Disclaimer: I (still) don't own RWBY. And if I did, and RWBY were like this, it'd be rated M for gore alone.
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Rise of the Sisterhood
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"It was you!"
Ren saw the white-themed heiress point an accusing finger at Pyrrha, but like most of the group he ignored her for the moment-
"Don't ignore me!"
"Weiss, do you mind?"
-because there were more important things going on-
"Yeah, my sister is kinda falling to her death right now."
-and more important people going down.
Ren had an advantage, being able to see what others could not. To see Jaune's essence as it enveloped both sword and spear as they flew through the air. To see the moment they separated- the moment Jaune emerged from within Crocea Mors and pushed it and Milo apart, missing the falling girl both above and below in a trajectory gravity alone would not have allowed. He saw Jaune's ghost, dragged by the sword into the wall, reach out and expand the scabbard into a shield, one stuck half-in the wall.
But even he gasped when Ruby hit the wall, back of the head first, and visibly blacked out.
"Ruby!" Yang screamed in horror, almost looking ready to jump off the walkway herself. It'd be suicide, of course- even with her gauntlets to propel her, it'd be a long fall to the bottom of the canyon with or without her.
"She caught it!" Pyrrha shouted at the same time, in hope, as Ruby's hand caught on the shaft of Milo.
"But how-?" Blake began, confused, even as Ruby dangled by one arm and didn't respond to their shouts.
"It's Jaune," Ren said, staring hard.
Even though they could only see the effects, he had seen the actions- of Jaune, moving from his shield, grab onto Ruby as best he could. One ghostly hand held hers around Milo, a death-grip if there ever was one. The other, almost coaxing, touched her head. Ruby's body shifted just so- rocking in the non-existent wind- until the feet found the shield and it slowly stood on it. Only once it was safely aboard the board did Jaune reach for the cloak and begin to levitated it up and over the spear in the start of a knot.
"He's puppeting her," Ren summarized.
"He can do that?" Blake asked, as curious as she was relieved.
"He's been doing that with his own body," Pyrrha reminded. "I didn't know he could do that to others," she said, looking at Ren.
"Well, normally they can't-" Ren began, only to be interrupted by Yang.
"Didn't know, don't care," Yang claimed, still pale from shock. "I just know Ruby's not falling to her death because of him. I'd kiss him myself if his lips weren't in the stomach of a Grimm right now. I can forgive a little touchy-feely this time." She paused. "Is he being touch-feely?" she asked Ren.
"He's holding her hand to the spear and tying her cloak," Ren passed.
"Alright, then he doesn't die," Yang ruled. "Probably my favorite boy alive right now."
"About that," Weiss began, glaring meaningfully at Pyrrha.
"WOOHOO! You da man, Jauney Boy!" Nora shouted over her. "Wave if you're da man!"
Below them, Ruby's free hand waved towards them.
"Like I was saying-" Weiss tried again.
"Think we can get over to them while that Nevermore is still around?" Blake wondered, pointing at the giant bird-Grimm that had flown into and gotten stuck within the 'birdcage.'
"We should probably help them," Pyrrha agreed, making to move down the walkway to a possible approach towards Jaune and Ruby.
"Not so fast, Pyrrha!" Weiss interrupted. "I think it's about time we-"
"Weiss, can this wait? I think Ruby's waking up," Yang said.
Ren's eyes widened. That wasn't good, and he could hear the gasps as the reasons why became evident. Ren could see Jaune's grip on Ruby's hand lessen- slipping away like water over a stone as life returned to the little girl. Ruby's grip on Milo weakened and let go. Her legs, locked as they were, saw her body begin to tilt forward over the ledge.
"Not again!" Yang whispered, heart in her throat.
But Ren still saw Jaune- saw him pulling, tugging on the hood with all his might. Saw him go into the cloak, just as he had Crocea Mors before, and saw the cloak tug and pull Ruby back against the wall. They all let loose a breath of relief as the girl came to her senses and re-gripped Milo.
"She needs to stop doing that to me," Yang swore as Ruby pulled herself up onto Milo. Idly, Ren watched as Jaune slipped out of Ruby's cloak once more to recover his sword and shield from the wall. The shield levitated- was held, really- upwards to eye level with Ruby.
"What are they saying?" Blake asked, watching Ruby's move from a distance.
"Don't know," Ren admitted. "Even if I could hear Jaune, they're too far away."
"Think they'll kill Big Bird?" Nora asked, recalling why Ruby had made the leap in the first place. Ren watched Jaune snap his shield closed and pass it to Ruby.
"That would be ridiculous and reckless," Weiss began, "which is why that dunce is probably going to try," she concluded, holding a hand out. Trembling in visible effort, a glyph began to form far away on the tower wall before Ruby.
"I'll make them a bit lighter," Pyrrha said, stepping beside her and holding out her own hand as well.
The rest of them- too far away to help, out of range and unable to participate- could merely watch as Ruby prepared her run. Only Ren could see the moment Jaune slipped into Ruby's cloak once more, re-possesing it, but everyone could see how it began to move around her- and how, when Ruby began her wall run, she ran with her cloak rather than against it.
The held their breath. They gasped when the bird bit at Ruby, and thanked Jaune for moving the cloak out of the way. And they celebrated when she made her swung, and cheered her as she won.
