-= One Year After Induction into the Inquisition =-

A cacophony of sirens and blinking red lights awoke Jaune and his squad from their sleepless slumber. Bodies moved on autopilot as the now squad of six jumped from their bunks and threw on their crimson red jumpsuits, and black boots before each of them made a mad dash for their secured lockers.

Jaune was the first to arrive, followed closely by Aeris, their hands running over the lockers cogitators in sync before they blinked green and opened to reveal their kit.

Jaune immediately got to work securing his jet black carapace armor to his body. As soon as he was finished, he snatched his helmet and secured it to his head, hands already grasping for his next item, Crocea Mors, which he swiftly latched to his belt, then his standard laspistol, and finally, his Hellgun.

The blond wasted no time in sliding the weapon's sling over his helmeted head, and turning to face the now similarly armored figure next to him, his helmets mask still unsecured.

The somehow still strikingly female figure turned her back to him and he wasted no time in getting to work, taking a step forward, Jaune grabbed hold of the thick cable protruding from her backpack and handed it to her, she accepted, and secured the cable to the mag well of her hellgun, giving the blond a thumbs up from over her shoulder, Jaune flicked a few buttons on the backpack, causing the device to hum with power.

Jaune then turned around himself around and they repeated the process.

With weapons, gear, and kit all secured, Jaune thumbed the lockers cogitator causing it to seal itself and took a few steps away from the lockers.

His unmasked face wandered over his team, all of them putting the finishing touches on their gear.

Jaune cleared his throat just loud enough to be heard over the sirens, all eyes were immediately on him. Had he been in this scenario a year and a half ago, he'd have no clue what to say, in fact, it was safe to say he'd be shaking in his armored boots, and he was the first few time, the first few times he'd been deployed as a member of his holy inquisition he'd been terrified, not just for himself but his squad as well.

But he'd learned, he'd gotten good at pushing that fear down deep and focusing on his team's safety.

"Let's not keep the heretic waiting!" Jaune shouted, earning himself an echo of 'Yes, Sir's, with that, Jaune secured his mask to his helmet and smiled.

They quickly exited the Barracks, all of them falling into the formation of two three-man columns before beginning their jog to the hangars.

It was an uneventful jog, the voidsmen, and other navy personnel quickly getting out of the way for the no doubt dangerous-looking stormtroopers, some of them looked awestruck by the display, others were too busy trying to get wherever it was they were going to care.

Five minutes later and they were in the hanger as it bustled with activity, men, and women of all branches running too and fro, flight crews making final checks on Valkyries, and ferrying crates of equipment and gear into their cargo holds.

The squad quickly jogged through the hangar to their assigned Valkrie, it's troop ramp down, and interior filled with as much equipment as the bird could carry with it's six extra occupants.

They wasted no time in securing themselves to their seats, they sat there in relative silence for a moment as everyone did checks on their weapons. Jaune pulled his Data slate from his belt and started flipping through it.

From what he could tell, they were going to be dropped with the rest of the retinue into an Imperial Guard base set up about fifteen clicks from the Tau frontline, there had been reports of a certain General O'Neil having fallen for the temptations of the flesh with a Xeno.

"It's really not that hard to just shoot them" Jaune scoffed to himself before replacing his Data slate and doing his own weapons checks.

Just as he'd begun, the troop ramp raised and not a second later a voice crackled through the cabin, "This is your captain speaking, please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times, we'll be arriving at Camp Damascus in twenty minutes, till then, The Emperor Protects."

The squad echoed back the prayer, before finishing their checks.

Jaune let his head relax against the plasteel wall behind him, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling before feeling someone interlock their gloved fingers with his own.

Turning to face them, Jaune saw the same strikingly female form beside him, he knew who it was, of course, they'd become very familiar with each other over the past few months, sometimes it was small things, like a hand to hold before a drop, other times it'd been secretly in the showers when the rest of the team were asleep.

But those things aside, he grasped Val's hand tightly, before relaxing again, a feeling of happiness washing over him, and for the first time in his year and a half of being in this new world, Jaune truly felt content.

-=Remnant - (J)NPR's Doorm=-

Pyrrha paced around the dorm, deep bags under her bloodshot eyes, her usually neatly kept crimson hair a rats nest, her hands neurotically rubbing together as she paced in front of Jaune's old bed.

