Issue #4

A flaming spear jabbed towards Jaune's face. Almost lazily he leaned his head to the right and it flew past, the intense heat made his skin prickle and the keening sound of the mechanisms inside the spear hurt his ear. Using his left hand he swept Noel's spear away and stabbed at her with Crocea Mors. She used the momentum of his sweep to block with the butt of her spear but was sent sprawling by the force of it.

Before he could follow up on her a blur of white came at him from the side. Stepping into Willa's range the huntsman sidestepped the strike. She flicked the blade up and to the side, trying to catch him mid-step but he had already expected this and brought Crocea Mors down on the glaive with enough force to drive it into the dirt. A quick switch and the weapon retracted, transforming into a rifle which she started firing.

Deflecting projectiles was a surprisingly easy task, all one needed was experience and good visual acuity. A hunter didn't need to be faster than the bullet but rather the one firing it. From the angle of a firearm you could tell the trajectory and thus moving to deflect or block it once it was fired. Willa's weapon fired relatively slowly allowing him to adjust for each shot she made.

He felt something at his feet and swept his blade behind him, out of the corner of his eye he say Silvia dance back into the air. She hovered there, well out of reach, on her staff weapon. There was a large gravity dust crystal on each end and she looked much like the witch she claimed to be. Her hand went into her cloak and came out with a handful of Dust. Triggering it with her aura she let it fly towards him, a bolt of electricity thundering between them.

As he made to twist aside he found his feet had been encapsulated in ice, also her doing, so the bolt hit him. His muscles tensed and jerked as the electricity passed through him. His aura tanked most of the damage but afterwards he could still feel the numbness. When he looked back, Willa was on one knee, her rifle pointed at him and the famous Schnee glyphs directly in front of the weapon. Knowing what was about to come he quickly hacked apart the ice and crouched on one knee as well.

Jaune grabbed the sheath of Crocea Mors and expanded it in the same second the Schnee fired. Angling the shield he caught the empowered projectile directly on the surface and felt is slide off his shield and deflect in a direction. The direction, not coincidentally, was right at Silvia whose eyes widened at the incoming projectile before being blasted off her staff and onto the ground.

The other two girls followed up the shot, charging him. Willa with glyph enhanced speed and her weapon in trident form while Noel was right behind her, spear point low to the ground. Using his shield he battered Willa aside and followed up with a pommel strike to her temple. Noel vaulted with her spear, aiming a kick at his head that he ducked under. Dropping his blade Jaune grabbed her leg and flung her into her partner. Grabbing the blade once more he observed his handiwork.

Jaune stood alone on the field, Crocea Mors held loosely in hand. Around him lay the bodies of three young women whose chests heaved as they gasped for air. Vermilion came to a stop, lungs burning. She'd been running off and on for two hours, a feat she hadn't been capable of before she'd had her aura unlocked. Jaune gave her brief breaks every twenty minutes and his sharp glare at her told her it hadn't yet passed. She spurred her tired legs onwards for yet another lap around the field.

Her muscles quivered and her speed was nonexistent as she struggled to move forward. Instead, her legs buckled and she hit the grass. Mentally she pushed but not even her arms could make her get up. A shadow loomed over her and she twisted around to see Jaune stood over her, his expression unreadable.

"I… Don't think I can…. Go any…. More." She got out between gasps.

"You're done running. Here." Jaune handed her a bottle full of water. Vermilion took it and greedily gulped down the cool liquid. The girl was drenched in sweat but even she felt bad for her new friends. Team BSK was now in an upright position having been thoroughly trounced in a training spar by the blond knight. Professor Xiao-Long sat on a nearby bench, doubled over and laughing.

Wiping a tear from her eye the teacher stood up and took off her gloves, "You kids ever see real Hunters fight?" The girls didn't seem to get it but apparently Jaune did because he groaned.

"Yang, no."

"Yang, yes." She replied while taking her jacket off. This was the first time Vermilion had seen the teacher without long sleeves and now she wondered how she had never noticed the professor only had one arm. The other, her right arm, was prosthetic from just above the elbow. It was painted yellow and black, colors that suited her, and gleamed in the midday sun.

A wide grin and she pushed off the ground in a flash, prosthetic fist making a clear ringing sound against Crocea Mors, "Dammit Yang!"

