trash because no one gives a shit about them. Fuck that."
"And...you do? Care about them, I mean." What was this feeling? Was it...admiration? Perhaps even respect?
"Fuck yeah I do." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "You think the only reason I got disowned is cause I'm the baddest bitch in Atlas? Unlike twinsy, I actually called Jacques out on his bullshit. Well he didn't like that at all. Well fuck him, and fuck the rest of those assholes too. Only one decent is mom. Soon as I can get her away from there you bet your ass she's coming with me."
"Wow." Jaune smiled, an actual genuine smile that felt alient on his face after so many months of being in team CBBN.
"Wait, why are you..." Her eyes widened and the same hungry smirk from before returned, wider than ever. His good feelings stopped, "So that's what gets you hard, huh?"
"What? No! I'm just admiring that-"
"I see how it is. Don't worry, honey, I know exactly what'll get you off." She tugged him back to their dorm room, "Come on, lover boy, lemme tell you all about how I helped bankroll the White Fang to stop a Faunus trafficking ring."
They never actually got that far. Pyrrha had rushed back as soon as her meeting was done and interrupted just as Bleiss finally got the zipper down. That led to a fight that destroyed a quarter of the school.
Neopolitan was not a good person, a fact that she obviously reveled in. Unlike Cinder, who was probably mentally deranged in some way, Neo had all her faculties intact and got everything she wanted with Ozpin's bribe. She was pardoned for all her crimes and had so much money that she could probably buy all of Vale and still have money left over for every flavor of ice cream under the sun.
And yet she still continued to do crimes and cause chaos. Sometimes it was to their benefit like stopping Cinder's plans or making sure the nascent White Fang under one Adam Taurus just happened to find themselves in the middle of an explosion just as they were planning to attack Beacon in order to spite his ex Blake, the poor girl. In many ways she'd actually saved Vale more than a few times.
Most of the time, though, it was for her own benefit. From posting pictures of Pyrrha picking her nose all over the DustNet, spreading Cinder's (surprisingly childish) underwear around campus, or stealing Crescent Rose and hiding it so Ruby would have a nervous breakdown, Neo had absolutely no standards. If it made her laugh and made someone else miserable, then nothing was sacred.
Her last prank involved walking down the halls with her Semblance active so she looked like the deceased Summer Rose. That caused Yang to nearly kill her, though that only seemed to encourage the little psychopath.
Sadly for Jaune, she was one of his favorite targets. Not for any special reason, he just happened to be on-hand most of the time via his role as the team's peacekeeper. Neo seemed to think that made him her pet and gave her free reign to drag him around all across Vale.
Such as right now, where he was being chased by a very angry Atlas Paladin.
"Why does an ice cream chain have a freaking mech?!" Jaune shouted to the night air. Neo was gone to Gods only knew where, which left him to be the very panicked bait to the AI controlled mech. Even with all his gained apathy, it was hard not to be scared when a giant robot started chasing after you. It evoked a primal fear the same way darkness and raisin cookies did.
Her latest crime - or heist, as she insisted on calling it - involved breaking into the headquarters of the Manchesters, the largest ice cream company in all of Remnant. He knew better to ask why she was doing this. She'd just give him that look of smug satisfaction and push him off the roof. Again.
Jaune ran till he was cornered near a far wall. He prepared his Semblance in the vain hope that he could at least take the hit when the mech was sliced in half. From behind the bisected mech was Neo, who looked up at him with a cocky smirk and a raised brow. Seeing his obvious reluctance, she let out a silent sigh and, with another burst of Maiden power, caused the ground to split so both pieces were swallowed in the earth.
"...Where the hell were you?" Jaune groaned.
No response, of course. She turned and walked back to the now-empty building. Jaune knew better than to not follow. The last time he'd tried to run she hadn't been happy. A happy Neo was scary. An angry Neo was terrifying.
She led him through the maze of halls (what kind of ice cream company was this?) till they reached a freezer. Power had been cut cause of the fight, so everything else would be melting soon. Neo kicked the door down without a care and traipsed inside, eyeing the buckets of ice cream. Her eyes were narrowed and she had an expression so utterly serious that it made her look almost unrecognizable.
She stopped only when she found a specific tub of ice cream. With an almost childlike excitement, she pulled the lid off and hurriedly gestured for him to come closer. The inside was light pink with swirls in the center. Not strawberry, something else.