She stopped pacing as suddenly as she'd started, her head turning slightly to stare at the untouched bed before letting out a choked sob, she couldn't think about anything else no matter how hard she tried, not the Vytal festival, not her friends, not even her own health, she just couldn't get her lost love out of her head.

Then, just bearly audible, came the very voice from her dreams that made her afraid to sleep, the voice that sounded more akin to a snake than any Human for Faunus.

"Ssstay up allllll you like preciousss, you can't block me out foreverrrr!" The voice cooed, Pyrrha's face took the form of panic as she felt a shiver run down her spine, the phantom feeling of a tongue running across her cheek causing her to lash out and slap herself across the face.

"Get the fuck out of my head!" Pyrrha begged as tears began to stream down her face, "Just leave me alone!"

But the voice didn't listen, the faint sound of hissing laughter could be heard no matter how hard she covered her ears or curled up into a ball.

No matter how long she stayed awake, the voice could always be heard, reading off her thoughts and fears as if it were reading from the Sunday paper. Promising her more power than she could ever imagine, promising her things that she knew were impossible.

"They're posssssible if you just sssssubmit!" The voice now boomed in her head.

Then, without warning, multiple pairs of hands were on her, grasping at her wrists and head, Pyrrha fought back but didn't get very far, her exhaustion having sapped all energy from her body.

"Pyr? What the hell are you doing stop it!" This time the voice didn't feel wrong, it didn't feel like it knew her every desire and fear, Pyrrha opened her eyes, hot tears still streaming down her face as she came face to face with all of team RWBY and the rest of her team, each of their faces showing worry and fear.

Then Pyrrha saw her hands, they were covered in blood and small clumps of crimson red hair, her blood, her hair.

Pyrrha screamed before falling into unconsciousness, and with that, the voice returned.

-= Three Clicks Outside Camp Damascus - Valkyre Gunship =-

Jaune sat in silence, still grasping Val's hand, his eyes roving around the cabin as the pilot's voice crackled back to life, "Three Minutes to drop ladies, final che-" Before the pilot could finish, a shrill beeping could be heard through the intercom.

"Shit! We've been locked, Evasive maneuvers, deploy Chaff!" The pilot yelled as everyone in the troop bay jerked to one side. Jaune gripped Val's hand tighter, the sound of fire impacting against the hull could be heard before a Tau Rail Rifle slug punched through the troop compartment like paper mache and turned one of the door gunners heads into a pink mist.

Then, before Jaune could even process what had happened, an explosion rocked the compartment.

"I've lost my co-pilot, along with the port engines, I'm gonna try and put us down!" The pilot yelled over the intercom before another explosion rocked the transport, the intercom coming back with nothing but static no matter how many times Jaune tried to call him.

A feeling of vertigo overtook Jaune as if he were spinning, then it hit him, They'd lost their pilot, and we're currently falling from the sky.

"Brace yourselves!" Jaune bellowed, one hand gripping Val's hand for dear life and the other holding his seat restraints, he looked to the woman next to him, and everything went black.

-= Remnant - Beacon's Infirmary =-

Headmaster Ozpin stared blankly at the red-haired woman currently sedated in the bed before him, bandages with patches of red wrapped around her head, head twitching as her face showed a permanent look of utter unbridled horror.

"How is she Peach." The headmaster said simply.

"Do you mean physically or mentally?" The woman stated matter of factly.

"Both."

The professor let out a sigh, "Not good, Physically she'd malnourished, dehydrated, she hasn't showered in a good long while, and that's completely ignoring her self inflicted injuries."

"Which also links back to her mental state no doubt," Ozpin asked, already knowing the answer.

"Well yes, While we can't get a solid idea of her current mental state I think it's safe to say, given recent events, that she's not doing so great, if I were to make a guess, I'd say it's probably due to the untimely loss of her partner."

Ozpin hummed at this, he had the same thought, but something just didn't sit right with him, he couldn't place exactly what it was, but it just felt wrong, like there was some unnatural source for this suffering.

"Keep a close eye on her, she is not to be left alone under any circumstances." The Headmaster stated before swiftly exiting the infirmary and coming face to face with those that had found the poor champion.