"We won! We did it!" Nora cried, picking up Ren by the armpits and spinning him around. "Jaune's going to be fine!" she exclaimed, beaming at Ren.
"About that-" Weiss began, but Yang was too motivated too.
"Ruby's good too!" Yang cheered, hitting Weiss on the back. "You won't need Pyrrha as a partner after all," she teased in good-natured relief.
"I don't want that," Weiss said, "considering that Pyrrha-"
"Jaune!" Ruby yelled from across the chasm. It wasn't a good sound.
"What's going on?" Blake asked.
"Ruby! What happened to Jaune?" Yang hollered.
The young girl's distress is palpable. "He's gone!" Ruby shouted back. "He was there for a moment, and then just… stopped moving! Not even his weapon!" Ruby said, holding it out.
"You lost Jaune?" Nora shouted.
"You can lose a ghost?" Blake wondered, wishing she knew how in case one ever decided to stalk her.
Ren stepped forward and peered as best he could. Jaune wasn't floating about, that was good. And there wasn't a specter's shine to show he'd possessed Crocea Mors.
"Can you see him?" Yang asked Ren.
Ren shook his head, trying to remember all the lore he'd ever read. What could make Jaune disappear even from him? Briefly he remembered Jaune, flickering outside his blade… "No," he admitted, concerned. "Bring back everything you can!" Ren shouted to Ruby down below. The girl, while nervous, nodded, and began to handle Jaune's upper torso.
"Does this mean… Ruby killed Jaune?" Pyrrha asked. She didn't sound aggrieved- in fact, she almost sounded excited.
"Don't you even start!" Weiss snapped. "Murderer!"
That got notice, finally. "Weiss, what's gotten into you?" Blake asked.
Jaune, Ren wanted to crack, remembering an earlier blood flick. But now wasn't the time for such jokes, he wasn't the guy to make them.
"We can't trust her!" Weiss accused the Mistrali champion. "She'll stab us in the back! Or in the throat!"
"That's a pretty extreme accusation," Ren agreed.
"Yeah, Weiss, don't be Pyrrhanoid," Yang cracked.
"How can you say such a thing?" Nora asked.
"I thought it was good," Yang replied, before she realized Nora hadn't been speaking to her.
"Because it's true!" Weiss insisted, all attention on her. "It was Pyrrha, in the forest, with a giant spear in to the throat! We can't trust her!"
"I resent that insinuation," Pyrrha said calmly, looking towards Milo still in the wall. "It's not that big."
"It was through his throat," Weiss repeated, emphasizing the important part.
"He was like that when I found him," Pyrrha said.
"Dead!"
"No, I'm pretty sure he was alive," Pyrrha countered. "He was moving everything."
"He was a zombie!"
"Weiss?" Nora asked, entering the conversation, "how do you know how Jaune died?"
"I was there! I saw him nailed to a tree!"
"And you left him there?" Nora asked.
"Whoa, that was cold, Weiss," Yang whistled. "Weiss cold, even. Eh? Eh?" she asked her audience.
There was a moment of silence as no one dared acknowledge it, lest they encourage her.
"Regardless of your choice to abandon a fellow student in his time of need," Pyrrha began.
"Hey!"
"How do we know you weren't the one who put him there in the first place?" Pyrrha asked.
"WHAT?!" Weiss shouted, affronted. "Why would I use your spear to kill Jaune?" she asked.
"Sounds like a dirty trick to throw off suspicion," Blake said, giving Weiss a suspecting look. "Just like Schnee Dust Corporation does with their workers' pay."
Weiss bristled, but strove to rise above such an obvious truth. "Why would I use Pyrrha's spear to kill Jaune?" she repeated.
"Well, you were being a fan girl when you tried to recruit her to be your partner," Yang remembered.
"This is true," Pyrrha said politely.
"And she seemed more interested in Jaune than you," Yang recalled.
"This was also true," PYrrha said with only slightly rosy cheeks.
"So…" Yang trailed off.
"Maybe she wanted to bump off a rival for her intended partner," Blake speculated darkly. "Then she'd frame Pyrrha before offer to use her family's legal resources to keep Pyrrha out of trouble."
"I would never do such a thing!" Weiss claimed.
No one believed her. "Gratitude if Pyrrha didn't realize, and blackmail if she did," Ren realized, almost impressed by the craftiness. "The Schnees sure don't play by half-measures."
"Are you even listening to me? And why would I even want to kill Jaune!" Weiss demanded. "I wasn't that desperate for Pyrrha as a partner!"
"Ooh, maybe it was a love triangle!" Nora exclaimed excitedly.
"A lover's feud?" Blake asked, attention caught.
"Jaune did seem pretty into Weiss," Yang recalled. "And Pyrrha was almost as interested in him as Weiss was in her. Maybe she didn't want the rival of a different sort."
"Yang, if I killed every unwanted suitor, there'd have to be a dedicated morgue for all of them!"
Yang paused, considering. "Is there?" she asked, channeling her little sister.
"No!"
"I don't think there was a love triangle," Ren voiced, entering into the debate.
"Thank you!"
"After all, we all only met yesterday at best. Anyone becoming so invested in such a brief time in a first encounter- willing to spear someone to a tree for the next four years of their life- would be utterly preposterous, as ridiculous as 'love at first sight," Ren opined.
