Multiplayer

by NeoShadows

Life is a game. In an attempt to save a friend during the Breach, Jaune Arc died. Brought back to life with powers of a Gamer, he must now attempt to beat the game called life. He's not alone though. Every win or lose ends in a Reset, so how will he beat a game that never ends?

23. All Who Wonder

For thousands of years, I have slumbered! Who dares to wake the great and mighty NeoShadows!?

Oh, right. Almost forgot I got a fanbase to cater to.

NeoShadows here, chilling back in my bed in my new room and home! Phew, almost thought I'd wind up homeless for the third time in my life. Got to love my Grandma, otherwise we would have been sleeping outside in alleys and unsavory spots as kids. But now I'm able to actually have a home under my name and take care of my mama, got to love hard work.

For the past month, I've been busy fixing up the house and moving things in. I haven't had enough time to sit down and actually write since we started. I got all this done under a weeks time though, so I'm back in the game! Even got a nice little DLC done too. Well, little to me. But compared to others, 8k+ is extra reading is a lot. Hope you all didn't think I'd just abandon the story. I know that's the problem with Gamer fics half the time, most writers would give up after a while. But not this guy! I got things planned and in motion.

So, let's save all those matters for the end AN and get Reviews out of the way with! Or, simply scroll past and dive in. I won't judge.

He Who Listens: Jaune's new combat gear is based off the Mercenary Class in Fire Emblem Fates. The Dread Fighter class is badass though. Glad to find another Fire Emblem fan.

EiNyx: I told you he'd have his development. It's no fun if it happens like that. As for the length of the DLC, eh, my Beta has already said I have a problem with churning out too much words. The DLC is simply extra fun that you can read if you so please. And I don't really feel like making them into their own story. Too much of a hassle really.

Matvize: That's what I do, boy. I tip the scales in my favor! Fire Emblem Awakening is my favorite 3DS game, I still play it to this day. And I'm truly honest in saying that it surprise me that my OC's have gathered such fans. It makes me giddy to know my own characters are beloved already. And I'll continue to hopefully met your expectations!

Dragon Ryo: You know, that's how I picture my story while I'm writing, as an anime. It really helps, especially when depicting the action scenes. Glad I could make you laugh.

Saint Danielle: Boy, we haven't even touched the surface of the drama I have in stores. You understand a bit of what I have planned, good on ya. But the fighting between them won't happen in this Volume, I have that saved for next. And I'm still working over the edges of his 'gifts'. I'm happy for your praise of my OC's, nothing makes a fanfic writer happier then to know their own creations are loved. I hope the rest I have planned will do well. You know who Pitho's is inspired from? Do tell. And for the Fourth Player, he's been hinted at. And he's been seen. You'll meet him soon, sooner then you'd expect.

Benthino: Deathwatch, you say? Why does that bring back memories I can no longer recall? And send a shiver down my spine. Always a pleasure to read your reviews.

SonicFanFlame: Man, that was a long one. Let's see what I can answer. You copied me, you saw the great NeoShadows move and felt the desire to as well. He has to be as strong as Yang, not exactly stronger but enough to stand toe to toe. Tsuki is a mystery, one that will slowly be explained in future Volumes. I don't think anyone will be able to guess her story or background. Fake Jaune? I wouldn't say that to his face. That's all I can answer for now. Now get to reading, ya bum.

Ultimate Pervy Sage: With a name like that, I bet my DLC's are the best to you. As they are to me as well.

Zoanzan: You gotta love that spiky haired monkey. Also, I didn't get the link you posted in your review. Now I'm curious as to what you wanted to show me.

AZalmega: Ah, you two are a masochist? Sadly, I may as well be too. If you think you've seen dark, then you ain't seen nothing yet. Wait till Volume Three of Multiplayer, that's going to be a doozy for ya. Sadly, not every chapter can have a cliffhanger. Ya can't force it, it happens on its own, ya bastard. As for expressing my dirty side, have you read Chapter 3 of ArcWorks? It won't be long until you've fully witnessed such a side. And I'm always happy to reply to a fan whenever I can.

TalonIbnAhad: Why, hello my white colored associate! It is pleasent to meet you. (Keep cool, amigo. Those bastards will never take us from our tequila and precious porn!) Again, you leave me hanging with an Omake not even finished this time? I have half a mind to hunt you down and backhand you till you're calling me papi. The third god, or goddess, will be revealed in time. I love her design out of all because of what she represents. As for the other Jaune, I can't wait to show you their confrontation! In another time though. We got to build up that kind of thing. Remember, hermano, stock up on all the liquor in sight and save all your most valuable hardcore porn and hentai in a drive. We must prepare to face them head on, drunk off our asses with a bodypillow of our waifu's by our side. VIVA LA PORNO! And remember to finish your omake, don't leave me hanging, ya bastard.

Lazylifeguard: Been there, done that ten times in my life. Glad to have ya on board!

Phantom Stranger: I like what you've said, but I got something already planned in mind. But! I like two of the names you've created, Incidium and Verus Mors. I'd love to use them for the two weapons I had created but been stumped on their names.

Alright! That's done, so let's get to reading! We'll have more to discuss if you're willing to listen at the end of the chapter. So, enjoy!

---

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to RWBY, they belong to RoosterTeeth. Just got my tax returns in! Too bad I know of no sexy-sexy clubs nearby. Aw, well I'll just entertain myself with my newest game, Persona 5. I seriously must have a problem if my mind falls down the gutter at finding out my teacher in game is working as a sexy cleaning maid with 'special services' for older men. God, I love this game!

---

Chapter 23: All Who Wonder.

Morning came sooner than Ruby had expected, her face twisting as she fought the drowsiness in her eyes, her efforts to blink away the sleep with a yawn proving fruitless. Stretching out her arms with a groan, her silver eyes immediately spun for the bottom bunk across her own. She sighed, gripping her bed covers tightly when she found no trace of her black themed teammate. Blake hadn't come home.

Last night had been eventful to say the least. A simple little stroll into Vale had evolved into a shouting match between Weiss and Blake, their arguing carrying over all the way back to their dorms as their team and the NRP of JNPR could only watch on awkwardly. Any attempts to calm them down or ease the tension was immediately shut down by the two. They settled for hoping that the two could settle their petty arguing. Said hopes were shot down though as a little secret had slipped past Blake's lips in their fight. Well, two.

Blake was a faunus. How they had never realized it until now was baffling. It did make Ruby curious as to what kind of faunus the book lover was. You couldn't blame them for not knowing, Blake showed no visible animal features. So, it was shocking to find out that their friend that they had been living with for the last four months was secretly a faunus. But the real kicker wasn't even that. No, what had really taken them back was more. . .complicated.

Blake was part of the White Fang. Or had been. Ruby wasn't too clear on the details and that was the problem. Her friend, teammate, sister from another mother, dirty smut reading buddy, had been part of an organization that wished to wipe out humanity from the face of the earth. It was no wonder why she had been so defensive about the White Fang. All the insults thrown towards the organization was the same as insulting her. Honestly, it was all rather confusing to the young huntress.

The White Fang was a terrorist organization. To find out that Blake was associated with them was hard to believe. Ruby had always seen her as a quiet, gentle, polite, albeit a bit anti-social, but an all-around good person. Thinking back to the many crimes the White Fang had committed caused a shiver of doubt to run down Ruby's spine.

Blake was a good person, right?

With a disgruntled huff, Ruby fell back to her bed while pulling at her hair in annoyance. Now she was doubting Blake of all people! Sure, she wasn't sunshine and rainbows, but after getting to know the ninja girl these past few months, Ruby was positive that she wasn't a bad person. Thinking such things wouldn't get her anywhere. What they needed to do was listen to Blake's side of the story before coming to any conclusions. After that. . .well, they'd get to that part after finding their friend first.

The morning was still young and it wouldn't do her any good to ponder and plan their next plan of action on an empty stomach. Her stomach happily growled at her wise decision as she nodded her head firmly. Some breakfast and cookies would do her good right about now. With that plan in mind, Ruby jumped down from her bed and blitzed around the room in rose petals to dress herself.

"Wake up, Yang, Weiss! It's not good to lay around in bed all day! We got things to do!"

Yang groaned as she shifted under the covers of her bed. Why couldn't Ruby be like any other girl and sleep the day away? A day off meant that they could do whatever they wanted. Sleep was on most girls' list. Like herself, you didn't get a body like hers by waking up early in the morning. She needed at least ten hours of beauty sleep to keep up her sexy looks, damn it!

The covers hiding Yang from the world were cruelly tugged away, sending her falling for the unforgiving floor with a surprised shout. Despite how groggy and tired she was feeling, the boxy blonde still had the energy to glare daggers at her sister poking her tongue out at her. Dirty little red head.

"All of my hate." she hissed, flinching as a cute animal stuffed pillow smacked her face.

Ruby grinned at her sister's grouchy rebuttal, "If you keep glaring at me like that, then don't blame me when you start developing wrinkles on your face. I think I saw a wrinkly line over your forehead before I threw my pillow at you. What boy would want you now?" she teased.

"As long as I have a kickass rack like this, no boy would be able to resist me." Yang huffed as she tossed the fluffy bed item away. "Just watch yourself, little sister. You'll get your due for ruining my sleep."

"Silly Yang, that's why I have super speed! Can't reap what you can't catch."

Rolling her eyes, Yang got back up with a yawn and stretched her back. Subtly, her magenta gaze peeked at the top bunk of her bed, finding herself disappointed. No sign of Blake. She must not have come home last night. Where was that girl? Well, standing around wasn't going to answer her questions. It was time to get ready and see where her partner went off to.

Looking around for some casual wear, Yang leaned her back for a moment to glance at Weiss's bed. She frowned, not catching the head of pale white hair resting on her bed.

"Where's Weiss?" Yang asked Ruby, her question snapping her little sister's gaze to the heiress's lower bunk. Ruby frowned, just as confused.

"I don't know? I would have thought she would still be sleeping. Then again, Weiss does wake up earlier than the rest of us."

"Yeah, she does. But not on weekends." Just like herself, Weiss valued sleep. It was only on their days off that she would sleep in. Something wasn't right here.

While it was out of norm for Weiss to not be sleeping in, Ruby wasn't worried. If anything, her partner probably couldn't sleep after yesterday's events. She must have gotten up early and walked around to clear her mind or something. Feeling like she knew just where to find Weiss, Ruby threw on her combat gear and headed straight for the door. They had work to do.

Swinging the door open, Ruby was suddenly taken back to find Pyrrha at the front of her door, the ponytailed red head's fist ready to knock on the wooden frame. Pyrrha's eyes looked tired, as if she hadn't had a wink of sleep. Standing behind her was the rest of her team. Except for one blond haired knight.

"Pyrrha? What are you doing here?" Ruby asked as the spartan girl looked back at her with worry.

"I was just wondering if any of you have seen Jaune since yesterday? He. . .he hasn't come back yet." she said softly, her shoulders stiff with worry.

"Jaune hasn't come back? At all? Didn't he go to the CCT to talk to his parents?"

"Right, but we haven't received any message from him saying he was going anywhere after that. And all my texts and calls have gone unanswered." Pyrrha bit her lip, feeling a lump grow in her stomach, "It's almost like he doesn't want us to see him. I'm afraid he's gotten into another mess like he found himself in with the FoF."

Yang waved the worry away, "You're over-exaggerating, P-Money. If Jaune hasn't come back, then chances are that he might have met a pretty lady and spent the night with her. If you know what I mean." she grinned playfully.

Pyrrha shook her head stubbornly. Her personal feelings aside, she had very little belief that her leader would do such a thing. Despite how strong he was in a fight, he was very timid at times. She was his partner after all, she knew Jaune's character very well. Going out for a one night stand wasn't like him.

"Jaune wouldn't do something so sleazy, I know that for a fact. I'm just worried with his kind of luck that he's been roped into another mess." she sighed tiredly. Jaune just had that weird misfortune about him. It was like he couldn't go a single day without it devolving into chaos. Though, most of that had to do with having someone random like Nora in their team she supposed.

"I guess you do have a point there. Wasn't he chased around campus by the Hunting Club last week?"

Ren nodded his head to that, "We were so close. I nearly lost my cozy hunting cap because he escaped our traps." Tsuki was not happy about that. Those cold red eyes reminded him of a certain someone, and that wasn't a good thing. If the girl owned a red odachi then Ren was calling shenanigans.

"You shouldn't worry too much about the guy. I'm sure he's just fine. He probably had it rough with his parents and decided to collect his thoughts away from his team, or something." Yang shrugged, "He'll come around. Sometimes a guy needs his space, especially since he's team leader."

"I still think we should go look for him."

Knowing Pyrrha wouldn't leave it as is, Yang decided to just let her do her own thing. The blonde brawler had her own team troubles to deal with it anyway. Looking for Jaune when she positive that he was fine wherever he was would waste time in finding her own partner. What a coincidence though. If Yang didn't know any better, both their teammates had just run off into the night together.

"Well, we're still getting ready on our end. Once we've tracked down the rest of our team, we'll be sure to help out in your search if you haven't found Vomit-boy."

"Blake not make it home yesterday?" Ren quirked a brow, knowing full well of the cat girl's situation. Knowing Blake, she was hiding out in Vale with Sun. He knew exactly where to find her. But this was an Event that he didn't want to butt into. He was curious to Jaune's whereabouts though. The blond knight wasn't even responding back to his own messages. It was as if he was shutting them out.

Ruby sadly nodded her head, her silver eyes falling to the empty bedside of her teammate.

"Not since her fight with Weiss. I'm really worried. What if she ran away?" she bit her lip with worry.

Ren shook his head calmly, smiling to ease the reaper's worries, "Now you're the one over exaggerating. I don't think Blake's the type to run away."

That was a lie. It was completely like Blake to run away from her problems. It matched her semblance to a T.

But it was enough to settle Ruby's nerves as she worked up a smile. There was no need for them to go guns blazing yet. The real action wouldn't unfold until tomorrow.

The loud rumble of hungry stomachs quickly brought down the tense atmosphere. Ruby scratched the back of her head bashfully along with Nora. Even Pyrrha glanced away with an embarrassed blush. Ren chuckled.

"I think right now would be a good time as any to grab some breakfast. It's no good to be making any hasty plans on empty stomachs." he suggested, turning his eyes to Pyrrha's own still worried green gaze. Even when she was hungry and tired from a sleepless night, she still put herself second. Laying his hand over her shoulder reassuringly, he urged her along with the others to the cafeteria, "I'm sure that Jaune is fine as well. Who knows? He might just turn up on our way back to the dorms. You can scold him then for worrying you."

Pyrrha looked like she wanted to argue, but relented with a grudging sigh. Ren was right. Jaune was probably on his way back to Beacon as they spoke. Not to mention her own stomach was fighting with her to listen to the raven ninja. Nodding her head, she followed after the rest of the two teams.

It was only morning. She was sure her teammate would make it back before breakfast was over.

---

Vale

"You two really are a couple of rays of sunshine, aren't ya?"

Sun Wukong stared flatly at the two hunters sitting across from him from within the small diner of the hotel they had stayed at overnight. The two Beacon students were downtrodden, an air of depression hung over their heads as they sat with sullen expressions. Jaune and Blake sighed in sync, glimpsing back at the dirty blond faunus with slight annoyance. They were not in any mood to be talking.

With a grumble, Sun bit down on his banana topped pancakes. And here he was hoping to make some new friends in Vale. One of them was even a faunus, a cute cat faunus! What more could he ask for? Unfortunately, he caught them in the middle of some drama it seemed. It was his turn to sigh as he leaned back into the booth. Maybe he would have been better off waiting another month with his team before heading to Beacon for the Vytal tournament? The monkey faunus shook his head at the thought. Where was the fun in listening to Neptune?

Digging into his breakfast, the monkey faunus scratched his head to figure out where to go from here. This was kinda awkward. Here he was, all smiles and enjoying his meal, and then he had the two across from him quietly poking at their food with very little interest. They were taking small bites, lost in thought. They were starting to bum him of all people out!

"Soooooo? You guys mind filling me in on what's bugging you two?" he asked with a raised brow, openly chewing on his syrup soaked flapjacks with little manners. He frowned in more annoyance, not even getting a rise of disgust out of them. That usually worked on most.

Blake didn't give him more than a slight glance before going back to staring at her Vale toast. Why was she even here? She should have been. . .Well, that was where her train of thought pretty much ended. She didn't have a clue on what to do next. Now that her friends had learned that she was once part of the White Fang, she couldn't just return as if things were the same. Not after the bombshell she accidentally slipped by. Her yellow eyes did turn to Jaune, his downtrodden demeanor mirroring her own. It looked as if she wasn't the only one lost and confused.