Nora was the first out of her seat, eyes red and searching for answers, "How is she?"

"She is currently sleeping, we don't know what exactly caused this but we believe we have an idea." The headmaster said gently, placing a hand on the orange-haired girl's shoulder.

"She needs her rest, and so do you, go back to your dorms, I'll be looking into this myself so rest assured, Nikos will be fine." He said before removing his hands and walking down the hall to his office.

It didn't take long for him to arrive back in his office, the view was beautiful, but soured due to current events.

Glynda arrived shortly after him, a scroll in her hands and a purpose in her step, "There's been a disturbance in Forever Fall."

Glynda handed him the Scroll, he swiped through the information present to him, an energy spike, as well as a good amount of seismic activity, but no pictures, whatever this disturbance had been, it'd taken their eyes and ears.

"How quickly can you have a team there?" Ozpin stated simply, handing the headmistress back the scroll.

"Two hours."

"Good, get it done Glynda."

With that, Glynda swiftly left, leaving the Headmaster to his own devices, with a heavy sigh, Ozpin removed a mug from his desk and poured a bottle of amber liquid into it, today was shaping up to be an interesting one.

-= Valkyrie Transport Crash Site - Unknown Territory =-

Jaune's eyes fluttered open, his mask's heads up display showing him a readout of his vitals and ammo reserves, a cursory glance told him he was suffering from light bruising, and a minor concussion, but other than that he was in perfect health.

A cough racked his body, immediately dashing away his relife as he let out a groan.

A glance around the cabin told him a different story, a few pieces of cargo had slipped from their places and been scattered about the floor, or was that the ceiling? Jaune unlooked his seat restraints, quickly falling onto his back, confirming his fears that the ceiling had indeed become the floor.

With another pained groan, Jaune got to his feet, eyes immediately falling on the upside-down limp form of Val still secured to her seat.

Without a second thought, the blond unhooked her and gently helped her to the floor.

Jaune felt a wave of relief wash over him as he found her vitals to be stable and in the green, with that taken care of, the blond checked the rest of his squad, Aeris had a broken rib but was otherwise fine, Jaks was already beginning to stir when he'd gotten to her, her only injuries being a knock to the head as she unhooked herself from her seat and fell to the floor.

The two newest additions to the team were nowhere to be seen, a large wicked rend in the plasteel hull where their seats had been being all he needed to see.

Jaune moved on to the door gunners, one of which was alive apart from the bone sticking from his left leg, and the other he didn't even bother checking, the headless corpse being nothing more than something he needed to step over to reach the pilots' compartment.

Jaune thumbed the cogitator for the door and was met with no response.

Jaune scoffed and returned to the troop bay, Val was on her feet and Jaks was looking over the door gunner's leg.

"Aeris, how you feeling?" Jaune asked simply.

"Ready to kick some ass, Sir."

"That's what I like to hear," Jaune said with a smile, "Jaks, stabilize him, we're setting up a perimeter."

The woman nodded to him, Jaune nodded back and the three remaining members of the squad left the cabin with weapons at the ready.

Their hellguns roved over their surroundings.

They'd crashed in the middle of a dense red forest, the leaves falling to the red grass at their feet, small patches of almost pure white stone shone through the crimson grass.

Jaune lowered his hellgun into a low ready position, as they circled the crashed transport, but they found no contacts, nothing but silence.

Jaune looked to the pilot's compartment and found nothing but shattered glass, wrecked metal, and two bearly recognizable charred corpses.

"Stay put, and keep your head on a swivel," Jaune stated before reentering the troop cabin, Jaune watched for a moment as Jaks reset the man's bone. He bit back a scream before passing out from the pain.

The blond looked away from the procedure, and set his sites on the Valkyries cargo, at a glance it looked like everything that a recon mission might need, ration packs, laspacks, long-range Comms, two Recon Bikes, and a couple of other things.

But what caught Jaune's attention was the large padded box secured to the pile with an abnormally large number of straps, Jaune withdrew his knife, cut the straps, and pried open the box.

Jaune let out a low whistle at the sight of ten very well secured plasma guns.

Moving on to another less secure box, the blond repeated the process and found himself unable to keep himself from smiling at a very beautiful, and very useful crate full of Krak Grenades.

