Chapter 9 – Bring Me All Back Now

In which MILF-slayer extraordinaire Jaune Arc slays his first MILF and answers the scroll call of destiny.

One save.

One free save.

One free save from any of the mortal hazards that this world could throw at her, and Raven's daughter chose to waste it on a model airship.

No, she didn't. That was the worst part – that her mistake was unintentional, which meant she was just too inept to even see a toy barreling towards her. The sheer idiocy of this entire situation peeved Raven beyond measure.

Perhaps Yang wasn't as strong as she'd hoped. Perhaps her method of letting her offspring sink or swim on her own hadn't yielded the ideal fighter she'd been hoping for. Either way, it was out of Raven's hands now. Without any more saves – Qrow had also squandered his against some simple Grimm some odd years ago – there was no reason for her to ever encounter any fool from Ozpin's miserable school ever again, unless they chose to seek the Branwen out.

"Woah. Where am I?"

Raven flipped around to see a blonde teenager on the ground, lifting themselves to their feet and dusting off their pants. Yang? Somehow, she must've slipped through the portal; that was the only explanation.

She hadn't actually seen her daughter in a while (at least three years), but she wasn't supposed to have changed that much. Her blonde hair was a lot shorter than Raven remembered…

…and her muscles had atrophied…

…and her breasts had disappeared…

…and…

That wasn't Taiyang's daughter, was it?

"Hey, you look just like Yang, 'cept she's blonde and you're not. You her mom or something? Actually, never mind. More importantly, where exactly are we?" he asked as he picked himself up.

Raven surveyed him for a second before resting a hand on Omen. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

The boy shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah, I kinda would. I have no clue where that portal took me, and I think it's fair of me to ask where on Remnant we even are. Honestly, the only reason I'm not panicking is because weird hunter stuff just grabbing hold of my life and making it all go sideways is sort of the norm for me. I just finished being the slave of some guy who was possibly in love with me." He frowned and glanced around the outskirts of the current Branwen encampment. "But still, I've got my limits. I'd say I'm about five seconds away from screaming at the top of my lungs for help."

"Help? Who…?" There was no one to help him around for miles.

"My friends at Beacon, I guess? Miss Yang, I don't…"

He kept talking, but Yang paused as she started to piece one thing together after another. The blocks fell into place as she realized just why everything about this whole encounter unnerved her.

He knows I'm Yang's mother.

He has backup at Beacon.

He intentionally jumped through my portal to get here.

He's trying to determine exactly where on Mistral my camp and I are located.

The conclusion was obvious.

Ozpin had sent this boy to flush her out.

Her decoy, Vernal, wasn't close enough, but the risk that came with not using her full power was far greater than that which came with trying to hide it. If Ozpin sent this blond haired huntsman in alone against her, it was reasonable to assume that he packed enough of a punch to warrant such bold action. Raven's eyes flashed with fire as she drew her sword and prepared to duel the unknown assassin. Dark clouds filled the skies above the forest in which the pair stood, ominous as the raven into which their summoner could transform. A solitary bolt of lightning fell out of the heavens and crisply struck Omen, igniting the Dust within her sword and setting it ablaze.

The child shrugged again as he stared Raven down without a drop of fear. "Wow, that's kind of cool, I guess. Neat superpower."

If she hadn't figured out that he belonged to Ozpin, the boy's reaction just now would have immediately given away his hidden knowledge. Any run of the mill huntsman of Vale or the other three kingdoms would have been astounded by the sheer power that Raven possessed. Even the most simpleminded of those fools would immediately know that her power was no mere semblance; any aura-user instinctively knew the limits of how much power an externalized soul could grant. But this teenager, no older than Raven's own daughter, was perfectly calm, like he had no concern over how phenomenally redoubtable a maiden's might was.

He must be familiar with my powers. This boy has to have been trained by Oz since birth.