"Exactly!" Weiss said, as there were chuckles (one nervous) all around. "Love at first sight is ridiculous, and I for one wouldn't be caught dead indulging it!"
There was a pause for dramatic irony. Or wonderment.
"Weiss, that was a poor pun about Jaune," Blake tisked.
"Leave it to the experts," Yang agreed, nodding.
"So maybe it wasn't love," Nora said, arms behind her head. "Maybe Weiss just wanted friends."
"Uh, I, er- I do not!" Weiss claimed.
There were some stares. Weiss looked down, pushing her pointer figures together, and muttered a confession to soft to hear.
"And so Weiss thought helping Jaune manage his landing strategy would be a good way to become friends, and stole Pyrrha's spear so that Pyrrha would come looking, and decided to use Pyrrha's spear to catch Jaune during his landing strategy so that they could all become teammates and friends!"
"That sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to do," Pyrrha opined.
"She did make her way to Jaune pretty quickly," Yang said. "Those brown notes couldn't have been more than five minutes after impact."
"She must have been seen that she missed and been horrified," Blake realized, pityingly. "If only she were perfect, or even just as good as Pyrrha, she might not have missed."
"But I- I- I- didn't," Weiss mumbled.
"We know. It's alright, Weiss," Pyrrha said, placing a comforting hand on Weiss's shoulder. "Jaune pulled through thanks to his semblance- sorta- so we can forgive you. It wouldn't have been the only time you killed Jaune," she said.
"You did let him fall from a truly remarkable height," Ren recalled, remembering the impact before the Deathstinger fight.
"Yeah, we were pointing and hollering and everything!" Nora reminded.
"You sure let Jaune down, Weiss," Yang punned. "Hard. Why didn't you use your glyphs?" she asked.
"I- well- that is," Weiss began, trying to regain her footing. "I thought he had a landing strategy?" she asked, helpless.
Pyrrha shook her head. "Didn't we all," she claimed.
"And what do you mean I killed him then?" Weiss asked, vigor returning, pointing to the body that Ruby was slowly carrying along the stone paths despite missing… stuff. "He has his semblance! Just look at him!" she pointed.
Ruby- somehow aware at how she'd became the subject of attention, jumped away from the accusing finger. Jaune's body didn't follow, and fell with a squishy thump. Ruby gave another cry of distress and worry.
"I dunno, Weiss," Blake said. "He looks dead to me. Didn't you say we shouldn't catch him?"
"Well- that's- uh," Weiss defended. "It's Ruby's fault!" she shouted the accusation.
"Me?" Ruby asked, shocked and horrified from afar.
"Ruby?" Yang echoed, before giving Weiss a look. "You… fiend! How can you blame Ruby for that?" she shouted. Ruby teared up in the distance.
"Well, she didn't catch him either!" Weiss defended. "And neither did you- even though she was asking you!"
"Technically, she didn't ask me to help," Yang recalled. "She just said she needed it."
"Shame, shame, Weiss," Blake tutted. "Trying to pass the buck like that. None of this would have happened had you simple secured Jaune in their air rather than talk about him until impact."
"You really had it out for Jaune, didn't you?" Nora asked.
"First you broke his heart," Yang said melodramatically.
"Then his spine," Pyrrha reminded.
"Oh, come on!" Weiss protested. "That was the impact!"
"And his eardrums!" Nora contributed.
"I can believe that one," Blake commented, putting a finger to her ear.
"This isn't fair!" Weiss protested. "How did I become the bad girl here? He shouldn't have been up there in the first place! How'd he ever get thrown in the first place?" she demanded. "That's who killed him!"
"That would be the Deathstalker," Ren remembered.
"Though the Deathstalker only did so because because we went into the cave," Pyrrha pointed out.
"Whose idea was that?" Blake asked.
"Nora's," Ren remembered.
"Then it was Nora's fault!" Weiss charged.
"Ren!" Nora appealed in protest. "But- you didn't stop me!"
"I tried," Ren reminded, "and you did bring the cave down on him."
"Because you told me to!"
"Don't be too hard on her, Ren," Pyrrha kindly suggested.
"Pyrrha!" Nora exclaimed, gratitude in her eyes.
"Even if she hadn't, the Deathstalker still speared Jaune and still would have thrown him," Pyrrha reasoned. "So Jaune still would have died at impact because Weiss didn't catch him," she reasoned. "Last murderess wins," she suggested.
"What? How is this back to me?" Weiss demanded. "Yang didn't help either! If that's how it is, then, well- he still would have died when he fell of the bridge and Blake hanged him!"
Blake's eyes widened as the memory of the audible snap. "His neck was already like that when I got there?" she hedged, laughing nervously.
"Is there anyone here who hasn't killed Jaune?" Pyrrha asked them all.
Ren raised his hand- but everyone really looked towards Yang when she stopped her hand mid-raise.
"I might have set him on fire in the Nevermore's gullet," Yang confessed nervously. She rallied with her own defense. "But that was after I slayed him with my killer puns."
The group leg out a sigh and shook their heads, even as Ren remained the only person with a raised hand.
"You're not raising your hand, Pyrrha," Weiss weakly pointed out, drained from so many efforts to pin the blame like a certain someone had pinned a body to a tree. A certain someone who was not her, damn it!