Jaune continued this trend with every crate he could find; One Crate of plasma guns, two crates of ammunition for said plasma guns, four crates of laspacks, two crates of Krack and normal grenades, two crates of rations, a crate of Comms equipment, and two heavy weapons crate containing all the fix in's for a lascannon, and autocannon emplacement.

Of course, that's not including the two Recon Bikes, and the two Heavy Bolters and ammo mounted to the Valkyrie itself.

Jaune finished his inventory and relegated himself to the Comms, they may not have crashed that far from the Camp, but he'd rather not sit around here waiting for the Xenos to finish the job.

The blond fiddled with the equipment before finally powering it up, the soft hum and rush of static telling him he was but another step closer to getting back on track.

Without hesitation, Jaune keyed the transmit button and started talking.

"This is Lieutenant Jaune Arc of His Holy Inquisition, our Valkyrie went down Three Clicks En-route to Camp Damascus, Our Pilot's are down and we've got wounded, Requesting immediate support and Medivac, this Message will repeat, The Emperor Protects."

Jaune released the transmit key, flipped a few other buttons and switches, the moment he began to hear the message repeat, he turned from the Comms and returned to the outside world.

Outside, Jaune took better stock of the situation, They had the Armorments and supplies to stay here for two to three weeks, maybe even a month if they rationed, but he'd rather not stay out in the field for anywhere near that long again.

"Aeris, there's a box of Plasma Guns in the hold, grab one and stock up on ammo, Val, see what you can do about getting those recon bikes out here and ready to go, pack them up with long-range gear as well.

They both echoed a 'Yes, Sir' and retreated into the troop compartment, Aeris looking a little more excited than she should have been.

Jaune let out a sigh as he listened to his voice through his helmet radio, they'd been in worse scenarios before.

The blond removed his mask and withdrew a pack of Ilos from his leg pouch, placed one in his mouth, and lit it.

He welcomed the rush of Nicotine and whatever other chemicals they shoved into the death sticks, his shoulders slacking as the stress melted away for just a moment. Aeris exited the troop transport through the now upwards facing troop ramp, a Plasma Gun and bandolier of ammo cells now slung across her body.

Jaune waved his hand and she quickly took position on the other side of the crashed Valkyrie. Val exited shortly after, pulling along one of the bikes and setting it against its kickstand beside the troop ramp.

The blond took another long drag, holding it in for a moment before expelling the smoke from his lungs, Placing the cigarette back in his mouth, Jaune returned to the interior of the cabin and began searching through the crates, quickly discovering a moderately sized rucksack.

"That'll work," Jaune said to himself before shoving about three days worth of rations and water into it, along with eight laspacks, some Comms equipment, and the other staples of survival, sleeping gear, fire starters, and anything else he might need.

After he finished packing the bag, Jaune removed his hellgun from his chest, along with the backpack-mounted power pack, and placed them against the wall.

Jaune then made his way to the crew survival box, mounted right beside the pilot's door, and opened it, revealing a Voss pattern Lasrifle, and a Trauma kit.

The blond removed the sling from his hellgun and installed it on the regular lasrifle before returning to the laspack crate, filling his chest rig with as many packs as he could fit, the final total coming to around nine, including the one he loaded into the rifle itself, more than enough.

With a nod of his head and his kit reoriented for the mission at hand, Jaune returned to the red forest, thankful that inquisition had a weird obsession with the colors red and black.

"Status on the bikes, Val?" Jaune asked before taking another drag from his quickly depleting cigarette.

"One is good to go, about a 122-mile range, but with the extra gas can added by yours truly you've got about 200 miles to play around with, far more than you'll ever need, but just to be safe."

Jaune smiled, dropping the cigarette to the ground and stomping it out with his armored boot. "I'm gonna go and scout our surroundings, keep your eyes and ears open, I'll be back in a few hours, okay?"

"You're so cute when you get all protective!" Val cooed, her arms wrapping around Jaune's neck as she pulled him in for a kiss.

Their lips smashed together for what felt like forever, but when they separated it'd only been a moment.

"I love you," Jaune said simply.

"And I just barely tolerate you"

The two of them laughed with each other, savoring the moment until they finally separated.