'Blake and White Event has arrived! Blake and White: The bonds of two warriors has been strained! Two sides to the same coin, conflicting and fighting another like water and oil. What will you do? Favor the Black, or soothe the White? This Event is not mandatory but will affect the bonds of Blake and Weiss and grant rare rewards! What conflict will await you?

Accept? Yes/No.'

The text invisible to all but Jaune glared deep into his being from his scroll. His fork dug aggressively into his own fluffy pancakes, bleeding the maple syrup and soaking it into its being.

He was like Blake right now. He had no idea what to do after learning of his father's fate. A cruel, heart wrenching fate born from Jaune's status as a Player. Left in a critically wounded condition of waking and a falling back into a coma while his family was left to watch. What the hell kind of torture did he leave them in? Their only son running off to fight as a huntsman, the same path that had apparently left his father as a vegetable. It was the same as stabbing them in the back without a second thought. The hell had he been thinking?

His own troubles were eating at him. He couldn't think about The Game right now. Not when his father was currently trapped in an on again off again coma. Especially when his mind was coming up blank on the events that caused it. It was silently driving him crazy.

'Things will turn out all right with Blake and Weiss, at least that's what Ren told me.' Remembering his fellow Player's advice on the oncoming event to take place, Jaune thought it would be better to focus on his own troubles. From what he recalled, the Black and White Event would be resolved cleanly whether they decided to participate or not. Adam cared very little for it seeing as it wouldn't advance his plans, and the Fourth Player was a wild card. Which always made Jaune wonder who exactly the original Player was. Ren didn't feel like saying, chalking it up to letting it be a surprise and not wanting to spoil things. Even if Ren was now playing along with him, the ninja wasn't going to be holding his hand through it all. He would only guide his leader when the time was right.

With a swipe of his thumb, Jaune ignored the event. Blake was with Sun, all he had to do was let things play out naturally and everything would turn out the same as before. What he needed to focus on was recovering his memories. They couldn't just be gone! He had to have had the previous Jaune's memories inside his head somewhere. He just needed some time. Time to get his jumbled and lost thoughts together.

But before he could make some excuse to leave, Blake beat him to it. With the clatter of her fork, she stood up from the booth with a sullen expression.

"Thank you for the food, Sun. But I think I'm going to go back to my room now. I'm not feeling well." she sighed, rubbing her arm uncomfortably. As nice as Sun was, Blake didn't exactly feel like telling him her life's story. He couldn't possibly understand her situation. Maybe if she ignored him, he'd leave her alone. He hardly knew her, what possible reason could he have to stay with her?

As she got out of the booth, her eyes fell back to Jaune. For a moment, she hesitated. The air around him was the same as her. He was suffering just like she was. And for a second, her hand twitched, ready to reach out to him.

Why didn't she?

Turning away, Blake left for her paid room. Once again, running away.

'I really am a coward.'

Sun watched her go, his eyes trailing her retreating form with a frown. The girl wasn't much of a talker. He felt bad to see her go with such a sad expression. He fell back to his seat while scratching his head in confusion. What was he supposed to do now? He didn't even know the girl, so why was he here? Some part of him just guided him after her for some reason. Now he found himself in the company of two strangers who wouldn't even speak to him other than a few simple sentences. There really was no reason for him to stick around any longer.

'What a mess I've found myself in.' And here Sun had been hoping to make some new friends.

Another clatter of a fork fell onto Sun's ears, turning his dark blue eyes to his fellow blond rising up to leave. Jaune walked out of the booth, his eyes turned for the door.

"I'm guessing you don't feel like talking either, huh?" Sun grumbled, going back to his meal. Might as well finish eating before he left. At least it wasn't all a complete waste, they served some killer pancakes here.

Stopping before he could take another step, Jaune turned back to Sun. It didn't look like the monkey huntsman wanted to stick around any longer either. Guilt once again ate at Jaune. In his original timeline, the two of them were friends. They had hung out a few times along with Neptune once upon a time. He was one of the few male friends he had. But because of The Game, those wistful memories were erased and set back to zero. They were complete strangers.

And here he was turning his back on restarting that friendship even earlier than before. It wasn't right to abandon Sun now. But he had to get his memories sorted out. He couldn't continue on his path with this massive blank in his memories and the fate of his father left alone. He had to say something at least.

Even with his thoughts in a jumble, Jaune looked back at Sun firmly.

"I'm sorry about. . .all this, Sun. Blake and I are just in a bad place right now. It's nothing against you." Jaune smiled shamefully. All the stow away wanted to do was make friends. That was something they both had in common. "Just give Blake some time and don't give up on her. She doesn't want to say it, but she wants an open ear right now. She's just too stubborn to reach out. Give her a day and prove to her that she has a friend in you, and she'll come around. I can promise you that."

"You sure about that?" Sun asked with a look of doubt, not really buying the words for what they were. "Because she really looks like she just wants to be left alone."

Jaune shook his head with a small chuckle. He had a knowing look in his eyes, "Trust me, she'll come around. I'm willing to bet my word on that."

Sun was still doubtful, but shrugged anyway. Why not? He didn't really have much else to do. And it didn't sit well with him to just leave her alone. Despite her cold attitude and silent nature, he really just wanted to see a smile on her face.

"Wait, what about you?" Sun blinked. His fellow blond was the same as Blake. It looked like he was going through his own troubles.

Jaune grimaced, his thoughts turning back to his absent memories. And his family that he had abandoned to suffer.

"Let me ask you something, Sun. Do you ever wonder why we're here?" Jaune asked, his eyes falling to his hands. The image of blood once washed away dirtied his trembling hands again.

The question caught Sun off guard. Turning his head up to the ceiling in thought, his answer came out slowly, perhaps not fully understanding the question. "I'm here because I wanted to see Vale and see what kind of people lived here before the tournament began. That and I followed Blake and ran into you." he said simply.

"No, I mean why are we here, as hunters?"

"To fight monsters and travel to new places?" Sun asked, unsure of what Jaune was asking.

Jaune sighed at the answer. Guess he himself wasn't sure what he was asking Sun either. It was something the knight was going to have to discover himself. And only by himself.

"I need to find out why I'm here. Because I'm not so sure about the path I'm walking on anymore." Jaune said tiredly. He smiled at the monkey faunus one last time before turning away.

"Do me a favor, Sun. Please, watch over Blake for me. She needs a friend now, more than ever."

Watching Jaune leave at the sound of the bell hanging over the door ringing, Sun found himself even more confused. He was Blake's friend too, right? His eyes soon fell back into the mirror reflection of the water pitcher on the center of the table as he raised his glass of milk to his lips. Jaune's question rang in his ear.

Why was he here?

---

'Why do I keep coming up with nothing!'

Jaune gripped both sides of his head in frustration as his feet lead him to god knows where. By now, late morning had come and was on the verge of the day hitting the afternoon. He had spent who knows how long simply trying to recall the memories of his father's condition only to always turn up with nothing. Literal nothing. Every time he tried to pin an emotion to the event, he couldn't feel anything. And it only further drove him mad. He was close to hyperventilating again!

How was it possible to be missing such an important chunk of his memories? Everything else he recalled came to him just fine. Well, for the most part. Small spikes of pain dug at his forehead when he was recalling some of his past life. Specifically, his childhood. How could he describe it? The closest thing he could come up with was as if he was jamming a puzzle piece into a picture that refused to fit. Was this normal?

Ren said that whenever a Player died, their souls would be transferred over to a set Save Point once the world was reset. When their selves at the time reached it, they would be overwritten, like saving over a save file in regular games, and retain the current worlds memories. But if that was true, was Jaune alone struggling with his memories? Now that he thought about it, this wasn't the first time he found something wrong with his body. His very Level was set to 1 when Ren had said that he was at least Lvl10 when he entered Beacon, his Abilities and other functions were buggy when he first started, he still retained the very scar of his death from his original timeline, and not to mention the dark voice he had been hearing in his subconscious months ago. Out of all the Players in the game currently, Jaune was the odd one.

And it was all because of Will. The deity wisp of blue flames had said something about rushing the process of overwriting his soul. It was the reason he had gone through all the patches to make him stand on the same ground as the other Players. Jaune wanted to laugh bitterly at the god's idea of even ground. He was outmatched against experienced Players that could defeat him on skill alone. He couldn't even defeat Ren in their PvP match when the raven-haired player was at a lower level than those in Beacon's first year class.

That's how it always wound up. All his problems, every single damn one of them since waking up in the Emerald Forest, could be connected to The Will and its games.

This was Jaune's life now. Constantly having to put up with the cruel games created by gods who stood by to watch their lives put to the grind for entertainment. His father suffered because of the curse fallen onto his only son. And many more had too. Ann had lost her father figure because of the events created by The Game, Cardin had lost his family to the White Fang in this new timeline, many faunus had lost their animal appendages because of a group created for opposition, and so much more grief that he didn't even know of yet. People would suffer because of him, because of his role in this world. The longer he stood by their sides, the more they would suffer.

So, what was he supposed to do from here with that knowledge? How could he continue to fight against The Game when he would be putting his friends, his family, and innocent people in danger just because the drama of it all pleased some twisted god?

In the sea of people walking the streets of Vale, Jaune stood out as he found his legs stopping. His head fell, his body losing the strength to take another step.

'Your father wanted to say hello, and that he misses you every day.'

'Dad. . .' Jaune bit back a snivel as his shoulders shook.

Just what the hell was he supposed to do now?

"Excuse me, sir? Might I have a word?"

The sudden voice behind Jaune caused him to jump in surprise. The small number of tears gathered in his eyes quickly vanished as he spun around to face the stranger speaking to him. A girl with dark skin, short navy blue hair, and blue eyes greeted him. The girl wore a plain gray golden button down shirt, blue combat skirt, black fingerless gloves with sleeves that reached up to her elbows, white boots that reached her kneecaps, and a blue beret atop her head. Jaune blinked at the girl's appearance, finding his eyes drawn to the odd gold colored symbol on her forehead. It was a gold oval centered on her forehead surrounded by four smaller circles.

Jaune scratched his cheek, caught off guard by the girl, "Uhhh, sure? What can I help you with?" he said awkwardly. A small part of him was glad for the momentary distraction. It felt like he was falling down a depressing hole.

The girl smiled politely, nodding her head as she raised up her left arm. The high-tech wristwatch on her wrist let out a small whine, blinking as it displayed a hologram screen from its display to float above. On said screen, Jaune found the familiar face of one Penny Polendina staring back at him.

"I'm sorry for taking up any of your time, but have you seen this girl anywhere by chance? She's very easy to spot and she likes to greet others with 'Salutations!'. The last I saw of her, she had followed after a Lechenaultia Divaricata."

"A tumbleweed?" Jaune said slowly, recognizing the word only due to the fact it had been on a quiz in Professor Anthiea's class, "What's a tumbleweed doing passing in the wind of an urban street?" That didn't make any geological sense. And that was coming from a guy who's very life defied natural physics.

The dark skin toned girl shared his thoughts as she tapped her chin in thought, "I myself have no idea how it found itself in the city. But its unnatural passing had caught my teammate's short attention span and lead to her following after it with gusto." she said flatly, her calm and professional demeanor betraying the hint of annoyance in her voice. It slightly reminded Jaune of Weiss and how she acted. The girl sighed through her nose, doing her best to keep her calm as she gazed down at her watch. It was 12:47pm, close to 1pm. She'd been looking for almost two hours now and still had no inkling as to where her orange curled teammate ran off to.

The Headmaster General wasn't going to be happy.

'I almost forgot, this is the event that leads to Ruby meeting Penny.' Jaune inwardly smiled. He had met the odd girl briefly in his previous life. She seemed so out of touch with people, almost like she had been trying to understand how to act human herself. But she was nice, quirky girl who only wanted to make friends with everyone she met. She was someone who followed after his mother's words without ever meeting his mother. Strangers were only friends that you hadn't met yet.

That must make the girl in front of him her partner. Last, he recalled, Penny was from Atlas, making them both from the rich, cold continent. And that meant they were General Ironwood's students.

"Sorry, but I haven't seen her before." Jaune smiled in apology. He couldn't exactly say he knew Penny when they hadn't even met yet. The dark-skinned girl nodded in understanding, frowning slightly as she called off the hologram of her watch.

"I see. Well, I thank you for your time. . .?" She let her sentence hang, gesturing for the blond to introduce himself.

"Jaune, Jaune Arc." he introduced himself, forcing a smile on his face. He couldn't go meeting a nice cute girl with a sour expression. That was something his father would have looked down on.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Arc." she bowed elegantly before resting her hand over her chest as she began to introduce herself, "My name is Ciel Soliel. I am one of the huntresses visiting Vale for the Vytal Tournament in the coming months along with my teammate."

"You're visiting Vale now? Don't you think it's a little early to be stopping by?" Jaune asked in confusion. Most of the students wouldn't be arriving until the start of the second semester. He had thought Sun was the only one who had arrived early.

"Normally, yes. But our Headmaster thought it would be a good idea to acquaint ourselves with the city and its hunters for reasons unstated. But it looks like I've lost sight of my charge, again." Ciel muttered the last part to herself as she looked away. She couldn't believe how easy it was to lose someone like Penny so easily.

A thought quickly struck Jaune at that moment. Walking around aimlessly trying to remember some painful event wasn't getting him anywhere right now. If anything, it was driving him over the edge. He needed to clear his head and think about something else for the moment. And it looked like Ciel could use some help. Besides, it wouldn't be right to turn away from a cute girl in need.

'A man helps a woman in need, no matter the situation! Whether you're in pain or despair, it is the job of a gentleman to suck in their gut and lend them a hand. That is a true gentleman, Jaune!'

Jaune smiled fondly at the words of his father. He really, truly did miss him. It wouldn't do his father any more good if he ignored his words now.

Coughing into his fist to bring the dark navy haired girl's attention back to him, Jaune gestured his thumb to himself with a grin, "You know, I have a pretty good layout of the city. And it's better to look for someone with two pairs of eyes instead one. If you want, I can help you look for your friend! It wouldn't do me good if I just left you to find her in a city you're a stranger to."

Ciel crossed her arms and regarded him with barely concealed suspicion, weighing her options in her mind. It was true, she wasn't familiar with Vale's streets and maps could only be so accurate compared to the real thing. Not to mention it would speed her search up if she had help. It was good idea, she had to admit. But why would the boy in front of her care so much as to sacrifice his time to help her? She would be taking a chance trusting him as well, after all, she had only just met him. But he did look trustworthy and nothing about him spoke of ill intents.

"I suppose that would be of great help." she admitted, nodding her head as she accepted. "Only if it wouldn't be of any trouble to you, Mr. Arc. I don't want to take you away from any important matters you may be in the middle of." she frowned.

Jaune shook his head with an empty chuckle. Nothing that he could remember, sadly.

"I'm just out for some fresh air and to clear my head. It wouldn't be any trouble, Ciel."

"Then I thank you for your aid. But if you are to help in my search, we must start looking now." Turning on her heel, Ciel immediately began walking on in search of Penny, "It's three minutes past noon and the clock is ticking. I don't wish to return to our temporary lodgings in Beacon until I've found my teammate. So, let's get on the move, Mr. Arc."

Jaune quickly scrambled after her, surprised at how fast she could move simply by walking. The girl seemed to be the efficient and diligent type. At least this would prove to be a distraction from his troubled mind, maybe after he would be able to find what he was missing?

"Wait up! And please call me Jaune!"

---

For the hundredth time since she opened her book, Blake sighed despondently, flipping another page as she laid back in the hotel's bed. The sad thing was it was the Special Edition copy of Ninja's of Love: Hearts Ablaze that she had been looking forward to reading during her free time. But instead of being fully invested into the story, drama, action, and guilt-fully hot steamy 18+ scenes depicted with the main characters, her eyes were passing the words with little care. She was halfway through the book and she had already forgotten the main objective of the main characters. Something about a red stone that reflected light like fire and vampires?

It was no good, she couldn't enjoy her favorite book series like this. If she was doing her reading back at her dorm, right now would be where she would be fighting Yang's grubby hands from stealing her precious book, Weiss would be covering Ruby's innocent little ears as said blond haired brawler read the dirty passages out loud, and Ruby would be fighting to tear off her partner's hands while shouting about how she was a big girl and drank plenty of milk. The loud, chaotic, noise that filled her room was something she had found herself getting used to. Now that she was by herself, away from the sources of said distractions, she found it oddly difficult to read in peace.