It was too late. Yang's eyes gleamed as she grinned furiously at the blond man, "Too late, Jaune! A teacher needs her exercise."

Another fist flew at his face and with a low growl he drew and raised his shield. Even after all these years, Yang still hit like a truck. No matter how much he improved she had continued to strive forwards as well. He knew he couldn't ever beat her in a life or death battle, but in a spar where she couldn't show all of her power? They were far more even.

Yang kept up her assault which he was forced to block, he didn't have the time to dodge. Crocea Mors darted out from behind his shield, stabbing at her eyes. The blade's edge skittered off her cheek, deflected by aura and she just grinned wider. She had always loved a good challenge.

Being on the defence against someone like Yang was a terrible place to be so the blond decided to go on the offensive. Timing it on the next strike he batted her fist away with his shield and stabbed out center mass at the same time. Her other hand came around and deflected the blade with the back of the hand. Jaune had predicted this and the edge of his shield was already rushing towards her face.

With incredible speed she ducked low and under his guard, her arms pulled in tight. As she rose her fist rocketed into his jaw with all the force of a meteor. He knew what was coming next. The force of the blow lifted him off the ground and she spun in midair delivering a vicious kick to his stomach.

Flying back a dozen feet Jaune managed to roll to his feet in time to block Yang's fist. The impact rang out like a crash and he felt his knees get driven into the ground. Another impact and then another as she rained powerful blows down upon his shield. Thinking fast he swept his blade low, under his shield, and caught the edge on her shin which had her dancing back.

A quick grin at him and she lowered her fists, "Heh, still got it, eh Jaune? I think that's enough of a demonstration, if we start destroying the grounds Goodwitch will have my ass."

Only after he was certain she wasn't going to attack him did he sheath his weapon. His stomach smarted where she had kicked him, Yang was a monster like usual. He looked to the girls who were sitting up and had been observing their impromptu bout. Jaune strode over to Vermilion as Yang went to talk to team BSK.

Shakily she stood up next to Jaune, water bottle now empty, "That was crazy. How do you guys move like that?"

"Lot's of practice." She stared at him and he just shrugged. Over on the other side of the grounds Yang could be seen talking to the team. The blonde professor may have been wild once but she loved her job. Surprisingly she took it very seriously, just like her father.

"So what's next?"

"I'll have you rest then we'll do some muscle training. Sit-ups, push-ups, the like."

Vermilion groaned inwardly. She was already dead tired and he was going to make her do more?

The brunette girls backside his the bench hard. Everything ached. Her muscles and her bones from her head to her toes. There wasn't a single bit of her that didn't hurt. This is going to be my life, she thought to herself. Jaune had spread the training throughout the day but now that the sun was going down he had told her to head inside and clean up.

They'd be doing this again tomorrow.

He'd told her she'd have lighter sessions on the weekday so she could attend classes but the weekends were going to be brutal. She'd almost started whining right there. Yang had promised that the regimen would only be until she could catch up in physical fitness. With aura automatically healing the body someone like her could afford to push far beyond what a normal citizen could in terms of training. Muscles were made stronger by tearing and then healing, one could build muscle faster if you could train every day without waiting as long to let your muscles heal.

She slipped out of her hood and folded it onto the bench next to her. The other three girls had left hours ago, unwilling to be put through the training themselves and Jaune threatening to do so if they stayed. The professor had stayed though, something about making sure he wasn't going to push her too hard on her first day.

Her corset came undone and she slipped out of it, laying it on her cloak. One she was divested off all her clothes she laid down her precious necklace atop the pile of clothes. She ran her thumb over the relief, wishing of her mother that she could have the strength to keep moving forward. She missed her mother dearly.

Though her mother had been gone for seven years now it didn't make her miss the woman any less. She'd have done anything for her mother. Vermilion looked into the mirror and twirled a lock of brown hair in her fingers. She remembered how her mother used to space out and stare at her hair. How she said that her hair color reminded her of her father, not that she could really remember who that was. 'It was just a feeling' her mother had said. One day she had dyed it, never to go back again. What use did she have of hair that would only remind her mother of someone she didn't know?