Jaune fully shoulders his pack and secured his rifle before mounting the Bike, he turned to Val and smiled, she pecked him on the helmet and secured his mask to his face.

"Come back safe." She said almost too quietly for him to ear.

"I always do."

With that, Jaune revved the bike's engine and sped off into the crimson red forest, the sound of an engine echoing for a moment before disappearing completely, leaving Val in complete silence as she stared at the last place she'd been able to see her lover depart.

-= Remnant - Beacon's Headmasters Office =-

Ozpin sat at his desk, his mug perpetually full but not having the intended effect. A ping from his desk computer provided a much-appreciated distraction.

The grizzled headmaster tapped on the notification, a message from Glynda, no doubt about the disturbance in Forever Fall, as well as a video attachment, and an audio file.

'No new seismic activity at the original site, but this was captured on a camera about two miles from the site, looks like he's headed towards the Upper District of Vale.'

Ozpin's eyebrows raised at that before opening the attachment. Within was a video clip of a man, in a strange set of armor and with a strange weapon, ridding a strange-looking motorcycle at relatively high speeds through Forever Fall, his movements looked precise, and practiced as if he'd done whatever he was doing a thousand times before.

'His gear is of no make we've ever seen, but along with the video we picked up a strange repeating radio message a few minutes before he appeared, sadly it's in a language we know nothing about, but I've attached it as well.'

If Ozpin was intrigued before, he was on the edge of his seat now, without hesitation he pressed play on the audio file, a garbled mess of static and an almost ancient-sounding language played.

To say he was shocked was an understatement, not because of what he heard, but because he had no clue what it's said, He'd been alive for centuries, lived more lives than he could count, and here he was, faced with something he knew nothing about.

Ozpin emptied his mug, before refilling it once again, he'd had a long long day ahead of him, and if he was to discover exactly what was going on, he'd need to crack open the books and get to work right away.

-= Forever Fall - Eight Miles From Vales Upper-Class District =-

Jaune rode as fast as he could within a dense red forest, his eyes constantly on his surroundings, he's had some contact with his squad, mostly just check-in's to see how they were fairing.

From what they said it'd been all quiet, no contact whatsoever, they'd dug in and created a defendable position, set up the two heavy bolters and the lascannon and were going to be hunkering down untill they either got a response on Comms or he told them to move.

Things were going about as well as they could have been, Jaune had stopped a few miles back to chow down on a ration pack and check in again, but that'd been about as eventful as it got out here, he was beginning to think they'd not see any action at all. Not that he was complaining.

After a couple more minutes of ridding Jaune came upon the beginnings of a clearing, the blond killed the engine, removed his mask, dismounted the bike, and put his newly acquired Magnoculars to his eyes.

What Jaune saw made his jaw drop, not just because it was a peacefully bustling city where there should have been bombed-out ruins or an Imperial Guard Base.

No, what made Jaune's jaw drop, and his hands tremble, was the fact he recognized it.

Then it all clicked, the eerily silent red forest, the almost pristine white rocks, the city, this was Forever Fall, he was on Remnant.

Before he even had a moment to think he resealed his mask and jumped onto the bike, gunning the engine through the field in a desperate bid, it couldn't be real, the rations could have been bad, or maybe the water he drank had gone off, but he had to be sure.

Hence the fact he was rocketing across an empty field at 80 miles an hour.

As he got closer to the border to the city, it all started to get clearer, objects became more detailed and by the time he'd come to the fence, he'd almost forgotten to brake.

Jaune gripped the brake leaver at full strength, causing the bike to slide to the left and kick up a pile of white dirt and rocks.

The blond hopped off the bike and leaned against the fence, staring at the number of people that he'd caught the attention of, all of them wearing fine clothes and driving fancy looking cars, but the best part? He recognized them, the cars, the clothes, the street names.

Jaune choked back a sob, he was home, he was back, his family, his team. The blond soldier watched as a small crowd had formed a good distance from him, some of them pulling out scrolls to take pictures and videos, others talking on them with either the authorities or their friends.

Then it hit Jaune if he was back on Remnant, he needed to get to Beacon, he needed to get to Ozpin, That their best chance at putting themselves in a favorable position.