With a groan of annoyance, Blake hit her head against the headboard of the bed. She just had to go losing her temper and shouting out her past allegiance to the White Fang. Running away from her problem certainly didn't help, but what was she supposed to do? Weiss was already scared of her, that look in her eye had said more than she could ever verbally. And Ruby and Yang? Now that they knew that their teammate was some rabid extremist who had taken part in vile acts of terrorism and spilled innocent blood, they too would have the same look of fear in their eyes.

Some things never changed. No matter how far she ran, her past would always track her down and remind her of her sins. The events of the FoF had been a clear reminder of that.

Setting aside her book, Blake sat up on her bed and rubbed her weary head. She didn't bother to save the page number, she hadn't been paying attention since the first sentence.

The question now was what she was going to do? Could she simply go back to Beacon, to her team, after revealing a secret like that? Blake wasn't sure anyone would welcome a criminal back to their home as if nothing ever happened. Fear had been planted, and it wasn't so easily uprooted.

She did know one thing without question. There was no way she was returning to Beacon right now. She had some things to sort out before thinking about such an idea. Not to mention she had to get rid of the monkey on her back. Literally. Sun seemed like a nice guy and he certainly had helped in temporarily easing her troubles, but she didn't want to drag some stranger into her mess. Who knows? The spiky blond huntsman had probably already left when she had brushed him off. It's what a normal person would do.

In her thoughts, Blake was abruptly reminded of the fact she hadn't taken more than a few bites of her breakfast hours ago as her stomach let out a rumbling growl. She blushed in embarrassment, glad that she was alone. It was a good thing she was at least smart enough to call in room service for something to ease her stomach. The raven-haired cat faunus couldn't help but lick her lips. She had ordered a smoked salmon sandwich with extra salmon and a side of tuna salad with a nice pitcher of milk. At least she would be able to chalk off one of her problems today.

Today was going to be a stressful day, why not face it with a full stomach?

Ding!

The sound of the doorbell and a few raps on the door to her room signaled Blake to rise up and greet the staff member with her food. That was awfully quick, she sent down the order seven minutes ago. She shrugged it off her paranoid mind and turned the handle.

"Room service!"

The second Blake had opened the door to greet the bellboy, was the second that she had been completely frozen still in surprise and disbelief.

Likewise, Cardin was in the same state as he blinked at the cat faunus standing like a statue. Well, that explained the fishy order.

"Blake? What are you doing staying in a hotel? Shouldn't you be back at Beacon?" he frowned in confusion, pushing past her with his small trolley of food to drop off. Shaking off her surprise, Blake returned the frown as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I could say the same thing to you. What are you doing working in a hotel?" While Cardin had made some big leaps in his character over the last few months, the brown-haired huntsman that could shatter the exoskeleton of a Deathstalker wasn't the most hospital or polite person for work like this.

"It's called a part-time job. You know, work that pays me some nice Lien to buy stuff, or pay back the headmaster for the damage caused by my team." he muttered the last part to himself with a growl. That was the last time he was allowing Dove to practice his Grifball tactics in the courtyard.

Right now, he was wearing a velvet colored hotel staff uniform lined with gold and shined dress shoes. He even had a little red hat to finish it all off. In all honesty, Blake had to suppress a laugh at how a huntsman trained man like Cardin could fit in such wear. It almost looked like his muscled frame was ready to tear his clothing.

Annoyance painted Cardin's face, noticing Blake trying not to laugh, "Ha, ha, ha. I know it's weird to see me in this monkey suit, but this place is the only place that would hire someone like me."

"Is it because of your attitude?" she said flatly.

Cardin didn't appreciate the comment. He made it clear by slowly edging the silver platter topped by a case holding her breakfast to fall off to the white rugged floor.

"Another word like that, and the little kitty doesn't get her chow."

"One, that's incredibly racist. And two . . .Please don't toss my food." Blake's stomach begged him to stop playing around and feed it its fishy treats. She blushed lightly as she looked away from the taunting grin on her former enemy in shame, "I'm. . .really hungry."

"Noooo, really? I would have never guessed." he scoffed before setting her silverware and food down properly. Pulling off the top of the plate, Blake was greeted to the pleasant whiff of smoked fish, capers, onions, and the tuna salad nicely set up in a decent bowl beside the breakfast sandwich. They even included a nice complimentary bag of salt and vinegar chips. It's like they somehow knew just what she wanted. She wasted little time in digging in, not even caring that Cardin stood by watching as she took the first bite to her sandwich. The savory pink meat of the fish melted in her mouth so well she couldn't help but moan in approval.

Pouring the fresh chilled milk into a glass cup, Cardin continued his earlier questioning, "So, why are you here? I gave you my reason. I never took you as the kind to go out on the weekends and rent a room for herself just so she could eat a plain old sandwich."

Mid chew, Blake paused as she was sadly reminded of why she was holed up in this room. What a way to spoil a pleasant meal.

"It's. . .complicated."

Cardin hummed, having wandered around the room shortly after setting down her drink. His eyes wandered over the ink passages of a rather lewd scene held in his hands as he read it out loud.

"Nooooooo, Toshiro~! Not there! Ahhhhh~! W-Wait! What about Samuel? He's watching."

"Let him join, Saki! Why must we detain our true, scalding passions of heat in such a way! We may be of blood, but our love transcends even iron clad barriers as ours!"

"B-B-But! -Aaaaahhhhh~! I don't think I'm ready for two at the same time! I'm still but a flower."

"Then steel your resolve and mind, and make way for three!"

"Eiiiiiaaaaaahhhh~!"

Burning red fire painted Blake's mortified face before she dashed for her precious book. No! Her secret shame! And she hadn't even got that far in the book yet!

"Huh. This actually explains so much right now." Cardin said dryly as he tossed back the smut to its owner. Man, were those some dirty scenes. He had to give the author credit though, they wrote it in such a way that he could actually clearly picture it all going down in his head like an actual porno. He was still on the fence whether that was a good thing or a bad one.

"Guess that answers my question."

"It's not what you think!" Blake shouted in anger, her red face growing darker as he looked at her skeptically. Of all the people to find her like this, why did it have to be Cardin Winchester? Did the universe hate her? Seeing he didn't believe her, she decided to tell him a small part of the truth. "I got into a fight with my team, okay? And I didn't want to go back when things were. . .complicated." she said weakly.

"They found out you were a faunus and an ex-White Fang member." The way Cardin said it wasn't even a question. He was literally stating fact as if he had been there. Seeing her open her mouth to ask how he had hit the mark, he shrugged his shoulders as he leaned back against the wall to the side of the bed she now sat on.

"It's not that hard of a guess. You only have two secrets on you, that I know of, that would lead to you basically running away from your team. Not to mention I had caught some snippets of Ruby worrying over you during breakfast. I'm actually surprised it took them three months to realize you were a faunus." his blue eyes fell on the black ribbon bow tied atop her head, the only thing hiding her heritage from the world. He could see the hidden ears twitch, "When I look back on it now, I feel dumb for not ever realizing. Kinda blew my mind."

"Along with myself." Blake leered, reminding the huntsman of their past fight. Cardin rubbed the back of his neck in shame at the memory. It was hard to believe he had come back from such an anger.

"No need to remind me. I've learned my lesson for your information. People are shitty no matter what race or species they are." he sighed. It was a miracle he hadn't been sent to the same punishment as the Friends of Faunus. Just another favor he owed to the Headmaster. "I've learned my lesson, but it looks like you still haven't."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Blake said in annoyance, returning back to her meal while avoiding his judgmental stare. How was it that Cardin of all people was judging her?

"You're still running away, just like the scaredy cat you are." he scoffed.

"And you still say racist things even though you said you changed."

"Atlas wasn't built in a day. I was raised racist after the little firework show your organization caused back at home." he scowled with some residue venom in his voice. Blake hung her head at the mention of the old terror, he inadvertent aid to such an attack weighing heavily on her still. He sighed at the guilt and hurt on his guest's face. "Now that I think about it, we haven't had the time to talk about what went down that day or resolve our beef. We've just been leaving it on pause and ignoring it. Now would be as good as any time really."

"What about your job? Don't you think you should go back to work instead of slacking off with me?" Blake suggested, hoping to make him leave. She really didn't want to talk about such an uncomfortable topic right now.

Tapping the earpiece in his right ear, Cardin called up one of the senior members on staff, "Hey, Rammy? Tell the boss I'm taking my break now. I got some personal business to take care off." He smirked at Blake's nervous expression.

'Already? But you're only three hours in! It's not fair that you get to go on break when I've been working without breakfast since my morning shift!'

"Quit complaining! All you've been doing is greeting guests! I've been busting my ass off running back and forth to answer our guests' dumb complaints! And what do you mean you haven't had breakfast? I saw you eating some garbage trash when I came in, you stereotypical goat!"

'Racist! It was three days old and about to be thrown in the trash! There's a difference.'

"Sure there is. Tell that to your psychiatrist."

'I will!'

Rolling his eyes, Cardin ended the call before turning back to Blake. It was better to rip off the band-aid now than letting it grow old and infected. "You could run away from everyone else, but you can't run from me. I ain't afraid to track you down like an animal. That's sadly something Holt taught me before he passed."

Ignoring the racial contents to his words, Blake sighed as she set down her meal and looked back at Cardin with a grumble, "You really won't let it go, will you?"

"Look, we both know that I didn't grow up with the best role model for that equality crap you keep pushing. I'm not dumb enough to not realize that. I don't want to end up like my father, I've seen what that hate has done to him, I don't want anything to do with that." His eyes belied the truth of his words. She could tell by looking at him that whatever his father had become was nothing to aspire to. Even more than that, he feared that he could become whatever his father was, and that fear genuinely surprised the faunus.

The larger hunter in training sighed tiredly, his hands rubbing his face to try and rid him of thoughts of his father, of the bits and pieces he saw of his father in his own actions every day, none of them were things he was happy with. "If I want to actually get past this I need to confront it, and I want to change, despite how I act sometimes. I need this, just as much as you do, even if you won't let yourself believe it."

The man's blunt honesty was enough to stop Blake's retort, her ears flattening against her head. After everything that had happened, the bombing, the killing of his family, what right did she have to deny him a simple conversation? He wanted to change, his eyes were far too honest to make her believe otherwise at this point. How could she even pretend to preach about equality and understanding if she turned away from a prime opportunity to do just that all because she was uncomfortable with the topic? The answer was simple, she couldn't.

"What do you want to know?"

"For starters, why would you join a group that wants to kill all humanity?" That was a biggy right there that would make any common sense faunus leave right away. And Blake seemed like she had her head on right compared to those animals.

The girl sighed, a fair question in all honesty, a tiring one though. "It didn't always start off that way. A lot of people tend to forget that the White Fang used to be a peaceful group that cooperated with humans to come together. At least, that's how it had started off before I was born." Back in those days they had often used non-violent approaches from peace rallies, handing out pamphlets, organizing discussions to up the wages of underpaid faunus, fundraisers, the works. But nothing was working as well as they hoped, they were making very little progress.

Perhaps it had begun with impatience that had eventually led to more drastic measures, but by the time Blake had been born many of the White Fang members had started suggesting tactics that would soon turn violent.

"As time passed, it looked like nothing we were doing was making any noticeable difference. Our peace rallies were disregarded as mere annoyances, our boycotts laughed at and ignored. While we tried our hardest to improve the lives of faunus everywhere, they were still suffering. Beatings, underpaid and overworked, displaced, and removed when things became convenient. Our people were being abused and even in some cases killed. Many believed what we were doing wasn't enough, wasn't fast enough to protect ourselves."

"So, you got violent, is that it?" He asked with a scoff.

She made to glare at him but the look dissolved within moments as she had to look away, fully aware that he was right, how wrong that statement sounded in her head. "A new form of leadership started forming, one that thought that through fear we could achieve our goals. The worst part was, it worked. Rallies turned to riots, negotiations turned to intimidation and coercion. We saw improvements in the lives of faunus from those we went after. For many, the results were all that mattered, it didn't matter what we had to do to get them."

A growl escaped the muscular hunter's lips, his fist tightening until his knuckles grew white. "And that just made everything ok? You all thought that hurting people would bring about your so-called equality? That's the most ass backwards thing I've ever heard."

A small smile came to her lips at his words, despite knowing that she should insulted or enraged at his comments she couldn't muster it. He was right, in his own crude and blunt way he was undeniably right. She only wished she could have come to that conclusion sooner herself. Maybe things could have been different if she had? "Not everyone agreed with the new ways. Many of the moderates left the White Fang, my parents included. They thought nothing good would come from our new violent ways. We fought over it and I called them cowards, turning my back on them to fight a battle I thought we had every right to fight. I was such a fool..."

Cardin's glare stayed on the faunus girl but he didn't interrupt her. Her emotions were clearly jumbled, something he could relate if he was honest with himself. Unfortunately, that was overshadowed by his simmering anger. Still, he wanted this conversation, regardless of what it brought out of him. He would let her say her peace.

"We weren't hurting people, at least not at first. We were using fear to gain respect and to stop the cruelty. But fear through respect is nothing worth gaining." She stopped to look at Cardin, her eyes full of guilt and regret. "Things continued to escalate until it stopped being self-defense at all and we started the fights, we went on the offensive and attacked whatever we thought would earn us the respect and fear we wanted."

Cardin popped his knuckles, gritting his teeth at where Blake was going with this.

"Canterbury."

"Officially speaking, Canterbury was the first attack by the White Fang that led to a death toll. I was only seven years old when it had happened. I was led to believe we were only helping out with an event that would connect humans and faunus together by someone I trusted. As a seven-year-old, I didn't understand much of what was happening behind the scenes, not even when the bombs went off." Blake looked away with a pained expression, still feeling the fires of that day crawl on her skin. Luckily, she hadn't suffered any permanent damage from one of explosions close by that knocked her out, unlike the many that had perished that day. "I was told it was an accident that led to the Canterbury Bombings and that we were being blamed for all the deaths. And I believed them. But eventually I found out of not just their involvement in that town, but of the many other acts of terror they had hidden under shadows."

"So, they had slaughtered others before my town? Why am I not surprised?" Cardin growled hatefully. "And knowing that, you still continued to follow after them?"

Blake struggled to answer, grimacing as she looked into Cardin's hateful blue eyes.

"I wanted to, many times since learning of what we were doing. As I got older, it became obvious what we were doing was wrong and cruel. I was confused at the time. I had put everything into the White Fang. I abandoned my family for the cause, fighting for them and shedding blood. At one point, I would have died for the cause if need be. How could I just leave something after all of that? Even so, I knew what I needed to do. Despite all of that, I had to leave. But when I tried I was always stopped by someone that I cared for, at the time I thought I loved him. He was the only thing that kept me clutching at the shadows of the White Fang."

"You stayed in a hate group because you had a lady boner for some guy?" Cardin wanted to laugh. Of all the dumb reasons he would have expected, that was something way out of his line of thought.

Blake glared at Cardin, but didn't say anything back. She was young, and people did stupid things for love.

"He was an excuse, it allowed me to stay my own guilt. I allowed myself to believe his words because deep down I wanted to believe them. To believe that I hadn't dedicated my life to a group of blood thirsty killers hiding under a banner of equality and change." She stopped, thoughts of her former lover crossing her mind. The mixed emotions that he caused made her hate herself even more. He used her, led her down a path he knew she didn't want to follow and still thoughts of him caused her to pause. She hated how she couldn't just let him go, no matter how hard she tried.

"Then we officially declared that we wanted the genocide of the human race and it was the White Fang's true purpose. No amount of justification or misdirection was enough to make that alright, to somehow justify the slaughter of millions. I had to leave, so I did, not giving even the one I cared the most about a chance to stop me. After that I tried to never look back, only focusing on doing something to bring about some good in this world, if only to try and wash away my own sins. That's how I came to Beacon, to start that life." She sighed tiredly while rubbing her forehead. "I never thought my past would catch up to me so soon."

"It was only a matter of time. You had to know that eventually you would have to answer for your crimes someday." Cardin said sternly with a scowl, "You have no idea how much I've dreamed to find one of the deranged animals who had helped in the Canterbury Bombings and to wring their damned necks until their bones turned to dust! And now, I find one of those faunus standing in front of me, looking less and less like a savage freak," he sighed in frustration as Blake's sullen yellow eyes looked back at him, "And more like a stupid girl who didn't know any better until it was too late."

Blake chuckled weakly, "You could say that. I'm actually surprised you aren't as mad and angry as I had thought you would be. I was really nervous to be talking to you like this."