Her mother was gone but she'd never gone back to her original color. She didn't need to. She had Toland and her memories of her mother, there was no reason to go back. Looking at the roots she could see a hint of blonde coming through. She would need to go get some more dye in Vale soon.

With a sigh Vermilion stepped into the shower, turning the hot water on and flinching at the cold water that came out until it started heating up. She felt her muscles relax.

"Hello~" A female voice called from the locker room, "How ya doing Mili?"

"Doing alright Professor. Just… really sore."

Musical laughter rang out over the sound of streaming water, "Sorry about Jaune. He can be a bit of a demon but he's got your best interests at heart."

Vermilion lathered up and started washing her hair, maybe it wasn't as long and luscious as Professor Xiao-Long's but she still liked to take care of it.

"I know Professor. But I'm still gonna pass out tonight."

More laughter, "You'll get used to it. That's the point, I guess. Hmm?"

The brunette rinsed out her hair, keeping her head under the stream, "Professor?"

"Hey Vermilion?" The woman's voice sounded shaken, "Did your mother give you this necklace?"

"Hm? Yeah, for my tenth birthday." Vermilion finished up her shower and toweled herself dry before wrapping up and stepping out. The professor had been unusually quiet this whole time but when she left the stall she saw the blonde teacher sitting on the bench next to her clothes, staring at her necklace which she held in her hands.

The professor looked up at her, eyes wide and she shakingly reached into her breast pocket and pulled something that was folded over.

"Did your mother happen to look like this?" She unfolded the paper and it turned out to be a photo. One person was undeniably a much younger version of the professor. On the sides was a black haired faunus girl and a white haired girl with a scar over one eye. But what really caught Vermilion's attention was the young girl hanging off of the professor. She had dark hair with red highlights and a bright red cloak around her shoulders. Silver eyes adorned a bright smiling face.

There was no doubt, that was her mother. Younger by many years, yes, but it was her mother.

"That's… Mom?"

The professor covered her mouth with one hand and then surged forwards, enveloping the young girl in a hug, the brunette didn't quite realize what happened until she put words to it.

"Vermilion. That makes you my niece." She whispered, "That's who your mother was. Ruby Rose. I can't believe it. Ruby was alive. But I guess…She's gone by now."

"Yeah. Mom died seven years ago." She answered woodenly, she was having trouble processing what, exactly, this meant.

Yang just hugged the girl tighter, "I'm sorry, Vermilion. I'm sorry I wasn't there."

The brunette didn't know what to say. What could she say. She suddenly had an aunt. She suddenly knew who exactly her mother was. All these years, with her mother fading away, she'd wondered where she'd come from. Who she was. What was the rest of her family like? So many questions throughout her childhood and now they were here, in her arms.

"We need to tell Jaune." Yang pushed back and held the girl at arms length, looking into her eyes, "Jaune will want to know about this. And I have to tell the rest of the team."

She stood up and impatiently dialed something on her scoll and after several rings someone picked up, "Hey, Blake I got some news for you."

"Yang? What's up? Is it Noel?! What'd she do this time?"

Yang laughed, "No no, I'm not calling about your daughter. I have some insane news. When can you make it to Beacon?"

"Beacon? Can't you just tell me now?"

"You won't believe me unless you're here."

"Fine. It'll take a week for me to get there by ship."

"See you soon kitten."

"Dammit Ya-" The professor hung up and was already calling another number.

"This is Weiss Schnee."

"Hey, Ice-Queen."

"Yang. I'm busy, so if this is a social call…" The president let the threat of hanging up drift in the air.

"Not really. I'm calling because I've got huge news and you need to come to Beacon."

"Is this regarding Willa?" Worry crossed her voice.

"Nah, your girl is fine."

"I'm too busy to just fly across the world on a whim, Yang."

"It's regarding Ruby. I have some news and you'll wanna be here for it."

A pregnant pause, "I'll be there in three days." The line went dead and a smiling Yang put her scroll back in her pocket.

Vermilion was half dressed by that point and was struggling to put her pants on when the teacher whipped around, "We have to go tell Jaune right now. I just… I just hope he doesn't take it badly."

Vermilion looked up at the woman, "What do you mean? I get that he knew her but why would he react badly?"