Pyrrha maintained an air of regal decorum. "It was my blade that that did the first harm, and I have never denied it," Pyrrha said. "That makes it my burden, no matter how it came to leave my side. Had I been more careful with my weapon- had I kept better watch over it- today may have never come to past. I will take responsibility, no matter who is at fault," Pyrrha vowed. "Do not blame Weiss," she told her fellows. "If anyone is to be blamed, it is me."
"Wow, Pyrrha," Yang said, and most of the group thought, impressed by her selfless maturity in assuming that blame. She wasn't the only one who shot Weiss a dirty look.
"But my friends, I do not think we should dwell on troublesome questions such as 'who killed Jaune,'" Pyrrha continued. "Such accusations will only divide us against each other fruitlessly. Did we not all come together because of this tragedy? Are we not all guilty?"
"I'm not," Ren pointed out.
Pyrrha shook her head and continued over him. "Nay, I say we are all innocent- because Jaune survived, in a sense, despite us all and because of us all- for did we not all save him from the belly of a monster of Grimm? No matter where he is now, I know he bears us no ill-will. Instead, we are all bonded through this. My friends," she said, looking at Nora, and Weiss, and Blake, and Yang in turn, "we are practically family bound by blood- Jaune's blood," she said.
She let that sink in.
"We are the Sisterhood Who Murdered Jaune."
There was a beat.
"Yay!" Nora cheered. "Group hug!" she ordered, pulling everyone together, bloody bodies and all.
"Why am I part of this?" Ren grunted as he was crushed in with the rest of them. Many a man would have loved to be smothered in such conditions- or maybe not, depending how one felt about gore-stained clothes.
"You can be our honorary member," Yang suggested from one side. "Just slit his throat with your blade to make it official."
"I can't believe I'm part of these lunatics," Weiss sighed. "I can't believe I am one of these lunatics," she realized.
"I've never been a member of a cult before," Blake mused.
"Sisters," Pyrrha began, the first to step away from the mass, "and Ren," she added, "though we understand what has transpired here, I fear many will not. Until we find Jaune's spirit again- if we ever do- I fear that being honest about what happened here will only cause confusion and… complications," she said.
"You want us to lie?" Blake asked.
"We can't lie to the Professors!" Weiss objected.
"I prefer… selectively honest," Pyrrha hedged. "We could try to explain how you hung Jaune over a bridge- or how Weiss let him fall out of the sky- but how could we prove Jaune walked away from those if he's not around to prove it?" she asked rhetorically. She shook her head. "But even if we had not harmed his body… the Grimm would still have killed him," she pointed out. "The deathstalker speared and cut him in three. The nevermore consumed him. Would he have survived those anymore than he survived us?" she asked. "Let us be honest on that," she suggested.
"So… Grimm did it?" Blake asked.
"And we waged an epic battle to avenge our dear friend and recover his body," Nora cheered.
"I can't believe I'm going along with this… but fine," Weiss agreed. "It's best if we all have the same story."
From his position outside the circle- and free of incrimination himself- Ren saw as Yang turned and hurried towards Ruby, who was finally approaching them with the top of Jaune's body. The black-dressed girl was clearly still upset, and looked at Yang with sorrowful eyes.
"Yang," Ruby begged, pleaded, "Jaune's not talking. He promised he's stay, but after I cut the Nevermore and his body came out-" she lifted up Jaune's body, and revealed one last wound- a single scythe cut, right up the center of the chest, splitting bone and opening the ribs like a horrific butterfly.
"Weiss might be right. I think I killed Jaune," Ruby confessed.
Yang gave her sister a hug. "Join the club, Ruby," she said comfortingly.
Away from them, the rest of the sisterhood watched. They could see what Ren could- even though they couldn't see what Ren could- because even Ren couldn't see a ghostly aura on Crocea Mors, or in the body, and the only movement of Ruby's cloak was the natural breeze they could all feel. Again, the image of Jaune's ghost flickering even from his sight rested in his mind.
Only one of their number didn't look despondent at that moment. Only Pyrrha, who had turned around to give the sisters privacy- but had a maniacal grin on her face as she pumped her fist.
'I can't believe I got away with that!' Pyrrha mentally cheered.
/
"I can't believe she got away with that," Ozpin admitted, impressed, having listened to the conversation through the scrolls the children carried.
"It appears Ms. Nikos's skills are not limited to the arena," Glynda said. "Impressive- especially as she listed interpersonal skills as her own personal weakness."
"Deception and misdirection are classic skills in combat between warriors of high caliber," Ozpin mused. "I suppose desperation and need pushed her forward."
"She need not have been concerned," Glynda said, chiding from a distance, "considering that Mr. Arc's condition would not have been held against her."
"Oh?" Ozpin hummed, taking a sip of his coffee and inviting her to continue.
"Indeed," Glynda said. "Were Mr. Arc a capable student, he would have been able to capitalize on the opportunity and factor it into his own landing strategy," she said. "And were he not a capable student, then the blame for his death would fall on the one who literally threw him to his death after granting him admission," Glynda continued, giving a hard look to Ozpin.
Ozpin took another sip of coffee, admitting and denying nothing.
Glynda sighed, not having expected him to. "Do recall, according to law, Academies have twelve hours to report the deaths of all students who fail Initiation," Glynda reminded. "I expect you to inform the Arcs yourself," Glynda said, turning away.
