Yang and Jaune woke up at almost the same time, both of them coming out of their nightmares just in time to wrap their arms around each other. Yang was working on suppressing her tears while Jaune let the few of his that got the better of him this time stain Yang's shirt.
Getting his peace back first Jaune asked "was it Adam again?"
Yang nodded to him still getting her own bearings back but knowing she needed to ask Jaune something. She had asked him before and she hadn't gotten an answer. And now she, no, they both needed that answer. "Jaune, what are your nightmares of?"
Jaune froze for a moment, not sure how to reply to her. "Yang, what I went through during the Fall it wasn't something harder than what anyone else went through…"
"Bullshit" Yang cut him off, "Jaune I lost my arm, I suffered the most horrific physical injuries of any of us. And my nightmares wake me up terrified." Yang paused for a moment remembering that night making Jaune think again how much he wished Adam was still alive so that he could kill the bastard himself. Not that he was going to tell Yang that.
"I lost my arm and I wake up scared." Yang said in a broken tone that made Jaune hold her a little more. "But you wake up swinging, whatever you see doesn't scare you, it makes you mad, what is it?"
"After I called Ruby and Weiss, I knew what was going to happen to Pyrrha, and I didn't want to." Jaune stopped himself not really wanting to tell Yang that he had wanted to die the same day as Qrow's funeral.
From the way that Yang wrapped her arms around him tighter. "I headed for the city hoping to find some grimm. I never did but I found Velvet and Yatsuhashi"
"Good" Yang added, glad to know that Jaune found himself in safe hands.
"No Yang it was't good, when I found them Yatsuhashi was dead and Velvets was wounded." Jaune ignored the gasp from Yang and kept going. "They were waiting for the medical team to get to them when the grim showed up. They would have killed us all if team CRDL hadn't shown up."
Yang was more than a little shocked that CRDL had amounted to anything of use since the last she heard of them they were scattered by the drones all turning on the students and hunters.
"Cardin must have rallied them after the drones went rogue and when he heard that someone was calling for a medical team he and his team came to help" Jaune explained, seemingly just as confused as Yang was.
"They were a little annoyed when they found out they were rescuing Velvet and me but they were already there and they didn't want to leave us behind. That was when the flash came." Jaune was talking about the flash that came from Ruby's eyes that killed several of the grimm and was considered a turning point in the battle.
"That was when the bastard turned on us" Jaune said, his voice suddenly dripping with venom. "Dove Bronzewing, probably not his real name. He must have been another one of the infiltrators. He didn't say anything but when the flash came he attacked. He slit Sky's throat while he was busy watching his sector."
Yang was trying not to look aghast at the prospect of being outright betrayed by someone in their own team. She also started to understand Jaune's anger. CRDL was never on JNPR or RWBY's good side but being attacked by a traitor was a pain that she never wanted to feel.
"Russel was next and by then I had caught on and I went after him" Yang was confident that Jaune was fine after this battle since he was here in front of her but she was still worried. "As you can guess it didn't go well for me" Jaune said, moving his arm from around Yang and sweeping his hair from the back of his neck away so that Yang could see the small scar he now had.
"He could have killed me but chose not to, maybe he didn't think I was worth the effort." Jaune returned his arm around Yang and continued. "He was about to go after Cardin who was too busy fighting the Grimm that was drawn to Velvet's mourning to notice. But Velvet stopped him. The grimm already wounded her, but she had enough fight in her to kill Dove, I can't really remember how she did it though. It was just sort of a blur."
Jaune was trying not to cry and Yang understood why. Jaune was a good man and having to be saved by a severely wounded huntress after he already knew his best friend had died for him was something he was never going to be able to forgive himself for. "Velvet managed to get back to Yatsuhashi before she passed so I guess that was something."
Jaune had stopped trying to hold back his tears and Yang held him tight as he silently wept into her shirt. "You don't need to continue," she said. Jaune didn't say anything but the way he started to settle down told her that she made the right call.
They sat like that for a while before Yang noticed that both Ren and Nora were missing. She looked around the room and saw them out on the balcony wrapped up in a blanket on the big chair out there.
Jaune was thankfully asleep and Yang was able to slip free of his grip and head over to the door. It slid open well and she stepped out grateful for the warm night and for the blanket she was offered by Ren.