"Most of my anger and rage had dwindled after what went down months ago. Two months gives a guy plenty of time to think and reflect." Taking a deep breath, Cardin eased his tense muscles with an annoyed grunt. Even after all this time, he couldn't stop himself from tensing up at the sight of a faunus. Old habits died hard it seemed. "So, from what I've been hearing you were born into the White Fang and followed after some guy you liked when they turned over a violent leaf and had been too much of a scaredy cat to leave once you got some common sense in ya. Now you're here after mustering up the courage to leave and lo and behold, one of the people whose lives you fucked up is standing in front of you. Let's not forget about the fact you accidentally let slip your past to someone else who had a shitty childhood because of your so called 'misunderstood' brothers and sisters." he said with a deadpan.

That pretty much summed it all up, as crud as it may sound. Blake was annoyed at the way it was said, but couldn't find herself denying his claims. The truth hurt.

"So, what are you going to do now?" Cardin asked after a moment of silence. It looked like she had no clear idea on where to go from here. "Don't tell me you're just going to continue to run away?"

Blake's continued silence was answer enough. He shook his head in disbelief.

"For a girl who loves books, you're pretty stupid."

"And what would you suggest I do?" Blake said in frustration, glaring back at the once racist huntsman, "I can't possibly go back to them after learning of my past. Who would welcome back an animal who could only bark and bite? People aren't so forgiving!"

"GIVE THEM SOME CREDIT!"

The loud shout stunned Black back as Cardin's fierce blue eyes fell on her. His shoulders were shaking, he looked as if he was stopping himself from snarling as he scowled.

"You're right, no sane person would welcome a criminal like you back into their lives, not after the things you were involved in. But your team isn't exactly your normal bunch of chumps. They're idiots like you, they would go after you the moment they got word that you left." He said that with an amused scoff. Just this morning he had overheard Ruby make plans to find said girl if she didn't respond to their messages. It looked like they weren't as fazed by the news as Blake had suspected. "I can't believe I'm the one saying this sappy crap, but they're your friends! They won't throw you away from their lives because of some shady past, they've all spent too much time together with you to let it go to waste. Trust me, just because you were able to run away from everything else, doesn't mean you'll be able to escape them."

"What, I should just go back then? As if nothing had happened?" Blake chuckled in disbelief, "And what about you? Don't you hate me? Wouldn't it be better for you if I just left Beacon? If I left, you would no longer have to deal with an animal with the blood of your mother and sister on her hands." she spat with venom.

"You. . .didn't kill them." Cardin struggled to say, sighing tiredly, "I told you, I had plenty of time to think about it all this. And past all the nightmares and scathing thoughts, I realized something. You were just another scared little kid who didn't know any better until it was too late. Just like me." They were alike in a way, just kids who had grown up in the hate of their species and shaped by tragedy. If their roles had been switched, he was sure that he would have found himself in Blake's spot.

Hate was tiring. An adrenaline that could last you a lifetime, as long as you had a target to focus on. Venomous, scathing, toxic, contagious, and blinding. A raging beast that throttled whatever got in its way. But when that hate had nothing to be drawn to anymore, when the source of that hatred was nowhere in sight, you find the beast that you've become wandering around with no one in sight in the aftermath of its rampage. Alone, with no friend or family in sight, all turned away from the monster you've become. And you find yourself exhausted, drained and a husk of what you once were.

Cardin had seen what that kind of hatred could do to a person. Henry Winchester had been swallowed whole by his hate, spitting him out as something new that could no longer see anything but a cruel world. His father had become strict and punishing, using his seat in the council of his town to change their laws against the faunus. Curfews, taxes, banning them from participating in events, and eventually driving them out and preventing any more of the animal people from settling into the town he created out of hate. And despite it all, his father had not gained an ounce of happiness. Only growing older and exhausted in appearance. He was drained, a former shell of what he could have been with his mother's guidance.

It made Cardin wonder, if he hadn't opened his eyes, would he have wound up just like his father?

"You leaving wouldn't solve anything. You would only be doing more harm than you believe. I can't say that I forgive you for all that you've done, I don't think I ever can, but that doesn't mean I hate you any longer. You're my classmate, we're bound to have to work together in the near future as comrades. I can't have something as useless as hate cloud my judgment in the field." he chuckled as he pushed himself off the wall. He walked over to Blake, standing in front of her with something she had never dreamed to see on his face when talking to her.

Cardin Winchester smiled at her. It wasn't exactly happy, hateful, empty, or sarcastic. She couldn't find a word to describe it, but he smiled at her.

"I want to change, turn over a new leaf. I don't want to run away from problems, I want to face them head on. And it's only because of you and that idiot Jaune that I can finally move on to become something better than my father."

"But I didn't do anything!" Blake shook her head in denial, "I was caught by my mistakes, hunted down so you could have your revenge. Jaune I could understand, but I didn't do anything."

"You did though." he said softly, "You reminded me of my mother in those eyes and that was more than enough."

Cardin's words left Blake speechless, dumbfounded that she had helped to clear his hate. He wasn't lying, there was nothing but honesty and sincerity in his eyes. The boy who had seen nothing but red and beat her around like a doll once before was gone. In his place was someone who was now facing his fears and hatred to better himself for his sake. He wasn't running, he was walking forward.

A beep from Cardin's earpiece caused him to frown in annoyance. He tried ignoring it, but the noise only grew louder. How annoying. Here he was having a heart to heart and now they ruined it. Sighing, he turned away from Blake to answer the call. He listened to the call, nodding his head grudgingly after a few moments before turning back to Blake.

"I hate to say it, but we got to cut this chitchat short. I'm needed in the front lobby to take care of a very rowdy guest who refuses to leave. Apparently, he's drunk off his ass and he's already flashed his dick to the girls." he sighed, cracking his neck as he turned for the door. Why the hell did he have to deal with the crazies and wasted jack asses? Reaching the door, he looked back at Blake with a small good nature smirk.

"I won't say a thing to your team. I get that you still need some time to figure things out. But if I were you, I'd stop running and face my problems head on. And if you really want an answer to if they'll accept you back just look at that blond idiot. Somehow even before the Friends of Faunus thing went down he knew about you. He knew you were a faunus, he knew you were a member of the White Fang before and despite all of that he fought tooth and nail to bring you back safe and sound. Hell, the bastard nearly died twice to protect you. I have a feeling your team would do the same for you." He chuckled at his own words, finding humor in how obvious he thought it all was. "You're my example of a faunus, don't go souring the image I have of them now."

With the sound of the door shutting behind him, Blake was left all alone in her room again. She stared at her half-eaten meal, her mind a jumble of thoughts clashing against one another. Taking another bite of her sandwich, she pondered all that she had just heard.

Running away was her first thought. But it wasn't the only option. She feared hearing what her team, what Weiss would have to say about her. In their time together as a team, Blake found herself cherishing every minute that she spent with them. They were like sisters.

And she loved them.

Finishing off her meal, Blake cleaned up the mess and sat back in her bed. There was a lot to think about. Idly, her thoughts fell onto the two blonds that were waiting for her in their own rooms. Sun, who she just met unexpectedly, was putting up with her even as she brushed off his helping hand. All he wanted to do was help.

Then there was Jaune. Despite how distraught he appeared, he was more than willing to stay be her side. He was suffering in plain sight and she had selfishly ignored him. After everything he had done for her, to protect her and stand by her side even when she felt no one should have, here she was letting him deal with his pain alone. That thought caused as much pain in her stomach as the thought of her team leaving her.

She needed to talk with them. It wasn't fair to keep them waiting for nothing. Even Sun. Once she gathered her courage, she'd have her own heart to heart with them. From there, she'd see where it would take them. With her mind made up, Blake rose up from her bed, ready to make the first move!

Until her eyes lingered over to her unread copy of Ninja's of Love. She blushed, biting her lip in vain to ignore it's tempting calling. But she was weak to its power. She shrugged and grabbed the mature book.

First some well written romance, then action.

---

Beacon.

"Still nothing?"

Pyrrha shook her head, her face painted with worry as she stared at her scroll while biting the nail of her thumb. So far, she had sent twelve text messages to Jaune and still got no response back since the first one an hour ago. Did he enjoy worrying her to death? Her finger scrolled through the messages, landing on the only text he had sent back since her first one.

'I'm fine.'

That was it. Nothing back since then. Was all her worrying only worth two measly little words to him? If she didn't have a soft spot for him, she was sure she would have lost her temper with him by now. She was this close to hunting him down herself and dragging him back kicking and screaming.

To her left, Ren shrugged. He wasn't all that worried over their leader. Even if the tension that the two had between them when they first entered Beacon was gone with, the lazy ninja still at times seemed to not care much for Jaune.

"Jaune's fine. He's probably busy dealing with some personal matters on his day off. You know, we all don't have to hang around another in our free time?" he sighed.

Nora nodded along with a cheery smile in her skip, "Yeah, just give the silly lug some space, Pyrrha! Being clingy isn't attractive, you know?" she grinned teasingly.

Pyrrha huffed with a small blush, "I don't know how you two can be so calm about this. Team RWBY is worried about their teammate going missing. Ruby's even in the courtyard with fliers of Blake to anyone who may have seen her."

"But they got into a fight. Last time we saw Jaune, he left to talk with his parents. I don't think anything they could have talked about would want to make him want to leave Beacon like Blake." Nora reassured her.

'Not unless his parents found out about his fake transcripts and demanded he go back home.' Ren mused. It was a rare event that popped up every couple of lifetimes where the Arc parents would discover their son's false acceptance to Beacon and travel all the way to Vale to bring him back. Jaune would have to prove his worth against his father, with some help from his team, and then be allowed to continue his path as a huntsman. But with Jaune as a Player now, the event activating now wasn't so likely.

It was odd for Jaune to ignore their messages. All he had said was that he was fine. No context, no nothing. The Black and White Event was active, so the most likely thing to have happened was that he was now involved in helping Blake with her problem along with Sun. Still, he would have thought that the knight would have at least let him know about what was going on seeing as they were now working together in the game.

Ren rubbed his forehead in slight frustration. Leave it to Jaune to complicate things for him.

Right now, the three of JNPR were heading back to their dorm. They had been hoping to head to Vale, but knowing Pyrrha, she would spend most of their free time sniffing out for their leader. Ren loved Pyrrha, truly he did, but sometimes here overbearing nature could be too much. She was a literal mother hen. What she needed was some Pyrrha time to herself. He knew she had been eying the hidden compartment by her bedside where she hid her Ninja's of Love novels, courtesy of said runaway cat. How Blake had successfully poisoned Pyrrha with such filth, he would never know.

"Maybe we should make fliers as well?" Pyrrha hummed to herself, tapping her lip in thought to one of the photos of Jaune she had that would work well in her search. Ren and Nora looked back at another, hanging their heads in defeat. She wasn't letting her prey out of her mind any time soon. Their talks were turning into plans for a hunt.

"If you really want to hunt Jaune down, why don't you ask Tsuki for help? Out of all us, she's the most adept in hunting people down, specially our mighty leader." Nora said, recalling to the many times said dark, cold raven would pop out of nowhere to greet Jaune. Between Pyrrha and Tsuki, it was little contest to which was the best in finding their leader.

At the mention of said 'love rival', Pyrrha growled as she clenched her fist.

"Maybe I should go ask her a few questions? I wouldn't be surprised if she had a hand in Jaune's disappearance." Her poor knight was probably locked up in that demon's dungeon, powerless to her demanding advances. The red-haired gladiator picked up her pace with haste. Well, if she was going to be investigating, she needed to be fully prepared for whatever challenges might await her!

"I don't think I've ever met a woman as obsessed as Pyrrha." Nora laughed nervously. It was kinda scary, and that was coming from her of all people.

"That's what love does to a person." Ren said tiredly as they followed after their teammate, "It makes them go crazy with obsession. Not even a four-time winning tournament champion celebrity is safe from that."

"But I love you and I'm not like that!" Nora pouted.

Ren slowly turned his head to meet Nora's gaze flatly. He already knew that she like-liked him since his second run in The Game. And he had even gone into a relationship with her many times before. It was actually one of the enjoyable parts to always having to repeat his life over and over again.

But Nora Valkyrie had a problem. She loved too much. Way too much. And that tended to lead to some rather. . .unique ventures and accidents. He shivered, recounting the many times she would try to woo him or play damsel in distress. She had once sent a girl flying to the skies above for a small flirty wink aimed at him. And that was one of the lighter events he could think of. Nora be crazy.

"Give it time, Nora. Give it time."

He just hoped her love didn't extend to their whole team. Again. One of the oddest relationships he had ever had.

"Weiss?"

Just as Pyrrha had reached their dorm room and raised her scroll to unlock the door, the door across from theirs had opened to the sight of Weiss walking out, blinking in surprise at the three members of her sister team. From the looks of it, she hadn't really changed from her sleepwear last night, her expensive bed wear wrinkled and her hair undone to fall over her shoulders. Her eyes looked tired, as if she hadn't had a wink of sleep last night.

"Pyrrha? What are you doing here? I thought your team was planning on going out to Vale all day today?" Weiss asked in confusion as Pyrrha sighed.

"We were, but Jaune's still missing. He's only answered our messages once, and that was it. I'm worried he might be in trouble."

"And we think he's just out on some personal errands today. He's probably too busy to talk right now." Nora interjected as she patted the red head's shoulder in support.

Weiss shook her head, her confusion only growing, "Wait, Jaune hasn't come back? I thought he returned after talking with his parents at the CCT?"

"He hasn't come back since then. He said he was fine, but that was it."

The headache in Weiss's temple continued to grow as she rubbed her forehead tiredly. Great, first Blake had run away, now Jaune was off doing god knows what. Why was it only their teams that got into so much trouble?

Noticing Weiss tired visage, Pyrrha asked her, "Where did you disappear to this morning, Weiss? Your team was worried about you too. I think they may have thought that you ran away as well."

Weiss huffed, crossing her arms in annoyance to the mention of her team. Only Ruby and Yang would blow things out of proportion.

"Do to last night's events, I had difficulty sleeping. With nothing much to do, I decided to head over to the training room to take out some of my frustrations on the training bots. I lost track of time from there and by the time it reached close to noon, I headed back to our dorms. Sadly, even after hours of decimating droids, I still couldn't find a wink of sleep." she sighed tiredly, the bags under her eyes being a testament to her words.

Nora craned her head, taking in the heiress's choice of wear, "You went to the training room to fight in your jammies?" she said suspiciously.

Weiss was actually a little embarrassed at that as she scratched her check, "I wasn't in the right mind at the time to think about changing. Trust me, I realized my error once students began to walk in for morning practice." she growled lightly. Her choice of wear had earned her a few wolf whistles and had earned those slime balls a few strikes of her rapier. She did shiver remembering one particular female dog faunus student who had walked in. Someone had been grabby.

An awkward silence soon fell on the four. Pyrrha didn't know what to say next to the snow themed girl. After last night, tensions in team RWBY had gone to an all-time high. It was jarring to find out that Blake had been part of the White Fang, but she was a nice girl who had shown no signs of hating humanity. She was simply stoic and a bit cynical at times. She couldn't possibly imagine how Weiss was taking it. Her family was in constant war with the genocidal terrorists since Weiss was born. To find out that the teammate she had trusted with her life was connected to the group responsible for the drama and tension in her household must have been too much to process.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Weiss decided to be the first one to speak up, "I'm sure Jaune's all right if he says so. He may be an idiot at times, but he has his head on just right to not get into any more trouble. He did promise you all that he wouldn't go lone wolf again, did he not?" she smiled softly.

Pyrrha struggled to say something back to that, her worry overriding her common sense before she relented with a sigh. It was true, he had said he wouldn't charge into a mess like that again. And she valued her partner's word. She bit her lip, realizing that maybe she was getting a little carried away with finding him. Sometimes people needed their space.

"I guess it would be silly to be handing out lost fliers with his picture out to the students so early like Ruby." Pyrrha chuckled, her worry only momentarily softened.

Weiss groaned, smacking her forehead before dragging it down across her face, "Please tell me you're joking." she said mortified at her partner.

Nora shook her head with a grin, "Nope! She even has Yang helping along. Though I think Yang's only doing it as a joke." The brawler was grinning ear to ear as she handed out the pictures.

"I'm gone for the morning and a good half of the afternoon, and this is what happens? Blake's only been gone for a half a day at best! She's not some lost child!"

"But aren't you worried about Blake too?" Pyrrha couldn't help but ask. Weiss calmed down at that, her face gaining a small frown as her eyes looked away to the side, "I know things had gone out of hand yesterday, but aren't you at all worried to where she may have gone? She might have run away."