"You should just turn around and go back," Raven said in a booming voice. She despised the idea of letting him go after he'd seen her use the powers of the Spring maiden, but the alternative was to kill him, and Raven wasn't sure she wanted that. Not because of any ethical concerns – she had casually filled many of the graves that littered Mistral and Vacuo over her years of casually raiding for sustenance and luxury – but because of the fear of retaliation from Ozpin and her brother. Loathe as Raven was to admit it, she was not invincible. If Qrow, Ozpin, Amber, and whatever other backup the forces of Beacon could muster were to descend upon the Branwens, not even a realized Spring maiden could fight off that much combined talent. The only reason such a sanguinary campaign against her people hadn't happened before was because they'd kept their heads down, fulfilling the unspoken accord she and Ozpin shared.

"I'd gladly leave, but I still don't know where I am."

"Don't push it," said Raven, summoning a portal behind him. "You already know too much. Don't make me regret letting you walk out of here alive."

"You sound like Cardin," he said with a laugh as he stepped into the swirling red vortex. "I guess I'll be seeing ya, Miss Yang."

I certainly hope not…

The portal closed, and Raven let out a sigh she hadn't realized she'd been holding. That had to have been the closest she'd come to death in a long time, perhaps since she'd left Team STRQ.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something shiny on the ground gleaming against the sunlight as the clouds dissipated.

"Is that…Crocea Mors?"

Well that was weird. Miss Yang must've saved her daughter using her aura magic, and then was used her aura magic to make lighting bolts and storm clouds and flaming sword – quite the display. Jaune wondered if he would ever be able to use his own aura to do that kind of stuff. Maybe if he got it, he'd know.

He was proud that he held together his composure so well in such bizarre circumstances. A lesser man would have pooped their pants after falling through a portal into the middle of some random forest, but Jaune had displayed remarkable courage and only peed his own. It had helped that his friends' mom was there to greet him on the other side, though. Jaune would have to be sure to find out where they had been and send Miss Yang a thank you note.

Wait, should he actually address it as Miss Xiao-Long or Miss Rose? Miss Yang was too cheeky, but he didn't actually know why the girls' surnames differed, and it would be rude to assume. Eh, he'd just ask Yang later on.

Speaking of his friends, he had no idea where they were. He had assumed that the portal would take him back to where he'd come from, but instead he was…in Beacon? He looked out the window and recognized the familiar sight of his dormitories, though they seemed further down than usual. Actually, come to think of it, everything seemed pretty far down.

"Mr. Arc?"

Jaune turned around to see the headmaster, seated in a finely crafted desk, holding a cup of coffee to his mouth. The coffee cup was tilted, but instead of pouring into Ozpin's mouth, it was spilling out all over the floor. Ozpin's expression was that of sheer astonishment.

"Oh, sir. Um, I hate to sound like a broken record, but where am I?"

"…my office?"

Jaune looked out the window again. Sure enough, the floor at the base of the building in which he stood was the courtyard surrounding the CCT. That explained why he was so high up.

"Yeah, I totally see it now. Where's the elevator?"

Ozpin pointed, his coffee cup now entirely spilled out onto his legs.

"Thanks!" Jaune said with a wave as he ran towards the elevator. "My friends are probably wondering where I was." He paused upon seeing a 10-digit keypad. "Um, the code?"

"But…the code…I don't…nine five two five three eight…?" Ozpin looked down into his empty coffee cup as though it might pour out the answers, then back up to Jaune in alarm. "Why…w-wait, Jaune, you're not supp–"

Jaune was already inside the elevator with the doors closing behind him. He felt bad, interrupting the man's evening coffee break so rudely, but his friends were waiting, and he needed to get back to them, which meant hopping on a bullhead flight and running down to the museum before they even noticed his absence. Plus, if Ozpin's office was Miss Yang's default portal return option, he was probably used to student popping in all the time.

Jaune's scroll chimed.

Perry: Jaune, where'd you go?

Rats, they'd noticed. Quickly tapping the keys, he sent the most sensible response he could.