Neo handed him a spoon she got from somewhere and hurriedly dug in. Seeing no other choice, Jaune did the same and raised a brow. It was a completely new flavor. As someone with a big family, he'd experienced every flavor under the sun. The Manchester's were hiding a flavor from the public.
...
Wait, who the hell cared?!
"Are you telling me I nearly got squished cause you wanted a new ice cream flavor?!" Jaune shouted. Neo gave him a look of honest confusion, as if the idea that being angry he could've been killed for this was ridiculous, "...I'm out of here."
He didn't get far. Neo grabbed the tub with one hand and his hand with the other. He could only groan and silently walk along with her as she dragged him back to the city. They didn't go back to Beacon, as expected. Instead she took them to a hotel that would've had a photo next to the dictionary definition of sleaze and took him to the closest empty room. The receptionist seemed to recognize her and knew better than to call her out on the blatant crime.
Jaune sat down on the bed and brought a hand through his air as Neo did something behind him. What was happening now? Was this another heist or-
...
Neo was very naked. Very naked and the ice cream was no longer in the tub. Jaune's eyes practically bugged out of their sockets at the sight before him. Mama Arc didn't raise no fool. It was quite obvious what Neo wanted him to do. On the one hand he could leave. Neo wouldn't follow him out in her state, Semblance or no. On the other hand, she wasn't like Bleiss. She already thought she owned him so this would change nothing.
...
...
...
"You actually slept with her?" Roman gasped, cigar dropping from his hand. The two had met at a bar close by after he...finished the deed. They'd struck up a friendship of sorts. While Roman was an unrepentant former criminal, he also understood what it was like having to deal with Neo. That allowed him to sympathize with his former partner in crime being offloaded to another man.
"Yeah...?" Jaune muttered, feeling vaguely ashamed, "Why?"
"Just thought you were smarter than that is all."
"Neo already acts like I'm her pet. I-"
"You were lucky." A chill went down his spine at Roman's haunted tone, "Sure she dragged you around, but she does that with everyone if she can get away with it. Now? Kid, she's marked you. She owns you. You can't run away now. Timmy tried."
"Wh-Who's Timmy?"
"You wanna know who Timmy is?" Jaune nodded, "...You don't wanna know who Timmy is. Let's just say that he tried to leave and even ran all the way to Vacuo. Neo tracked him down and...well, let's just say Timmy ain't around no more."
"S-So what do I do?!"
"Do? What you do is whatever Neo wants." Roman clapped him on the shoulder, "If you don't...well, it was nice knowing you."
Pyrrha Nikos was a good person. Despite being the four-time Mistralian champion she was kind and humble, always ready with a smile and a comforting word for anyone. Among everyone in team CBBN, she acted as his one ray of hope, his sole tether to a sanity that was barely keeping itself from the edge. She trained him, supported him, and was always there for him.
He appreciated it, really. If it wasn't for her he would've gone insane months ago. In fact, he was actually planning to ask her out. Sure, it would've been awkward since they were such good friends, but there was no reward without risk. So far everything in Beacon was, to be blunt, an absolute shitshow. Maybe getting a nice. normal girlfriend could make things better. And it wasn't like Neo wanted an actual relationship, as Roman very plainly told him. You don't date the things you own.
He used to have a crush on Weiss, but her physical similarity to Bleiss had caused some kind of weird trained reaction. Even being near her caused his body to freeze up and his nerves to get shot.
Jaune resolved to ask Pyrrha out at the end of their next training session. He made a whole plan for it. They'd go to the movies, wander around Vale, then have a nice dinner at a well-priced restaurant he knew. It would be great.
And then life almost literally came crashing down on him.
Their sparring session on the roof had just ended when the door opened with a booming crash. Bleiss rushed through, red faced and practically frothing, while a smirking Neo slowly trailed behind her. The last to come in was Cinder, who looked annoyed that her scheming and plotting was being interrupted.
"Wha-"
"Jaune, what the fuck is this?!" Bleiss shouted and shoved her scroll in his face. One look at his screen caused his blood to freeze over. Right there in perfect HD was a picture of him and Neo in the middle of what they did a few nights ago. Jaune looked past Bleiss' fuming face and saw Neo with the widest, most shit eating grin on her face, "I've been trying to get D'Arc for months and you fork it over to the ice cream midget?! What the fuck?!"