"You want me to inform the father his son is dead?" Ozpin asked.
Glynda stilled. "No," she admitted. "I expect you to tell his mother."
Ozpin took another sip of coffee, but couldn't suppress the shaking of his hand.
/
The ride back to Beacon had been a somber, tiring affair- or at least, they had been somber and tired during it as day gave way to dusk. Ignoring the look from the bullhead pilot dispatched to retrieve them, they loaded their cadaver cargo and were too drained to care about their own appearances. The adrenaline having run out awhile ago, they could barely manage small-talk, if that.
Yang made a joke about how vomit boy didn't have a ghost of a chance of earning the name again considering his lack of stomach. Ren didn't, couldn't, answer Ruby's worries about Jaune's state, not when he couldn't see where the ghost boy was. Blake quietly nibbled on something from her snack pouches, and didn't offer to share.
There were met on the Beacon landing grounds by a portly professor named… Port. Who had more than enough energy for the seven of them.
"Great Walker Scott," Port exclaimed, "you bunch seem to have had a good time! I hear you had quite the adventure yourselves, eh?" he greeted. "You certainly look like it!"
Yang looked at Nora. Nora looked at Yang. Both still had blood on their face.
"Sure. Adventure. Let's go with that," Yang said.
"Bully!" Port exclaimed. "You can tell Headmaster Ozpin all about it! I understand they've breathlessly been awaiting your return since the initiation ceremony!"
Weiss's eyes widened. "Waiting on us since the ceremony? That means we're late! Come on, Ruby!" she worried, panic energizing her.
"Not so fast, Ms. Schnee," Port obstructed. "I understand one of your friends is in need of medical attention?" he prompted.
"He's under the left seat, Professor," Weiss said, before dragging Ruby away.
"And the right seat," Ren informed, following with his partner.
"I buckled him in the middle seat!" Nora called as she was dragged away.
"Grimm did it!" Pyrrha called as she ran past.
"Children, these days. So hasty. Can't even give me one place to- oh my," Port said, looking at what was inside. Yes, Jaune was under the left seat- and the right seat- even has his upper half was slumped over the safety restraints on top of the middle seat. Blake was the last one in the bullhead, fiddling with her pouches.
"Why, I haven't seen a scene of such gruesome carnage since my own youth," Peter exclaimed. "The last time any monster tried to cut me into so many pieces, I had to fight to keep my own organs!"
"Did it try to eat your kidneys?" Blake interrupted, hopping out.
"Only one, my dear," Peter boasted. "Before the rapscallion could try for the second, I-"
"Here you go, then," Blake said, handing over two meaty kidneys- one intact, one half-eaten. "Grimm did it," she gave as an explanation, licking her lips. "I'd say eat your heart out, but… Grimm took that too," she claimed, and ran after her comrades.
Peter watched her go, before taking a look back at Jaune.
"Well, my boy," he said, "I think you have one story even I can not match," he conceded.
Jaune's head, leaning over the safety belt, remained frozen with the tongue hanging out.
"But I shall try anyway!" Peter rallied with gusto. "When I was your age, during my own initiation-" he began as he began to gather the body parts.
/
"And here we have our final graduates," Ozpin greeted as they finally entered the Headmaster's office. "Thank you for finally arriving," he said.
"Our apologies for missing the ceremony, Headmaster," Weiss said politely, speaking for the group. "We would have been here sooner, but someone-" a quick glare at a sheepishly grinning Ruby- "hit all the buttons on the elevator by mistake."
"Never fear, Ms. Schnee, I know the reason you were delayed, and an elevator ride would not have made you any earlier for the ceremony" Ozpin said evenly, to their collective relief and Ruby's childish razzberry towards the heiress. "Tell me, Ruby Rose," Ozpin transitioned, catching the little girl with her tongue half out at Weiss. "If I told you not to jump off a bridge, would you do it?" he asked.
Ruby gave a nervous laugh. "Heh heh heh… probably?" she said.
Ozpin raised an eyebrow… but broke a smile. "Well, that is what you are here- to learn," he said. "And you have all passed. Congratulations," he said, and they all loosened as tension left the room. "As you missed the formal ceremony, I've asked you here to inform you of your teams. As you know," he began.
("Do we?" Nora asked quietly, whispering. "Do you, Ren?")
"-students are grouped in teams of four, with each team being identified by acronym. I assume you can see where this is going?" he prompted, hoping to skip the explanation.
"Oooh, I do!" Yang said, suddenly excited. "I got it!" she claimed, and reached out to grab the relevant people. A frenzy of grabbing and pulling later- off-screen dust cloud and all- Yang had arranged her team into the position she wanted.
"Tadah!" She said, posing against the provocatively posed ladies of Yang, Blake, Weiss, and… Pyrrha?
"Nora! P, W, B and Y, and what's that spell?" she asked.
Nora cocked her head and put a finger to her lips. "PWBY?" she strung together.
"Team Puberty!" Yang cheered.
There was a beat.
"Except Weiss. She hasn't really hit it yet," Yang stage whispered. "Late bloomer."
"Hey!"
"There there, Weiss," Ruby comforted, bringing Weiss in for a hug. "Keep drinking milk, and one day we can grow big too," she reassured.
Weiss resisted. "I'm older than you, you dolt," she said, beginning to look down. "I bet you're… oh, that's not fair," she cried, even as Ruby hugged her all the tighter.