"Running away would be the least of her worries." Weiss grumbled, sighing as she rubbed her head again. What she needed right now was medicine for her monster of a headache, "Listen, I appreciate your concern, but this is something a lot more complicated than you would believe. You could go as far as saying our families have been at war with another for hundreds of years. This isn't something that can be resolved just like that. Years of hardship and suffering don't just vanish into thin air, you know." she muttered quietly. Inwardly, she grit her teeth as she remembered the look she had seen in Blake's eyes last night.

Hate, so much hate and anger. And it was all directed at her, her own teammate and friend. It was the same look she had seen in those who had only seen her name as the origin to their kinds neglect and pain. To see it in someone she had begun to consider like a sister was almost too painful to bear.

Was that how Blake had always seen her?

"But Blake's your friend, right? It shouldn't mean that you two can't get over some drama that has nothing to do with you guys now." Nora scowled. It didn't make much sense to her. They were friends! And friends forgave one another no matter what.

"Didn't I just say this is more complicated than you would believe?" Weiss said in annoyance, "You could tell from the way she looked at me yesterday that she hated me. Maybe she always hated me from the start? As someone from the White Fang that's all she could ever look at me with. It was only until yesterday that I realized that." she said sadly.

"I don't believe that's true. Blake was simply caught in the emotions of the last night, I don't believe that she would ever hate you." Pyrrha argued.

Weiss shook her head with an empty laugh, "Then clearly you didn't get a good look at her eyes. You could see it from space."

"Then what are you going to do now?"

The snow-white heiress shrugged, an action unlike her as she turned her eyes upward.

"I don't know. Right now, my head's killing me. I just want to stay in my room and try to clear my head to ease my headache." Focus on one problem at a time, her sister always said. She couldn't get anything resolved as she was now. Turning her eyes back to the three members of JNPR, she gave them all a little smile. In a way, she was happy for their worry. It was nice to know that she had more friends other than the ones in her team. All who worried over her, and not her name. That was something she wasn't sure she would have been able to find back in Atlas.

"I really do appreciate your concerns, but this is something only I can come to on my own. All I need is time, time to put my emotions in check and come to a sound conclusion. And whatever decision I come to, know that I still see you all as good friends." she smiled.

Nora and Pyrrha smiled back, but their eyes were enough to tell her that their worries were still there. This was more than a matter of one friendship in danger, it was an entire team's. You couldn't have team RWBY without the B, or the W, or Y, or R. To be team RWBY, you needed every letter that made it what it was; a team of sisters that loved another like actual family. To see it all threaten to fall apart was upsetting. None of them wanted to lose their friends because of some fight and past mistakes.

A twitch, unseen by all in the middle of the hall, developed on Ren's normally passive features.

'This has nothing to do with you. This has nothing to do with you. Just leave it be and everything will fix itself. This is just like every other time those two have fought in every Reset.'

Funny thing was, in every new world he woke up and repeated the same old dry cut events again, Ren had never actually seen the turmoil either Weiss and Blake had gone through to come together again as friends. He never really liked to stick his nose in others' business, so he always stood by and watched such things unfold like they always did without his help. Now that he was seeing Weiss in the middle of the event, troubled, confused, conflicted, and exhausted from the bundle of twisting emotions she was currently going through right now, he was starting to understand something he had always tried to ignore.

With a tired sigh through his nose, Ren grudgingly decided to speak up. This still did not mean he was participating in the event. He was just doing what friends do. And that was offering some kind words and advice.

"You'll make the right one, I'm sure you will." he said stoically, leaning back against the door as he shut his eyes. He could feel the girls' eyes on him, questioning and surprised. He couldn't help but chuckle. It was rare of him to say such things.

"For the past three months, you and Blake have fought together, studied together, ate together, laughed together, smiled together, shed blood together, and grew stronger together. And in all that time, have you ever once seen a hidden veil of hatred in her eyes?"

Weiss was stumped at hearing the normally cool and silent raven of JNPR talking to her, but frowned as she thought about his words. In all their time together, she had never seen any kind of hostility from Blake. Unless Blake was a master of emotions, there had never been any inkling to her hating her for being a Schnee. Other than annoyance and the flat stoic expression she always wore, Blake had been nothing but kind to her. Yesterday had been the first time she had ever seen her teammate with such a ferocious look in her eyes.

And if Weiss was to be honest, the anger and hatred looked alien on the face of Blake. As if it was never meant to be.

Ren took Weiss's silence as an answer, "In all that time, even though you had no idea as to who she really was, Blake had known who you were. You were a Schnee, the heiress to the very company that underpaid and undermined her people for years. In her time in the White Fang they had taught her to see you as the enemy and painted a target on your back. But instead of listening to the ones she had thought of as family, she decided to do something else." Opening his eyes, he looked back at Weiss.

Ren did not like talking. He was not a talky kind of guy and he never would be. All those sappy cliché speeches were not to his taste and he had always left those kinds of matters to Ruby and Jaune. He spoke through actions and through the shadows.

"She decided to give you a chance. A chance to prove her wrong and show her that you weren't some slave driving Schnee who only thought of the Faunus as animals to work to death. She gave you the chance to be something other than an enemy, a target, a way to relieve her peoples' hatred and suffering."

But just this once, he would suck in his distaste and say his piece. If only to ease and help a friend.

"She gave you the chance to be a friend. Don't you think you should return the courtesy?"

Nothing more needed to be said in Ren's opinion. Turning back for his dorm, he slid his Scroll on the reader and walked in ahead of his team. He didn't need to hear Weiss's answer, he already knew what conclusion she would come to. She would have come to it without his help either way. All he did was make it a bit easier for her to reach it. A little push here and there never hurt.

Nora blinked once, rubbed her eyes and then stared at the shut door to team JNPR in slight awe.

"Did. . .Did Ren just go off on a speech to make someone feel better?" she said breathlessly, "I think adding that extra cube of sugar in his morning tea may have had some odd side effects. I don't think I've ever heard Ren speak as long as that to someone who isn't me."

Pyrrha nodded wordlessly to that. In all their time together as a team, she had never really heard Ren speak for that long. To a normal person, it may not have seemed like much. But for someone like Ren who valued silence and stuck to getting to the point of a conversation, it was surprising. She looked back to Weiss to see her reaction and found the heiress in deep contemplation.

The tired, sleep deprived expression on Weiss's face suddenly vanished. The snow themed girl's eyes were now filled with thought and surprisingly, the ache in her head had gone away. What Ren had just said to her seemed to click something in her head. With a nod, she looked at Pyrrha and Nora with a smile.

"I think I may have come to a conclusion. But I just need a little more time to think on it before I go with what I have in mind. Thank you all again for your support, and if you see those two buffoons I call teammates, tell them I'll be waiting for them back at the dorm once they're done acting like idiots. I should also change out of my sleepwear, I look a mess." she laughed. Turning back for her room, Weiss was ready to change into something more proper before stopping in place. Her icy blue eyes glanced back at the two girls softly.

"And tell Ren, thank you. I would have never thought that he of all people would help me with words."

The door behind Weiss shut with a click, leaving Pyrrha and Nora standing in the hall. They had just witnessed something odd and were still reeling from the oddity. But in the end Nora simply shrugged and chalked it up to her childhood friend being amazing and awesome. She always knew Ren was secretly a caring person who didn't like to see others suffering despite his cold and stoic appearance and attitude. Skipping back inside her dorm, she poked her head from the side of the dorm to call out to the red haired spartan girl.

"You coming, Pyrrha? Since Ren's in a good mood right now, I say we get him to make us his Ren's Special Deluxe Limited Edition Lunch Breakfast!"

"Don't milk it! And it's the afternoon!"

Shaking away the shock, Pyrrha turned back to her dorm room. Inside she found Nora begging the silent huntsman to cook with a bear hug as he struggled to pry her arms off his neck. His face was turning blue as the two of them fell back with an audible thud. Ren reached his trembling arm up for help, the action bringing a giggle to escape Pyrrha's lips before walking in to help her friend.

She always put so much attention on her own partner that she was sad to say that she at times forgot about her other teammates. Sure, she had feelings for Jaune for being the first real person to see her as a normal girl, but she couldn't forget that he wasn't the only one to do so. She had more friends than she could count on her fingers that treated as what she had always wanted to be seen as. A regular girl.

Jaune was fine. She believed in her partner to stay out of trouble for a day and come back to them safe and sound. Right now, she needed to pay attention to her other friends and help them out.

---

A Simple Wok, Vale.

A tired yawn left Jaune's lips within the familiar noodle shop he liked to frequent every now and then when stopping by Vale. The involuntary action earned him an irate glare from the dark-skinned huntress beside him as she lifted her watch to the wrinkled old man with poor eyesight to see the hologram picture of Penny.

"Are you sure you haven't seen this girl by any chance?"

The old man shook his head sadly, feeling bad that he couldn't be of much assistance in their search. Ciel understood, nodding, and thanking the patron before turning on her heels to exit the noodle stand. Her steps were paused by a firm hand on her shoulder, turning her to meet Jaune's apologetic eyes.

"Hold up a sec, Ciel. Don't you think it would be a good idea to grab a bite to eat before we continue searching? We've been at this for hours now." he suggested in the face of her annoyed frown.

Glancing down at her watch, Ciel held back a small curse at the time. It was already nearing seven o'clock? How long had they been at this? That wasn't good.

"Mr. Arc, I've told you before that we must make haste. Penny and I have to return to our paid rooms to pay for our continued stay or risk losing our stay. I must also make a call to General Ironwood on our status by eight. We can't waste any more time here when we have much of the city to search." she said stubbornly.

"I understand that, but we can't keep this up without some energy. I know you must be hungry by now."

"I am perfectly fine." Ciel huffed as she looked away from the blond. But to her horror, her stomach enacted the ultimate betrayal as it agreed with Jaune with an audible growl. Even the old man looked to her skeptically. To her credit, she didn't blush as she gave Jaune a flat stare.

"Just make it to go."

With a small chuckle, Jaune turned back to the old man with two fingers raised up, "We'll have two Pork ramen to go, please."

Handing over the necessary currency, Jaune accepted the change before the old man vanished like the wind to prepare their order. The old guy must have had some kind of speed semblance to be able to cook their meals. It was as if Ruby was a chef. Going back to Ciel, he couldn't help but frown as he caught her nose deep in the hologram keypad of her watch. From what he had learned from his new companion, she wasn't much of a talker. Was it wrong of him to be fine with that?

Normally, he would find himself trying to strike up a conversation in a situation like this. Making friends was something he enjoyed and it benefited his ability as a Gamer. But the events of yesterday just wouldn't leave him alone. His father's withered visage was still fresh in his mind. It was dragging him down, leaving him with some worrying thoughts. He couldn't exactly make friends like that.

Jaune sighed as a moment later his scroll buzzed. He had set it to silent after the fourth string of worried messages from his partner. Sometimes she reminded him of his mother, which was a good thing and a bad thing in itself. Apparently, she wasn't satisfied with his message that he was just fine. Taking out his scroll, he quickly read over the message and found himself surprised.

'I've decided that if you're not going to respond, I'm just going to stop trying. Whatever you're doing or going through, know that your team wants to help and will be waiting for you back at the dorm. You don't have to respond. But please, take care of yourself, Jaune.'

Jaune winced. Great, she was mad at him. She really did behave like his mother. Even when she was fed up with his crap, she still worried about him. Now he felt worse than he already did. It was one thing to wallow in his own despair, it was another to cause trouble for his team.

The smell of pork broth and noodles quickly brought him out of his slump as he turned his head up to see the owner of the little stand hold out the prepared ramen to take. With a grateful smile and a thank you, Jaune reached out for the food and handed it out to Ciel. Even when she was nose deep in what looked like a program, her spatial awareness was well enough for her to absent-mindlessly accept the meal. Waving bye to the nice old man, the two walked out to continue their search.

'Maybe some noodles will make me feel better.' Snapping off the chop sticks wrapped around the nicely decorated insulated cup, Jaune dove right into his dinner. A content moan escaped his noodle filled mouth as he chewed and sipped some of the broth. At least his stomach wasn't gnawing at his insides anymore. One problem solved, sadly many more to go. Slurping another ropeful of the noodles in, Jaune glanced at the slowly darkening sky with a frown. It was starting to get late. And they still had no idea where Penny may have wandered off to. You'd think it would be easy to find such a sunny and bright girl like her in the streets. They would have probably found her already if it wasn't for one thing; This was a game, and The Game liked to drag the simplest of things on for its own purposes.

Jaune's teeth bit down strongly onto his chopsticks with a snap as he scowled. Again, it always came back to The Game. Every problem, every mess, every mistake, and every disaster was because of some omnipotent being, or circle of beings that watched their struggles for the thrill. And their harbingers of their favorite spectacle were the four cursed individuals that brought with them a wake of tragedy.

Two sets of eyes, one a chestnut brown and the other a magenta pink, stared back at him with empty eyes as their lights dimmed and died. Blood began to bleed out of his trembling arm, crawling up his arm to his fingers as the wooden sticks in his shaking hands were replaced by the image of a soaking red Crocea Mors. His breathing grew heavy as he tried to calm down. He grit his teeth as his free hand flew to grip his chest, the weathered scar that brought him to this reality burning up like scalding flames.

'I shouldn't even be here. I shouldn't even be alive. I should be dead. All I've done is bring more trouble than good.'

What he was experiencing wasn't something new. In these months that followed since his first death and his first kill, he had found himself suffering from mini episodes of guilt and despair. It was akin to a panic attack. Morally speaking, Jaune believed that all life was precious and that killing only brought about more problems than solutions. It was something his mother had taught him that all good heroes followed. But he had broken that moral code when he found his blade running through Holt like a hot blade to butter. The dirty blond's words could still be heard in his head, taunting him, and praising him for gaining a killer's instinct. But that could be chalked up to an accident, right? Jaune never meant to kill him. But he couldn't find a good enough excuse for when he did the same to Ren, someone who was not an enemy but a cherished friend. He killed his best friend, stopped his heart by his own choice.

It was all to save Ren from corruption. Jaune couldn't count the number of times he repeated that over in his head like a chant. But some dark emotion had been born for just a second as Ren's heart died. Satisfaction. It was fleet and weak, but it had been there. And it hadn't been the only time he had felt it. The thought of stopping Adam's heart the same way always bore the same emotion.

The Game, it was slowly turning him into something he was not. And this was only his first life! Did that mean that the longer he continued playing, the more likely he was to become a shell of his former self? The thought terrified him.

"Are you all right?"

Snapped out of his troubling thoughts, Jaune's senses were soon blaring with sensation of scalding pain drenched over his lesser hand. He bit back a curse, finding his fingers clenching the cup of noodles to waste and spilling the steaming broth over his reddening and blistering skin. The chopsticks had snapped in his other hand, bits of the wood digging into his bleeding hand along with the splinters. Ciel looked at him with some worry, the sight of his trembling shoulders and darkening expression taking her by surprise. She didn't know much about the blond, nothing but his name really, but she found such a look on his face out of place. She sighed, snapping off the clip to one of her pouches to her skirt to reach inside. She took his bleeding hand in her own as she led him to a nearby bench, scowling lightly as she used a clipper to dig out the splinters and wood.

Jaune flinched at the sensation before looking down in shame.

"Aura may come in handy when fighting off the creatures of Grimm, but outside of combat and training, it lays dormant unless called out. Our shields aren't always active, so even simple little wounds and mistakes as this will go blind to it until the damage has been done." Ciel explained as she continued picking out the wood bits, "It's like always leaving a light on, it's a waste of energy. So, you should be more careful. A huntsman in training should know this, it's one of the most basic things you learn in combat school."

"You could say that I'm not like many huntsman." Jaune said with an empty chuckle.

"Clearly you're not." Ridding his hand of the last of the splinters, Ciel disinfected the wound next before wrapping it up with a roll of bandages. It wouldn't take long for his aura to heal the damage, but it was a good idea to treat a wound the old fashion way. She moved to his blistering red left hand next while rummaging through her pouches. She was sure she had some burn ointment in there somewhere.

'Way to go, Jaune. You can't even go a minute without causing trouble.' That was all he was good for apparently. He winced as Ciel found the ointment and lathered it around his burns.

"For a huntsman in training, you oddly show signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Which is rare to find in someone so young."

