Since coming to the inn, Jaune had been preoccupied by his thoughts, thinking of the things he'd heard of his drunken escapades.
"I didn't think drinking would be that dangerous for me." He muttered, only to perk up at the sound of yells.
"MY fault? Your first thought, after nearly killing me... is asking if it's MY FAULT?"
"Is it?"
"I'm sorry, I guess if I hadn't been stuck with a blonde dumbass all day, so YOU could get off on his suffering, I wouldn't be FEELING tired and exhausted, would I?"
The voices came through the wall, to the neighboring room, Jaune standing up as he recognized the voices speaking, heart stopping.
"Listen to me! This! Isn't! YOU! Look at yourself, look what these Grimm implants are DOING to you!"
"Be QUIET!" The voice of Cinder snarled. "Who gave you the right to talk?! Don't forget that I can kill you at any time. Are you in THAT much of a hurry to die? Huh?!"
"... Do you even see what this is doing to you Cinder?"
Cinder didn't answer for a long moment of time, but Jaune hearkened nonetheless, looking around the room, wondering what a viable weapon could be made out of.
Before he could do so however, the sound of Cinder's voice made him pause, him looking over to the wall before placing his ear against it, heart racing in his chest.
"Why do you keep trying?" Cinder was asking with conviction. "You're afraid of me. You HATE me. Why are you still here?"
"... Because I love you." Emerald replied, calm and almost matter-of-fact.
Cinder, for her part, sounded confused and frustrated.
"You... Love me? What could you love about me? Are you lying, to save yourself?"
"No. I don't know how to explain it. But... I love you."
"How COULD you?" Cinder asked, scornful.
"I don't know how to explain it!" Emerald repeated with exasperation.
Jaune looked about once more, suddenly frantic as he went about searching for something, anything.
"Before I met you, I was just drifting along. Just - going through the motions, with no place to call home, no one to call family. I never wanted to trust anyone, never thought I could. But... something about you made me reconsider it. When I was with you, when I was living for you... everything was different."
For a few moments, all was silent, Jaune leaning away from the wall, but Emerald's voice still coming through, even if muffled slightly, now that he knew to listen.
"I was... alone before. I didn't have any idea what to do, what I was living for, why I was still alive. But I only did what I did, so I could survive. I was scared, but I wanted to live. Despite that, that kind of life never made me... happy. I was just a cluster of emotions, stuck between wanting it to end and wanting to live. Even if that doesn't make sense, it was how I lived. But with you - with you, I didn't feel that way. I don't know how to explain it, but you... you helped me feel more than just that. Every day I spent with you, I found myself NOT wanting it to end."
By this point, her voice had seemed to grow earnest and desperate, stumbling over her words, but pushing herself nonetheless.
"Before I met you, I was just... alive. Alive, but without a sense of purpose beyond survival. There were even times where I thought dying would be better than living like that. But I still stole, did anything I thought I had to do. When I was with you, it was... different. You made me happy. Made me feel I actually could have a purpose. Now... now that I'm with you, I feel okay. I don't hate you Cinder. I never did. I... I love you. I would do anything for you, if you asked me to."
Jaune slowly stepped away from the wall, looking towards the door, before he heard Cinder give her response.
"You would do anything I tell you to?"
The potential of the things behind such a question, especially when coming from Cinder, was enough to drive Jaune to flee from the room, running down the hall.
He rushed down the steps of the inn's second floor, sprinting to the inn keeper's desk, him perking up in surprise at Jaune.
"What's wrong? Did something happen?" He asked, concerned.
"I'm sorry to ask this out of the blue," Jaune said, breathless, "but... Did the girl I came here with come to take our weapons?"
The man quirked an eyebrow at him.
"She did." He answered slowly. "I already told you this yesterday."
Hearing this made him pause, his fear growing in the pit of his stomach.
"... I thought so." Jaune sighed, looking down, before looking back at him. "It was the girl I came in with, right?"
"Yes."
"Okay. I uh... I know this will sound strange," Jaune crossed his arms, "but can you tell me what she looked like?"