Ozpin chuckled, and not at all like a creepy old man. "Close, but not quite, Ms. Xiao Long," he said. "By tradition, we group our teams by colors- and yours is Team RWBY-"
"Ren, no! Don't leave me!" Nora melodramatically wailed.
"-led by Ruby Rose," Ozpin finished.
Ruby perked up. "Yes!" she said, squeezing Weiss ever tighter and preventing any protest.
"Congratulations, Ms. Rose," Ozpin smiled. "Though your judgement may have been… hasty, you showed an initiative, flexibility, and concern for you comrades that will serve your team well."
"Congratulations, Ruby," Blake said with a smile, walking over her on the other side of Weiss.
"I'm so proud of you, sis," Yang exclaimed, approaching as well. "Team Hug!" she exclaimed, squeezing them all together around Weiss.
Weiss was too smothered to speak, crushed in the proof of her own inadequacy.
"As for the rest of you," Ozpin said, gesturing towards the onlookers, "you will be Team JNPR, Juniper, led by Lie Ren."
"Congratulations, Ren," Pyrrha said with a sincere smile.
Ren was stunned. "Me? I can't be leader," he protested. "I barely talk!"
"Since when?" Nora asked even as she gave a celebratory hug. "You talk about ghosts all the time!"
"Not all the time," Ren began, but his protest was cut off by a cough.
"Ahem," Ozpin interrupted. "Speaking of Jaune Arc-"
The room fell silent as the Sisterhood Who Murdered Jaune looked among themselves.
"Grimm did it," Pyrrha was the first to say.
"I know that neck might look fatal," Blake began.
"A little firepower never hurt anyone-
"-the ground really looked much softer than it was-"
"-I was just trying to get him out of the belly-"
Ozpin raised a hand, silencing them. "I am aware of Mr. Arc's… injuries," he said. "I am also aware they are not as… final as one might suspect."
"…do you believe in ghosts?" Ruby dared hope.
"I believe in many things I can not see, Ms. Rose," Ozpin said kindly. "Including, yes, spirits. Is he here?" he asked, looking at the two team-leading mediums.
Everyone was downcast. "Sir, the truth is…" Ren began, looking around one last time. "No. Even I can't see him."
"And I haven't heard him since the battle," Ruby admitted.
"Is he truly… dead?" Pyrrha asked, unsure if to use the term.
"Can we keep him on our team anyway?" Nora wanted to know.
"Did Mr. Arc have any… irregularities before his disappearance?" Ozpin asked the team leaders. "Anything that affected your senses?"
"He was in a Grimm, but we got him out," Ruby remembered.
"I saw a… flickering after that," Ren said. "Like he was there one moment, and not the next. But it resolved itself when we recovered his weapon," he said, even as Pyrrha proffered Jaune's Crocea Mors as he said so.
"Flickering, you said?" Ozpin asked as he examined the sword. Even to Ren's eyes, there was no glow about it.
"Yes sir," Ren said. "But I don't see him in the blade now," he added.
Ozpin closed the blade and handed it back to Pyrrha. "Do not be too concerned, then," Ozpin advised. "It is likely he reached a level of severe aura exhaustion and entered dormancy."
"Dormancy?"
Ozpin nodded. "When spirits exhaust their spiritual reserve- their residual aura from life- they do not end immediately. Instead they go dormant- trapped in a state of non-existence and non-awareness, but from which they may reconstitute if they're near enough a source of their residual aura from life."
"Like their body?" Blake asked, remembering their struggle.
"Or a piece of armor," Ren said.
"Or his weapon!" Pyrrha realized, holding it with greater care.
Ozpin nodded. "Things close to a person in life often leave a sort of residual aura from life," Ozpin said. "Spirits do not generate their own aura like living beings, but absorb it from these residual sources. With time Mr. Arc should regain enough aura imbued in his sources to reform his spirit."
"You said trapped," Yang asked, curious. "Trapped where? The afterlife?"
Ozpin shook his head. "No spirit I have ever heard of has ever remembered anything from dormancy. When I said trapped, I meant wherever they last were in Remnant," Ozpin clarified.
Ruby's eyes widened. "We have to go back!" she started. "Jaune could be at the ruins, and the Grimm-"
Ozpin held up a hand to stop her. "Do not be afraid," he advised the children. "Dormant spirits are beyond even the Grimm. He will come to no harm, and you are in no condition to spend a night in the wilds. It may not even be necessary," he claimed. Ozpin looked at Ren. "You said you could not see him in the blade now?" he asked.
Ren nodded. "When Jaune's possessing his blade- not just holding it, but in it- I can see a glow," he explained.
"Try again in the morning, after you have all had a good night's sleep," Ozpin suggested. "A spirit can reach dormancy within an object- even their own residual aura source. Think of it as needing to rest and recharge."
"So… Jaune's tired of being a ghost?" Yang cracked. "Dead tired, even?"
Ozpin nodded. "Exactly so, Ms. Xiao Long," he said, graciously ignoring everyone's groans. "If your friend is not with you come the morning, feel free to come to me and I will arrange an investigation of the initiation site you last saw him."
"Thanks, prof!" Yang gave a cheery thumbs up- and received an elbow for her irreverence from Weiss.
"Headmaster," Ruby said, speaking up, "how much do you know about ghosts?"
