So I haven't replied to comment in the last few chapters so I was going to go through those.
Guest: I'm glad you're okay with the direction I plan on taking the story. Most Jaune/Neo pairings have them falling in love relatively quickly and while that might happen in this story as well it will take some time.
EnriksD8: Yea a lot of this is laziness. After finally getting enough motivation to finish the chapter I'm really bad about rereading the chapter and looking for mistakes.
icemaxprime:thanks
: Thanks and I'm trying to focus more on my spelling and grammar.
Guest: I think you make a good point. It might be unrealistic that neo made it out and the other guy died. But Neo coming off as alive but severely weaken was kind of relevant to the next few chapters.
natsuviKurosaki: WOW WOW WOW Jon is basically like Robb only without any charisma or the ability to win battles. But thanks for the compliment. I agree there aren't enough Jaune Neo stories. I will recommend one, however. Bring the Sunshine by A stereotypical Gamer is great. it's kinda a Harem but it manages to no seem like pure male fantasy. If you haven't read it check it out.
Pyancakery: Yea I wanted to make their force meeting a violent one instead of an emotional one like some stories do.
The 10th Wand: See I've been a little confused. Based on the other uses of Neo semblance I've always assumed it was the ability to create illusions. But I now realize a lot of people think its the ability to teleport. If that was the cause it would be like she had two distinctly different and very powerful semblances.
Svette117: Thanks, I appreciate that.
Toaneo07: Thanks
Engineer1869: Thanks
EiNyx: haha Ozluminati I like it. Yea I thought they kind of backtracked with Jaune's character growth in Vol 5. He just blindly accepted Ozpin's lead again, they ignored the whole subplot with his training to Pyrrha's video, and the only time we see his inner turmoil is with his fight with Cinder.
icemaxprime: I'm not sure. The Oscar/Ruby pairing is one of the only Ruby pairings I actually like but I don't want to distract from the main story but I might hint at it. As far as Neo sowing doubt into Oz what did you mean? Like him losing faith in the cause or the others losing faith in him.
Guest: Thank you. That was the goal. I wanted to show that losing Pyrrha has deeply changed Jaune. And this change is the only way the Neo and Jaune pairing is going to work.
Sevette117-Thanks. That was what I was trying to portray for without going too far overboard.
Guest-Thanks but I wouldn't get your hope up.
The Deserter Angel- I don't know if I'd go as far as too say he's trying to maintain the status quo. I think that when you're as old as him you see everything in the big picture and look at lives as pieces in a game of chess. I believe Ozpin is truly determined to defeat Salem but he's willing to lose a battle to win the war. He'll sacrifice an entire generation of hero's as long as it keeps Salem from an all out victory. But Oscars story is kind of tragic but I suppose it's been like that for everyone who he reincarnated in.
Engineer1869-I think Ozpin, being immortal, views life as just less scared as everyone else does. I think over all he's the good guy just willing to go to extremes to accomplish the greater good.
X3runner-I didn't really think of that similarity when I wrote it but I guess that's true. Yea it's hard to find a balance and if I'm being honest I would say he's more an edge lord than a little toy soldier but again I try not to make it too over the top
Guest-Yea I like Jaune's character but I can see why other's wouldn't. He the characteristic underdog hero and that can seem kind of annoying. I personally didn't Jaune saving Weiss because I was hoping his semblance would be something a little cooler but honestly I can't believe anyone out there actually thought Weiss was going to die.
Also, I forgot to explain in the last chapter but Ozpins powers are still kind of vague. You might of notice that in the last chapter Ozpin was able to do things like telling when people were lying and see through Neo's illusion. I kind of just assumed those might be skills that come with being hundreds of years old.
Chapter 8: A Potential Ally
The information that had gotten from Felix had panned out far better than he had even dared to hope. Apparently, the woman had been too injured or just too arrogant to bother finding a new place to stay. She had clearly been wounded from a previous fight and was weakened enough that Jaune probably could have taken her on himself. After they had knocked her out they had looked through her hotel room to find anything of value and they had not been disappointed. From what Jaune could tell the woman had been gathering information on Cider and the White Fang, for what reason he had no idea but he wasn't going to complain, and he knew the information she did have might be useful to Jaune and his team. On top of that here room was filled with explosives, high-quality dust, and nearly 50,000 lien in a briefcase. He supposed being a criminal came with certain perks. They had decided since Weiss was now staying with them and they would now have a prisoner it would be wise to rent a larger place to stay. And since money was no longer a problem why not go all out.