As expected, the man gave him a weird look, the sort that wss at a midpoint between baffled confusion and disbelief.
"You're... You're asking what your wife looks like. You understand that, don't you?" The inn keeper questioned, when he realized Jaune was serious.
"Please, I understand it's weird, but this is really serious. I NEED to know." Jaune pleaded earnestly.
The inn keeper seemed to sense that he was being genuine, and, despite quite obviously finding it ridiculous, he answered.
"She's a girl, a bit shorter than you are, with short light green hair and dark skin. She had two customized handguns for her weapons, if you're wondering."
Jaune had fallen silent, looking down.
"... thank you." He said.
"Sure. Are you alright?" The inn keeper questioned.
"I'm fine." Jaune assured him, despite him being a few seconds from screaming hysterically. "I just need a bit of time to myself."
He turned, walking away as the inn keeper watched after him.
He watched the blonde go to a nearby trash can outside, staring down into it, before falling to his knees, grasping the rim and yelling into it as loudly as possible, several passerby staring at him, but not questioning him.
Jaune then rose back to his feet, walking inside without addressing the confused expression of the inn keeper, who obviously wanted to understand why the blonde knight felt the overwhelming need to yell into a trash can.
"Do you know if there's any way to get into contact with Haven Academy?" Jaune asked.
"Not since Beacon tower fell." The man replied. "Did you need something from there?"
"I just wanted to get a message out there. But I guess that's a lost cause too."
He said this with a weary tone, and the inn keeper was beginning to feel baffled by the extremity of the emotions being displayed then.
"Do you need directions to get there?"
"Maybe." Jaune looked up. "Can you tell me how long of a walk it would be?"
Upon getting the answer, he became pensive.
"Thank you."
As Jaune walked away, wondering how best to go about his next immediate action, he thought of whether or not it would be best to make a run for it then.
Would he be able to make it all the way there before they realized anything?
His lack of weapons made this question all the more poignant; he doubted he stood much of a chance of surviving with his weapons, if they attacked him, much less without them.
He weighed the options, then rose to his feet, walking towards the counter again.
"Excuse me, could I ask for a favor?" Jaune asked the inn keeper.
"What do you need?" He asked him.
"I'm about to head out for now. But if my wife asks, could you not tell her where I've gone?"
"Keeping secrets already?"
"No, it's just... Something I have to take care of. I don't want her to worry too much about me."
"What ARE you going to do?"
Jaune questioning him about his weapons, in addition to this description, made him curious and concerned at once.
"Just going to check in with a few friends." Jaune assured him. "Can you promise not to tell her though?"
The inn keeper gave him a hard look, but nodded.
"I'll just say you stepped out. I don't know where you're going anyways." He shrugged.
"Thank you." Jaune said gratefully, so much so the inn keeper's concern grew.
What was going on with this kid all of a sudden? he thought.
Jaune turned, walking out of the inn.
Then, after going down a few blocks, while giving a few looks back to the inn in question, he faced forward and started to run, following the directions given to him as best he could as his heart raced.
He didn't know how many minutes passed, before he finally arrived at Haven, out of breath and sweating slightly, but for a moment, it didn't matter to him as he returned to the campus grounds.
The emptiness of the academy normally made for an eerily silent environment, but it had become a home away from home for him, the familiar hallways leading him to the living room where everyone often talked to one another.
There was the sound of people talking, his friends, and Jaune stopped before the door.
"Guys?" He called uncertainly, and the chatter stopped, only for the door to whip open after a few seconds.
At the sight of Jaune there, safe and sound, Nora gasped, then leapt forward to tightly hug the blonde, making him stumble back as she rubbed her head against his chest plate.
"Jaune, you're okay!" She cried, Ren not far behind as he looked to Jaune in surprise that turned into relief.
Jaune, overcoming his own surprise, could only hug her back, the mental and physical exhaustion he felt catching up to him as he felt the warmth and safety of being with his team and friends again.
Then came the obvious question.