Ozpin smiled mysteriously. "Less than you'd expect, and not as much as I'd like," he said vaguely. "Spirits are rare in Remnant, and for many reasons. Your friend Lie Ren certainly knows more than I do. As mediums, your abilities have long been a burden on you- but now it provides you both with an opportunity to do real good for Remnant. It will be up to the two of you to share what you can and learn from each other- and Mr. Arc- so that we may all rebuild our understanding of spirits. It will be up to you to relearn what has been forgotten," he tasked.
"We'll do our best," Ruby vowed.
"So… we're good with keeping Jaune when he comes back, right?" Nora said just to be sure.
"Certainly. Though Lie Ren," Ozpin warned, calling out the green haired boy. "As his team leader, and the only one who can see him, Mr. Arc's… health and behavior… will be your responsibility," Ozpin warned.
"I understand," Ren acknowledged. He'd already suspected that was why he was made Team Leader.
"Good," Ozpin said, staring meaningfully at both him and Nora. "I expect you two to do your best to make him as good a student as a ghost."
Nora's smile froze, and Ren heart skipped a beat, but Pyrrha stepped past them unwavering. "Then its fortunate he has the best partner alive," Pyrrha said humbly, accepting Ozpin's statement as a challenge.
"It's good to see you taking responsibility," Ozpin traded back. "As a partner, of course."
"Of course," Pyrrha returned, champion's smile unwavering.
The air, the uncertain tension, dispelled when Ozpin clapped his hand. "And that's all for today," he said. "It is late, you all have classes tomorrow, and are likely very tired. Remember what I said, and go get some rest," he dismissed them.
As they filed out the elevator, Blake paused and turned with a final question for Ozpin.
"Is it really alright for him to be in Beacon?" Blake asked, uncertain. "Considering that he's...?" she trailed off.
"Not human?" Ozpin finished, earning a slight wince from Blake and her bow. "Ms. Belladonna, the only requirements for entering Beacon is an application and passing the Initiation," Ozpin shared. "There's no rule requiring students at Beacon to have a pulse."
"Really?"
"Truly," Ozpin affirmed, giving the slightest hint of a smirk. "I should know. I checked."
/
"So that's your plan, Ozpin?" Glynda Goodwitch asked a short term later, visibly fighting to retain her composure. "To let a zombie walk our halls, so that you can avoid a phone call?"
"He's hardly a zombie," Ozpin disagreed lightly. "Besides- it would hardly be fair of me to discriminate against the majority of our species," he said. "The living are the real minority, if you think about it."
"He's a ghost. Most dead aren't," Glynda reminded.
"True enough," Ozpin conceded, "but Mr. Arc still brings a unique perspective and unique talents to our school- just as our faunus students do. I am certain our students will benefit from the experience, and that he can become a worthy huntsman in his own right."
"He died," Glynda repeated yet again. "At the start of initiation. He wasn't suited to be a Hunter. He shouldn't be here. He should never have been here. He never should have been accepted!" she all but shouted in the escalation, accusation hovering.
Ozpin said nothing, weathering the barrage and the unasked question.
Glynda, one of the few people who could sense any guilt behind that mask, softened a fraction. "They deserve to know, Ozpin," she urged.
"It's not a good time," Ozpin admitted softly. "Now while this conspiracy is afoot." Not when an angry father- or an angrier matriarch- could do such harm at a delicate time. Not when a scandal could provide the enemy fatal opportunities.
"And when will be a good time? Months? Years? He could be gone by then," Glynda countered. "Ghosts don't linger forever. Even with his body recovered, residual aura is still limited. He should spend what time he has left with his family," she urged.
Again, Ozpin said nothing.
Glynda sighed. "Forget what I said earlier. I'll make the call myself," she offered, turning.
"You won't."
Glynda stopped. "Excuse me?" she asked.
"You won't," Ozpin said a hint of steel in his certainty, "because it would be against their law. As future Hunters, their information- including medical information- is classified and cannot be released outside the school without their consent. I suspect you'll find that hard to get from him." Without looking at her, Ozpin laid down what it meant.
"As long as Jaune Arc is a student of Beacon, you will not contact his family and divulge his medical condition," Ozpin ordered, steel in his tone.
"His death, you mean," Glynda threw at him.
"Being alive is a medical condition," Ozpin said neutrally. He could have left it there, but they had known each other too long to do so. "I'm sorry it's come to this," he apologized.
Glynda grimaced. She might have preferred a more contentious battle. "I understand why you're doing this," she admitted. "But I believe what you are doing is wrong," she said with the frank honesty he'd always appreciated.
"Perhaps," Ozpin accepted, "but it's not your call to make." And she wasn't- couldn't- be the person to selectively bend and break the rules to suit her. Unlike him, that wasn't who she was. They both knew what- and who- lay down that road. In a sense, she had to follow the rules just as much as she upheld them. It was what made Goodwitch a good witch, and not a bad one.
"Very well. As long as he's a student?" Glynda repeated, echoing his terms. She nodded to herself. "We shall see about that," she said, and walked off.
Ozpin listened to her go, and took a sip of his coffee as he looked over Vale at night.
Which was this, he wondered. Another mistake he would long regret- or one he might yet salvage?