"You find anything useful in her notes, kid?" Qrow asked.
"Kind of. It seems like she believed Adam Taurus was in contact with Cinder."
"So you're saying that's where we should start?"
"Well, that's going to be a problem. Apparently, he assumed control of the White Fang yesterday when an 'assassin' killed Sienna Khan. I don't think we have anywhere near the strength to go after him." Jaune replied
"We're getting ahead of ourselves. The first thing we should do is see what this young lady has to say when she wakes up. Ozpin interjected.
"Yea that might be a problem. It seems Cinder isn't her only target." Jaune said as he pulled out a picture of Ruby.
"What does she want with Ruby?"
"No idea. But from all the pictures its clear that sh-
"Jauneyyyyy were home!" Nora shouted as she barged through the door.
The three men turned to find the rest of their team coming through the door.
"What's she doing here?" Weiss and Ruby asked in shock.
"I'll stay and guard her is the two of you want to fill them in in the next room," Jaune said to Qrow and Ozpin.
"Sounds good. Be careful. She may seem sweet but she's definitely more dangerous than she appears."
"Yea."
"O and don't drop your guard just cause she gives you a wink and a smile." Qrow laughed.
Jaune just scowled at the man
"So you're telling us that your Ozpin and that you're immortal," Weiss asked in disbelief. "I know it's a lot to take in. Mister Arc had a hard time accepting it as well. But if there's any conversation you recall that only Ozpin would remember simply ask me about it.
"Why did you Qrow and Jaune go out on a lead without us?" Nora yelled, ignoring the part of this kid having the reincarnated soul of a thousand-year-old wizard completely.
"What? That's your question?" Qrow couldn't help but reply.
"Look if you say this kid has Ozpins soul then I'll take you at your word. It no harder to believe then that the story of you trying to give magical powers to Pyrrha. But I want to know why my leader didn't go with us and don't tell me he overslept." She said angrily.
"Look you're going to have to talk to the kid about that. That's his personal business to tell. Unless you have any question about the Relics, Ozpin, or that girl…Neo was it…I think we're done.
Jaune sat in silence as the girl in front of him finally regained consciousness.
She shook her head and she tried to regain her bearing on where she was. She remembered the grenade she had placed on her door going off. She remembered portending to be knocked out as she gained an opportunity to get away, and then she remembered something smashing the side of her head being knocked out for real.
"So your finally awake?"
Neo looked towards the source of the voice and saw a tall blonde boy who she vaguely remembered fighting in the Vytal festival. He was on the team with Pyrrha Nikos id she recalled correctly.
"Hey!" Jaune said snapping his finger to gain her attention, taking Neo back to the present situation. "Why are you after Ruby?"
"Hey!" Jaune said snapping his finger to gain her attention, taking Neo back to the present situation. "Why are you after Ruby?"
Neo attempted to move her hands to signal that she couldn't speak until she realized she her hands where tied. Of course, they had tied her hands. What kind of fool would have just left me free to move?
"I'm waiting," Jaune added in an annoyed tone.
Neo opened her mouth, again trying to get the idea across that she couldn't speak.
"You're kidding me. You can't talk?" Jaune said rubbing his forehead.
Well, at least he's not an idiot. Neo thought. She smiled and nodded her head to explain that he was correct. She then struggled to move her hands and then pointed her nose to the scroll that lay on the table behind him.
"What you think I'm going to untie you? Ruby told me that you defeated Yang on your own. I'm not an idiot. You're far too dangerous to be left unrestrained.
Neo frowned.
"You just have to wait until the rest of my team is here with me."
Neo resigned herself to the situation. After a few minutes watching him look through her notes, she realized she was quite hungry. Their little raid at interrupted her dinner and she had skipped lunch because she was knocked out from the painkillers. She hadn't eaten anything since breakfast.