Jaune: Felt sick at the museum. Vomit boy and whatnot – Yang can tell you all about it. Had to run back to Beacon.

A few seconds passed, and Jaune felt a bitter ball of tangled worry rise to the top of his stomach. If Perry didn't buy it, if he remembered that Jaune only disappeared when the aura monitor showed up, if anything went wrong…

His scroll chimed again.

Perry: Hope you're doing better.

Perry: Yang says it's a good thing that you didn't stay and vomit on us, because she'd have killed you. She's in a bit of a bad mood. Apparently, she wandered into the unfinished wing of the museum and got splashed in a rainbow of paint.

Perry sent a picture. Yang wasn't just splashed – her hair, arms, and entire outfit were unrecognizable, with splotches of bright orange clashing with dark black patches, all surrounded by rings of blue and polka dots of white. She looked like she was about to go Yang-supernova any second, and she was reaching towards Perry's scroll angrily in the picture.

Jaune was suddenly glad that Miss Yang had carried him far away from that powder keg waiting to go off. And all the same, while it was unfortunate that he'd splashed her daughter with a rainbow of paint, it had probably made the others forget about Jaune's nervousness about the aura monitor and the mysterious circumstances of his disappearance.

Perry: We're still going clubbing. Want us to wait up?

Jaune hadn't particularly been all that interested in going to Yang's club (or even going out to Vale), so he told them to go ahead. Besides, after the full day of running around and teleporting twice, he was bushed, and he didn't think he'd have the energy to fly back to Beacon, dance the night away, and fly back before it got too late.

Jaune adjusted Crocea Mors on his belt and–

Something was wrong. His belt felt light.

Jaune looked down in horror to see that his scabbard was missing, the clip it held onto flopping about unleashed. He was sure that he'd packed his sword – he even specifically checked that it was there when he got on the airship! Where could he have…

No.

Oh no no no no no.

When he'd tumbled into Miss Yang's portal, he was upside down. It would've been easy enough for it to unhook, sheath and all, in the confusion and fall onto the ground and…oh, his mom was going to kill him!

It's okay, Jaune. You can just ask Yang where to find her; I'm sure she knows the exact location of her mom. I'll request she return Crocea Mors when I go to drop off the thank you note.

Jaune sighed. Today was supposed to be the day his problems went away, and now everything was getting worse. He wasn't any closer to having aura, and he didn't even have his family's ancestral blade.

Dejectedly making his way back to his dorm room, he paused before walking inside.

Yang was currently enraged beyond human or Faunus comprehension, and Jaune was the one to blame (even if Yang didn't know it yet). He was safe from blame for now, as long as the others believed he'd left early and gone back to Beacon well before the paint incident. It would probably be a smart move to quickly establish an alibi with Ruby in the room across the hall. If she saw him less than five minutes after Yang had been splashed in paint, it would be definitive proof (in Yang's eyes) that he'd had nothing to do with her 'doo of many colors.

Jaune rapped twice on the door.

"Ruby, it's me."

There was a grunt on the other side, which Jaune interpreted as permission to enter. That might not have actually been Ruby's intent, but the more he fixated on Yang and how big her biceps were, the more sure he was that having an alibi was essential.

Ruby was laying with her back to the ground on the floor of the dormitory. Weiss was propped up against the wall opposite her. Both girls were panting heavily and sported several purple bruises and fresh cuts.

Oh, and the curtains were currently on fire.

As Jaune looked around at the dorm room, he became increasingly aware of a wave of carnage that made the room look like the touchdown site of a hurricane. The beds and carpeting were shredded to bits with long gashes running in every direction, one of the desks was partially encased in a thin layer of ice, and Crescent Rose was stabbed halfway into a wall that was riddled with bullet holes. In addition to the curtains, both top bunks of Team RWBY's stacked beds were also steadily burning in a pleasing orange conflagration. Jaune had to cover his nose to block out the stench of smoke and ignited gunpowder.