"Where have you BEEN?" Ruby questioned as she came to the door as well.
"... Where do I even start?" Jaune wondered to himself.
After settling down and gathering everyone in the kitchen, Jaune tried to bring them all up to speed.
"I know you tried drinking for the first time, but what happened after that?" Ren questioned.
"I drank enough that I don't actually remember anything." Jaune answered. "When I woke up the next morning though, I... I woke learning I'd gotten married the night before."
This made everyone stare at him with surprise.
"You got MARRIED?" Nora questioned. "To who? Was that who you were with all this time?"
"Uh... Yeah." Jaune crossed his arms, feeling a knot in his stomach as he thought back to how Emerald had made him think he'd married to Weiss, and later Yang.
As said women looked to him from beyond the counter, he resolved that he would take this information to the grave.
"Who was it though?" Nora asked, curious and smiling supportively. "I mean, I'm sure it might have been awkward at first, but you got her name at least, right?"
"... Yeah." Jaune hung his head, mentally bracing himself.
Reading his expression, Nora shared a look with Ren, smile dropping with mild concern.
"Well, what IS her name?" Yang said. "Or... IS it a her?"
"It's a her." Jaune answered.
"Alright, just checking," the blonde huntress crossed her arms over the kitchen counter, "so... what's her name then?"
Jaune took a deep breath, then told them.
It took several long, heavy seconds for them to properly register the information.
"Emerald?" Ruby finally questioned, not believing it fully. "The... Same Emerald that ran off with Cinder?"
"What other Emerald is there?" Weiss questioned the hooded girl.
"I don't know, there are other Rubys out there too, I can't see why Emeralds should be any more rare!" Ruby exclaimed.
"It's the same Emerald." Jaune held his hand in his face, face red with embarrassment as he tried thinking of the last couple days of his life with the understanding that it had been Emerald.
"How did it even GET to that point?" Yang asked, baffled. "I know you were drunk, but was SHE drunk?"
"She was. We had a wedding ceremony with a mob boss and a priest he was close to." Jaune said, distraught.
"A mob boss?" Weiss perked up. "How did you get involved with a mob boss?"
Jaune explained to them, as best as he could, what had happened from his, hopefully, menially warped understanding of the things that had taken place.
"- and after things calmed down, the mob boss heard what I did it all for, and since I won him a lot of money, he decided to let us get married and worry about the consequences later on." Jaune finished.
"But then... What did you do, when you woke up the next morning?" Ren asked.
"That part I'm still a bit iffy about. It's hard to explain, but... I think Emerald has some way to alter her appearance, or something like that. I didn't realize who she was until we came back, after hearing everything I told you."
"I think it's her semblance." Ruby pitched in, and everyone looked to her. "When we were fighting before, I remember her making me see some kind of vision of Cinder attacking me. But when I hit her, it was just that, a vision that wasn't there. And then there's Yang not seeing Emerald right beside her until it was too late before, when she first escaped with Cinder."
Yang lowered her head in thought.
"There was definitely something like that going on before. Times where there were suddenly four or five different Mercurys attacking me, but they'd just disappear when I hit some of them."
Her mind hearkened back to the Vytal tournament finals as this crossed her mind.
She had been so certain that Mercury had attacked her that day, when she'd beaten him, but no one else had seen what she had.
All they saw was her attacking him, unprovoked.
With this line of understanding, she began to ponder if Emerald had been responsible for that.
"That would explain how she looked like someone completely different." Jaune replied, bringing Yang out of her thoughts.
"What made you realize it was Emerald?" Blake asked.
"I heard her arguing with Cinder, in the room next to ours. I didn't realize it right then, but that was what led to me figuring it out. When I went down to try grabbing my weapons from the inn keeper, he said that Emerald had come to get them. He didn't mention her by name, but he described her appearance enough for me to know. The last I checked, they were still talking, but I didn't know what to do. My scroll was gone, and I had no idea where my weapons were. So... I just ran all the way back here, hoping for the best."
"... How long ago was that?" Yang questioned.