She stopped her feet on the ground to the boy's attention. When he looked in her direction she opened her mouthed and closed her mouth.
"What? I already told you, you're going to have to wait to write your message down. I'm not untying you."
Neo pouted in silence. She was hungry and she wanted something now. She concentrated and an image of a bowl of ice cream appeared on the table.
"Wow what the hell!" Jaune shouted as he stood up from his chair. The illusion suddenly shattered when he moved."
"So what, you want something to eat?"
Neo smiled and shook her head once more.
"Fine, but after you answer my question? Why are you after Ruby?"
Neo rolled her eyes. Again she used her semblance and summoned an image of Roman. The image was sliced in half by an illusion of the young scythe wielder.
"So you blame Ruby for his death?"
This time Neo just glared at the boy. The anger in her eyes portraying the message that he was correct.
The boy stood up and walked over to the kitchen. He was only gone for a second quickly returning with a candy bar. "I'll get you something more substantial after they're done talking." He said as he unwrapped the candy bar and placed it in front of Neo's face. She eagerly consumed the candy bar. When she got to the final bit of the candy bar she put her mouth around his figures and slowly removed it. It only took a second for him to yank them out of her mouth but when she looked up at her face she was pleased to see that a light plush had formed that he failed to hide. His embarrassment, however, soon turned to anger as he turned to sit back down at the table. He continued to look up from her notes and every time she did she gave him a sly smile. He would then grow annoyed and return to her notes.
"So, how's the prisoner?" Qrow asked as he and the rest of his team walked into the room.
"Fine," Jaune replied flatly.
The deathly glare the women gave Ruby did not go unnoticed by Jaune.
"So I guess we start the interrogation now," Qrow said as he walked over close to Jaune. "Try to keep it under control this time." He said in a low voice so that the rest of his team wouldn't here.
Jaune looked away at the mention of his earlier action. The memory had brought about a horrible sense of shame.
"So, she say anything to you?" Ren asked.
"Not exactly."
"What does that mean?" Weiss asked.
"She's dumb."
"Jaune, I know she's a bad guy but that's still not very nice."
"No, you dolt! He means she can't speak."
"O that makes more sense."
"If we want to interrogate her I'll have to cut her restraints and let her write her responses down," Jaune replied.
"Fine, do it."
Before Jaune moved to release the prisoner he moved in closer to Qrow. "I don't think Ruby should be in here while you question her. This woman has a vendetta against Ruby."
"Your five can get go out and get dinner. Me and Oz will stay behind and question her."
"Sounds good to me!" Nora exclaimed as they all walked out of the room.
"So what sounds good to you all. I'm thinking pizza." Jaune asked the group. His question was met with silence. "Is something wrong?"
"You bet there is," Nora said as she moved in inches from Jaune's face. "You mind telling us why Qrow told us this morning you couldn't go out with us to search for leads because you spent all night training and then we get a call from you 8 hours later telling us that you found a lead on your own."
"Look it wasn't my plan to oversleep. I would have been happy if you all woke me up." He replied nervously.
"That's not the point. You told us you were buying groceries. Why didn't you tell us you where training?"
"Look I saw a gym on the way to the grocery store and got a little carried away." He lied. "If I knew it would worry you this much I would have sent you a message."
Nora seemed to relent at his explanation if a bit reluctantly. "Make sure you do," Nora said with empty anger.
Ruby, however, did not feel content with the explanation but she kept what she knew about Jaune's training habits to herself. She didn't think it right to bring it up in front of everyone else. She mentally reminded herself to bring it up as soon as she got herself alone with Jaune.
"How was it that you, Qrow, and Ozpin where the ones to find Neo? The four of us followed up at least a dozen leads and came up empty-handed." Weiss questioned in a less accusatory manner.
"I guess we just got lucky." He lied once again. "I wanted to join up with you all but Qrow that we would cover more ground if we went out on our own and it turned he was right."
The questioning finally stopped but Jaune noticed a certain skepticism in Ren and Ruby's eyes.