"Ruby," Jaune chided. "You were supposed to have a talk with Weiss."

"Huh?" said Ruby, weakly lifting her head up off the floor. Her panting still hadn't stopped, and she barely seemed lucid enough to be aware of Jaune's presence in the room. Weiss didn't even respond, instead closing her eyes and inhaling and exhaling slowly.

"We said you didn't need to fight Weiss to win her respect."

"Oh. S-Sor…huuuuh…ry." Ruby's head flopped back down onto the floor, and she continued to gasp for breath.

Jaune rolled his eyes. Of course Ruby would forget how social interaction worked and treat the whole thing like Miss Goodwitch's combat class. Well, a fight may not have been ideal, but hopefully Ruby had at least won. If Weiss were the victor, such an outcome would probably only fuel her disrespect of her leader and propel her further into insubordination.

Then he noticed one more detail that offered a bit more context.

Ruby was wearing a white strapless dress underneath a bolero jacket with the SDC logo.

Weiss herself was clad in a Ruby's black blouse, dark combat skirt, and red hood.

…both girls were still panting heavily.

Jaune didn't hesitate to slam the door so fast that the hinges probably snapped, but the room was wrecked beyond repair anyways, so a little more property damage didn't make a huge difference right now. Besides, he had worse concerns.

Like how I left Crocea Mors behind with Miss Yang! Now I have to walk all the way to the cafeteria to get a kitchen knife to cut my eyes out.

Blake and Yang probably didn't know what to make of Jaune inviting them over for a sleepover with Team JNPR when they got home, but they accepted, nonetheless.

As Jaune expected, he was too busy with homework to even think about going back to Vale when Sunday came around.

You know, I actually had fun, minus the whole portal shenanigan. The team and I spent some quality time together, we got to see all the different parts of Vale, and I now have a much better idea of just how powerful someone's semblance can be after seeing Miss Yang in action with the portals and lighting and whatnot.

Hey, hold on a second…

She still had his sword, he owed her a thank you note, and she was a trained huntress who could unlock his aura and maybe show him the ropes.

Jaune suddenly had a much better idea of what he was going to be doing next weekend.

There was still the problem of finding her, though.

If he told Yang what had actually happened, she would probably figure out he was the one responsible for the paint, so that was out of the question. For obvious reasons, he couldn't just waltz up to Yang out of the blue and start expressing an interest in her mother. She already called him 'vomit boy', and while that was bad, it was probably better than 'MILF seeker.'

Miss Yang was Ruby's mom too, and Jaune doubted she would tease him about it, but it would still be awkward to just randomly ask where if she could set up a meeting between Jaune and her mom. Also, Jaune was having a problem looking her in the eyes after what he took to calling the Weisscident.

That left, of course, Professor Ozpin himself. It was a bit of a longshot, but Miss Yang had opened up a portal to Ozpin's office, so he probably knew her. Plus, he recalled Ruby bragging about her uncle being good friends with the headmaster or something, which was another point in favor of approaching him to see if he was a family friend or something. And if Jaune was wrong, and Ozpin didn't know her, there was no risk of any awkwardness from asking, unlike the awkward silence that would ensue with either of the sisters.

It was with these thoughts in mind that Jaune excused himself from the team after lunch, citing a need to speak with someone at the CCT.

I'm technically not lying. I need to speak with someone who is at the CCT, even if they probably think I'm making a long distance call.

Jaune cursed as he saw the elevator doors close behind Dove Bronzewing, knowing that it would mean he would have to wait for Dove to go all the way up to whatever floor he needed, and also for the elevator to come back down. Impatiently tapping his foot, he hummed the jingle from the Pumpkin Pete commercial to pass the time, then checked his scroll.

Huh. One message from Perry.

The elevator opened, and Jaune absentmindedly punched in the code Ozpin had told him yesterday. The message had an attachment, which Jaune began downloading as the elevator started to move.

