10/05/1999…

They had been sitting there for two hours in the waiting room of the Maternity ward of the hospital.

Jaune's mother was somewhere behind a set of double doors that no one was allowed to cross, two doors that were separating Jaune from his mother, stepfather, and baby sibling as it came hopefully screaming into the world.

Jaune could only hope the baby was okay, his mother as well, no one had come out in the last couple hours to provide updates on how his mother was doing at all and it was eating at him.

As he looked around at the company that came out to, on the surface at least. He made a few observations. Ren and Nora were being the cute and loving couple they had been for years as claimed a couch for themselves. Not Far away from them Weiss standing up straight barely leaning on her walker chatting with Blake who was choosing a drink from the soda machine.

Yang and Neptune were sitting in a circle with Ruby and Penny. His Ex-girlfriend and Gaming buddy were both playing some game on their Game Boy's while chatting with Ruby's sister and boyfriend. Jaune noticed that Ruby was speaking more vocally for penny's sake.

Jaune meanwhile sat alone with his own thoughts to keep them company, and considering the last time he had his "meds" was almost nine hours ago, he was starting to feel like those thoughts were working against him somewhat.

He had no idea how long his mother would be in there of it he even had time to head home for his medication. The baby would be here anywhere between the next few seconds and tomorrow evening for all he knew.

As he glanced around the room an uncomfortable thought started to cross his mind. "Weiss said that Ruby's implants 'opened a whole new world for her' and that I "might never get to experience what's that's like"

He looked over at Ruby from the corner of his eye as he sat alone. Still thinking "Ruby's come a long way with those implants, before she got those implants she would have needed Yang to interpret for her when she talked to Penny" His glance then turned towards Weiss thinking "Those Leg braces of hers look like their working out great as well, she's looking a bit more stable on her feet every day."

Jaune leaned back in his seat and stared at the ceiling at sighed silently. Running his fingers over the faint scar on his neck he thought "My vocal cords were destroyed, I don't think it's possible to even restore them at this point, it's funny but I never he thought I'd ever found myself really wanting to be able to speak." Looking at the ceiling he sighed out again "I wonder what color the ceiling is…"

As Jaune continued to stare off into space at the ceiling as the creeping thought, fueled by his waning psyche as the anti-depressants in his system were slowly losing their effectiveness "I'm being left behind… Eventually, I'm going to be one holding our group back"

Jaune shook his head "I really shouldn't be thinking like this, Ruby being able to hear and Weiss being able to be free from her chair are both good things, I should be happy for them both…" He thought as he looked around the room "It's funny… Everyone is here in some form because of something I had a part in…"

As he sat there musing "Everyone is all smiles right now… our groups are still divided over what Ruby did, but everyone is slowly coming back together, only Yang and Weiss are truly holding out…" Jaune glanced over at Ruby and noticed Yang's pissy looking glances as he could tell that she was subtly trying to encourage Ruby to leave.

"Everyone's looking pretty happy right now…." Jaune thought as his vision began to blur and distort in a familiar way. "Oh come the fuck on I know I'm past the limits of my meds but I don't need this right now"

However a hallucination didn't come forth, rather he just felt a horrible sense of foreboding as realized something "I'm being left behind… Weiss was right, eventually, I'm going to be the only one in our group that has problems…"

As he looked around he found himself hearing what his mind thought the others were saying.

"Yeah, I mean of course I'd rather date someone like Cardin, Jaune's just going to hold me back," Ruby said to Penny.

"It's understandable, why should I have to learn a new language to speak to him, he should have to figure out how to fix his voice like you found a way to fix your hearing" He imagined penny saying back.

"Your better off not dating that brain damaged freak anyways" He imagined Yang saying…

"Actually she would really say that last one," Jaune thought "The Bitch…"

He tried to snap himself out of it, but the will to fight back the negative emotions he was pushing against just wasn't there… As his gaze turned to the ground he didn't see that Ruby was watching him from where he was sitting…

Ruby saw the look on his face clear as day, she was only snapped out of it by Yang nudging her "Earth to Ruby…"

Ruby shook her head and looked at her sister before she signed out [Yeah?]

"You're staring at him the same way you stare at the cookie section of the bakery," Yang said looking stern.

[Sorry, I was just wondering why he was sitting alone] Ruby signed out.