Without a second of hesitation, Jaune unsheathed Croea Mores and thumbed the only recently added switch on the handguard, the blade hummed with power as arcs of electricity slid like water across the ancient weapon.

Jaune whispered a prayer before cutting a large enough hole in the fence for him and his bike to fit, once he was happy with his work, he deactivated his sword, and sheathed it.

This elicited a few screams and hushed whispers from the crowd, all of them silently making way for the strangely armed man, two uniformed men now joined the crowd, pushing themselves to the front.

The only thing they got to see was a black and crimson clad man speed off onto the road and into the distance.

Jaune watched as the Upper-Class district of Vale speed by him, the world but a blur as he broke every speed law known to Remnant on his way to Beacon.

The Upper District quickly gave way to the Commercial, he could hear sirens behind him now, but he wouldn't dare stop.

A few moments later, and a Bullhead was above him now, following closely where the VPD squad cars could not. But Jaune ignored that too, he was too close to waste time explaining anything to them, he needed Ozpin.

As Jaune got closer and closer to beacon's tram system, he saw more and more of his former classmates, all of them looked exactly as he'd remembered them, But then, as he was in the home stretch, something hit him, hard, knocking him off his bike as they both slid down the street several feet.

Jaune groaned but quickly got back to his feet, his lasrifle at the ready out of sheer muscle memory.

"Stop right there!" Jaune's blood froze, that voice, the blond turned his head, eyes coming upon a red reaper, her giant scythe in hand and pointed right at him, she worked the action just to get her point across, but Jaune's mind went blank.

Without a thought, Jaune sprinted for his bike, narrowly dodging the reapers fire, and sped away. His heart pounding a mile a minute as the gravity of the situation hit him like a truck, either he got to Ozpin, or his team was dead.

Jaune barreled his Bike through the thin crowd of people waiting for the tram up beacons cliffs, sliding the bike through the doors just as they were closing, not a moment later, the tram started moving up and away from his pursuers, giving him a moment to breathe.

The blond let out a deep sigh and looked around him, his face going pale almost immediately.

The tram was packed, not just with those visiting Beacons grounds, but students as well, all of whom had just seen him running from both the Vale Police Department and one of their fellow students.

Everyone stared at him in silence, some students have already created a human shield separating him from the rest of the civilians.

"Hah, ya know, it's a pretty funny story if you think about it," Jaune said with a nervous chuckle.

Disappointingly though, it seemed like his attempt at humor had done nothing but put them more on guard, a few of the students blatantly moving in to take hold of him.

"Damn, I really hoped you guys would just be chill," The blond soldier stated disappointedly before drawing Croea Mores and activating the now power sword.

His action caught the students in the tram by surprise, each of them whispering to each other before one made a mad dash at him.

Jaune could see the telegraphed attack from a mile away, without a second thought, and a swift swing of his sword, he sliced the student's Maule in two, the solid head of the weapon clanking loudly to the floor. The sound of gasps and cries of fear could be heard from the civilians

"By The Golden Throne will you all just relax?" Jaune shouted a little louder than he'd meant too, "If I knew I'd needed an appointment with Ozpin I would have called ahead!"

None of the students said a word, but much to his relief, neither did they attack him, instead they elected to just stand there and stare daggers at him.

There was a moment of tense silence as the only thing that could be heard was the mechanics of the tram moving up the cliff.

That was untill the tram stopped, let out a beep, and the doors opened.

Jaune wasted no time and gunned the Bikes engine out of the tram, sliding through another small crowd of people without any injury.

Then, much to the Lieutenants annoyance, he and his bike gained a slight purple hue and floated up into the air.

Now completely motionless and at the mercy of the great Headmistress once again, Jaune let himself fall limp.

"Frak."

The Professor wasted no time in showing herself, along with one Professor Port, the large man's blunderbuss turned ax pointed right at him.

"Now just what makes you think you can break every traffic law imaginable, evade the VPD, hijack a Beacon Tram, and assault my students all in the span of a half-hour?" The blond woman said, a deep frown on her face as she did her best to keep her composure.

"Of course of all the professors I had to run into it had to be Glynda," Jaune whispered to himself, just barely being heard by said Professor.

"Ho-ho! Looks like this one has some chops!" Petter exclaimed loudly, his weapon still held stiffly at the ready.