It was the entire album of pictures that Perry had taken of Yang, drenched in paint, when her back was turned. Jaune tried not to snicker at her expense, but it was pretty darn difficult when Perry attached the caption 'The Yangbow Connection'.

Jaune turned up the brightness on his scroll as he was typing out a response, only to wonder why he needed to do so. Looking up, he realized that the elevator seemed to be moving downwards.

What?! I pressed up!

I…I'm sure I pressed…

Well, I was pretty distracted. Did I…oh crud, I think I did press down! Darn it, now I'm going to have to go all the way to whatever bottom floor this place has, then go ALL the way back up! This was just supposed to be a quick errand, not a full day event.

When the elevator doors did eventually open, Jaune stepped out to press the up button on the external controls, but the odd nature of the basement in which he emerged caught his eye and stayed his hand. The room didn't look anything like any of the other floors of the CCT, nor did it resemble the underground server farm that he would've expected from the basement of the CCT. Instead, it looked like a religious temple or something, what with all the massive carved stone pillars and green flaming torches.

Wait a second. A deep underground chamber hidden beneath a school with weird torches for light and vaguely antiquated religious iconography? Is this where the Beacon frats hold initiations or something? I'd better not turn my rear if I see Ozpin holding a paddle.

He knew he should probably just take the elevator back up, but a certain unshakeable sense of curiosity drew him in further and compelled him to explore this weird basement thing. Before Jaune knew it, his legs were moving, and he found himself walking through the dimly lit hall towards the odd figure at the end.

A torch cracked, and Jaune suddenly wished he still had Crocea Mors with him. Logic told him that he was alone down here and there were no Grimm or monsters or boogeymen with him, but his instincts told him to keep a safe distance away from the shadows.

I really should turn back…

Of course, that was easier said than done, because he could begin to make out the figure at the end of the hall, and now he was really curious. It was some kind of pod, reminiscent of a cryogenic freezing chamber that The Mad King tried to use to put himself in stasis and go to the future in X-Ray and Vav Issue #324. The only difference was that this pod didn't seem to be cold at all. In fact, it was surprisingly warm to the touch.

There were actually two pods. Jaune cautiously peeked into the second one and–

GAAAAHHH!

Why is it always me?! First Ruby and Weiss, and now this!

The young woman inside the pod was in her underwear. Jaune now wished he had pushed past the awkwardness and just asked Ruby or Yang about their mom, because this had to be twice as awkward as that ever could have been!

The woman was still asleep, so at least Jaune wouldn't get told off for perving on her while she chilled in her pod.

He wanted to say that he turned around and went back to the elevator right then and there, but his curiosity was now flaring up hotter than Yang's hair.

It should be fine if I don't peek, right?

Jaune raised his hands to carefully obscure his view of the white linens that covered the woman's private bits and looked at the pod and its now censored passenger. She was dark skinned, probably a Native Vacuoan or Mantlean, if Jaune had to guess. Her hair was cut short, like Nora's or Ruby's, and her face…Dear Dust, her face was nearly destroyed. Discolored scars ran along her entire body, from her cheeks to her abdomen. That poor woman must've been caught inside a burning building or had a major accident with Fire Dust or something, because when Jaune looked at her skin – and this was actually not a joke at her expense, this was genuinely an observation he could make with full honesty – he thought he would've had trouble differentiating from overly cooked meat.

I shouldn't think that. She's probably going to be in a lot of pain when she wakes up. I wonder what she's even doing down here. Is she a student who had an accident, and now she's being treated? But why not take her to a hospital…?

Equally confusing to Jaune was the fact that they had two sleeping pods. One was for the girl, obviously, but why was there a spare? Did she have a sister? Were they expecting another student to get fried? Was it for Jaune?

Jaune lowered his hands and looked back at the first empty pod. It seemed identical to the one in which the burned lady was resting, with the only visible difference being that the hatch on top was open.

DEEE-WOOOOP! DEEE-WOOOOP! DEEE-WOOOOP!