"That's-"
"Well, I'm done waiting! Take your pants off, lover boy! I'm getting impaled tonight!"
He didn't get a chance to say anything else in his defense before a soft, betrayed voice said behind him, "Jaune...?" He looked back and winced at the look of absolute heartbreak Pyrrha had. Why did she... "All those months waiting, trying to be a good friend because I..." She took a deep breath, "I see now. Neo's your type of girl, isn't she?"
"No surprise there, I suppose," Cinder said, adding fuel to the fire, "Only someone attracted to power and danger would stay in a team like this for months." Actually, it was cause he knew three fourths of the team would hunt him down if he tried to run, "It's not so shocking that he wouldn't be attracted to someone so...meek." Cinder smirked at the trembling champion.
The smirk quickly fell away when every bit of metal on the roof twisted and screamed. The steel ripped itself apart to small, jagged pieces - hundreds of them - and all of them pointed right at Cinder's face, "I see..." Pyrrha's eyes lit up with Maiden power and a circle of fire surrounded them, heating up the metal shards till they turned orange, "Is there something else you want to say, leader?"
"N-No." Cinder stumbled back and gulped. Even Neo looked like she was suddenly regretting her latest antics.
Bleiss showed no fear, of course.
"Pfft. I ain't scared of you, you Mistralian She-Hulk!" Bleiss' own eyes lit up with power and a circle of freezing ice surrounded her. Neither of them seemed to notice or care that he was trapped in the middle, "You wanna go? I'm fucking ready."
"...You know, Bleiss, I wonder what would happen if you were put in the hospital," Pyrrha said breezily, "Why, if you were so crippled that you couldn't stand anymore then I'd have to find a different partner." Pyrrha looked straight at him.
"Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing." Bleiss smirked.
The subsequent fight leveled half of Beacon, but that was only a prelude for what was to come next. Bleiss and Pyrrha's arguments only got worse as the days passed. They two had gone from passive aggressive sniping and insults to outright war in the halls. Pyrrha always won, of course, but since Ozpin stopped it every time before permanent damage was done, Bleiss always came back for more.
And just like that, his last line of hope was extinguished. Was Pyrrha always crazy and he just didn't see it? Or did spending so much time with their team cause her to snap? Either way he'd given up any hope of asking her out.
Jaune had just helped save the world and he still felt like utter shit.
The blonde practically collapsed on his bed and groaned weakly. Someway, somehow, Ozpin had convinced the team to go after Salem in the Grimmlands. Cinder agreed for payback, Bleiss and Pyrrha agreed cause they wanted to keep fighting without interruptions, and Neo agreed cause she was bored and wanted to make someone suffer. He agreed cause the world was still worth saving, even if its heroes were hardly orthodox.
And save it they did. Salem wasn't dead; they'd shoved her in a jar somewhere then tossed that jar into a specially made vault that could only be opened with all four Maidens. At least then if she managed to escape she'd still be trapped.
Ozpin commited suicide soon after and Jaune couldn't even pretend to be sad. Partly cause he was old and wanted to rest, mostly cause he didn't wanna deal with the paperwork or what happened now that Salem was gone and the half of the Maidens still consisted of psychopaths. Cinder was already making plans to start her own kingdom and Neo was thinking about how to balance her karma. Saving the world meant a lot of bad deeds to even the scales.
"Jaune, can you hear me?" A way too familiar disembodied voice asked.
"...Ozpin?" Jaune looked up and found himself still alone in the room.
"Yes, well..." The voice from nowhere somehow coughed, "It appears I...may have been premature in killing myself. Since Salem isn't actually dead, that means my own immortality has yet to end."
"So...you're gonna take over my mind, huh?" Jaune asked, utterly calm.
"Well...no." A pause, "Before I came back, the God of Light was rather critical of how I handled things. Or rather, how I had you handle things. Apparently I'm not allowed to take a break even though I've been doing this job for thousands of years and more than deserve a vacation."
"Where's this going?"
"You see, my punishment for being, and I quote, 'a slacker', is to now be tethered to the one I foisted my responsibility onto. Since I was so 'lazy', all I can do now is watch my host live my life. An ironic sort of break." Another pause, "So it appears we'll be together for quite a while, Jaune. I propose we make the most of it. Tell me, how do feel about blondes who like to be on top?"
...
Jaune screamed.