PTSD? Jaune blinked at the observation. Was he. . .was he really suffering from PTSD? Professor Port had gone over it before in one of his classes. It was a condition that plagued people who had suffered through traumatic events in their lives, mostly pertaining to soldiers who came back from war. But how could he be suffering from a war symptom? It did explain the random times he would stare off into space and go into a cold sweat. He usually chalked it up to his team as studying late into the night and getting little sleep.

Ciel studied Jaune's face with interest as his eyes glazed over again as he stared at his bandaged hand. She had seen such a look before. There were times General Ironwood would do the same thing with his left arm. It was surprising to see someone as young as Jaune with the same condition.

"Like you said, I'm not like other huntsman." Jaune sighed as he rubbed the back of his head with his bandaged hand.

Done with treating his wounds, Ciel was ready to get back to searching for her teammate/partner before her watch gave off an alert. Pulling up the message, she frowned in frustration as she pinched her brow.

"Something wrong?" Jaune asked.

"For the past hour, I've been talking with the receptionist to the hotel Penny and I have been rooming at to hold off on giving away our room. In order to continue our stay, they have to have confirmation on our stay in person. And it appears that they had grown tired of waiting and offered our rooms to someone else." She said in annoyance. It was their responsibility to keep a roof over their heads once they made it to Vale. The General/Headmaster couldn't do everything for them and left them to the simple task of renewing their hotel rooms. And it looked like they couldn't even do that. Ciel sighed at the lecture she was sure to get for not only failing the task, but losing her partner.

Jaune hung his head, "Sorry I couldn't be of much help. I've just been wasting your time."

"It's not exactly your fault. You took the time out of your day to help some stranger find her partner. Most people wouldn't do that." Ciel said with a small smile. She looked back to his bandaged hands, finding them lightly shaking, "If anything, I apologize for taking up your time. You must be going through your own problems."

"Something like that." Jaune smiled weakly. His aura was already on the move and healing the small wounds as he made out the light shine of his white aura pulsing. He clenched his fist tightly as his thoughts turned back to what was plaguing him.

'Dad! When I grow up, I want to be an awesome Huntsman! Just like you and Grandpa!'

'Oh? But you're too adorable and huggable for a thing like that! You got some serious growing up to do before even thinking of picking up a sword, my little knight.'

'Then just you wait! When I'm big, I'm going to be as tall and strong as you are! And I'll be a warrior, just like you!'

'I guess I'll just have to wait and see if you're up for that. With spirit like that, you might just pull it off, Jaune.'

For the hundredth time today, Jaune was asking himself what he was doing here. Knowing the condition his father was left in, why did his previous self leave them all behind to suffer? He could have stayed to help around the house, to comfort his mother and sisters, maybe even devote himself to learning all he could about what was hurting his father to treat it. But instead he left to pursue a selfish dream that only benefited himself.

He ran away. Ran far away from the problems of home. Like the coward he was. And he couldn't even remember it.

"Ciel, can I ask you something?"

The Atlesian huntress looked back at him with surprise as she found his solemn blue eyes staring at her. They looked troubled, almost haunted. Whatever was going on in his mind was eating him alive and she could actually see it. It made her feel a little uncomfortable but she nodded her head politely. Answering a question was the least she could do for all his trouble.

"I suppose you can."

"Why did you become a huntress?" The question confused Ciel as she watched Jaune stare down, unable to meet her eyes. It was a simple question, albeit personal.

"I became a huntress to serve my country. Just as anyone else would." she answered.

Jaune shook his head with a small frown.

"Is that it? Don't you have a family, friends, people who depend on you and miss you every day that you're gone? Why leave behind something like that to go fight monsters, risk your life, and make mistakes you can never take back?" Wouldn't everything be better if he had just stayed home? The blood on his hands would have never been painted, he would have never died and gotten stuck in some twisted game, and his father would have continued to live a healthy life. No one would have had to suffer if he had stayed home with his family.

"Why leave the nice, comfy, peaceful life behind you for the path of a bloody warrior?"

Now Ciel was really taken back. Those blue eyes of his, they were so lost. Like they had lost their will to take another step. They were searching for something, something they had lost. She glanced away from those eyes, not really knowing what to say to someone she had only just met hours ago. She did know one thing; he was lost and confused. Sighing, Ciel turned back to meet those despaired blue eyes with a firm stare.

"I don't know you that well to give my life's story, but there's more to me being a huntress then serving my country. I have my own reasons for walking the path I'm on. And I'm sure you do as well." she said, finding her hand moving to his shaking hand. Her hand paused for a second before gripping his hand softly.

It was odd. Here she was with a complete stranger trying to comfort him when she knew next to nothing about him but his name. But something about him made her reach out to him.

"You must have a reason for why you are here right now. It's led you this far, so why question it? In all that time that you've spent here, haven't you made any progress or done some good? Or was all that pointless?"

The memories of the FoF event and saving Ren from his Corruption came to mind. And all the small moments in-between. He had saved Ann from a life in the shadows of criminals, saved Blake, Velvet, and many other faunus from losing what made them special, helped saved Cardin from himself, and even proved to Ren that it wasn't too late to take action and change things for the better. The shaking stopped.

"But I've simply been fixing all the troubles created by me." The Game had created all the events to test his worth and for the enjoyment of three gods. If he had never stepped foot onto Beacon and become a Player, then maybe none of those things would have happened.

"Maybe. But that doesn't change the good you've done. You're a huntsman, it's your duty to save others so they can live normal lives. I'm sure even your parents understood that when you left for the academy. Otherwise they would have stopped you."

Why didn't they stop him? Knowing the condition their father was in, why hadn't they stopped their only son from leaving? He could have helped them in whatever way he could. So why would his seven sisters and mother let him go off down the same path that had taken their father?

"You made the decision to become a huntsman long ago and I'm sure you thought about it clearly. So, don't doubt yourself now. If you can't remember why you're here, then just find a new reason to be here." Ciel said as she stood back up. She turned her head up to the darkening skies with a frown. Night was coming and it looked like she didn't have a place to stay. Strangely enough, the General had yet to message her to check up on them.

Jaune stared at Ciel. For someone who didn't seemed to talk much or be very friendly, she was still trying to make him feel better. His eyes fell back to his hand, the vision of blood dying away as he couldn't help but smile.

'Find a reason to be here, huh? Don't I already have one?' The friends he had once lost in a hero's death were still here with him. And he wanted to help Ren end this torture of endless repeats. He wanted to be a warrior, a hero, someone who they would tell stories about to their children one day. Weren't those reasons enough? The image of his bed ridden father returned to haunt him but instead of falling back down that hole, Jaune scowled firmly and stood up from his seat.

All this sorrow and despair wasn't going to heal his father. If he wanted to see him again as the strong huntsman who inspired him to become a warrior, he needed to stop crying. He was in a game, right? And just about anything was possible within a game. So, a cure for his father could exist in this world, he just needed to find it.

'I... I can't stop now. Not after everything I've been through, not when I still have people who depend on me, and not while I can still try!'

Ren had once said that he wouldn't be able to handle all that The Game threw at him. The despair, the hardship, the agony, it would all be too much for someone as soft as him. And while the news of his father was crippling, Jaune wouldn't let it stop him there. Whatever the hell The Game or the gods threw at him, he would face it head on and fix the damage.

"Thanks, Ciel."

Ciel looked back at Jaune with confusion, "For what? I really didn't do much."

"Simply listening to me and putting up with me while I've been down in the dumps was more than enough to bring my spirits up!" he grinned brightly. The vice grip on his heart had eased, enough for him to get back on his feet again.

"You seem to be in better spirits now." Ciel said slowly as she stared at him weirdly. How could he change emotions so quickly? What an odd guy.

A buzzing from Jaune's scroll set his attention back to a familiar message. The Black and White Event was still live. Tomorrow was the day that Blake and Sun encountered the White Fang and resolved their mess. With his mind now settled, he accepted the Event without a second thought. He had all the time in the world to figure out how to heal his father, but right now he needed to focus on a friend in need.

'Blake and White, Accepted!

Rewards: Level up in Blake's Friendship and Affection, Unlock Sun Wukong's Friendship, Unlock Penny Polendina's Friendship, STR Boost, 12,300L, and Igni Symbol.

Failure: Permanent Decrease in Team RWBY's Friendship. Unable to access Vale under house arrest. Loss of trust from Headmaster Ozpin.'

Those were some hefty penalties. Which only meant he couldn't fail come tomorrow. If only he knew what challenges he would be facing.

Night had fallen without his notice as Jaune stared at the black sky. Plans for tomorrow he supposed. A good night's rest was what he needed now after a day like today. Turning back to Ciel, he remembered that she had no place to stay tonight. She helped him, now he needed to repay the favor.

"It's getting late, how about you come with me back to my hotel room for the night?" he suggested innocently before he found a glare pointed at him. He waved his hands around in panic once his words hit him, "I mean, I'm sure we can find you a room there for the night! I didn't mean anything sexual by it!"

Ciel tapped her foot in suspicion as she quirked a brow. The blond boy began to sweat nervously as he laughed sheepishly. She sighed, deciding to take him in on his offer. The hotel she had been staying at had been pretty full, they had been lucky to have gotten rooms when they arrived seeing as it was pretty high class. She supposed she could search for Penny tomorrow. This wasn't the first time her partner had disappeared on her in some new city for an entire day. And like Penny liked to say, she was combat ready for any situation.

"I suppose I have no choice. Searching in the dark won't get me anywhere." she relented with a nod. But if he tried anything, she was using her military training to beat his ass.

Jaune sighed in relief, "Then just follow me. Our hotel isn't too far from here." he said with a smile as he began leading her to his current residence.

Night was here and it was time to settle down for tomorrow. He had a game to beat, he needed all the rest he could get. And he also had to prepare for the scolding he was going to receive from Pyrrha once this was all over with. He could already picture her mother like scowl.

Unknown to either hunter, above the tall city buildings touching the skies, a lone figure hid itself from sight at the top of a tower like structure. The tattered, bloody black cloak bellowed in the wind as the man fixed a torn rag scarf around his face. His red eyes followed the back of the blond teen, glaring hatefully through the slit of his hood covering his face and silver white hair.

A ball of azure flames ignited beside the stranger's head, grinning mischievously as its red eyes twinkled.

"You can take him by surprise if you want. I don't think he's in the right state of mind for an attack from the shadows. I'm sure all you would need is a single swing of those angled blades of yours and that's that!"

The stranger shook his red eyes, never leaving Jaune's back even as he vanished from his sight.

"You give him too little credit. He's strong." A pure black crosshair materialized in his right eye, vanishing quickly as he shook his head with a deep scowl, "Stronger then I could ever hope to be." he hissed angrily.

"So? What, you going to simply stalk him for eternity and sulk? I didn't give you all those powers just to watch some drama." Will whined as its fiery form slumped. It wanted action!

"I've still got a ways to go before I can confront that fake. I've only just received this so called 'gift'. I need time to build up strength, then," he tightened his fist until a shroud of vile flames engulfed it with a crackle, "I'll slaughter all those who are responsible for this body!"

Will sighed in disappointment. Well, it supposed the boy had a point. At his current level, he wouldn't stand much of a chance. He just needed to grind the old whetstone before showing it something worth watching.

"I guess you're right. Tomorrow's another day, at least I'll have something fun to watch. Heart's going to meet Soul, I can't wait to see how those two duke it out!" it giggled happily as it danced around in the air. The stranger didn't pay the godly flame any mind, scoffing as he turned away to find a spot to rest for the night. His body was still adjusting to the changes he had gone through. A burning sensation on his chest caused him to hiss as his hand flew to clench the origin of the pain. It felt like burning teeth were grinding deep into his chest.

'Just you wait, you damn fake. I'll take back my life, one way or another.'

Watching the raggedy cloaked red eyed boy leave the rooftops, The Will went into thought as it materialized a white gloved hand to stroke it nonexistent chin.

"Born from death, willed by hate, and forgotten by time. What Title shall I bestow upon you, old child of Light and Dark? A copy of The Heart poisoned by its ill fate. What shall I call you, little corpse?" it hummed as it scanned the stranger's retreating back.

'?.'

Oh well, it had plenty of time to figure that out. Dispersing into embers unseen by the world around it, The Will grinned one last time as it chuckled for the show it was about to witness.

It always did love a good old twist.

---

DLC #9: Spectacles of Eros MK IV.

Jaune stared blankly at his latest summon, the short light blonde haired girl staring back at him haughtily with such elegance she put his precious Snow Angel to shame. Her dress could only described as gothic lolita and her hair was done in pig tails that nearly reached the ground. The ribbons in her pigtails stood up, almost reminded him of a bunnies ears standing up in attention. Her bold red eyes stared deep into his own blue, almost as if she was looking into the deepest depths of his soul. He shivered, her very presence sending chills down his spine.

She was just a little girl for crying out loud!

"Nago, punish him."

"As you command, my lady!"

The odd fat, plushy like black cat beside the blonde girl's side saluted her before springing off the spot and morphing into a large ball to smack him right in the face. The damn thing hit him with the force of an iron ball! How the hell could something that seemed so plushy hit that hard? With shout of indignation, Jaune stumbled back as he held his bruising face and glared at the blonde pipsqueak.

"What was that for!?" Jaune shouted at the 12 year old girl with a shaking face.

"Your face reminded me of an old ally of mine. And while I can no longer make out his face nor his name, I can still oddly recall the type of face he would make when looking at me. Seems all dogs no matter their bark or size are the same." she sighed as she called back her magical servant. The little red devil winged like plush on her right side giggled in a high pitch voice.

"His glare kinda reminds me of Blood Scythe! Now he just has to talk like a foul dog and yap loudly, mistress!"

"He acts more like a pup then a dog."

"Who are you anyways?" After checking to make sure the blow hadn't done too much damage, Jaune turned back to his newest guest curiously.

After completing a mission with his team that Professor Goodwitch had given them, he had received a unique reward. A summon crystal of all things had been his reward for patrol duty in a small village plagued by a unique bat like Grimm and Beowolves. It was blood red in color and held an intricate rose crest within. The name of the gem was The Blood Eyed Rabbit. He didn't even mean to call her out, it sorta just happened. It was a good thing no one was in the dorm right now or he'd have to make something up.

With a snap of her fingers, the strange girl summoned a simple wooden chair for her to sit on. Even when she was sitting down, she looked elegant. Like some kind of aristocrat. She cleared her throat before introducing herself to the knight.

"My name is Rachel Alucard, current head of the Alucard family and once Bystander of my dimension. Though it seems I am no longer in it seeing as the Ether in this world is practically nonexistent. To think such a world exists. It's quite fascinating." she with interest, turning her eyes around the room to understand where she was summoned to. Her eyes fell back to Jaune, eying him carefully, "I take it was you who had summoned me to your world? I'm quite shocked that such a commoner like yourself has the power to perform such an action. Despite your scrawny appearance and plain demeanor, you do posses a strong magical connection to the world."

"I'm more then meets the eye." Jaune shrugged as he sat back on his bed. What caused the odd little girl to be summoned from his gem? He frowned in thought as stared at the dulled summoning mineral in hands. Word of his so called Summon Semblance had already spread, but it was harder to explain how he could call on warriors from other dimensions. Only his team and Yang knew of that bit.

"Why am I here? Last I recalled, I was enjoying a nice cup of tea courtesy of an old friend before finding myself blinded by a bright light and standing in this room." Rachel asked, raising a fine brow as a book lying on the bed beside her caught her interest. Ninja's of Love? She'd never heard of that particular piece of literature before. Grabbing a hold of it, she began to skim through as her familiars made themselves useful and began to set up a tea set for her.

Jaune scratched his head awkwardly, "I'm as lost as you are. I didn't mean to call on you or bother. I'm still getting this Summoning stuff down. Guess I must have accidentally pumped your gem with magic."

Idly, Rachel's curiosity grew as her red eyes drank in every word of the book in hand. My, the author sure knew how to blend a compelling story with pure smut. It was oddly a drawing tale. Without taking her eyes off her book, she gestured for the small devil bat like creature, Gii, to hand her the steaming porcelain teacup of her favorite brew before taking a tentative sip.

"You have the gift of Summoning? That is a rare ability that few posses even in my world. How did you come to posses such a gift?"

"It. . .kinda fell onto me, you could say." Jaune sighed. The Summon Gems were meant to help him in combat, yet he had not once used any of them to help him in a fight. Lightning had taught him some spells and swordplay and Tifa had helped in his hand to hand and endurance. But they had brought so much trouble to his social life. Pyrrha had been very clingy since Light had left and Yang had gotten awfully touchy and grabby with him. He fought the blush on his face and buried the memories of his three way 'fight' with the busty brawlers. That had not been a good day for his face once Weiss had woken up and Pyrrha had found out. He was lucky to be alive thanks to Nurse Sprig.