/
It was late by the time they reached their rooms. Team JNPR and RWBY traded weary goodbyes, promising to speak to each other in the morning. The day's experiences, even if they'd only been hours, felt like weeks. They wouldn't be separating any time soon.
Ruby barely paid attention to her team's room as she stumbled in, rubbing sleep from her eye. Too tired to care at how cramped it was with four beds, she trudged to the closest one she could, even as Yang called dibs on the shower. She was barely aware of the comedic argument behind her- of Weiss and Blake's argument of who should go first- as well as the reaction to Yang's salacious reach-out and offer to share the shower.
/
Ozpin looked down at his campus once more, frowning at a hairline crack in the glass that he didn't recall before.
"Ms. Schnee really needs to stop doing that," he murmured. "Perhaps I should have gone for that student counselor after all."
/
But even that wasn't enough to startle her alert her anymore. Deciding to clean herself in the morning- and hey, why not clean sheets then as well- Ruby literally crashed on the bed she chose to call her own.
She tried to stay up a little longer- tried to listen to Blake and Weiss as they commiserated about the blood they were waiting to wash off- but it was hard to focus. Hard to stay awake.
And hard not to think on one thing in particular.
"Blake?" she asked, speaking to the elegant black-haired girl on a whim.
"Yes Ruby?" Blake acknowledged.
"Do you think Jaune will really come back?" she asked.
Blake and Weiss traded a look, and Weiss shrugged. Blake chose to be kind.
"The Headmaster thought so," Blake reasoned. "And Jaune promised you, didn't he?" recalling what Ruby has told them.
"Mmmm," Ruby hummed agreeably, and with a slight smile as she dazed off, somewhere between sleeping and lucid dreaming as she hoped to hear another voice. She didn't even bother to get under the covers of her bed before she drifted off, warmed only by her cape and clothes.
Weiss kindly flipped the light switch, and Blake quietly took out a book and a night light, and they both shushed Yang as they quietly scolded her when she emerged from the shower an hour later.
"Don't wake her," Weiss warned Yang as the older sister wanted to tuck her sister in.
"She'll roll off the cape and get cold. She always does," Yang protested, not wanting her sister to wake in the middle of the night.
"She's so tired she probably won't even notice," Blake argued. "Look at her," she repeated. "She's dead tired."
Yang frowned, and not just at the pun denied to her, but agreed, even if she gave Ruby one of her own sheets none the less. With quick showers and quiet good nights, the day ended. The newly forged team- just a small part of the greater Sisterhood of Murderers- went to sleep.
But there was one last thing to note during that day, for Yang was right. Ruby did roll over in her sleep, and did kick off her sheets, and did start to tremble in the cold late at night as she turned and turned.
But if you were watching carefully, you would have seen that Ruby did not roll off her cloak, but with it- wrapping around and around, warming her from the night chill. You would have seen heard Ruby give a contented sigh, seen her smile just slightly, as she sleepily pulled the cloak tighter.
But only if you were Ren would you have noticed a soft glow as the cloak pulled itself over her and gently tucked itself in.
/
End Week Six
/
/
Omake
Ozpin chuckled, and not at all like a creepy old man. "Close, but not quite, Ms. Xiao Long," he said. "By tradition, we group our teams by colors- and yours is Team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose."
"That's awfully convenient," Yang noted.
Blake raised a hand. "What would you have done if we all partnered with other people that didn't make convenient color acronyms?" she asked.
"They would have reassigned us, obviously," Weiss claimed. "You don't actually think we we were actually teammates and teams by accidental encounters and chess pieces, do you?" she asked.
"That would be rather unlikely," Ren nodded. "The level of coincidence would be astounding."
"Yeah, imagine if you had a team with three 'C's," Nora said. "Like, CCC...E. What name could you make out of that? Team C-Cookie?"
"Ooh, that team sounds delicious!" Ruby perked up.
"Yeah, but it's not a color," Nora pointed out.
"It's really hard to see how any institution could deliberately require itself to only provide team names corresponding to colors," Ren said. "Even with color shades, that would be ridiculously limiting."
"Perhaps that's why there is always a shortage of Hunters," Weiss mused. "Because all the good ones are rejected because they can't make a color name."
"Isn't it an international tradition as well?" Pyrrha recalled.
"Students with useful letters must be in very high demand," Blake speculated.
Ozpin gave a weary smile. "Would you believe I let Jaune Arc into Beacon just so I could have a 'J'?" he asked with a weary chuckle. "Because I totally did."
/
/
Author Note:
And... done! The actual end of the pre-Beacon/Initiation arc, and the lead-in to the first Beacon arc.
This is (probably) the last long chapter like this for awhile. I've just moved, am starting a new (full time) job position, and I'm not going to have the time or opportunity to write as much in the coming months as I have the last few weeks. Changes to update rates may come- though I hope to have at least something posted weekly. At best, expect much smaller chapters, with less narrative prose and more short scenes. And, hopefully, more gags. We all like gags, right?
On the plus side (or not?) the actual plot is starting to take shape and form. My typical inclination for drama just can't be avoided, even with puns and one-liners and banter. We'll see how it works- again, this 'writing as I go' thing is still a novel experience for me.
(Yang approves of pun +1)
But yeah. I like it, and hope you do to, and please give the review on what you do (or didn't) like. Believe it or not, knowing what people like and why is useful- makes it less guesswork all around.