Jaune nearly dropped his scroll in his haste to grab it out of his pocket and silence the alarm he'd set to remind himself to do his laundry, fumbling it around in his hands a few times before getting a better grip.

Then, his sweaty palms lost that grip, and he did drop it.

…right into the pod.

And then, just because he was cursed to suffer, the pod automatically sealed shut.

Jaune desperately tried to slip his fingers under the door and pry it open, but he wasn't able to find any purchase. It was like the thing was hermetically sealed shut. This was bad – this was soooooo bad! When whoever owned this room came down here, they would open up their pod and find Jaune's scroll on it and see his screensaver, a picture of himself dressed in his full armor, and realize that he had been snooping around where he wasn't supposed to and he'd be expelled and his team would hate him and he'd explode and the Grimm would overrun Vale and…

The control panel!

Jaune could still fix this. He could still make this all better, as long as he got his scroll out of there before someone else came down and noticed it. All he had to do was find whichever button opened up the door on the second pods, and he'd walk away scott-free.

Okay, which button says 'Open/Close?'

Wait a sec, are they not…

The buttons on the control panel had no labels or instructions, because why would they? Why on Remnant would the universe possibly grant Jaune a single favor, when it was so happy to heap the misfortune and torment that it had in spades onto his miserable little life?

I can't panic. Panic only makes it worse. I just need to breathe, in and out, in and out, and think calmly. There are only ten buttons. Now, if there are two pods, and the doors don't seem to open and close together, I'd wager that there are two separate buttons to control each pods' door. If I were an engineer building a cryogenic chamber, I'd make the two 'Open/Close' buttons look similar.

Out of the ten buttons, only two pairs of similar looking buttons existed. One pair was a set of bright red circular buttons right next to each other at the top of the panel, and the other was a set of small, unassuming gray squares on the left and right.

Left and right, like the pods. Plus, if I get it wrong, I think the tiny gray buttons will have less of an impact than the huge crimson ones.

Jaune held his breath, closed his eyes, and pressed the right gray button.

Nothing happened.

Just to be sure, he pressed the left gray button.

Now that made something happen. Jaune wasn't exactly sure how to describe the something; it was sort of like a quiet hum in the background, and then the pods–

"AAAUUUUGH!"

By the Gods – the burned woman!

Jaune had forgotten all about her! Did he turn off her life support or something? Oh, if he killed someone just to get himself out of trouble, it would haunt him for the rest of his life. Jaune pressed the gray buttons again, hoping it might undo what he'd done, but that only made her screaming worse, and on top of it all, the tubes behind the pods that were snaked behind them began to fill up with a liquid that glowed pale amber.

Wait, that isn't a liquid. It's…light?

The tubes, in defiance of all logic and laws of the universe with which Jaune was familiar, seemed to be flowing some kind of hardened, materialized illumination – literally light in a physical medium – away the burned lady's pod. The light began to fill up some sort of reservoir between the two pods, which gradually began to shine brighter and brighter.

Jaune started to cry. He didn't understand what was happening, but it was clear enough that his direct actions had murdered someone. He'd taken an innocent life, and whether it was in his selfishness or his negligence that he did it, he'd taken it nonetheless.

Please, universe, just save her! If you do, I vow to never gripe about my bad luck ever again.

But the universe didn't listen.

The reservoir glowed brighter and brighter, and with each passing moment, more of the light was drained away from the woman. Jaune could do nothing but watch as the lady began to spasm back and forth in her–

Nothing but watch? What a load of crock! I can still do something!

Jaune repeatedly and utterly randomly slammed his hands into every button on the control panel so hard that the glass covering some of them cracked. Shards pierced his unprotected hand, but his adrenaline pushed him through the pain, and he didn't stop his random button pushing for a second.

I don't know what I'm doing, but maybe I'll hit the emergency off switch or something. She's dying, and anything would be better than that.