Rachel nodded, too engrossed in the arousing tale. She made a mental note to find a copy of the entire series before returning home. Despite its filth that would make even Hakumen blush like a school girl, it was a rather drawing story.

"So you are untrained in such a gift and accidentally summoned me from my world for no reason? My, I don't think I've seen such wasted talent in my many lifetimes." she sighed.

"Life times?" Jaune frowned, tilting his head as he eyed her with scrutiny, "What's a little girl like you talking about life times? You can't be older then twelve." he chuckled. She actually reminded him of his youngest sister. All she was missing was mud on her face and a shoveling trowel.

Gii and Nago began to sweat nervously as the black ribbons in Rachel's hair twitched. Oh, he hit a sweet spot without even knowing it.

"Pardon, but did you just mistake me for a middle school child?" she asked with a hint of indignation.

"What, aren't you? You're pretty short and have a child like build. Not to mention. . ." he dared not say no more.

But the immortal vampire understood. She briefly looked down towards her chest, her silent fury only growing as she narrowed her eyes dangerously. Her familiars cowered as a dark aura rose from her body.

Before she could enact her punishment to the blond little puppy sweating under her gaze, the door to the room swung wide open. The dangerous aura dispersed as she turned her eyes to the intruders.

"Nora is in the house! And I got pancake batter~!" The orange haired bombshell that was Nora sang happily as she lowered her leg. She always did love kicking it open dramatically. Ren sighed as he followed after his partner followed by Pyrrha back into their dorm. He made a mental note to patch up the cracks before Professor Goodwitch noticed.

"You act like it was the end of the world."

"It was going to be the end of someone's world if I didn't get my daily fix, Renny." Nora pouted as she hugged the several boxes of nirvana to her chest like a child. To that, Ren couldn't say anything back as he shivered. He could only recall one time she missed her daily intake of fluffy goodness. He died that day, that was all that needed to be said.

Now that they were all in the room again, Pyrrha finally took notice of the stranger sitting gracefully in a small tea table she knew for a fact had never been in there room. The little blonde's girls eyes unnerved her, something about them unnatural on the face of such a young child.

"Jaune, who's this?" Pyrrha asked as she walked closer to the two. Her eyes feel on the two stuffed animals by the girl's side, feeling even more unnerved as their eyes seemed to follow her.

Jaune gulped as he found his teammates staring at him with question. He promised them that he wouldn't summon another warrior after the last two incidents. He couldn't endure another lecture from Pyrrha or a sparring session with her! His ass was still sore.

Leaping off his bed to his feet, Jaune grinned nervously as he brought the small blonde girl in a one armed hug, surprising her as her eyes shot wide open.

"Who, this? This is just my little sister, Rachel Arc! She just stopped by Vale without our parents permission to visit her big brother! Ain't that right, Rachel?" he smiled, silently urging her to play along.

A single twitch developed in Rachel's left eye before quickly fading. Summoning in this world must have been either forbidden or unheard of. Still, to think the child had the utter gall to pin her as a child was infuriating. She'd show the little pup a lesson.

For now, she'd play along.

"Right, big brother. I just wanted to see you so badly. I'm sorry I ran from home." she apologized with a faux quivering lip. Inwardly she cringed. She wasn't going to be living this down in this century.

Glad that Rachel played along, Jaune patted her head, "It's alright, little Rachel. I'm just happy you got here safely. That's what really matters."

Pyrrha awed at the adorable scene in front of her. It was good to know that Jaune was good with kids. She wanted five. Even Nora thought it was cute.

'Am I the only one that sees the demonic aura floating above the girl's head?' Ren thought dully as he stared at the devilish figure mad of vile, haunting aura flowing from the smiling pig tailed girl. Was it weird that even her stuffed animals were sweating?

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Rachel." Pyrrha smiled kindly as she lowered herself down to the little girl's eye level, "My name is Pyrrha Nikos and I'm your big brother's partner!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Nikos." Rachel smiled back in return.

'You'll be calling me big sister soon enough, Rachel. In time, in time.'

Pushing Pyrrha away with a shove, Nora got right in Rachel's face, taking the vampire back as the orange haired girl grinned widely at her, "Name's Nora Valkyrie! And I'm Queen of our little castle, missy! How you doing, pipsqueak?" she said happily.

Ren stepped back from his team as the demonic figure of aura grinned openly from above Jaune's so called little sister, its cruel razor sharp teeth glinting maliciously. How the hell was he the only one seeing that?

"Fine." Rachel's smile twitched, straining as she fought to keep it up, "It's nice to meet you as well."

"You talk awfully proper and elegant for a brat. When I was your age I could barely form a coherent sentence."

"That's because you use to eat sugary sweets every morning before I cut you off. It was like talking to a female Oobleck." Ren frowned. How she was alive, he would never understand.

"And that over there is my teammate, Ren! Say hi, Renny!" Nora gestured to her partner to greet the young lolita. He simply nodded, the gesture being more then enough for the girl as she nodded back in acceptance. Something about her screamed tread carefully. And he was never good with words.

With the introductions out of the way, Jaune began to push his 'little' sister towards the door.

"Well since my little sister will be staying with us for a bit until we've set everything up for her to go back home safely, I'm going to go right ahead and giver her a tour of Beacon! She's always wanted to see a hunting academy up close." he grinned frantically.

Pyrrha's face lite up. This would be a perfect opportunity to get a good word in from his sister. If she could get along with the little Arc, it would make it easier for her to get Jaune to see her as more then just best friend material.

"How about I join you? I think it would be a wonderful chance to get to know each other better."

Jaune immediately shook his head with a nervous chuckle, grinning in apology as his partner's smile fell.

"That's alright, Pyrrha. We can all hang out with each other later. Right now we need some brother-sister bonding time. Ain't that right, Rachel?"

Rachel smiled back pleasantly to the three children that were part of her summoner's team. It was taking all her will power not to call down lightning to punish them all for the grievous crime of treating her like some brat.

"It's as big brother says, we need some bonding time together. I'm sorry for taking him away from you all. I just really missed my brother." she sniffed, her little act being more then enough for the two female members of JNPR to apologize encourage her play with her brother.

Ren made a silent prayer for leader, watching as the demonic figure above Rachel's small frame slid its finger across its throat joyfully with a demonic grin.

'This is another reason why I stopped involving myself with The Game and its creations. I've died too many times to make the same mistakes again.'

Thanking his team for understanding, Jaune shut the door to his dorm with a relieved sigh. Thank god that worked. He wasn't sure that his lie would work. He really was too good at lying.

"Sorry for springing that on you, Rachel. I can't have others know about my ability to summon right now." he smiled apologetically as the two of them walked the halls of the school. He was a little worried as the small red eyed girl went silent, almost as if she was off in thought as her two familiars were dragged behind her like toys. He winced, catching the sounds of their whimpering at the action.

Her eyes glanced back at him from the corner of her eyes, taking his image in. What to do, what to do? She could electrocute him, but that was too simple. She could bring out some of her old instruments of torture that her father had once used back in the dark days, but that was too messy for her liking. She crossed her arms as she thought of a fitting punishment for the blond pup. Idly, she noticed Jaune reaching for what looked like some kind of electronic tablet.

"What is that?" she couldn't help but ask.

Jaune smiled as he showed off his scroll to the little blonde girl, "This? It's what we in Remnant call a Scroll. It acts as a communication device along with several other functions. Right now, I'm messaging a friend of mine, Velvet who wanted to see if I wanted to hang out today. Which I can't seeing as I still have to get to know you better if we're going to work together in the future." he explained.

An odd glint appeared in Rachel's eyes. Velvet? That sounded like a woman's name.

"And this Velvet, is she a good friend of yours?"

"You bet! Course she's not the only one. I have lots of friends. Which is surprising for a guy like me."

"And of those friends, how many of them are female?" she asked curiously as a plan began to form in her mind.

"More then I can count with my finger?" What a weird thing to say.

That was more then enough for Rachel. Oh, she had just the payback for a boy like Jaune. His demeanor and personality was perfect for the effects of her favorite little gift. And it was the newest model.

"You know Jaune, if we are to get to know each other better, I would like to start things off with a gift."

"A gift?" Jaune stopped, turning to the oddly smiling girl with question, "You don't have to do that. Usually when I summon someone, they tell me about their life's and pledge to help me in whatever way they can. As long as you don't call me Master like the rest of them, you don't have to do anything like giving me a gift. I'm then fine with just having you as a friend." he grinned.

A boy who could summon as powerful as her on whim for whatever deeds he commanded simply wanted her as a friend? For a split second, Rachel hesitated. Back in the old days, she wouldn't have thought twice about such a prank. But since the end of The Master Unit and Terumi, she had found herself becoming slightly soft. All due to the man who had changed her life but had forgotten from his ultimate sacrifice. He was rough around the edges, but had a good heart. Just like this Jaune boy.

But then that boy had to lower himself down to her eye level and ruffle her hair and open his mouth again.

"Instead, how about I get you some ice cream? Then you can introduce me to those cool little friends of yours and we can even have a little tea party. Doesn't that sound nice?" he said as if he was talking to a child.

Narrowed red eyes didn't seem to think so. And in case he didn't seem to understand, the pain that followed to his head should have tipped him off.

"My eyes!"

Falling back to the floor with a shout of pain and surprise, Jaune threw his hands to grip at the odd pair of pink heart lens sunglasses snapped onto the sides of his face. Small spikes detached from the arms of the glasses, digging into the side of his head where they made it impossible to yank off. Blinking the tears away, he glared back at the amused small blonde girl standing in front of him.

Or floating in front him now that he took a good look at her.

"W-What was that for!?" he shouted at her angrily, flinching as the spikes dug deeper into his skull, "And what did you do?"

"I've simply given you a little gift, pup, for all the disrespectful barking you've made. Treating me as a child, really?" she scoffed as Gii and Nago sprang back up and floated beside her in the air, "I am Rachel Alucard, the very last vampire and immortal who watches the world for calamity. Not some brat you would take out for ice cream and lollipops." she leered, looking down at him like an ant as he continued to pry the odd glasses off.

"What you have on you is called the Spectacles of Eros MK-IV. A powerful item that bewitches the opposite sex into seeing you in an amorous reflection. It's power only works on those who comprehend love and only affects the wearer if they are of moral heart and mind. Those with ill intents that adorn these spectacles will not be able to bring out their power though. And now you will fall under its effects, effects even I have yet to fully understand."

Jaune stopped struggling to rip off the annoying glasses to stare dumbly at the floating vampire girl, "Uhhhh, I didn't really understand much of what you just said. Did you just say you were a vampire though? And immortal? How old are you?" he couldn't help but ask, tilting his head as he looked her over.

"Older then your great grandfather's father and then some." The dropped jaw and disbelief on his face said he got the message. As he should.

"But your so small! You look like a loli!"

Rachel found her brow twitching at the comment. Not the loli comments. She always despised those the most. Here she was trying to punish him, but instead she was the one having to suffer with talking with him. It was thanks to the sounds of footsteps that Jaune was saved from having to suffer from her physical wrath. She turned her eyes to find a humming dark red haired girl walking along with a spring in her step, the sight of her bringing a glint to Rachel's blood red eyes.

Now to watch the pup squirm and sweat like a fool.

Ruby waved at Jaune as she ran up to him with a cheerful smile. She had been hoping to find him close by.

"Hey, Jaune! I've been looking for you everywhere. It's not nice to make a girl run around the entire school for you." she chided the blond knight with a pout.

"You've been looking for me? Why? You could have just messaged me if you needed me." Jaune said with confusion. At that, the small girl looked away with embarrassment, blushing a dark shade of red as she seemed to struggle to say something back. She gripped the hem of her skirt deathly tight, gulping as she felt her breath hitch under his blue eyes.

Rachel smirked, fully recognizing the symptoms and signs. She gestured for Nago to hand her a bag of popcorn it had summoned for her pleasure.

"Jaune. . .I. . .I. . ." Ruby clapped her cheeks together, smiling nervously as she spun around like some love struck girl. Jaune found himself gulping at what she was going to say, finding it hard to look away as Ruby's big, adorable silver eyes stared deep into his own.

"Yes, Ruby?"

"I. . .lost my scroll." she finally spat out, laughing nervously as she scratched her head. How embarrassing. A loud thud made her turn away from her best friend to finally notice the new girl in the odd lolita black and red dress laying on the floor. When did she get here?

"That's why you were looking for me? Because you lost your scroll?" Jaune said slowly as the little reaper nodded and looked down. He sighed, not sure why he had been nervous a moment ago. Honestly, it almost sounded like she was about to confess. "Last I saw it, you were playing Sniper Sight on your scroll again while in Professor Port's class. Check your seat and ask around if anyone's seen it, or better yet, ask you team to call it while looking around the classroom or your previous spots. I'm sure you'll find it then."

Ruby liked the sound of that idea. With a plan in mind, she nodded her head firmly and spun around to begin her quest to find her precious scroll! Though she did spin right back to hug Jaune tightly for his help.

"Thanks, Jaune! I don't know what I would do sometimes if I didn't have you here." she sighed in content of the embrace before running off to find her team.

Rubbing her sore behind from the fall, Rachel went on to march towards Jaune and pull him down to her level with an annoyed glare.

"Is there something wrong with the Spectacles of Eros MK-VI? They are the newest model and I've yet to understand their full power. I know for a fact they should have worked the moment a female had found you in their sight." she frowned as she examined the butterfly shaped lenses attached to Jaune's face. The only reason they had no effect on her was due to an enchantment she had placed on herself to void its effects on her.

"Effects?" Jaune frowned back before gently moving the smaller blonde's hands away. She did say that the weird glasses did something to girls.

"Jaune? Is that you?"

Moving back from Rachel, Jaune smiled at the sight of Weiss, still in her school uniform at the end of the hall. The white heiress scowled at the sight of him, marching after him as if she was on a mission. He stepped back once she got within arm's distance, gulping as her icy blue eyes narrowed.

"Hey, Weiss! Uh, what's going on? I thought you would be with Ruby looking for her scroll." he said nervously.

"Never mind that! What I want to know is, who is she?" Weiss gestured to the pig tailed girl with red eyes with hostility. Rachel quirked brow in interest, inwardly smirking as it clicked.

"Who, Rachel?" Jaune said in confusion before shrugging his shoulders, "She's-"

"His girlfriend." Rachel quickly cut him off, her worlds freezing his body still as Weiss's scowl only deepened. Seeing the snow themed girl's shoulders tremble and look down with a shadowed expression confirmed her thoughts as she smiled in victory. To add insult to injury, the petite vampire hugged Jaune's arm close to her chest and brought their faces close to another.

Now was where the real fun began.

"Girlfriend!? That's not true!" Jaune shouted in alarm, waving his hands around in a blur as Weiss refused to meet his eye. Dear god, he didn't want his crush to get the wrong impression of him. They were finally making some headway in their relationship and he was sure he was this close to her considering the possibility of going out with him for at least an hour.

A hard slap to the face knocked him down on his butt as Weiss glared at him with tears in her eyes. Something he was not expecting in the slightest. And what she said next nearly gave him a heart attack.

"You damn idiot! I thought you and I were together!"

"Wha?" he said dumbly as Weiss rubbed her eyes with her sleeve. The hell did she just say?

"So, were you just playing with my heart and leading me on this entire time?! I thought you loved me. Because I know I love you!" she cried loudly, glaring daggers at the girl who had stolen her lovable blond knight from her. Jaune's hanging jaw smacked onto the floor, his eyes wide as saucer plates as his mind struggled to comprehend what his ears were hearing.

"YOU WHAT!?"

Weiss blushed, going shy under the gaze of her beloved. It was as if he was mentally undressing every article of clothing on her! The thought only made her blush grow into a shade that burned her cheeks. She swayed on her feet, clasping her chest as she explained.

"I don't know how I could be so shallow and cold to ignore your advances when we first met. I thought you were after my name and the power it holds. But you've proved me wrong time and time again. And I've always fantasized about a knight in shining armor taking me into their arms and riding away with me into the sunset." she said shyly, looking away at the reveal of her secret childhood dream. But the blonde girl beside her had reminded her that there apparently was some opposition in that reality. She growled, pointing her finger accusingly at Rachel.

"But here I find out that you've had some woman on the side the entire time? As a proud member of the Schnee family I won't stand for this! What is it that she has that I don't?"