Yang glanced over at Jaune and signed back with a look of annoyance [Because it's where he deserves to be] before she went back to ignoring him.

Ruby wasn't satisfied with that answer though and as she stared at him she saw the way he sat in place as well as the look on his face that suggested that his medication had long worn off.

"Aw crap he's in bad shape, I figured he would be by now," Ruby said as she started to fish around in her bag for something, she quickly found what she was looking for in the form of a small bag with a single pill in it. "Good thing I still kept an emergency pill on me for this exact situation"

Ruby stood up and started to walk to Jaune slipping the baggie into her shirt pocket when she was stopped by Yang.

[What are you doing?] Yang signed to her sister as she stepped in front of her.

[He's in bad shape I'm going to help him out] Ruby signed back as started to walk towards him

[Your not friends with him anymore, you don't have to help him] Yang signed.

[I want to at least try…] Ruby signed as such [He might not think I'm a friend anymore, but even if I can't salvage our relationship, I still need him in my life.]

Yang backed down with a grumble and let her sister pass as she continued walking towards Jaune. Once she reached him she aw down next to him and said his name out loud to get his attention.

Jaune turned his head to look at her shaking off the malaise that was addling his mind as he signed [Ruby?]

Ruby smiled and presented him the baggie with the pill in it signing [Hey if you need one of these I have your back]

Jaune Grimmaced and turned away from her signing [I don't need anything from you]

Ruby cocked an eyebrow and slugged his shoulder so he'd look at her again [I wasn't asking, I'm not you to let you meet that baby off your meds Jaune.]

Jaune sighed out and took the pill swallowing it dry with signing [I bet shit like this is why you started looking around for a new boyfriend right?]

Ruby sighed out as she signed [I wasn't looking for a new boyfriend. I will admit I wanted us to move faster than you wanted to go. But I never wanted to hurt you]

Jaune scoffed and signed [Well good job there] with an almost sarcastic smirk on his face.

[I'm serious…] Ruby signed to Jaune. [I don't expect you to want to get back with me any time soon, but I hate the idea that I lost my friend over this.]

[You did… You absolutely lost a friend over this, there's no if's, and's, or butts about this!] Jaune stated [I mean I hate the fact that I'm barely more than a sack of mental issues when I'm off my meds. But I didn't deserve to walk in on you with Cardin's tongue in your mouth.] Jaune signed angrily.

Ruby recoiled back like she was slapped in the face at his words.

It took Ruby a few moments to process even what she saw him sign at her. As she saw the look on Jaune's face. [Christ Jaune that's not what happened, he kissed me.] she tried to sign.

[You let him.] Jaune signed leaving no room for doubt or an opening to dispute.

Ruby's shoulders slumped in defeat [I guess I did.]

Jaune looked like he wanted to sign something else but his name was called by a tall looking African American nurse "Jaune Arc?"

Jaune raised his hand tentatively…

The Nurse smiled at him and said: "You ready to come meet your baby sister?"

Jaune smiled and stood up giving a thumbs-up as he followed the nurse.


Jaune was escorted by the nurse into the private hospital bedroom where his mother and Alan was waiting. The first thing he noticed was his mother lying in a hospital bed covered up with a hospital gown next to a shockingly exhausted Alan.

Then he saw her. At first, his eyes barely processed the small squirming mass under a blanket.

Mina still recovering from what looked like a challenging few hours smiled at her son "Hey buddy, you want to meet your sister?"

Jaune walked over and stood next to his new sister as the tiny little person made a cooing noise in her sleep.

[Wow she's small mom… is she okay?] Jaune signed her mother.

"She's a premie, but she'll grow into her little body more than soon enough Jaune," Alan said.

[What's her name?] Jaune signed while holding back his own excitement

"We both decided to name her Bethany May," Mina said "Did you want to hold her, she's not actually sleeping, she's wiggling too much to be.

Jaune nodded with a smile as he let his mother guide his hands, one to support her tiny neck and the other to hold her by the rear as he gently lifted her and cradled her in his arms. The effect was instant as the squirming baby cooed and went still as she got comfortable. Jaune took the opportunity to find a seat to sit in with her new sister.

"I just met you, and God help me if anything bad happened to you I'll carve my way into the afterlife to take you back," Jaune thought as he stared entranced at the small girl. Unexpectedly a small hand reached out from under the blanket and latched into Jaune as she cooed softly.