It was when he'd pressed the L-shaped button the third time when the woman instantly stopped screaming and moving around. The second tube that was attached to the reservoir, the one connecting it to the empty pod he'd been screwing around with, began to flow the light. The reservoir's shine faded over time, as did the flow in the first tube. Jaune had no idea if he'd done something really, really good or really, really bad.

The tube finished flowing, and at last, the entire pipeline from one pod to the other was back to its prior empty state. After a sustained silence of fifteen seconds in which no change happened, Jaune cautiously resumed his random button pushing.

His finger hit the red button at the top, and the door to the empty pod hissed open. Jaune froze upon realizing just how mistaken his earlier logic had been, then shook himself out of it and frantically pushed the opposite red button. The woman's pod opened up, and her head slumped forward at an dead angle that made Jaune's stomach flip.

He raced over to help her, but…

She was…

He'd…

BBBBRRRRRNNNGGG! BBBBRRRRRNNNGGG! BBBBRRRRRNNNGGG!

His scroll was ringing. Jaune ignored it entirely and tried to think of what to do. Her pulse was missing entirely, but her body was still warm. If he did CPR…but CPR wouldn't bring her back. At best, it would only stabilize her until he could call for–

Help! I need to get help!

Jaune raced to the other pod and plucked out his ringing scroll. Unsure of how he was getting cell connection this low underground, he elected to not look a gift Nuckelavee in the mouth and instead just answer the call. Perry, Nora, Yang, whoever it was could tell a teacher and bring a doctor and maybe, just maybe, they could fix this. Jaune no longer worried about what would happen to him – jail time paled in comparison to the thought of letting this woman die in this colorless, frigid room, sequestered so far away from the rest of the world.

The caller was unknown, but it didn't matter. One swift upward swipe, and the call began.

"Please, you have to help me! I'm in a room underneath the Beacon CCT, and I need a doctor! There's this woman–"

"Calm down, kid! You're…in the vault? How'd you even – wait, where am –"

"Miss, there's no time! There's a woman here, she's covered in severe burns, and I think I accidentally turned off her life support!"

"How am I even talking to you? Why can't I open my eyes?"

"What?! Who is this?! If you can't get a doctor to Beacon, then I'm going to hang up and call someone else."

"Call?"

"Yes! The scroll call!"

"Scroll…hold on a second, burns? The woman is burned? Can you describe her?"

"Brown skin, brunette, short cut hair–"

"A freckle under her left eye?"

Without thinking, Jaune rushed over to check. "No, it's on the right…wait, that'd be her left. Yeah, it's there. Hey, how did you know that?"

"You're…calling me?"

"You called me."

"I called you." The voice on the other end paused. "I called you?"

"Yes! I dropped my phone in the pod by accident, and there was flowing light, and something made the woman's heart stop beating, and then you called me!" Jaune knew it made no sense to the mysterious caller, but he honestly was beyond the point of caring. This was just him letting some frustration out. CPR, AEDs, medicine – it was far too late for any of that to restart this woman's heart. He'd…he knew what he'd done.

"Pods and light, eh? That sounds an awful lot like James' toy…what's your name?"

"J-Jaune. I swear I didn't mean to kill her."

"Relax, Jaune. You didn't kill me."

tl;dr oh god Ruby and Weiss oh god oh no oh god why

Next Chapter: I Got One Phone

In which Jaune Arc makes a new friend and makes a request to Yang.

Author's Notes

Some clarifications…

For Raven: Jaune has no idea how powerful aura is, so to him, Raven just looks like a talented huntress. To someone like Ruby or Pyrrha, they would be able to recognize that her maiden powers are far stronger than any semblance (especially since she already has her semblance that she visibly used in front of them), but Jaune sees it and thinks that it's vague 'aura magic' that he just doesn't understand because he's so green.

For Weiss and Ruby: yes, they did.

For Amber: yes, she is.

Amber was up there at the top of the tags with Jaune and Perry all along.

That will be all. Thank you.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!