By now a small crowd was forming around them, a few younger students drawing their weapons to support, others having already known the fight was over from the start just sat and watched.

"This is no time for jokes," Glynda stressed, a hand rubbing her temples as she felt a major headache forming, "Who are you, and why are you here?"

Jaune scoffed, he'd thought he's made it pretty clear. "I'm here to speak with Ozpin."

"And what could you possibly have to say to the Headmaster that warrants your reckless actions?" Glynda stated as if she were reprimanding a child.

"Holy Terra, can't an old student just visit his beloved Headmaster?" Jaune said with a chuckle, he wanted to saver this for a moment longer before dropping the proverbial bomb on them.

"An old student would have called ahead," Glynda stated dully.

Jaune scoffed, "I did, more of a blanket call really, but it seems no one here speaks High Gothic."

Glynda didn't react immediately, but when she did Jaune wished he could take a pict to savor the moment.

Without a word, Jaune and his floating bike were whisked away from the crowd, rushed through the familiar hallways of Beacon, and entered into an elevator with no one else but the Headmistress.

The elevator ride was spent in silence, not a sound untill the elevator dinged and Jaune was thrown to the ground, his bike conveniently landing on top of him, and his weapons being whisked away by the same very purple hue that carried him all this way.

"Glynda, I see our guest has finally arrived, though I don't believe you needed to throw him like that." The headmaster said matter of factly, prompting Jaune to jump to his feet and snap into a salute.

A moment later The blond relaxed, his muscle memory having taken over. An understandable mistake when you take into account that his superior for the past year and a half could easily have him shot for not doing so.

Ozpin stood in silence for a moment before motioning to a chair, "Please, have a seat, you mentioned needing to speak to me?"

Jaune hesitantly sat down, his masked face looking around the room, he'd been so focused in trying to get here he'd not even thought of what he'd say, 'Hey there old pal, remember me? Jaune? Arc? The guy that's been missing for the past year and a half? Yeah, that's me how've you been?'

Jaune exhaled sharply, he wasn't that stupid, or at least he tried not to be, there was a much simpler solution.

Without a word, Jaune pulled his mask from his face, letting it hang limply by his helmet before facing looking the headmaster in the eyes.

Ozpin blinked, then blinked again.

"Glynda, you are to return to your duties, I am NOT to be interrupted. Am I understood?" Ozpin stated, leaving the Headmistress to let out a surprised cough, she opened her mouth to disagree, but Ozpin beat her to the proverbial punch, "And leave his weapons."

The headmistress let out a deep sigh, put away her riding crop, and swiftly left the room, Jaune and Ozpin's eyes locked into a stare the whole time.

"You are alive."

Jaune let out a hearty genuine chuckle, "Of course I'm alive, have been for the past year and a half."

Ozpin's eyes narrowed, "You've only been missing for six months."

"Throne Damned Warp" Jaune whispered to himself, "I'll explain all of that to you in detail, but first, I need your help in Evacing my team from Forever Fall."

"Your team? They're already on Beacon's grounds, have been since you disappeared."

Jaune let out a heavy sigh, "No, I'm talking about my Squad, our Valkyrie crash-landed in forever fall, I had them set up a defensive position and wait for me to scout the area, and they will not hesitate to shoot anything that moves. Especially Aeris, she's got to be itching to use that plasma gun."

Ozpin's eyebrow raised at the mention of another team and raised even higher at the mention of a 'Plasma Gun'.

Suddenly, Jaune's helmet Comms exploded to live, Jak's voice coming through grainy but otherwise clear. "Lieutenant, we've got humanoid contacts closing in on our East, looks like two fast movers and at least two squads of Xenos Deserters judging by their equipment."

Jaune keyed his helmet Comms and spoke harshly into the mic, "Stand down Jaks, I repeat, Stand down, do not fire a single shot, if you do I'll shoot you myself."

Ozpin was honestly surprised by the harshness of his words. The former student sitting in front of him acted less like the bumbling blond he had been and more like a career soldier.

The boy, no the man sitting in front of him reminded him a lot more of Ironwood than he'd like to admit.

Jaune listened as nothing but static perforated his ears for a moment, then there was a click, "Understood, Standing down, Had to take the Plasma gun from Aeris though."