The returned to the house several hours later in good spirits. "I'll see if Oscar and Qrow want some of the leftovers if you all want to head to bed," Jaune said as he took the Pizza box into the kitchen.
"Sound's good to me," Nora replied. The rest of the team soon followed suit.
Jaune was heading towards the room holding Neo but was stopped when Oscar and Qrow came out of the door. "You guys get anything from her?"
"A little bit. Seems she's nearly as mad at Cinder as she is with Ruby. Apparently, Cinder was strong-arming Roman into working with her and because of that, she wants revenge on her as well. She tried tracking her down through the White Fang and that's how she got injured. They ambushed her on one of her raids."
"That's it?" Jaune asked, disappointed at the news.
"Unfortunately. But we'll try again tomorrow. In the meantime, you should get some rest." Ozpin added.
"Tomorrow? If you didn't get any information from her shouldn't we hand her over to the authorities? Keeping her under the same roof as Ruby is dangerous."
"Easy kid. She's restrained and she's still pretty weak from her fight with the White Fang. Right now most of her aura is going towards healing her leg so she shouldn't be a serious threat to anyone in this house."
"Isn't that what the Atlis Military thought about Roman before he took over their flagship?"
"Look Jimmy made some mistakes in regards to Roman. But we'll be more careful with Neo."
"And we shouldn't rule out the possibility of her helping us deal with our common enemy. Her skills could be quite useful in our fight against Salem. And if she believes that she can get her revenge against Cinder by helping us she might be willing to join us…temporarily at least."
"Helping us? Have you lost your mind?!" Jaune yelled as threw the Pizza box on the floor and grabbed Ozpin by the collar. "This isn't a damn game of chess. Your desire to defeat Salem is putting Ruby's life at risk."
"Kid, let go of Oscar," Qrow said rather comely.
Jaune once again remembered he was not merely threatening Ozpin and released Oscar from his grip. "Look even if she could be useful to us it's not worth the risk. We'd have to watch our back at all hours of the day."
Qrow looked at Ozpin to see if they should let Jaune in on another important factor. When Ozpin gave a subtle nod Qrow spoke. "There's another problem with giving her over to the authorities. Oz and I have grown suspicious of Leo recently. First, he dispersed the huntsmen to all corners of Mistral, against Ozpins direct orders, and now we've learned from Ruby and her friends that several of the huntsmen I asked them to track down and ask for help are MIA. That just shouldn't happen on not when we know Cinder is going to make a play for the Relic in Mistral. If Leo really has changed sides then giving Neo up might just put her in Salem's hands. She either kills her or unleashes her on Ruby neither of those are particularly good options."
Jaune was forced to relent on the point. "Fine but we should at least have someone guarding her then."
"Good idea. You take the first shift. Wake me up in four hours." Qrow said as he picked the Pizza box off the floor and heading to the living room.
Jaune didn't really enjoy being ordered around but he reluctantly accepted his role. He found Neo asleep on a couch. Her hands tied in front of her instead of behind so that she could sleep in some relative comfort. The four hours went by relatively quickly as he was given the time to just sit there with his thoughts in silence. He began to think on Ozpin's willingness to put his goals above Ruby's safety. The more he thought about the angrier he became until he was almost shaking. He was about to start flipping up tables when Qrow finally relieved him to take the next watch.
"About time." He said rudely before walking out. His first instinct was to go to a room and get some sleep but he had gotten himself so enraged that he knew he wouldn't be able to fall asleep. Instead, he went out the back door with the intent of going through his training routine and was shocked to find Ruby sitting out on the porch asleep. He walked over to her and woke her up. "Ruby, what are you doing out here?"
It took Ruby a moment to regain herself but as soon as she did her silver eyes became deathly serious. "I was waiting for you."
"Why where you waiting for me out here?"
"Because I know you go out at night to train."
Jaune was at a loss for words.
"I saw you watching that video of Pyrrha one night." She replied shyly.
"Look Ruby…is just…that video…
"Jaune it's not healthy. You can't hold on to all that misery. You need to move past this."
"I can't!" He shouted, finally losing his temper with Ruby."