"Probably long enough for them to know I'm gone." Jaune admitted.
"Well. This has been a heavy couple of days." Nora sighed.
"What do you mean? What happened while I was gone?" Jaune asked, made curious and concerned.
"Did you know there were jellyfish Grimm?" Yang asked.
"No...?"
"We didn't either. We had a bit of a scare, when I woke up with one hovering over me in my sleep yesterday."
"Really?" Jaune asked, surprised.
"It looked so weird and creepy, floating inside our room like that." Weiss shook her head.
"It didn't even try attacking us, it was just tearing up the room looking for something. It tried taking Yang's robot arm." Ruby said.
"That thing is still roaming around the halls." Blake added grimly. "We managed to get her arm back, but we've set up a watch after that."
"Oh no... What do Qrow and Ozpin say about that?" Jaune asked.
"Qrow... he had to leave." Ruby answered.
"Huh? Why?" Jaune asked.
"I got the Relic, and Ozpin told Qrow we needed to bring it to Atlas." Yang explained. "Qrow wanted to let us rest before we did anything else... But then waves of Grimm suddenly showed up and started attacking."
"They were really invested in attacking whatever building the lamp was inside of, and the attacks only stopped when Qrow got on a plane and flew off. He didn't know if that would work, but it did." Weiss added. "That was yesterday morning."
"Then we tried looking for you, but we didn't know where to look, after the bar you went to. The bar itself was closed when we found it." Ruby concluded.
"... I'm so sorry. We'd probably be gone right now if it wasn't for me." Jaune said, greatly regretting his decision to drink.
"This has been a hectic week in general so far." Yang told him. "Professor Lionheart died a couple days ago, on top of him being a spy. Then add in everything else we've told you. We're all just having a bad few days."
Many, many miles away from Haven, one Qrow Branwen walked along a trail while carrying the Relic, after he'd convinced his plane pilot walking was the safer method of going about his journey for all parties involved.
(After getting attacked by Nevermores for the third time, the pilot lost the will to give a rebuttal.)
Though Qrow felt life relished the act of screwing him over a bit TOO much at times, he had learned to accept it in most circumstances and make the most of the few pleasures offered to him.
This was no such time.
"First Ironwood riles everyone up during the Vytal Festival. Then Beacon tower gets knocked down. Then I spend a month tailing Ruby and her friends after Oz dies. Then Leo turns traitor and gets every Huntsman near Haven killed. And now I'm walking BACK from Haven to Atlas." He muttered to himself.
He looked to the sky for a long moment.
"You know, if any of you gods DO exist, I just want you to tell whoever gave ME bad luck, and Raven warp portals, they REALLY screwed their choices up. You'd think you all-knowing beings would REALIZE that before you screwed me, but apparently not."
He brought out his weapon, pointing it up to the sky.
"Do you have ANY idea how much less trouble this would be, if I had Raven's power, and just put that connection thing on all the people in Ozpin's inner circle? I hope you THINK on that, all of ya. I could even keep everyone updated WITHOUT needing the towers up. But nooo. You, with your infinite powers and wisdom, decided that I should be gifted with bad luck. All of you got together for a "FUCK Creation" meeting, decided on how to screw over your all-time favorite FUCK toy, Qrow "Fuck Toy" Branwen, decide how you want to BEND me over to tear me a fifth asshole in this SHIT pool of a world! But you know what? I've got nothing but time. So EVERY asshole god of EVERY asshole mythology that wants a piece can come down now. I'll give YOU a taste of what it's like to get FUCKED by a force of nature, see how YOU like it!"
He doubted any gods would heed his anger filled ranting against them.
They never did.
Whether they didn't care about his grievances, were laughing like the assholes they were, or just found mild entertainment from it, his feelings had not changed since he'd realized just how much suffering he was in store for.
Qrow simply understood why having a semblance that forced him to have bad luck, in the simplest of terms, sucked.
"Hopefully things are going well with Uncle Qrow." Ruby said, trying to stay positive. "But what do we do about Cinder and Emerald? I don't know about Emerald, but we can't leave Cinder alone."