"I think little Beth likes her brother," Alan said to his wife.

"Yeah, I think she's already kinda bonded to him," Mina said smiling in return.

Jaune not having a free hand left simply gawked at his younger sibling, he wiggled a free finger to his little sister's free hand as she gripped on to it and yawned.

Jaune smiled and leaned back into his seat, he wasn't going anywhere for a little while it seemed. At the moment he didn't really want to either.

Alan and Mina exchanged glances before Alan said: "So I take it your already pretty fond of her?"

Jaune looked up at the pair and smiled.

Mina smiled and said, "Well little Beth, looks like you got a good big brother to help you out okay?"

Jaune looked down at the still very much sleeping little girl in his arms and thought "You really do, I'll do right with you"

It would be about an hour before his little sister decided she had enough…

And Jaune enjoyed every second of it...


So, 50 chapters huh? Man, this was a long time coming for me I'll tell you what, and it's been an interesting journey to get to this point with all of you so far.

So obviously this chapter by itself while a heck of an event was slightly overshadowed as I trying to maneuver the group to where I need them to be to reconcile. And the fact I can finally introduce you all to little Bethany Arc for the first time is a thing I've been forward to since the start of this sort of background pregnancy arc from… lordly closest to 30 chapters ago now?

Now Normally this is the part I'd go ahead and bring up the comments page and go them, but I'm going to politely decline this week because I have the second big announcement of this update I want to make.

So readers may have noticed that my other story has been on the back-burner in favor of this one for a while in I worked on another project altogether. Well, I'm finally able to and ready to talk about that project.

In short, I put together an AQMW novel called "A Silent and Monochrome world" and it's available right now on Amazon. I put links on my profile page for both the Kindle version and the Paperback version but to sum it up. I took the first 19 chapters of the fic, completely rewrote chapter one and bumped it to chapter two, and wrote a completely new chapter one that takes place before the start of the story that's hosted here.

The entire thing has also been cleaned up with expanded content in most chapters, and for obvious reasons had the Rwby elements removed. And below this block of author notes is a short excerpt from the new chapter in the book. You're going to see the new names for some of the characters and hopefully, you'll be able to tell who was who in this section.

But before I do that though as I won't have anything else to say, I want to thank each and every one of you for riding it out for the last fifty chapters, and considering I have plans till at least chapter 100, I hope you will all join me for the next fifty as well. Thanks again for reading and you have a great day out there!.


"Holy crap look at this Jacob, this adventure looks awesome!" Paige shouted from down the aisle from where she was looking at Dungeon Fantasy Modules.

Jacob meanwhile was thumbing through a "Gothic Stars" Army supplement, while he didn't have anywhere near the cash to start an army in that game, but he still always thought the Lore was interesting. He did spare a moment though to shoot a half-interested thumbs up to his girlfriend though.

"You're not even looking!" Paige said looking annoyed.

Jacob shrugged at her as Rin spoke up from another isle "If we all look at it, we won't be surprised if you decide to run it one day"

Nina shouted from somewhere else in the store "He has a point!"

"Alright fine he has a point! Jeez!" Paige said as she tucked thin bundle under her arm to buy on the way out.

Jacob did walk over to her putting the book he was thumbing through down and wrapped an arm around the front of her shoulders and pulled her into a gentle hug from behind as he gave a kiss on the back of her head.

"Jacob I'm fine, I swear," Paige said with a smile and giggle in her voice.

Jacob just squeezed her slightly harder which made her blush.

"Oh, I see you wanted a hug huh?" Paige said

Jacob to his credit just squeezed her a little bit more to show that he did.

"Careful we don't want to get in trouble for making out here again," Paige said as she tilted her head up to look at him. "Did you want me to pick you up anything? I know you're broke right now and it's not really fair to drag you out here like this."

Jacob shook his head and poked her on the nose.

"Okay, Okay I get it, you like spending time with me, but at least let me get you something to eat when we're done, I'm always making you worry about me," Paige said.

Jacob smiled and nodded yes to her before releasing her from a loving death grip.

Paige called out to the others "Rin! Nina! Are you two still shopping?"

"Nah I'm good, I'm picking up a couple Mechatech Supplements and Nina is grabbing some Wizard Cards!" Rin shouted from another part of the store.

Paige then turned to Jacob who stood their shaking his head in amusement "Well, shall we be off then?"