It was Nora who spoke first in a tone that held an edge Yang had never heard in it before "You want to know if it ever gets better," she said before Yang could ask the question.
"It never does," Ren added. "Trust us, you will never not see his face, everynight you run the risk of him being there."
Yang was tempted to ask how they could know this but she chose not to. That was their story to tell if they ever chose to. "But you will learn to handle it, you will find healthy ways to cope, and as long as you keep the love of your life beside you, you will make it through," Nora said, letting her often overlooked wisdom show.
Yang was about to speak when she noticed Jaune standing in the doorway. Without a word he walked over and snuggled in with Yang who happily slid onto his lap and wrapped them both up in the blanket. "We really should get inside, it's going to start snowing soon." Ren said to no one in particular. Everyone agreed but nobody moved for a long while just looking up and enjoying the sight of the night sky. It was peaceful and even if they couldn't see all the stars they could see some and that was good enough for them.
"So what should I expect for your father?" Jaune asked Yang, he had briefly met Tai at Qrow's funeral but he hadn't really spoken in depth with him given the nature of their meeting.
"He is probably going to tell you that breaking my heart is a good way to end up dead but other than that he won't do much, he is mostly a laid back guy, he just really loves Ruby and I and is very protective of us." Yang answered hoping she was right. Neither her nor Ruby had ever brought anybody home before so honestly she was guessing about how her father was going to react.
Then she thought of her mother, Yang wasn't sure what to think of her anymore, for years she longed for her, then for years she hated her, now that she has learned more she had to figure out what to think of her for a third time.
As the snowflakes started to fall everyone decided that they would rather be inside so they all went back in at once heading for the beds and leaving the blankets by the door. Everyone climbed back into bed cuddling with their respective lovers.
After a long moment Ren and Nora got up and left the room though neither Jaune nor Yang knew why, then again with anything involving Nora sometimes it was better to not know.
Jaune and Yang laid there for a while neither one of them really wanting to sleep right now. Either out of a reflexive instinct or from just feeling the need to do so Jaune leaned into Yang's ear and whispered. "I love you."
Three simple words, but to hear them, and to know them to be true made them three of the most powerful words that could ever be said.
Rolling over to face him Yang looked at him and whispered back "prove it" as she gently placed a kiss on his neck.
…
Yang and Jaune were warm in bed, arms wrapped around each other just like always when Jaune leaned in and whispered. "I love you" into Yang's ear. This time it was an act of subconscious love. It wasn't that needed to tell her, it was that he couldn't not tell her.
Yang rolled back into him with a coy smile whispering back "show me" as Jaune leaned in to kiss her while their hands found their way to the other's bodies. Things developed quickly and soon Jaune was working on Yang's shirt while Yang hooked his night shorts.
Just as they were about to get further the door to the bedroom was thrown open and four small children stormed into the room. The chorus of "mommy"s and "daddy"s followed as the children scrambled into their parents bed while Jaune and Yang set about replacing their clothes. Under the covers.
Soon they were buried in children who were all talking about breakfast and what they wanted. Neither of them had gotten their coffee yet so the barrage of questions was mostly being ignored.
Thankfully Yang was the first to break free of her mountain of children thanks to her lack of a right arm making it easier to roll over onto her back. "If you want food you need to let mommy breath" she says making the kids all scramble off of her and onto Jaune.
"Qrow?" Yang asked their oldest son, getting his request for breakfast using the name he was given by his grandfather to redeem. "pancakes mama" the boy snapped out, making Nora proud somewhere.
"Summer?" went out to the oldest daughter named by her grandmother after the woman who raised Yang. "pancakes mama" she agreed with her twin.
"Jericho?" she asked, wondering what he was going to say today given the youngest son's habit of being an odd duck out."eggzez Mommy" he answered
"And you Pyrrhus?" rhetorically asked the youngest who hadn't really learned how to speak yet.
Jaune answered for her in his best baby girl voice. "Well mama right now I'm happy to suck on daddy's finger"
Yang looked over and saw her daughter gnawing on Jaune's index finger and reached over pulling it out saying "stop it, that's mine" she joked knowing her kids wouldn't catch onto what she was talking about.