"It would be troublesome for Jaune without his weapons as well." Ren added, looking to the man in question. "What do you think?"
"I'm not sure. I definitely need my weapons, but would she actually GIVE them to me?" Jaune asked thoughtfully. "I don't know if I'm looking into it too much, but it almost sounded like Emerald did this on Cinder's orders. I don't know how much of it WAS her orders, but she's involved, as far as I can tell."
"We'd have to be careful then." Ren replied. "I can follow behind you, to give you back up if things go south."
"What would that mean for you though?" Jaune asked. "We would be in a second story room at an inn. It would be hard for you to be there if anything does happen."
"We can't just let you go alone though." Nora said, frowning at the prospect.
Jaune thought about it.
He began to ponder about the situation, the outlandish level of coincidence that led to him marrying Emerald.
Overall, knowing that it had been Emerald all along gave him a much needed explanation for his strange perspective on it all.
Thinking back on his past conversations with Emerald, under the guise of Weiss and Yang, all the minor discrepancies between them stuck out all the more to him, along with the one major question he'd been mulling over, of how Weiss somehow turned into Yang in the bathroom that day.
This particular detail made it all the more jarring for him, despite this.
Assuming there was a point to this entire thing for Emerald, Jaune could not fathom a conceivable reason as to why she'd suddenly switched impersonations.
He thought of it for a few moments more before looking to his friends again.
"We're going to go meet someone tomorrow morning. It won't be too far from the bar I went to." Jaune told them. "I think it'd be better if you guys rested for tonight, before heading over there in the morning. It's getting late as is, and you're all probably tired. I can strike it out alone again for now."
Ruby nodded, Ren looked hesitant, Nora sighing, the others processing this information before ultimately agreeing with him.
"We'll send some of us out when the time comes. Did they say what time Jaune?" Ruby asked.
Jaune blinked, trying to think back, but not remembering.
"No... But we'll still be going, eventually." Jaune told her. "We agreed to annul the marriage, once we realized we could do that, and even if Cinder is involved, I don't think she wants to fight."
As he said this, the words Emerald had spoken surfaced from his memory of what she had been saying to Cinder.
"I would do ANYTHING for you."
He thought of the possibilities, and a chill ran down his spine.
"Are you sure about this?" Weiss asked.
"I am." Jaune nodded after a brief bit of hesitation, mentally hoping things wouldn't immediately go awry.
"Can you at least leave the address for us, so we know where to find you?"
"I can. Do you... Have a piece of paper?" Jaune said, remembering the names of the bar and the building he visited earlier.
When he had written it down, they spoke for a bit longer before some of them started walking Jaune as far as the town, for the sake of keeping him safe in case the Demon Jelly, as they dubbed the jellyfish Grimm, came and attacked him while he was defenseless.
As they reached the town, Jaune bid his companions goodbye, sharing a hug with Nora and Ren before they went their separate ways.
The trek back to the inn gave Jaune ample time to think, and while he initially thought about the current situation, his mind soon drifted onto Emerald as he wondered about the things she'd told him these past couple of days.
"This really reminds me of how things were back home." Jaune had said as he washed dishes with her, glancing over to the woman beside him and seeing her rolling up her sleeves.
"Home?"
"Yeah. I have 7 sisters, so we'd always end up fighting over who had dish duty when the time came." He chuckled, smiling warmly as he recalled this.
She hummed, looking down thoughtfully at the dishes as she cleaned.
"It must be nice, having a home like that."
"It is." Jaune said, oblivious to her feelings, thinking it simple small talk. "Sure, the days I spent with everyone traveling here was fun too, I see everyone as kind of like my second family, but… there's no place like home."
"It really depends on your definition of "home" though." She answered half-mindedly.
"That's true too. But you at least think of us as a second family too, right?"
She paused, before smiling bitterly at him.
"I wouldn't know the first thing about having a first family." She told him honestly. "So… Maybe. I can't say for certain."