Yang sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her prosthetic hand, "Ruby and Jaune were close. Really close. The night before we thought she died in the Grimmlands. He proposed." The blonde professor looked Vermilion in the eyes, "Mili who was your father? How did you not know who your own mother was?"

"Amnesia." She continued when the professor looked confused, "My mother had amnesia. Toland, the guy who helped raise me, found my mom wandering the Grimmlands half dead. When he took her in and nursed her back to health he discovered she was pregnant. With me. Since she couldn't remember anything, not even who my father was, Toland brought her back and let her live with him."

"So, you don't know your own father?" The brunette nodded, "Well I think I do. You should be able to figure it out yourself, as well, by now."

Vermilion thought about it, it really wasn't that hard like the professor said. All the pieces were there. She thought to her original hair color, the fact that she was found in the Grimmlands, where she had disappeared from her friends and family. There was really only one conclusion.

"Jaune is my father?"

"Probably."

"Oh. That's...wow." Vermilion sat down on the bench. She honestly didn't know what to do with that information, "Probably?"

"It's pretty much certain that if Ruby Rose is your mother, Jaune arc is your father."

Jaune watched the sunset from atop a boulder that was nestled in the training field. He sat cross legged and stared at the orange and red hues as the orb of fire dipped below the horizon. The man hadn't watched one since he and his fiancee had been together.

Thoughts of her, like always, presented a dull throb in his chest. A constant aching chasm where his heart used to be. He could pretend well enough, get by from day to day. Jaune could hide the pain and soldier on because there were things that needed doing. At first it had been in her memory but the cost of that had been too high. How many people would have to die for his cause before it was enough.

Ruby hadn't won and now some other young girl was going to be sent in her place like a sacrificial lamb? No he would teach her. He would show her how to survive so she didn't have to play Ozpin's little game. Vermilion wouldn't be a pawn, he'd make sure of it.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the girl herself walking towards him from the direction of the locker and shower rooms with Yang in tow. The blonde professor didn't have that sardonic smile like usual and Jaune's eyes narrowed at them. Vermilion herself looked lost, dazed.

He hopped of the rock and met them halfway, "What's wrong? What's happened? Is she okay?"

Something in what he said must have amused Yang because she smiled and nudged the girl beside her with an elbow, "Nah. Nothing's wrong but something did come up." His head shot to her, "C'mon Mili, show him."

"Um.. so… My mother gave this to me for my tenth birthday. She said as long as I had it, we'd always be together. Yang saw it and well… here…" Vermilion brought out something silver, it glinted red in the sunset's light. The object itself took his breath away and sent him nearly twenty years back in time. His trembling hands reached out and brushed against the cool metal, feeling the rose pattern etched upon the surface.

His mind began scrambling, piecing together what she had said and what he was holding in his hands. There was no doubt as to who this originally belonged to. Ruby had once told him it was a custom job, the only one in all of Remnant.

"Ruby's… your mother?" Jaune's voice caught in his throat.

"Yes. Professor Ya-"

"Auntie~"

"Aunt Yang showed me a picture of her old team. It's my mom."

"How?" His voice was a hoarse whisper now. A burning series of questions raced through his head but he could barely articulate.

"She survived the tower, Jaune." It was Yang who spoke, "Someone found her wandering the Grimmlands, she had no memory of who she was or anything else. That person took her in when it was apparent she was with child. That child, Ruby's child, is Vermilion. I feel like I shouldn't have to say it but, well, just in case. Yeah, we think she's your child too."

Too? Mine? The words swam slowly through his head. Vermilion is my daughter? She survived? She didn't die? We….left her there?

The last thought was the damming one and he sat down rather forcefully, head in his hands, "Yang. We left her there."

A pained look crossed her face but she didn't say anything.

"We could have gotten her out, Yang. We could have brought her home!"

Yang couldn't meet his face and bit her lip until it almost bled. It wasn't her who spoke next but someone else.

"No, Jaune. We couldn't have gone back for her. When both you and Yang were wounded in that battle and the Grimm started spawning en masse there was no chance to go look for Ruby." A man with a cane walked up, his hazel eyes calm in the light of the sunset, "Jaune, to stay would have doomed everyone there. Yourself, Yang, Blake, Weiss and all the others who rallied to our cause."