This was happening to fast and too suddenly! Jaune struggled with his words, his speech failing him as he babbled nonsense. It wasn't what it looked like! He glared at the amused smirk on the vampire's face as her familiars giggled. That damn little rabbit ribbon eared brat! She was ruining a dream come true!

"Is it the chest? Is it because she's flatter then me!?" Weiss gasped in dramatic shock, her eyes falling on girl's flat board breasts. The ond time she finds a woman with a smaller chest then her and it's against her. Never before did she believe the day would come where she would curse not having smaller breasts.

The amusement died with that sentence as Rachel glared back at the Schnee heiress. Now that was just a low blow. A dark essence began to drift from her small stature, the energy affecting her familiars as they sighed and felt their bodies undergo the sensation of transformation. They had been hoping not to be called into battle today.

"You're presence has become an annoyance. And I wouldn't say that I have a flatter chest, the courtesy belongs to you." she said haughtily.

"I don't believe I was talking to you." Weiss responded coldly as she Myrtenaster slid out from its place beside her waist. "You look nothing more then a child. You must have used some Semblance or trickery to take him away from me!"

"It seems I must teach you a proper lesson in manners, child. Such uncouth thinking is rather ugly. Such a shame I must punish someone with the appearance of class."

The tension in the air grew heavy as Jaune found himself in the middle of the stand off. How the hell did it go from small talk in his dorm with his summon to a cat fight? That's the good old Jaune luck for you. And as much as he wanted to stick around and convince his beloved Weiss that what Rachel had said was nothing but lies, he knew better then to butt in.

At least with their attention fully focused on another he was able to run away from the scene post haste. A thundering boom followed the sound of the hall being destroyed by a rising glacier of ice. Had he not ran he was sure he would have been sandwiched by the attacks.

Was this all because of the odd glasses? Again Jaune tried to pry them off with little results but the spikes stabbing deeper if possible. Seemed the more he tried the more they dug in.

'Maybe I can find someone to tear these things off?' Surely someone in his circle of friend could help him. Turning a corner, he stopped suddenly as he found the rest of team RWBY leaving Professor Port's class. Maybe Yang could rip them off?

But something odd seemed to happen to Yang as the moment she laid eyes on him a pink flash of energy so brief that you would have to blink to miss it passed her lavender eyes. She grinned widely at him and walked up to him with a swing of her hips. Something didn't bode well there.

"Why, hello there Ladykiller! Funny running into you you here." she winked as she got real close to her fellow blonde. Her hot breath tickled the skin of his neck as her finger ran circles on his chest. Someone was being awfully touchy. Jaune suddenly made a noise of surprise before narrowing his eyes at the grinning busty boxer.

"Is that your hand on my ass?"

Yang didn't say but she did give him a knowing look. And an extra squeeze on his surprisingly firm ass. Man did her training pay off.

"You know it's been a while since you and I got to really hang out. Not to mention I've also noticed that your form has been slacking in combat class lately. How about you and I got off for some more of that 'Special' Training?" she whispered huskily, pressing her body chest to chest with lust lidded eyes. "I know just the work out that accents your hips and strengthens my gluts at the same time. And this time, we won't have our fun spoiled by another girl."

Ruby found the scene in front of her strange. Yang was flirty true, but this was something else. She was never that forward for no reason. And this was Jaune, she had very little reason to seduce him for no reason other then to tease him. And sure, they had done the deed in their room once, but Yang had said it was a one time thing. She turned to Blake, hoping for some insight.

"What's Yang trying to do?"

Blake huffed and responded with irritation, "Your big sister is throwing herself at Jaune, and rather shamelessly if I might add. It's disgusting." she growled with narrowed eyes, watching as her partner ran her hands all over the knight. Couldn't Yang see that he was uncomfortable?

"He doesn't belong to her, he belongs to me!"

"Whaaaaa?" Ruby said slowly before the black bowed ninja ran up to the blondes.

Yang flinched as Blake tore her away from her lover, growling as the black themed girl held his head close to her chest with a look of adoration. Aww, hell no!

"What give's Blake!? You can't come in-between a girl and her future baby daddy like that!" she shouted angrily.

"Baby daddy?!" Jaune gaped, gasping as Blake smothered his face in her chest. Whatever else he had to say was sadly muffled in her heavenly fun bags.

"You must be mistaken, Jaune isn't your baby daddy." she sneered as she ran her hands through Jaune's hair gently, "He's my future husband, the one who will help me reign in a time of peace between humans and faunus! And together with our many many children we will change the world for the better! Isn't that right, Mr. Belladonna?" Blake purred as she snuggled Jaune's face to her face affectionately.

"Mr. Belladonna?" Jaune couldn't help but question, "Wouldn't you take Arc as your last name, Blake?"

A hard slap to his face was Blake's answer before he found himself staring into her glowering yellow eyes filled with lust. He frowned, face twitching as he found her slapping a collar on his chest. Okay, this was some territory he wanted no place in.

"That's mistress to you and a human pet like yourself should not speak unless spoken to, slave."

"What the hell!? What happened to all that equality between humans and faunus you were going on about!? I'm not some sex slave!"

"That's right! That's my man, you damn sex starved pussy!" Yang shouted as she tugged on Jaune's right arm. Blake hissed in her face, pulling back on her own hold of the knight as the two found themselves in a tug of war for their lover. Jaune whimpered at the sound of his arms being pulled and threatening to be torn off.

'Is this what Rachel was talking about? Is this all because of the Spectacles of Eros?' And did his left arm just pop?

Even if Ruby still had no idea what was going on between her friends, she knew that if she didn't help Jaune he would lose his arms. With firm resolve her body became rose petals and shot after her fellow team leader, her speed being more then enough to allow her to switch places with Jaune. Blake and Yang stared in confusion with their small leader between them before swiveling their heads to find the object of their affections.

"Run, Jaune! And don't stop until you've found sanctuary! I'll hold them off as long as I can!" Ruby shouted back to running back of said blond. She struggled to hold back her teammates from running after him as she tackled them to the ground and wrestled them down. Times like this she was glad to have participated in Nora's RWE.

"Damn it, Ruby! That's your future brother-in-law you're letting get away! Don't you want to be an aunt?"

"Not it if means having to share my cookies with my nieces and nephews!"

Sweat ran down Jaune's panicked expression as he fled from the strange scene. First Weiss was acting strange and spouting her love for him, now Yang and Blake? The only one not affected was Ruby! He gave her a salute for her sacrifice and as he found himself taking shelter in a classroom behind a fort of desks he created. Maybe if he hid for a while the effects of the strange glasses would wear off? Suddenly, the hint of mulch and flowers hit his nose. He knew that smell all too well now. His face dropped in horror as his eyes finally noticed who's classroom he had run into. The sound of the door locking and a giggle only sealed his fat.

"Darling, it's so nice of you to drop by after work hours. I've been so lonely in here, grading papers and such that I've been needing a pick me up. I'd been hoping for you to stop by."

A shadow fell over Jaune's little fort, causing him to slowly turn his eyes up to the smiling face of Professor Antheia. The orange haired teacher had tossed aside her sunhat and dropped off her armor as she undid her hair to fall over her shoulders. Her usually shut eyes were open, revealing her blue eyes filled with the same scary emotion he found in the other girls.

"Hey, Professor Antheia! Funny running into you here." he said with a shaking smile.

Professor Antheia pouted, jumping over his only mean of defense as she plopped down on his lap. He gulped as the plant loving teacher leaned dangerously close and got comfortable. It was at this moment he realized something; she was wearing a skirt and a regular old blouse instead of her usual wear. And she was not wearing any undergarments what so ever.

"Darling, you know you don't have to address me as such. A fiance is allowed to call his future wife by her name, it's only natural." she said gently as she undid the buttons to his uniform shirt.

'Aww, great! As if I didn't have enough problems to deal with Professor Antheia as it is! Though not much has changed much other then the husband stuff.' Since when was he engaged? He began to panic once the teacher tore off his shirt and left him bare chest. Now her fingers had strayed to his belt as she slowly ground against his rising member. Could you really blame him for such a reaction?

"What are you doing?"

The professor seemed surprised at the question before smiling lovingly, "I'm only performing my wifely duties seeing as you seem so stress. And I've been itching for some fun for a while now. Won't you please fulfill your own duties as a husband and let your wife quench her thirst with your seed?" she said hotly as she pressed her lips against his neck to trail kisses down slowly.

What kind of disillusioned thoughts did these glasses create?! Jaune winced, biting his inner cheek as she continued her butterfly kisses to the real object of her desires all while looking up at him with eyes of lust. At this rate he wasn't sure he was going to be able to resist. And a part of his mind was cheering at that.

Luckily, or unluckily if you were Jaune's libido, a hero had heard his silent call for help! The desk fortress he had created and was pressed against was sliced to fine pieces, causing him to fall back with Professor Antheia's head falling face first to his crotch. Something she didn't mind until he was yanked off the ground by the nosy intruder. She looked back up with a scowl, her blue eyes meeting a cold set of blood red.

Jaune frowned, sighing as Tsuki had somehow tied him up in less than a minute and hulled him over her shoulders. Tsuki wasn't any better then Professor Antheia.

"And just what do you think you're doing, Ms. Yumi?" Antheia growled as she matched the younger but bustier woman's glare.

"I'm taking my deadbeat husband back to the tribe. It wouldn't do our child well to hear about her father partaking of such ill acts with another woman that wasn't her mother." she said stoically before frowning as she glanced back at Jaune, "And where is your wedding ring, dear? Don't tell me you've taken it off to flirt with single woman again." she glared.

Jaune found his eye doing that spazzy twitch again, "Their are several things wrong with everything you've just said. One, I don't have children. Two, I'm not married. And three, if that was all true, why the hell am I being labeled as some deadbeat husband that flirts with woman as if it was the norm? What kind of bullshit fantasy are you seeing!?" he shouted in annoyance. He was losing his patience with all these random shenanigans. Seemed these magical glasses did more then attract woman, they had the power to alter memories as well.

"What do you mean 'husband'? My darling belongs to me, clearly you must be mistaken." Professor Antheia smiled dangerously.

To that, Tsuki simply unbuttoned her uniform shirt, reached into her bountiful cleavage, and pulled out a stamped and sealed document, all while never losing her stoic expression. In her rummaging, she had let go of Jaune. With his arms tied together, he could only lean over and examine the document. His eyes shout open wide as his brain shut down.

"This certificate signed by the following, Jaune Arc and Tsuki Yumi, under the law of all four kingdoms of Remnants, dictates under god, or gods, that the two are legally wedlock as husband and wife." he read out loud dully, his eyes blank as he felt his soul try to escape his body.

Professor Antheia cracked her knuckles. Lies, all lies! Her white knight would never marry another woman!

"We even have a child, take a look." Reaching into her cleavage again, she showed off a picture of the happy family. Jaune wasn't sure he could ever find the words to what he was seeing as he gazed at a family portrait of himself in a tuxedo and Tsuki in a beautiful velvet dress with a small pig tailed raven girl standing in front of them with blue eyes smiling at the camera. The little girl couldn't have been more then eight years old. And she even wore a smaller version of his pumpkin pete's hoodie.

'Shenanigans, I call fucking shenanigans!'

It seemed the orange haired teacher had enough. A dark glint lit up her eyes as she summoned her wooden staff from out of nowhere. It's hook then ignited with flames, coursing fire to envelop it as she raised it towards the harpy with her love.

"Seems Ms. Tsuki had an unfortunate accident, darling. How sad we could never find her body. But you know the Grimm, they simply love to devour trash." she said menacingly.

Tsuki sighed at the threat. Looked like she was going to have to fight off another woman. Moving Jaune behind her, she stepped up to the plant loving teacher as she cracked her neck.

"Dear, tell Luna that supper will be late tonight. You'll get a good talking to once this is over as well."

Jaune didn't give response back to that. He simply turned for the door and thanked god that it was left wide open. With his hands tied up, he quickly slammed his back against the door and held it there as an explosive boom shook its frame.

"I gotta find Rachel." he said simply, the twitch in his eye only growing as another boom hit the door, "She's the only one who can help me. I can't trust any girl other then her to get these god forsaken glasses off me."

"High Leader Nikos, I believe we've found the target!"

Jaune froze, his face blank and devoid of emotion as he slowly turned his head to the end of the hall. Before his very eyes, a small army of woman dressed in gold plated gladiator armor and red capes marched along behind their commander. Pyrrha Nikos, his best friend and partner, led the march with a decorated cape of her own on a white horse. Her armor had been polished to shine like glittering gold and her hair had been undone to flow behind her back. She was actually more breathtaking then ever.

It was too bad she had the same look as the other girls did. And somehow she had recruited Yang, Weiss, Blake, and even Velvet and Coco into her ranks.

Pyrrha smiled kindly to the saluting troop. She would do well in rewarding the girl. Perhaps five minutes with her knight would suffice. But right now, she needed to return him back to her chambers. It had been to long since she had felt his callous fingers running over body.

"Hello, Jaune. Won't you please return to our bed without a fight?" Pyrrha asked kindly, only to get a furious shake of the head from her lovable knight. He was such a hardheaded goof. But fighting only made her want him more. "Then it seems I must bring out my Enforcer." she said sternly with narrowed eyes.

Jaune looked at her flatly, "It's Nora, isn't it?" he said bluntly.

Pyrrha nodded happily, "It's Nora."

Nora nodded her head gleefully, appearing out of no where in her own gladiator armor, "Yeah, it's me. Sup, Jaune-Jaune?" she waved without a care. Typical Nora. Even under the effects of Eros, she was still herself. He didn't know if that was a good or bad.

'Yeah, no. Fuck this shit, I'm out.' That was a god damn army of woman lead by his teammates. He could see a banner with his face on it for crying out loud! And every girl part of it had eyes of adoration on them. There was no way in hell he was going along with that.

'But this is a once in a lifetime opportunity! An orgy of woman with eyes only on you! Aren't you a man!?' The traitorous part of him cried.

Death by sex was not on Jaune's bucket list. That had nearly happened with Yang and he didn't want to experience it again. With that in mind, he turned away from the army of woman and activated Gale Speed, vanishing like the wind. He dared not to turn back and see if they followed.

From that moment on, Jaune ran from Beacon and its army of female soldiers chasing after him. Even as he fled to Vale, he was careful in sneaking into the nearest air ship to hijack. With her magical abilities, Rachel watched the blond knight escape into an aerial ship into the clouds as the woman of Vale followed closely in their own armada of military ships. She floated above the spire of Beacon's tower while seated in a table as she dined on pastry treats via magic. Rachel chuckled as she watched the army board the ship and demand him to strip and hand himself over. Even without her magic, she could make out a faint 'NEVER' in the air.

"Jaune Arc, what an amusing mortal. I can't remember the last I've been entertained as so." she said fondly as she sipped her tea. Faintly an old memory, one distorted and broken came back to her. She closed her eyes, finding a man with a blurred face wearing a red trench coat and white spiky hair lazily wave to her with a cleaver like sword. Sadly the image vanished and his appearance was deleted from her memory.

Rachel supposed staying in this world for a while wouldn't be so bad. She could always help the young summoner to flourish his skills. And as gift for the recollection of a memory that should no longer exist, she would free him from the Spectacles of Eros.

After another hour. This was too entertaining to stop now.

---

The finale of our little arc is nigh! Let's play a game. Your resolve, how strong is it? How long will you last before you too fall alongside the others? Life's a game, why not have fun with it? How much will you bet against the odds of you falling to the same fate as all heroes?

Everyone has a reason for surviving this long. Can you discover the resolve of a mischievous, selfish Soul?

Man, does it feel good to publish again. You know, we're almost at a thousand reviews and Favorites. People, we're so close! Let's make this story something worth mentioning!

Honestly, we would have had this chapter uploaded by Saturday, but my Beta had been busy helping to rewrite the Cardin and Blake scene. I'd honestly be lost without him. You know he's just published a new story, The Last of his Name. I won't say no more, but if you want to give out some appreciation for the cleaner edits, give a chance. I know I can't wait to read the next chapter.

With the next chapter already under way, we're nearing the end of the Volume for now. With that in mind, I've been pondering my next fic to fill the space after my break to fill Multiplayer's spot until it's up again during Volume 5. I'll be working on two more one-shots for ArcWorks and then deciding on their popularity and how I feel about them whether I should upload the first chapter. So, look out for that.

I'm sure I had more to say, but I'm coming up blank for the moment. Been writing all day in my new work desk. If you all have any questions, you know what to do! I need some sleep, work is calling me early tomorrow.

Read and Review, it's common courtesy.

NeoShadows fading in and out.