Jaune let out a genuine chuckle, "Acknowledged, Follow the directions of the Incomings, but do NOT give up your weapons, I want everything in that Valk secured in the transports, not a single non-imperial hand is to touch any of that gear, and scuttle the Valk, Understood? I'll be seeing you soon."

"Copy that, We'll get it done, Emperor Protects."

"The Emperor Protects," Jaune replied.

Ozpin was staring at Jaune like he'd been speaking another language, which, to be fair, he had been.

"My team will be keeping their weapons, securing all our gear and scuttling our original transport," Jaune stated, his voice leaving no room for argument, something that caught the headmaster off guard.

"And what makes you think you can make such demands?" Ozpin stated.

Jaune laughed, "The equipment we have is property of none other than his Holiest Inquisition, and as the highest-ranking individual within said Inquisition on this planet, all assets are under my jurisdiction."

Ozpin's brain ground to a halt for a moment never had anyone so blatantly ignored him and made such outrageous demands.

"And what gives your alleged inquisition the right to do that?"

Jaune sighed before removing a small emblem from his boot, it was a strange thing to Ozpin, an emblem much in the style of Ruby's rose. but this was no rose, it was in the shape of a Gothic 'I', with three lines intersecting in the center and a skull inlet in the center of their eye.

"And what does that have to do with you giving me orders Mr. Arc?" Ozpin asked, slightly confused at the action.

"With this Rosette, I can order the deaths of an entire planet's population. With this, I can make even the most stubborn planetary governor neal at my feet. With this, my word is as good as the word of the great God-Emperor himself." Jaune stated simply, he didn't like having to reveal that, not even his team knew of his status as an Acolyte, hell, most of the stuff he'd just told the old headmaster wasn't even entirely accurate, but he needed to get his point across, and there was no better way than to reveal an Inquisitorial Rosette, even if it had only been given to him two weeks ago and he'd not even scratched the surface of Inquisitorial training.

Ozpin was at a loss for words, he'd never admitted it, but he was, there was very little that surprised him anymore, but the tone Jaune had taken, his words so meticulously repeated as if he'd been reading from a book, it had genuinely surprised the old headmaster.

"You don't know it yet Ozpin, but there is much you do not understand about this galaxy."

Jaune's radio crackled to life once with Jaks' voice, "Lieutenant, we've made contact, but they're demanding we surrender our weapons, Orders?"

"Standby" Jaune stated simply, before eyeing the headmaster.

"Trust me, You do not want us as enemies."

Ozpin stared Jaune down for a moment, his brown eyes staring him down as if trying to dissect his very soul.

Without a word, the man withdrew his scroll and tapped a few times before putting it up to his ears.

"Oobleck, stand down, assist with any wounded, but do not under any circumstances touch their equipment, there are greater forces at work, Understood." Ozpin didn't even wait for a response before hanging up and placing his scroll on the desk.

Jaune keyed his comms, "You're good to go Jaks."

"Thank the Emperor, We'll get to work."

"Copy that."

Jaune continued to stare down Ozpin, neither of them making a move or a sound, that is, untill Jaune sat back down with a sigh and pulled a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from a pouch on his leg, The blond man depositing on between his lips and lighting it.

The young blond took a long drag before sighing in relief, his shoulders sagging a bit before holding the pack out to Ozpin.

"Would you like an Ilo Headmaster?"

A/N

Hey guys, I'm Not Dead: Part 2 Electric Boogaloo, Now with an extra-long chapter and an assload of plot to make up for it!

Yeah I know, I've been gone for almost seven months and all I've done in all that time is add a short chapter two to a one-shot, but believe me, there's a good reason, ya'll will just never know exactly what the reason is.

As for the Chapter and it's length, I know it's a lot longer than I normally put out, but for some reason, I just dumped my entire brain into a file and decided I liked it, I've had this return planned for a while now, with a few changes here and there from the original ideas I had, but in the end, I'm pretty happy with it.

And finally, I am once again asking for your emotional support! Leave a review and tell me what you liked or didn't like, what stuff seems cool to you? Please feed my already shattered ego?

Anywho, I pretty much immediately started work on the next chapter after I finished editing this, so see you in the next one fairly soon!

Probably.