"Your cause. Not mine. Not anymore." Jaune spit it out while leveling his glare at the man, "It's all your fault that Ruby died. Whether it was in that blaster tower or alone with her daughter it doesn't matter. It was all your fault that Vermilion couldn't grow up with a father. She was alive, Oscar. For a decade she was living so close to us but we never saw it. Because you gave the order to retreat."

Jaune stood up and walked past the man, his shoulder bumping forcefully against the man as he walked into the halls of Beacon. Vermilion made to go after him but a firm hand on her shoulder stayed her. Yang shook her head mouthing 'let him be' at her. The man who Jaune had called Oscar came up to her.

"I don't believe I've had the chance to introduce myself to you Ms. Ash. My name is Oscar Pine and I'm a professor here at Beacon Academy. I teach history."

He gave her the briefest hint of a smile before he forged on with what he wanted to say, "Originally I was coming over to see how you were adjusting to life in Beacon when I overheard your conversation. It is wonderful news to hear that Ms. Rose survived the events which led to us assuming her death. It is also unfortunate that with that news we hear again of her passing. May I ask how she died?"

Vermilion took a deep breath, it was an old wound and she supposed that these people, her mother's friends, had a right to know, "Aura Decay. None of the doctors that Toland brought in could find a cause. Her aura was already weak when he found her in the Grimmlands but over the years it just… faded away. When it was completely gone she died. It's… not something I like to remember."

Yang wrapped a hand around the girls shoulder and pulled her into the blonde's side. Vermilion could feel the woman shaking slightly and when she looked up she could see barely restrained tears in her eyes. Professor Pine looked down and closed his eyes before once more addressing her.

"I see. Ms. Ash I believe I have a theory on what happened. I am by no means an expert on the silver eyed warrior but I have some rather sound theories. The silver eyes, to my knowledge, act as a conduit through which one can bare their soul and purify that which is around you. Grimm are made of negative emotions and so when they are gazed upon by a silver eyed warrior the pure positivity of the soul destroys the cluster of negativity. Now, I believe that when your mother faced Salem she put her entire soul into her attack. This left her empty. I wouldn't go so far as to say soulless but rather in a state of decay. Her aura could no longer support her so it started withering away until it eventually reached zero."

"Oh." It was all the brunette could get out.

"I'm afraid that even if we had been able to retrieve Ruby from the tower we would not have been able to stop the decay. She probably would have died regardless. I'm sorry Ms. Ash. If you want proof Beacon medical staff can provide a blood tests to see if you are, in fact, the child of Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc. Goodnight Ms. Ash, Yang."

With a bow the man left leaving young Vermilion in the arms of her new aunt. Her biological aunt. And with that thought she made to go after Jaune again, her father. She didn't know what she wanted to say. To yell at him for never being there? To see if he would treat her like a daughter? Could they even have a real relationship at this point? She was eighteen years old. All she knew was that the sight of his back as he left was so lonely.

Yang tightened her grip, "It's better if you leave Jaune to mull it over until the morning. This really isn't something that he can just handle out of the blue like this. C'mon let's get you back to team BSK's dorm. You could use the rest."

She could. Not only was she physically exhausted but mentally drained as well. The training made her limbs rubbery and sluggish but the events of the last twenty minutes had her head spinning.

As she laid down to sleep that night the last thought she had before her mind drifted off to slumber was what was she going to say to him tomorrow?

A/N: So I just kept writing, I had a scene that I wanted to happen and by the time it was complete it was a thousand words longer than I usually do for a chapter. I'm sure you all love that, at least.

This was a big important chapter and a lot of info about what exactly happened came to light. It was hard for me to imagine what kind of reaction Vermilion would have about this news. The man who had saved her and she had known for about 4-5 days now was also her father. The one that wasn't there for her. Now that she knows WHY she wasn't there, does she hate him or not. How DOES she feel about him? It's honestly a hard question for me to answer.

Also there was some new info about the fighting style of team BSK. They've got two polearm users and also a dust mage. They are a frontline heavy team though Willa could easily slot into a back line with her weapon and the Schnee semblance. Also, as a note, Silvia's semblance is that she can manipulate her own mass. It lets her basically defy gravity, even hover with that staff of hers since it has two gravity crystals on it. Noel is pretty straightforward thought there is more to her weapon than what was shown.