"Well if you all want food you need to go downstairs and wait for me and daddy to get dressed" almost as violently as they had arrived the four children departed for the first floor of the house the last one closing the door behind them.
"I thought I locked that door last night?" Jaune asked once they were alone.
"You did, Qrow must have picked the lock" Yang lamented.
"Well we need to get dressed now" Jaune said about roll out of bed when Yang wrapped her left arm around him.
"We do have a little while" she said in his ear as her left arm weaved it's way back under the covers.
…
Salem looked at herself in the mirror and took one last breath before she stepped out and into the crowd of people. They were all headed for Beacon academy and so was she, she had to see this new headmaster for herself.
Peter Port was by all metrics an amazing man, but had known an amazing man before and he turned out to be less than stellar in the end. She had scheduled a meeting with him and she needed to find what his flaw was, what he was hiding.
She almost forgot to adjust her illusion as she did, sometimes if she didn't think about it she could forget about an illusion spell for some time. As she made her way up to the tower and then into the office he turned to face her in his chair
She was about to speak when he did so first. "Oh I see you have finally left that castle of yours"
Salem did her best not to gasp since he shouldn't have recognized her through her illusion. "You can drop the facade my dear, you no longer need it now" he said in an understanding tone.
Salem hesitated but she felt safe, which was odd for her but she wasn't going to argue with it letting the illusion of the young woman fade for the face of the queen of the grimm.
"No, not that one, the one you were hiding behind when we first met," Peter continued.
Salem out right gasped now, the face of the queen was the grimm was an illusion, but how could he have known. "I have been around long enough to see through such petty things." Peter half boasted.
Again she let the mask fall and in the place of the queen of the grimm was a woman aged by her years even if only because she willed it so. "There you are," Peter said, standing and walking over to her. "There is the beautiful princess I saw hiding under those charms and spells"
As he spoke he reached out and delicately set his hand on her cheek. Salem was somehow more dumbfounded "how could you see through my illusions?"
Peter also knew the questions she hadn't yet dared to ask. In order to have seen through her illusions he must have been there when the illusion magic was still common, but that could only mean that he was around before the brother's wiped out humanity.
In a voice that showed tremendous power and control Peter replied. "Oh, my dear, there are things FAR older than you petty gods" he returned to his desk and to his work. Salem looked somewhat surprised but less confused. She had heard rumors of ancient ones from before the gods, but she had always thought of them as myths and legends.
Then she remembered that she herself was a myth and legend. "What are you?" she asked nervous about the entity before her but also lost in a wonder she hadn't felt in countless eons.
"There are things that surpass the mortal mind, concepts so powerful that they must take form and function. There are several of us. You have never met my brother but he is here too"
"I am the original manifestation of what you would know as honor, or maybe respect depending on the way you see life" As he spoke more and more made sense to Salem.
She came all this way to find his flaw, find proof that he wasn't what he said he was, but he was exactly what he said he was. He was not a man of honor, he was THE man of honor. "Would you like a chair?" Peter asked, still working on his papers.
Salem was considering what he meant until she noticed that the desk for the secretary was without a seat. Was he offering her a job, why?
"I have seen monsters in my time and you are not one of them, you are a lost woman who has never been given the chance to be more. I want to give you that chance" Peter said, still not bothering to look up at her. "The war is over, but you are more than your war with Ozma, can you see that? Are you willing to move past that?"
Salem thought long and hard before feeling a forgotten sense of hope fill her. Walking over to the nearest chair she moved it over to the desk and answered. "Yes I am"
and that concludes this tale, thank you all for reading. I am honored and Proud to announce that I am in the process of creating my first commissioned work. However, while that is underway I will be posting a story I have partly pre-written and simply have not gotten to posting yet.
coming up starting next week will be the first chapter of a response story to the Prompt/Challenge issued by 960 (a few years ago sorry about the wait) the prompt was force user Jaune and while I have yet to determine the name, I will begin posting it here next week.
if you would like to access all of my stories a week early, as well as a few smaller stories that are not Fanfiction, as well as access to the google docs were you can see all my stories as I write them. you can do all of that via my page
As always, God bless, so long, farewell and thank you for your time