"I don't know how to explain it. But... I love you." Emerald said as she confessed to Cinder.
"How COULD you?" Cinder spat.
"I don't know how to explain it!" She repeated with exasperation. "Before I met you, I was just drifting along. Just - going through the motions, with no place to call home, no one to call family."
Thinking on this, Jaune began to get something of an idea about Emerald's situation, the picture that began to form in his mind's eye not being the best.
Minutes passed, and the streets grew emptier, before Jaune finally neared the inn.
Stepping back inside, he became aware of his own weariness from having run so much before, but telling himself to keep up a facade for the sake of not letting Emerald realize he knew the truth.
As he walked past the inn keeper however, he paused, questioning him.
"Excuse me, but did she come down at all, if you remember?"
The man looked to him, then shook her head.
"I see. Thanks." Jaune looked up the stairs, climbing them as he tried to steady his nerves.
When he looked up to find Emerald there, standing near their door with her appearance altered to fit Yang's look, she was already looking back, having spotted him.
He froze for a brief moment, nervousness making him unsure of how to act, before he recovered, steeling himself as he looked to her.
Something about her felt off, that much he could sense, but he wasn't sure what.
He approached Emerald, asking, "Are you alright?"
"... I'm fine." She shook her head, though her voice was weary. "I just... need a moment to myself."
She opened the door without another word, Jaune watching her enter.
Part of him wished to question her, but he stopped himself, thinking it best not to.
Despite this, as the door closed, he registered how she looked and sounded so much like Yang to him, and it serve to baffle and creep him out simultaneously.
As the finality of the fact that he'd married an illusionist came, Jaune could not help his disbelieving utterance.
"... Of all the people to share my first binge drink with, and it ends up being her?"
Emerald walked along to the bathroom, locking the door behind her, before carrying herself over to the mirror before she loosened the dress, letting it fall as she stared at her body in the mirror.
She took in her appearance, of the many burnt, bruised and bleeding marks all along her body, before she turned, walking despite the pain movement caused her, her nauseous as she walked to the bath, running up a tub of cold water, her bracing herself before submerging most of her body into it, the burns stinging at first, but the pain racking through the burns soothed of their pain.
She gazed down at her body a moment more, remembering how she had gotten them, before she hugged knees to her chest, body shaking uncontrollably.
Tears welling up in her eyes, Emerald sobbed, burying her face into her knees with shame.
A/N: This turned out larger than I expected.
The woes of writing a long chapter on your phone: You have to go back and italicize/bold the things you want that way.
I originally wanted to keep the thing with Qrow at the end, as an omake sort of thing, but I thought it clashed a bit too much with everything else at the end.
What essentially happened offscreen was what I envisioned happening after the Relic was taken; as everyone was worn out from all the fighting, Salem sends Grimm monsters to attack Haven the same night it happens.
They might have gotten the relic, but she won't let them take it without a fight (well, even more a fight).
What ensues is everyone that came from Menagerie, the reformed White Fang members, the police, and all the main characters still able to fight, duking it out for the rest of the night, while some other Grimm go off on their own and cause trouble (hence why the bartender got called out to help deal with it).
Amidst all of that fighting happening, it becomes obvious that the Grimm are attacking either the CCT Tower or whatever building happens to have the Relic inside it, and Qrow, deciding to risk it, strikes out with a few people on a plane with the Relic in hand, and the Grimm follow, before he goes out and slaughters the vast majority of them while they're doing that.
Despite that, back at Haven, Salem decides to try having Ol' Demon Jelly kill Oscar in his sleep, but Demon Jelly hides away until the time is right, since there are still Huntsmen that could overwhelm it if they know what it's doing.
Eventually, Demon Jelly believes it best to try stealing everyone's weapons, but ends up waking some of them in its hunt for the Huntsmen/Huntress loot, which included Yang's cybernetic arm, though they got their stuff back.
Now people are a bit on edge about walking around at Haven at night.
And that's the rundown of things that happened these last several chapters on team RNRWBY's side of things, beyond going out to search for Jaune a couple times.