"Jaune I know how you feel but-
"No, you don't. It wasn't your fault that she died! You weren't the person who let their partner down!"
Ruby was taken back by the outburst. She was completely unaware that her friend had been holding on to so much guilt over what happened to Pyrrha. As she contemplated what to say Jaune tried to move past her. On instinct, she rushed in front of him.
"Ruby move!" He said as tried to push his friends out of the way.
Ruby resisted and managed to once again stand between her friend and the forest.
He raised his hand to strike her, for merely a second, but that's all it took for him to realize what his rage had almost caused him to do. As he looked into those innocent silver eyes a wave of guilt washed over him. He was about to hurt the person who had given him a purpose, other than anger, to keep going on. He was going to hit his first friend at Beacon simply to hide from his pain and guilt. He lowered his arm, a sense of calm finally overtaking him.
Ruby was noticeably at ease as seeing that she had finally gotten through to her friend. "Jaune I'm here…we're all here for you. If you need to talk about what happened to Pyrrha-
"No." He said quietly but in a forceful tone. "I'm just not ready for that."
"Why?" Ruby couldn't help but ask. "You can't blame yourself for what happened."
Jaune sighed. "Ruby, this is just something you just can't understand."
It was Ruby's turn to snap. "Pyrrha was my friend too! I tried to save her, but I couldn't. Just like I couldn't save Penny or the hundreds of other who died when Beacon fell…but I haven't blamed myself for all those deaths and neither should you."
"Ruby, it's not the same."
"Why?!" She replied, defiantly.
"Because you weren't a liability to her!" He said, again unable to maintain his calm. "Because she didn't shove you into a locker because you were too weak to be useful."
"Jaune, she did that to protect you, she-
"That's the point Ruby. I was her partner. She shouldn't have needed to protect me. I should have been able to fight with her. Just like you, or Weiss, or any of you all would have been able to do."
Ruby struggle to find a way to reply. After several seconds of silence that seemed like an eternity to her Jaune placed his hand on Ruby's shoulder.
"Ruby I'm grateful, I truly I'm. Had it not been for you giving me something to fight for I would have given up long ago. Now I have a goal again…but that doesn't change the way I feel. This isn't something I can get over it's something I have to live with. I promise you it won't interfere with our mission but I need you to let me handle in my own way."
Ruby lowered her head and resigned herself to her failure.
Jaune lowered his hand and walked passed Ruby, leaving her alone on the porch.
After several moments alone Ruby fell to her knees as tears ran down the side of her face. She hadn't been able to ease her friend's pain and she couldn't think of anything else to do.
So I'm not going to lie I pretty proud of myself for getting another chapter out the same week. Probably going to try to update my other story so the next chapter won't be out in the next week but I want to shoot for some time in April. Just to go over some of my thought with this chapter. So in most Neo/Jaune fics, jaune is usually the one to convince the rest of the team to give Neo a chance. While I don't think there anything wrong with that direction (I think it works well with his original personality) it's also an easy way to explain why she's on the team. However, with the direction, I've taken his character and since Jaune isn't physically strong enough to protect his teammate I would assume he would try to protect them in other ways, namely not keeping a known enemy under the same roof as the person she want's to kill. Originally I was going have Jaune suggest that they kill her to ensure she doesn't harm Ruby but then I realized he's not at the point where he's willing to commit cold-blooded murder...yet. Also I want to bring up the scene with Neo trying to tease Jaune. I went back and fourth with it because it did seem a little cliche'but I needed a way to develop her character a little more. The idea of using her semblance to communicate instead of typing on a scroll came from another fanfic called Priorities by Random O' Panda. I felt that having her just type on her scroll would seem boring but also I felt Jaune wouldn't want to untie someone strong enough defeat Yang, who is probably the strongest member of team RWBY is you subtract Ruby's silver eye powers. If I'm completely honest I think I have a habit of over thinking some things that's why I feel the need to over explain some of the ways they kept watch. Like if you read my Game of Thrones fic you might have noticed how even though my battles have few details but there are always specific numbers for the size of the armies. And I also go into detail into the reason certain action are taken. So if it seems tedious I'm sorry in advance.